Cantr front page

[haggismcbean]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned the outdated look of cantr in this thread. In my completely uninformed opinion alot of people who do manage to find their way onto the cantr homepage will be put off by the ugliness of it all. In fact a new visitor would be forgiven for assuming the game is dead. I'm not suggesting putting flashy graphics in the game (it is text based of course) but changing the page design to a more modern flavour of green could possibly make a significant difference and would presumably be pretty easy to implement.

Edit:: Also, after you join you're immediately linked to the defunct webzine.

[Doug R.]

Yes, we should fix that link ASAP.

[Doug R.]

Reworking the front page is the often talked about but never realized project that so far three different people have given their intention to do something about. I think the critical missing step is concept art of how it should look. It's really hard to know where to start if you don't know how it ends.

If the page gives the impression that the game is dead, maybe we should make the number of players online visible on the main page.

[Chris]

Reworking the front page is the often talked about but never realized project that so far three different people have given their intention to do something about. I think the critical missing step is concept art of how it should look. It's really hard to know where to start if you don't know how it ends.

If the page gives the impression that the game is dead, maybe we should make the number of players online visible on the main page.

I refer you to this post:

Here is one example, to get people thinking. Don't worry about the details.



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Some things I like above:

• header image (something nature-related)
• margins are different
• sidebar for links and OOC info

Come up with your own ideas.

I used a program called Artisteer to whip that up in a few minutes. I am sure that a web designer (which I am not) could do a dozen templates in that time. What's the problem?

[Doug R.]

Well, I was just informed that the Cantr website is a horrific mish-mash of HTML and templates, all of which needs to be cleaned up and optimized before we can change pretty much anything about the site layout.

[haggismcbean]

If the page gives the impression that the game is dead, maybe we should make the number of players online visible on the main page.

It is visible, just. Something like recent announcements would work well I think when it gets redesigned. Shame it can't be done as easily as I'd imagined. I will create some crude 'concept art' tomorrow to entertain myself anyway.

[Snickie]

Maybe put a Twitter widget on the front page with recent tweets to show that people really do get on and do stuff?

[Joshuamonkey]

Maybe put a Twitter widget on the front page with recent tweets to show that people really do get on and do stuff?

Yep, that's on the list.
Along with:
Cooler icons instead of links
Change the description text about the game (more concise).
Add a facebook like button.
Add a Google +1 button.
Add (Forgot ID/password?).
Add an "AMAZING THINGS" bar under which we list player submitted things they've done in Cantr.
Move the login form to the front page.
Possibly: A new background.

[EchoMan]

Split from Losing Crops

Cantr's legacy when it comes to design is that next to everything goes through the same file. There is one really big file that handles everything, and include the specific parts of the current "page" you are viewing.

Marol started a few years back to separate things, so that HTML-content (design) resides in template files, and PHP-code (logic) resides in php-files, but there is a whole lot left to do there, and it takes a lot of time doing it. Currently we have a few new Programming Department members in training, hopefully we will be able to tackle tasks like this soon. But for years all development has only been bug-fixes, tool-fixes and security enhancements.

What we could do at this point is to create a new template for the front page alone, and extract that logic to a separate php-file, and allow that page to have a unique layout/graphic design, different from the rest of the game. Changing the game itself is a longer project, because we really need to separate HTML from PHP, allow Style Sheets to handle design, rather than putting attributes to the HTML code directly and so on (sorry if I'm getting too technical here).

Changing the Cantr green will probably make us lose 75% of all old timers though, that couldn't imaging anything but the Cantr green for their favorite game.

[Chris]

What we could do at this point is to create a new template for the front page alone, and extract that logic to a separate php-file, and allow that page to have a unique layout/graphic design, different from the rest of the game. Changing the game itself is a longer project, because we really need to separate HTML from PHP, allow Style Sheets to handle design, rather than putting attributes to the HTML code directly and so on (sorry if I'm getting too technical here).

That sounds good.

Changing the Cantr green will probably make us lose 75% of all old timers though, that couldn't imaging anything but the Cantr green for their favorite game.

You could use traditional green as one element without it being everything.

[EchoMan]

Changing the Cantr green will probably make us lose 75% of all old timers though, that couldn't imaging anything but the Cantr green for their favorite game.

You could use traditional green as one element without it being everything.

It's not mee you have to convince. I skin my Cantr to white/gray with Stylish. Every time redesign has been discussed before a lot of people strongly opinionate against changing the green.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Why can't the Cantr green's integrity be retained in whatever new styles are brought up? I'm sure as long as it's mostly green (and yes, that green), most people will be fine.

That said, don't get rid of the green (at least not entirely).

[Wolfsong]

Even just a simple update like this might work. You could add Recent Forum Posts below the Recent News bit, and put advertisements on the right side.

[MelloYell]

oooh very nice wolfsong.

[haggismcbean]

I spent a few hours(!) messing around on a website called wix before getting frustrated and quitting.



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