new CA website - preparation

[V1ntage]

Hi there,

I'd like to offer my help on creating the new CA website. Webdesign is my profession, so you could say I know my way around. Licho mentioned Maackey and Midknight are also involved in the process. Guys, if you read this, please drop me a line with your ideas :)

Anyway, here's an example of a site I created last year http://www.quasaronline.org. To give an example to contrast the visual approach I also worked on fairly large and popular news sites like http://www.tijd.be and http://www.netto.be



I'd like to handle it in a professional manner and create the new CA website as if I'd work with a client. That means I'll start by creating a document with a complete analysis, designs and working prototype. Here's an overview of what it looks like:



1. Definition of the goals
1.1 What's the mission of the enterprise? (in this case, the mod)
1.2 Goals of the new website (long and short-term)
1.3 Who is the targetted audience? What would they be looking for?

2. User experience
2.1 Scenarios (examples of specific parts of the target audience looking for specific things on the new site. We will use this to test the quality of the result)
2.2 Competitive analysis (since knowing who or what you're competing goes a long way)

3. Website content
3.1 Grouping and labeling of the content (We'll sum up everything we can come up with, then filter out what's viable, and group/label the remaining ideas)
3.2 Functional Requirements (based on the content list, what does the site need to be able to do)

4. Architecture
4.1 Internal website flow (which pages link to which, and how important is that link)
4.2 Global and local navigation systems
4.3 Site Structure Listing (what content comes on which pages)

5. Visual design a.k.a. the sweet stuff
5.1 Layout (where do we put the required content on the pages)
5.2 Sketches (rough visual drafts)
5.3 Mockups (the actual designs)
5.4 Prototype (a semi-working local version without server-side coding)




After this comes development and integration.




So, what do you think? Do you have any questions or input?



greets,

V1ntage

[MidKnight]

I think your rational and thought out approach to this project is great!

Here is what maackey and I have got so far:

Maackey's layout picture. (right click + view image for full size)

My first rough concept sketch

A modification, after talking with maackey about the previous image.


Our goal is to attract new players, make CA look like an attractive and engaging game, and make getting started with CA easy.


A word about our skillsets:
Both maackey and I do modeling for CA, and we're pretty capable artists. I can write basic scripts in a variety of languages, but maackey is probably more adept at web work. You'll most probably receive clarification once maackey gets around to posting.

[CarRepairer]

I do php and javascript work. I will work on migrating the current automation which converts game data into trac pages in the trac manual to the new website instead. Currently Unitguides and Widgetguide are automated, but maybe the widget guide is not needed for a player portal since widget interaction will be filtered through the CA menu for the average user.

I'd also like to contribute to other parts of the website which call for fancy web development.

[maackey]

Hi I'd be glad to have some help.

I'll mentioned first of all I would like to say your business plan is cute Things done around here are pretty much the epitome of chaotic. While some of your plan doesn't really make much sense or isn't very applicable (Competitive analysis? Prototypes? **After this comes development and integration.**) there are some things which would be good to address.

Development is pretty much already in progress by the way. I could use some help at making the graphics for the site, and Car has offered his skillz as a php guru

But oh my, I've skipped to the point and left out the points I was going to lead up to with

The goal of the mod is to attract and keep new players. The website can help with attracting, the mod (and the installation thereof) will to the keeping them.

Short term plans are to put up a flashy intro page that piques prospective players interests. Longer term we could add our community features like a separate forum, to grow the dedicated userbase.

The audience is obvious: gamers. People who would play the game. From a majority of people, the most important things they look for are flash and pizzazz.

We can add content as we go along. The priority is to get a vivid introductory attention grabbing description of the game (I've got *something* but its not up to par with what I would like) And likewise epic screenshots/videos/etc.. to show off how awesome CA is. Wiki/forum/guides can come later tbfh.

If you want to draw up some mockups, I'll take a look at them. At the moment I've already got a basic, easy to use layout. It doesn't have any slick graphics, so if you are willing to contribute some artwork we can adjust the final style.

Edit: haha, mk beat me to it.

Aaand car, wow I'm slow

[V1ntage]

Ok, Licho mentioned a GUI and models have most priority at the moment. So, I'll help you with that and do the website analysis on the side, piece by piece. I'm also a 2D artist, modeler and orchestral soundtrack composer, so that may come in handy.

Maackey, the cute rational approach in webdesign is needed to prevent bad communication with clients, which is in this case the community. It helps us to reach the goal with clear vision. When I first started in webdesign years ago I also tended to immediately open up Photoshop (or another program) and start drawing. There's nothing wrong with this approach. It's just much likely that the end result will not completely be what the client (community) had in mind. So, the idea is that we're going to define what we're going to create first, and then take it step by step.

Wheter it will be used or not, I'll try to help by creating an analysis. Look at it as my contribution.


Any suggestions or ideas on the approach? If there's nothing to add I'll open up a new topic to get started.

[CarRepairer]

orchestral soundtrack composer

I'd love to hear some of your stuff. It could be used in promotional videos which include only free units, thus the entire video would be legit. I really need to learn how to make spring vids.

[maackey]

I never said it was bad, I was just commenting that it is a large change of what usually happens around here. That said this is an open source project and no one is going to feel themselves obligated to any deadlines/procedures. I agree with you that a little structure would be nice, and I'll try to communicate as effectively as I can, but I'm no businessman.

I'm not sure what exactly another topic would be useful for, why not just use this one for ideas/discussion? MK kindly posted up some mockups we shared with eachother, so you should have at least a little bit of direction of which to go.

To be honest I don't think that the site is going to be big/complex enough to warrant a sophisticated structure.

main page
download page with instructions
media
- screenshots
- videos
- music (if/when we get some )
guide (perhaps integrated with the wiki?)
wiki
forums

a navigation bar at the top of each page and viola, instant structure. But thats just what I had in mind. feel free to make suggestions if you'd like something different.

[V1ntage]

@CarRepairer
well, I don't have anything recent online since I'm working on a new portfolio. I used to help out Project Xenocide as composer, and created a few songs there. These date back 4 years ago.

http://tiny.cc/1IyfY
http://tiny.cc/M5itk

More recent work will come soon :)


@maackey
Well yes, we're on the same wavelength more or less. There are no deadlines, neither procedures. An analysis like this one helps us make a blurred image more clear.

I'm not trying to lead or direct either. The analysis will help us think further and understand the whole picture better. Maybe we'll end up creating the site together, maybe not. Maybe you guys will already have created the website before the analysis is complete. Either way, it's not really relevant.

The point I'm trying to make is that I'll try to contribute in a way I know that it works in the real world. If it helps, great. If it doesn't, there's no loss. At least I've tried then :)

[Licho]

About the site, i think there should be clear "about" section with buleet points what is the game about..

And imo wiki/guide should be integrated.. (one button guide actually a wiki guide

[Licho]

About developers..

I can help with website but I would like to help only with the really challenging problems (if you hit any), since im already overstretched. I can do a php of course, but i prefer asp.net nowadays.

Other not mentioned active developers are

quantum - will work on lobby, missioneditor, gui and planetwars when he gets back from vacation (i hope)

me - presently working on gui, plan to work on lobby, autohost and planetwars

jk - atm works on gui framework

saktoth, KR - models and gameplay design

det - runs the caspring.org infrastructure, can handle technical stuff you will need

[V1ntage]

Thanks for your input Licho. I'll add all mentioned info from this thread to the corresponding topics.

It's rather hard to start answering every single question listed above. So if you don't mind me creating a few topics, I'll split it up per question. It'll be easier to focus and generate responses that way.

[Licho]

Also nobody will give you definitive answer, since there is no boss :)

[MidKnight]

Sure, make all the new topics you want! (This subforum's kinda sparse, anyways).

[Saktoth]

Ok, Licho mentioned a GUI and models have most priority at the moment. So, I'll help you with that and do the website analysis on the side, piece by piece. I'm also a 2D artist, modeler and orchestral soundtrack composer, so that may come in handy.

What he really means is that that is where active development is. Priority for Google Frog is probably balance and Lua because thats what he does. Priority for me is girlfriend and study and getting a computer that doesnt chugg when i start spring because thats what i do.

The community, in this case, is just a bunch of contributing developers. You wont get the kind of executive direction as from a company, power over an aspect of the project is given to those who put the effort into producing it, have the best skills to make the descisions regarding it and have put in the man hours to show their competance. It is a meritocracy. However, the guys working on the webpage end of things, Car, Maackey and Midknight are clearly on the same page, as their posts were amusingly identical. So you can run with what they've said regarding our goals/directions (i agree 100% with what they've said thus far regarding just a good PR frontend and im sure most of the rest of the uninvolved devs too).

If we are looking at market demographics, CA is going to appeal primarily to competative multiplayer gamers since it has no significant singleplayer element. Getting a singleplayer element up is probably a priority (but it just needs the man hours, like everything else in CA).

When we get ready to really 'launch', we'll be targetting mostly open source communities and sites. We can advertise ourselves as a free game, a flagship of what is possible with open source gaming. Linux distros, sourceforge, etc. Our PR strategy will probably have to be word of mouth (though there has been some discussion of charging for a singleplayer campaign and using those funds to advertise).

I'll attempt to answer the questions of the origional post though.

1. Definition of the goals
1.1 What's the mission of the enterprise?

• A free, open source, competative online multiplayer RTS.

1.2 Goals of the new website

• Our goal is to attract new players, make CA look like an interesting and engaging game, and make getting started with CA easy.
  Short term plans are to put up a flashy intro page that piques prospective players interests. Longer term we could add our community features like a separate forum, to grow the dedicated userbase.

1.3 Who is the targetted audience? What would they be looking for?

• Computer gamers, RTS players, open-source fans, *nix users, competative multiplayer gamers.

2. User experience
2.1 Scenarios

• New Viewers: Immediate interest, engagement, ease of use and setup, turning views into downloads, turning downloads into players.
  Current Players: Retention. Offering comprehensive, easy to understand guide to the game and engagement in the community.
  Developers: Coordination and information sharing (Trac/cagov suffices).

2.2 Competitive analysis

• CA is in competition with every game, especially competative multiplayer RTS on the market. Starcraft is a big one, but it is actually likely to bring more people to the genre rather than to hurt our userbase. CA has the advantage of being free, and the disadvantage of having no advertising budget. It should market itself primarily as an open-source game, a demonstration of the power of open source development models and ideals, rather than a 'hobbyist' project. Given its design, it will probably appeal to hardcore competative multiplayer games- a single player component is probably needed for growth. Possibly, the singleplayer component could be charged for in order to offer an advertising budget.

Ill leave the rest of the technical stuff to the web-heads.

[V1ntage]

Thanks Saktoth, that's a whole lot of information. I added it to the topic about the first chapter: http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=19980

When we get to the second part I'll add your info as well.