Website layout and design

[BS-er]

I'm good with C++ but a real newbie at website design. For my current site I've created a nice enough logo with a nifty graphics tool that came bundled with something I once bought. It's at http://www.orderlymayhem.com.

I'd like to flesh it out with decent website graphics that go well with the logo. I'd appreciate any advice on tools and methods for setting up a nice website.

[defanual]

If you have the cash I'd recommend Adobe CS3 Web Premium/Standard (Dreamweaver, flash cs3, fireworks, photoshop, illustrator etc), these tools also double up as great game development tools (photoshop+illustrator for graphics, flash for interactivity and games etc), so it's a doubly good investment ;)

For mainly web stuff only dreamweaver and flash are the daddies in most cases.

http://www.adobe.com/products/creati...e/web/?xNav=WP If your not from the states and money is a serious consideration, I'd recommend you try to get it (legally) for the us price (as I did) as it's almost double the price in the uk for no good reason, also the box version is cheaper then the download version (bandwidth costs apparently?), what can I say, no company's perfect but the tools are close too if you can get your hands on them ;)

I'm sure someone else will fill you in on the cheap alternatives...

[illuminarc]

Eclipse/Aptana is an open source alternative for web development.

Drupal is a great themed CMS to get a website framework up quickly.

And I recommend a color scheme tool like this one for theme design.

http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html

[Reactor]

If only web design was as easy as buying Dreamweaver and using a colour picker.

I'd like to flesh it out with decent website graphics that go well with the logo.

With respect BS-er, your logo doesn't look too crash-hot (very 1990s), so I'm not sure I'd want to see a website based around it. Your game looks great though, if that's any consolation ;) Did you create the game graphics, or did someone else?

[BS-er]

Thanks for all these useful suggestions. It gives me a good starting point. I might also look into some sort of self-training approach. I'll have to see if there is anything good out there in the way of free or for-purchase tutorials.

Originally Posted by Reactor

With respect BS-er, your logo doesn't look too crash-hot (very 1990s), so I'm not sure I'd want to see a website based around it.

Thanks for the honest feedback. Boy appealing logo design is tough. The current one blows all our previous attempts away. I'll need to start surveying the website landscape to look for good trends in logo design.

Originally Posted by Reactor

Your game looks great though, if that's any consolation ;) Did you create the game graphics, or did someone else?

Thanks, that is consolation :). It's basically a two man operation, with me as programmer and my partner the 2D/3D artist. I'm using libraries like Ogre and Newton to allow decent portability across Windows, Linux and Mac. He is responsible for most graphics, and 3D, although I'm doing ok making terrain textures using Gimp and photos.

[Reactor]

The two-man operation worked for us :)

Self training could be a good idea, but it could take you a while to get up to speed if you're not used to a certain area of digital art (such as web/logo design which are both very different from game art). Learning web design for example can take years. You could buy a program like Dreamweaver or Expression Web and use a template, but sometimes it's better to simply save the cash and get a professional to make it. With that in mind...

Garysimon.net is a website that offers logos, as well as tutorials (paid, but very cheap) on how to make your own. His logo designs aren't necessarily game ones (more business) but it could give you a few ideas on creating something different. Or, you could have a chat to him and see if you could get something professional made up.

If you would rather make your own website, another idea would be to base it around the game you're making. Use the same colours, and maybe even a few images to enhance it somewhat. Right now the red/black look isn't all that exciting ;) If you're going to make it yourself, go for the minimalistic look. Keep everything really simple, and avoid things like underlined links. Instead of spending the big bucks on a pro web design program, go for something like Sitespinner. It's cheap, and as long as your page is simple, you'll be able to make it look nice.

This isn't the best page in the universe, but here's a recent example (my own) which shows how simple text and an image can, while not looking incredible, can at least make you look professional. Some other inspiration and tutorials can be found at Smashing Magazine. Searching there can often lead you to a design you might want for your own site, and about what people generally consider to be 'the best of the best' in website design... although the rampant use of flash really isn't necessary (it's more of a designer thang).

I hope some of this helps!