The Nexuiz Brand

[torus]

"Too fast for your grandma to play" still doesn't make logical sense. "Bejeweled" is too fast for my grandma, much less Nexuiz. This needs a better slogan.

[ai]

"Too fast for your grandma to play" still doesn't make logical sense. "Bejeweled" is too fast for my grandma, much less Nexuiz. This needs a better slogan.

In good time my friend, in good time. Let's just concentrate on the design and layout of the site, then at slogans and such. These are only temp I think.

[C.Brutail]

Now, much better! I don't have anymore those feary feelings...

One comment tho... I'd add the forum on the left side too, becouse it's the forum where the majority of the community buzz is going around.

[Mute Print]

I'm not a huge fan of that logo- I think it the drab monochrome doesn't give a good impression of the gritty, techno-industrial atmosphere Nexuiz is grounded in. IMO, vector-graphics isn't what a Nexuiz logo needs.

I don't think vector is the right approach either, but the industrial atmosphere of the game was a huge turnoff to a friend of mine, and I'm too fond of it either.

A clean, minimalistic feel could be very effective, as long as the game is suspenseful from startup. Of course, this would mean a new menu and a new, possibly soft, dischordant entrance theme, but the contrast between that and fast-paced action would be wonderful, in my opinion.

[[-z-]]

A clean, minimalistic feel could be very effective, as long as the game is suspenseful from startup. Of course, this would mean a new menu and a new, possibly soft, dischordant entrance theme, but the contrast between that and fast-paced action would be wonderful, in my opinion.

A new menu is in the works and it's got a similar feel to my mockup it's more blue though.



Check this thread for phase 2. I'll keep this open for general questions.

[Willis]

My thoughts:

The slogan: Don't like the grandma slogan. Sorry I don't have anything better to demonstrate, but obviously this is a tough one, it has it's own thread. If I think of something, I'll post it there.

Overall appearance: Generally, the layout is good. Personally, I like the large download button in the header, specifically the one with the circled down arrow which has become a universal symbol for a download. The size is not needed there, they will find that out on the next page, and as has been suggested, adding free to the button might be helpful. I like the developer logo/link being on the left side and not in the header, it just fits better that way.

Now down to a few more specific things.

Layout: the developers button should probably be above the donate button since the header is currently "Help Wanted", it just makes more sense.

Buttons: specifically the developers & donate buttons, they need less gloss. If you want to add a bit of gloss to a hover image rollover or something, thats fine, but they just look bad over-glossed. Second, the screenshots button needs to be updated in two ways: 1) it really doesn't need the Nexuiz name there, at that point people should know this is the Nexuiz website, and 2) it should just refer to media in general, not specifically screenshots, unless we're separating the media pages.

Header text/images: I have no problem with the way the top/bottom menu is setup. I also have no problem with image-based text for menu headers (such as "Latest Buzz"), however, news articles having image-based text isn't generally a good idea unless there is an image generator to go along with it (otherwise general website maintenance becomes too difficult).

Then the last thing, what are your plans for a video UI? Is this hosted on the website, or embeded from somewhere else, what types of controls will we have? From using various flash-based video players, I personally highly prefer on that gives the simple control of changing play/pause by clicking anywhere on the playing video. Other than that, the UI in your mock-up looks very fitting, had to judge by a static picture (and an image of Q3).

Lastly, scale: How do you currently plan on handling it? It's impossible to judge from a static image

[[-z-]]

Current Mockup

The slogan: Don't like the grandma slogan. Sorry I don't have anything better to demonstrate, but obviously this is a tough one, it has it's own thread. If I think of something, I'll post it there.

In the works

Overall appearance: Generally, the layout is good. Personally, I like the large download button in the header, specifically the one with the circled down arrow which has become a universal symbol for a download. The size is not needed there, they will find that out on the next page, and as has been suggested, adding free to the button might be helpful. I like the developer logo/link being on the left side and not in the header, it just fits better that way.

The majority of people decided it would be better on the side. This allowed me to add a download button for the mappack as well.

Layout: the developers button should probably be above the donate button since the header is currently "Help Wanted", it just makes more sense.

Vermeulen asked me to remove this completely.

Buttons: specifically the developers & donate buttons, they need less gloss. If you want to add a bit of gloss to a hover image rollover or something, thats fine, but they just look bad over-glossed.

I think it looks better with the current mockup but I'm open to other's opinions on this.

Second, the screenshots button needs to be updated in two ways: 1) it really doesn't need the Nexuiz name there, at that point people should know this is the Nexuiz website, and 2) it should just refer to media in general, not specifically screenshots, unless we're separating the media pages.

To us, Nexuiz is not necessary, we know what it is, we've heard the name a million times. To a new user however, Nexuiz isn't the easy name to remember and any reiteration we can get away with, I suggest we do. However, Vermeulen has the final say in this.
I can change it to say media or something of the like though.

however, news articles having image-based text isn't generally a good idea unless there is an image generator to go along with it (otherwise general website maintenance becomes too difficult).

Don't worry, that text will be HTML. I will use a div container with the gradient background image.

Then the last thing, what are your plans for a video UI? Is this hosted on the website, or embeded from somewhere else, what types of controls will we have? From using various flash-based video players, I personally highly prefer on that gives the simple control of changing play/pause by clicking anywhere on the playing video. Other than that, the UI in your mock-up looks very fitting, had to judge by a static picture (and an image of Q3).

Well, at first I was thinking of using a 3rd party such as www.stage6.com (the featured player) but since that's based off divx player, it's taking a chance / shooting yourself in the foot.

The solution I'm leaning towards now is a high def FLV using a free player such as this one.

Though the featured video could (and should still) be uploaded to various video sites to increase publicity as well.

Lastly, scale: How do you currently plan on handling it? It's impossible to judge from a static image

Fixed width. Stretchable height.

[ai]

Buttons: specifically the developers & donate buttons, they need less gloss. If you want to add a bit of gloss to a hover image rollover or something, thats fine, but they just look bad over-glossed.

I think it looks better with the current mockup but I'm open to other's opinions on this.

There are many people that has said that they are a bit too shiny, but I might be wrong (I assume that's what gloss is, unless it's the outline of the button).

Second, the screenshots button needs to be updated in two ways: 1) it really doesn't need the Nexuiz name there, at that point people should know this is the Nexuiz website, and 2) it should just refer to media in general, not specifically screenshots, unless we're separating the media pages.

To us, Nexuiz is not necessary, we know what it is, we've heard the name a million times. To a new user however, Nexuiz isn't the easy name to remember and any reiteration we can get away with, I suggest we do. However, Vermeulen has the final say in this.
I can change it to say media or something of the like though.

Well, if the "new" user doesn't know that this site is about 'Nexuiz' by the time they reach the screenshot area after watched the movie and read the text, then I say that that user should buy a brain on ebay, seriously (Also, you said somewhere that you assume they would watch the movie like the first thing they do, so this only strenghen the point).

[Willis]

That is starting to look really good. The background behind the header, while still subtle, still adds a lot of color to the page, making it looks less bland.

Yeah, that this point, FLV is pretty much the only way to go for video it seems. My concern about header image text was based on the "Holy crap..." line. Without the developers button, the donation button doesn't look nearly as awkward.

My only other thought is that that "click here to view..." button is just too big and really throws off graphical flow. I think it would probably be better to replace it with an actual media shot, and make in a wide but short gradient button running the span of all the media preview shots.

And on a very minor note, you may want to put text underneath the AT logo, as very few people will know that is a link, or what AT is.

[ai]

And on a very minor note, you may want to put text underneath the AT logo, as very few people will know that is a link, or what AT is.

Yeah, I agree on that one. Forgot to mention this a few times.