Another Site Histories article, which means more designs to pluck and pick at. Today we are looking at the archives at a design which was called “Global Theme”. To be honest it wasn’t that global, it just at the time if I decided I was going to make something else, just featured a version of that theme. It also was used on various network.trinest.com or other hub like locations I had at the time, so there’s that too! Oh and I think there might have been some kind of punbb forum attached to this style too at one time.
For the most part this global theme has only been on the trinest.com site. In fact any other project which it was going to attach itself to never really used it. I place the use of this theme simular to the basic simple style I had some time after, as well as Project Soil and I’m probably forgetting another layout too, but the point is, it was a design which it was just easier to port stuff to, rather than making a new design.
The exact era of this design is unknown, but what I do remember is that it was used quite early in 2008, and later again that year and possibly again sometime in 2009.
The most simple of these designs was the blue one, which was going to be used for a fansite of some sort, or something else. All I know is it obviously came after the green one (for the simple fact I wub lime green). I think it is a boring design to talk about, so let’s just talk about the descent into madness this design held, as it went from normal looking to lime. With the lime version with a suitable name called “lime rape”.
Colour direction aside, if we look back at this theme, it probably is one of my favourites I’ve created. For the most part I feel as if the original is pure perfection. With the colours chosen possibly a bit to obscure for some monitors and the coding probably not the best in the world, it does come short to what I could do today, for example the design you are viewing this page in.
However the colour direction cannot be pushed aside, the original while great ended up getting a little bit darker green while the banner tried to become the opposite. With lime becoming more and more common in the design. The end result of course is “Lime Rape”, which the whole theme is pretty much lime of some sort.
The banner while crazy and confusing, as well as possibly acceptable just draws blood from your eyes. Which is one of the reasons the blue theme also ended up been created with the site also flipping back to using the original.
I think I’ve also used this design temporary in recent years. Which shows how dynamic it really is.
Global Theme – Original |
Global Theme – Banner/Image changes |
Global Theme – “Lime Rape” |
Global Theme – Blue |
It was a few weeks ago, when my friend Kieren who I had previously made a design for his Non-Stop-Tech site rambled to me drunk on Messenger about some kind of Celica website. After I finally got the gist of the idea, that he had become some kind of walking billboard for a Celica car club he had joined and wanted to make a website, I decided “of course I’ll be in this as well”.
I instantly had an idea in my head, as it was a website for a car club which often engages in road trips, I wanted to identify a map on the main page. Also at the time I had just finished looking through various older designs I had made, and was inspired by one to make it similar in design to it.
I didn’t have to design any graphics as my friend took charge in making the logo. I just had to code the main design. As well as coding anything which was required to set up the forums or other things.
I never talked to the guy who accuracy wanted the site done, however through my friend I was encouraged to have the design colours red and black. I was also told through various stages if it was going good or something like that.
However through the design process a few suggestions and ideas from the person who wanted the site did flow down to me which was then implemented. Somewhere put in, but then removed as it just didn’t look right, or we ended up doing something a little bit different.
The majority of the content for the site was also created by my friend, who mixed and matched various stuff he had lying around from the Admin of the club. Also a few design changes where implemented due to the content. (For example I added in backquote css and other css calling tags for various functions).
A few problems occurred when trying to figure out forum software for the site. Mainly due to the requirement to have the wordpress and forum login information merged. Many of the plugins tried no longer worked with the current versions of the software, or where just plan hard to use.
Overall the feedback from both helping my friend construct the site from what he imputed as well as from the Admin of the group was reality good.
The site is up on my friends website at http://celica.non-stop-tech.com/ check it out there. (or you can view the site, always on trinest.com by clicking here, note: this version is a development version and may contain elements which have not been used in the final design.)
I love 5xxt.com, not because it was a huge failure of a website, but because it is one of the only sites I can open up my design archives folder and look at a wide range of layouts which had been designed for the website. I wouldn’t say they are bad designs either, while the site retains looks and skills which I had in 2009, the designs created for the site each tell a story, and today we will go through that story to experience one of the biggest project failures I’ve ever done (let’s face it none of my sites can really be success stories right?).
First a little back story, 5xxt was created in 2009 and ended well as soon as the domain expired in 2010. The first problem the site had was the original idea and the resulting ideas after it was created. The idea originally was to create a sort of “short url” site, but for private use or something, at least that is how the idea of buying the domain was sold from me to my friend. With me not having any control of my sites domains and web hosting back then. The resulting idea once the domain was got became “what can we do with this domain”, instead of “this is what we are going to do”. Which means it evolved from something which could have been somewhat useful into something which just screams- well why?
If we look back at the 8 or so designs created for the site, there is one final direction which the site went into, and that was both hosting any forum which I had at the time and a sort of “ideas” site. Even which at one point, a site designed to tell big companies what to do (I still retain my emailing to Ubisoft about “you should make a Rabbid Doll like the Cheat Doll” was the driving force behind this). Which was as short lived as any other idea on the domain.
Looking at my design history, I can tell that the site was first created in April. At the time there was no real direction, so a simple black and white “domain under construction” style site was put onto the domain. The layout embodies a feel of a simple website, with navigation if it ever needed it.
This idea of a hub page but an under construction page splashed the site into a simple design in May which could possibly power the rest of the site if need be, it really started to show the sites direction of been a site for “ideas”, rather than a site for any particular reason.
Also digging from the May archives is a retro styled unfinished design which was going to be the key design to a retro spirited comic. While the layout never got used for anything (much like this site- har har har) it did lead the way for the creation of one of our free layouts (Black and White), which can be found in our Downloads Tab.
Stepping back into April, and another design which ended up becoming a free layout (known as Splash Page in our downloads section) was what I mentioned a few paragraphs up about a project site designed to give the big corporations some ideas, cause quite frankly they have none. What was made design wise for this stage, wasn’t at all horrible but rather something special, it was a one page site which had things like “mission statements” and other awesome stuff.
Another design which was also originally from 5xxt was “Project Soil” the blue themed simplistic layout. Which once again is available in the download section.
If we discount what was basically just more unfinished hub pages, we have essentially reached the end of the designs used on 5xxt, but while I’d love to talk about the one which was all about frogs- I want to talk about one which was also used on trinest.com. This design was one which had a hub style design to it, but was also quite function. However the bit I was most proud with this design was green wise, it was just a simple stroke in the footer and a few splashes for headings. As well as the big bad header I did for the design, you see it wasn’t a graphical header in the tradition sense, it wasn’t created in Photoshop or anything fancy, it was accuracy a photo I took of a piece of paper which I drew some pictures on and splashed some various other objects around. I made it grey scale and called it a day, it looked really nice.
“Aether” Splash |
Fresh Ideas |
Hub |
Retro Comic |
Frogs and Project Site |
Content Splash |
Project Soil |
Starting Hub |
Want to know my favourite Frogger game? No it isn’t as cut and dry as my favourite Rampage game (World Tour by the way), but it does show and highlight where the series should head, and rather where it keeps returning. It is put plainly Frogger Toy Trials. It might be over eccentric with a kid running out of luck and picking the short straw and getting a frog out of all the other cool Animal toys he could have, but it keeps the traditional mixture of Froggers gameplay, while giving it a crazy story and directional aspiration which no other Frogger game has achieved.
The goal and heart of the Frogger design at the end of the day, is the mission to hop around to finish the level and avoid obstacles. Many, if not all of the sequels to the title have always been essentially the same, which in some ways is good- but it has seen many releases over the years on a variety of platforms with no real evolution. Konami like the Lost in Blue (Survival Kids) Series neglects the Frogger series with just experimentation and no clear aspirations for any future title bar the same.
For me, a grand bigger scheme Frogger should take inspiration from Morris Gleitzman an Australian writers “Toad” series. Which the series includes titles such as the original Toad Rage as well as sequels Toad Away and Toad Heaven plus the more recent novel Toad Surprise. Why should Konami look at these books? Because for the most part this is everything Frogger stands for, an inspirational animal which just wants to explore the world, while experiencing close calls with the outside world.
The overall aspirations of a Frogger game should centre around one Frog and give it a heroes design. Konami should make us care for this frog, and create a 3D world which lives and breathes but with the disastrous effects for our little Frog. The game could open with our Frog trying to cross as road in the desert, but looking around the road is filled with cars and tracks, maybe a hawk or two trying to come down and eat our Frog- the point is, it’s a breathing world with disasters for the frog, and he doesn’t know where he is going- only that it will be an amazing adventure.
Over the past month Nintendos latest handheld the 3DS has gained lots of attention. However the attention the device has seen isn’t the good kind, with the majority of press lashing out at the device, and questions raised about the direction Nintendo went with.
I think the downfall of the 3DS, started long ago, the first issue would have been the original DS. The now nicknamed “phat” version of the original device had a list of issues. Design wise it wasn’t anything to write home about (honestly, I prefer the prelaunch E3 DS) and it was also riddled with screens with a very low range backlight, I also believe not including WPA (even at the time was a much recommended WiFi standard) would also shoot the console in the foot.
While it was successful at the time, and paved the way for the DS Lite, a much nicer and well regarded handheld. Some might say- what should have been released originally for the most part. Despite my WPA complaint (which I will explain why shortly while it should have been included) the system was the peak of the DS rain. A console which drove the sales of the system and the games at the time allowed it to enter the realm of the “casual” to be a highly successful device there as well. Yes it was successful, but the small mistakes after the DS Lite will lead the 3DS to be a misguided handheld- a lost sheep with no shepherd.
Nintendo will then go onto to make their biggest mistake leading up to the 3DS. The mistake is simple, yet at the time- possibly thought as the best thing they could do. What was it? It was the creation of the DSi line of systems. While Nintendo could possibility have done with a revision at the time, the “1.5” appearance of the system will end up destroying many of the chances the 3DS will have at gaining traction- especially in the early years.
The first major issue I feel was removing the DSi range from the original DS firmware, Nintendo should of issued an update for the older devices which made the firmware just a little bit more appealing while gearing the DSi one as a “plus” version of the firmware, especially if the device was going to have the same specifications it ended up generating.
The WPA functionality should have been included in the systems for games by removing the Wifi settings from the game cart instead of keeping limited to each game cart. Nintendo drilled themselves into a hole for people who are progressive and use current technology not stuff from the 50s by not giving the system the control of the settings until it was too late and a generation later.
One thing I do believe which was one right with the DSi range, was at the time- the marketing. The ideal that the device was to be a more entertainment eccentric DS would do wonders for its sales, I still see the devices around today- especially over the earlier DS models such as the Lite and the Phat.
However the second major issue with the DSi Line, and one which isn’t just simple nit picking was something Nintendo did much more recently with it. For the most part, the DSi Line is still a functioning profitable arm for Nintendo, so what did they do? Nintendo instead of discontinuing the line straight away, decreased production and ended up slashing the price- with the price slash been so meniscal and pointless.
While the DSi Line was still on sale far after the 3DS launch, I feel as if this did the worst impact to the 3DS from a sales perspective. You look at the system alongside the original DS and the Lite, it is quite obvious they are completely different devices. However if you look at the 3DS alongside the DSi range, I can see how it’s possible for market confusion- with both devices been almost identical in style, and pushing much of the simular features, bar 3D.
I feel as if the marketing of the 3DS was far the worst idea possible, especially from a sales perspective. The idea was clearly to show some hip people enjoying the device, but what people saw were creepy strangers playing with a device which looked exactly like the one they already had. When considering what the 3D was to enhance the experience, even early adopters questioned what it had to offer, so what does that leave the rest of the world who are not nerds with? The end result is clearly a console which makes the 3D seem like an add-on, an extended DSi- regardless at how hard Nintendo will try, that stigma shall remain for quite some time on the 3DS. Even worse is when a similar stigma is suddenly attached to the Wii U after its unveiling in public eyes.
If we continue the discussion about 3D, for me it is horrible, half the time it hurts my eyes plus gives me headaches and the other half of the time the games 3D ghosts. The 3D seems horrible inclusion, remember last time Nintendo did a 3D handheld? The Virtual Boy? It failed- and so will this, for the simple fact no one wants 3D, and when they do want it- it’s just a fad, a fashion fad with horrible repercussions. I would have much rather Nintendo tried to give us better graphics- for the simple fact it is going to be what people want from their handhelds now. HD graphics, buttons not touch and full console games, are going to be the selling points for handhelds, especially with phones and other smaller devices catching the market.
In the end 3D gave us that little bit of enhancement, which was so meniscal and pointless rather than the big guns explosion to everyday gaming Nintendo was hoping for.
Another issue with the 3DS, was its high price tag. Especially with the next Playstation Portable- the Vita having a similar price tag when it launches, it comes with the question “Does this really give the value for the asking price”, the answer for most was no. With the price cut putting the device at the prices it should have been from day one, it begs the question why didn’t the fat cats cut their bank accounts for successful launch beforehand.
With the majority of system sellers poised for 2012 not 2011, and the current line-up of games riddled with holes Nintendo has a major battle ahead for them to get this puppy back on track. A new marketing campaign, discontinuation of the previous handheld devices and a majority of its games could be what the system needs to stand on its own.