The mockup isn't done yet, but the layout part is fixed. Theoretically, I'd like to show/hide additional previews based on how wide the preview boxes are, but I'll mess with that later.
I'm actaully tweaking the page layout at the moment. I'm doing a few javascript tricks to make the right side of the page elastic, just for kicks. It's not quite there yet. I'll post as soon as it is.
Okay, I did some leg-work and poked around the Drupal forums about OpenID. The ultimate problem is that, at the moment, Drupal's OpenID support is kind of poor, and certain sites (like Google) don't export standard OpenID URLs, which means you can't just use your gmail address, and instead you have to use the OpenID url they give you, which is basically impossible to memorize. There are some external Drupal modules which alleviate this problem, but none of them strike me as particularly well supported (which is kind of surprising, honestly). I believe Firefox 4 will have some kind of OpenID stuff built in, so you may be able to have it send the URL for you.
I don't really want to write a module myself, because I won't have time to support and debug it, and honestly, I'm guessing that a good, well-supported one will come along on its own, possibly even before I'm done designing OGA 2. In any case, when it does, I should theoretically just be able to drop it into place.
I'm okay with using a bitmap for the logo. My problem with the logos was the form factor. I want something fairly wide, but not particularly tall (the current logo image is 359x31). I was considering using small caps instead of lowercase, which should allow me to slim it down a bit more.
What I want to avoid is having to use images for button fonts, headings, and the like. Unfortunately, this most likely means I'll have to move away from Orbitron on things other than the title, because Windows (XP at least) doesn't render it very well at small sizes.
(Addendum: Just solved the Orbitron issue. I switched from Orbitron Medium to Orbitron Light for headings, and now the letters on XP are spaced correctly. On Linux, they're thinner, but I think they still look good.)
Here's a thought. Someone mentioned in the OGA 2.0 design forum that one problem we have here is a lack of consistent art. Maybe we could have a challenge where we place certain constraints on it in order to maintain consistency, so we end up with a set of things that can (theoretically) be used together. Say, have a particular color palette specified in advance where you have to use those colors for your textures and pixels, and also a particular setting. We could ask that the musical entries fit the "flavor" of that setting.
The problem, of course, is that 2D and 3D aren't generally used together in the same kind of game.
@shirish: When you're logged in, the login and password boxes will be replaced with a link to your user profile and a way to log out.
@Redshrike: Good question. I like the two-color thing, but the issue there is that in order to have two colors, I have to split the page at some fixed distance from the left edge. A lot of pages have content that's a fixed with (960 pixels is common) and that content is centered on the screen so that the margins on both sides are equal, and that's most likely what you're used to seeing. The other possibility is I could have a semi-fluid layout, where the right column expands to the width of the screen. The problem with those is that they're more of a pain to implement.
I could probably accomplish a fluid layout with javascript, but my instict is to avoid having a page style that depends on javascript. Maybe I should re-evaluate that. I'll give it some thought.
I can't make any promises about OpenID. Unfortunately it's another one of those areas that I don't have time to do myself, so I'm using a canned Drupal add-on. It's not something that I use myself, so I'm not really even sure how it works -- I added it at someone else's request. I'll see what I can do, but other features will have to take priority. At this point in time, does your openID work the way you described for other websites?
I'll keep people posted on the progress, but I'm not going to be posting a timeline, because ultimately I'll just end up missing the deadline anyway. :)
Potentially. Maybe we can have a contest.
Here we go:
http://oga2.opengameart.org/mockup2/
The mockup isn't done yet, but the layout part is fixed. Theoretically, I'd like to show/hide additional previews based on how wide the preview boxes are, but I'll mess with that later.
I'm actaully tweaking the page layout at the moment. I'm doing a few javascript tricks to make the right side of the page elastic, just for kicks. It's not quite there yet. I'll post as soon as it is.
Bart
Okay, I did some leg-work and poked around the Drupal forums about OpenID. The ultimate problem is that, at the moment, Drupal's OpenID support is kind of poor, and certain sites (like Google) don't export standard OpenID URLs, which means you can't just use your gmail address, and instead you have to use the OpenID url they give you, which is basically impossible to memorize. There are some external Drupal modules which alleviate this problem, but none of them strike me as particularly well supported (which is kind of surprising, honestly). I believe Firefox 4 will have some kind of OpenID stuff built in, so you may be able to have it send the URL for you.
I don't really want to write a module myself, because I won't have time to support and debug it, and honestly, I'm guessing that a good, well-supported one will come along on its own, possibly even before I'm done designing OGA 2. In any case, when it does, I should theoretically just be able to drop it into place.
I'm okay with using a bitmap for the logo. My problem with the logos was the form factor. I want something fairly wide, but not particularly tall (the current logo image is 359x31). I was considering using small caps instead of lowercase, which should allow me to slim it down a bit more.
What I want to avoid is having to use images for button fonts, headings, and the like. Unfortunately, this most likely means I'll have to move away from Orbitron on things other than the title, because Windows (XP at least) doesn't render it very well at small sizes.
(Addendum: Just solved the Orbitron issue. I switched from Orbitron Medium to Orbitron Light for headings, and now the letters on XP are spaced correctly. On Linux, they're thinner, but I think they still look good.)
http://oga2.opengameart.org/mockup2/
Remember to shift-refresh to force reload the stylesheet.
Can you tell me exactly what you have to enter here, versus on other sites that use openid?
Bart
I can set up an artist feed myself if I know what artists to include.
@Lamoot: Cool idea. I like the orange accent color the best -- I think because it contrasts well with the blue.
Here's a thought. Someone mentioned in the OGA 2.0 design forum that one problem we have here is a lack of consistent art. Maybe we could have a challenge where we place certain constraints on it in order to maintain consistency, so we end up with a set of things that can (theoretically) be used together. Say, have a particular color palette specified in advance where you have to use those colors for your textures and pixels, and also a particular setting. We could ask that the musical entries fit the "flavor" of that setting.
The problem, of course, is that 2D and 3D aren't generally used together in the same kind of game.
@shirish: When you're logged in, the login and password boxes will be replaced with a link to your user profile and a way to log out.
@Redshrike: Good question. I like the two-color thing, but the issue there is that in order to have two colors, I have to split the page at some fixed distance from the left edge. A lot of pages have content that's a fixed with (960 pixels is common) and that content is centered on the screen so that the margins on both sides are equal, and that's most likely what you're used to seeing. The other possibility is I could have a semi-fluid layout, where the right column expands to the width of the screen. The problem with those is that they're more of a pain to implement.
I could probably accomplish a fluid layout with javascript, but my instict is to avoid having a page style that depends on javascript. Maybe I should re-evaluate that. I'll give it some thought.
Bart
I can't make any promises about OpenID. Unfortunately it's another one of those areas that I don't have time to do myself, so I'm using a canned Drupal add-on. It's not something that I use myself, so I'm not really even sure how it works -- I added it at someone else's request. I'll see what I can do, but other features will have to take priority. At this point in time, does your openID work the way you described for other websites?
I'll keep people posted on the progress, but I'm not going to be posting a timeline, because ultimately I'll just end up missing the deadline anyway. :)
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