Preserved Topic: Hrmm..My site.

I hesitate to post my site here because I know I'm not all that good..but I guess some criticism won't hurt.

Please note none of my images are compressed right now (well some but not some I just revised) so the load time is hefty..please let it load and tell me what you think..be gentle.
http://ff6.square-net.com

BTW! Thanks to Mahjqa from Ozones for the Magi-Armor fanart image he gave me for my splash page! It worked out great.

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I'm not admin here...this is my sig from a forum where I am admin..hehe..time to make a new sig for here. :P

[This message has been edited by Shifter (edited 02-09-2001).]

Hey, don't sell yourself short, thats a good design. You can't go wrong with the subject matter (my favorite games of all time are the FF series).

A couple of items to chew on:

1. That interface... Hmmm. I don't really like how it works. You can mouseover the black part and the buttons pop out. That doesn't seem to realistic to me. Also, are those areas of the site (besides the forum) really that important that they deserve an entire interface devoted to them? Right now, I would say not. The main content of the site is right below it but your eye is first drawn to the interface which is secondary to the function of the site.

2. Your beveled seperators for each of the sections on either side. Why don't you add the same texture to them that is contained on the interface and the what's new sign? It would give a sense of greater unity to the site.

3. Small annoyances. You put scanlines on the tiny pictures of the characters and equipment so I can't see them! At a larger rez the pictures become smaller and the scanlines become increasingly annoying. You should at least give me the option of clicking for a larger image so I can see the suckers. There was some good graphics work done on all of these games and I want to be able to see it so I can reminisce.

4. Broken links, but you probably already knew that.


All in all this is a good site. It loaded fast for me (I have DSL though, lets see how the modem users react). The feel of the site definitely fits the feel of the game. You might beat up the metal interfaces and plates though to give more of that "abandonded technology" feel that the game had.

Nice work! I liked this site.

hey I like what you did with your Returner's Hideout banner graphic....it's much better than the previous design. You may want to consider creating some sort of graphical handle for the sliding menu options so people know to grab them from the lefthand side.

Thanks guys.

Anyone else look at it?

Normally site reviews around here get several posts! :P

Gimme more!

Shifter

Loaded pretty fast for me (56k), one thing that helps keep you looking is there's no major transition time from hitting the link until the first pics start appearing which keeps the viewer insitu. Yep the last 20 odd took a little time to load - but no biggie - after seeing the intro page, you gotta respect the author and wait - graphics are very cool.

Games, not into them, so I didn't really understand much of the content. However, graphically the site is very cool all round. I don't have an issue with the mouseovers, guess its a personal thing, I don't think it detracts from the design IMO.

Asides from the things you already know about, my only criticism is the 'Thing' on the intro page. I thought it was a horse in armour at first, but then I gave up trying to determine what it was, however, it's brilliant. The criticism is that it's cut off at the top and at its feet, which is a bit of shame, a lot of work went into that. Also I think it would have been better placed on a bg with something like trees or some surreal world. You have a powerful image with a plain bg, IMHO it needs something more.

Overall, I liked it a great deal, as Boudga said the Returners Hideout Banner Graphic is great.

Nice work...

Ah thanks for all the compliments.

About the intro page. That is what is called a MagiTek Knight (Actually thats just the armor suit called MagiTek)

Comes from the game so normal viewers of the site would get it.

heh..About no BKG...someone sent me that art and said I could use it..so I didn't modify the background..I just added my little box with text n stuffs in it..

Lastly, about it being cut off, I don't like it either..the only reason it's that way is because at 800x600 it doesn't fit the screen..and you can't see the preload bar on the bottom. Most people would go ahead and click enter and then be scared off by the load times..

If you have any suggestions on fixing that I would be greatly appreciative..

Thanks =)

I can understand that you want it to fit the screen, and making it smaller would detract from its visual qualities, it's a very cool piece to feast the eyes on that's for sure.
However, one thing perhaps you should be aware of is that the majority of the net views at 800x600.

Yup, most people use 800x600 and that's why I decided to cut off the image like I did...in 800x600 the image fits the screen perfect and you don't notice that it's cut off as much..whereasin 1024x768 you do notice that the top is cut off..because there is so much extra space at the bottom..

Ah well I got used to it and think the only solution would be either shrink the image (no thanks..quality loss) or put a screen res selector..which I have no intention of doing..so I think I will leave it =)