The Website: General Layout

The Basics

Here is the basic layout for the website.

• The header will have the title of the game, not yet decided, in an art format using Photoshop.
• The artwork on either side of the site will be of certain elements from each level of the game like a circus tent, a temple, trees, chains and sweets.
• The footer will be kept simple with basic information such as the copyright symbol, my email address and possibly some social media icons for links to twitter and Facebook. 
• The navigation bar will have a raised effect to make it stand out, perhaps using a drop shadow. 
• The Home page will be a welcome screen with images and text enticing the audience in.
• The Game webpage will hold the actual game the users will play, they will have the option to make the game full screen or smaller surrounded but the website.
• The Characters page will give the audience an insight into the background of the  characters along with images.
• The Blog page will take them here so they can find out about the process of the project from beginning to end.
• The Downloadable Content page is not a definite decision yet. The page will include some text explaining it's use, a textbox for entering a code and a 'Go' button. If a correct code is entered a folder will appear along with a congratulatory message. The folder will contain content such as game related artwork the player can download and use as a desktop background. 
• The page is one of the ways I have thought of to allow the player to download this content without disrupting the flow of the game. So this is how it would work: -
1. The player would play a level and find an Easter Egg.
2. Once they have completed that level a message and code will appear in the game.
3. They can either memorize the code or write it down (the code will be short and memorable) to put in later.
4. The player could also open a new tab with the downloadable content page and enter it in straight away if they are eager.
• This is of course just an idea at the moment so if I can find a better way of doing this the downloadable content page may not be used.
• The toolbar on the left hand side is rudimentary at the moment but the idea behind it is accessibility. The tools I have put on there so far are a contrast button and a text sizer. The contrast button is for people with color blindness and the text sizer is for people who may not have strong vision. The toolbar will be floating so if the user scrolls down a page it will follow them in the centre left hand side of the screen. I want the toolbar to have a minimize feature so that users can remove it if it becomes annoying.
• The resolution for the design is the most common 1024 x 768 but I will also look at how other screens will present it especially wide screen monitors as they are becoming increasingly popular particularly with gamers.
• The colour palette for both the artwork and website will be dark and earthy to complement the darkness and horror elements within the game. It will also provide a strong contrast with the white text.
• The text will be white with a drop shadow to make it stand out and become easy to read.

Thanks for reading. X