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Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
http://www.retrosoftware.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=334		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  DaveM [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:57 am ]
Post subject:  Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
Matt wrote:
Only just discovered today there was a playable demo to download ! not sure how I missed it but there you go !!

Yeah, I'm all too aware that we need to increase the prominence of the WIP demos that are available to download.

I'm thinking of adding a splash to the Index page, containing direct links to the latest WIP builds. What do you think?
Author:  Matt [ Thu Aug 20, 2009 1:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mountain Panic Byte Back Build
DaveM wrote:
Matt wrote:
Only just discovered today there was a playable demo to download ! not sure how I missed it but there you go !!

Yeah, I'm all too aware that we need to increase the prominence of the WIP demos that are available to download.

I'm thinking of adding a splash to the Index page, containing direct links to the latest WIP builds. What do you think?


I think it's a good idea on the front page links to new releases/demos etc, as then everyone would see it straightaway and the download it.

Eg , when a playable demo of Treasure Island is available that should be on the homepage above Zap, which is then no longer the newest thing.

So in short yes !

cheers
Matt
Author:  Samwise [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 1:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mountain Panic Byte Back Build
DaveM wrote:
I'm thinking of adding a splash to the Index page, containing direct links to the latest WIP builds. What do you think?

What do you mean by splash? Not an actual splash screen like the one on STH, I hope. Those just get in the way. Yech.

I was thinking we could add a little but prominent Demo Available type image which could be listed against each of the entries on the WIP page that had something to play with.

Sam.
Author:  DaveF [ Fri Aug 21, 2009 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mountain Panic Byte Back Build
Samwise wrote:
I was thinking we could add a little but prominent Demo Available type image which could be listed against each of the entries on the WIP page that had something to play with.

Yeah, perhaps a little disc icon or something would be nice.

And while we're at it, is it just me who doesn't like the 'Z Machine' JPEG half way down the WIP screen? It really breaks the flow of the page.
Author:  Samwise [ Sun Aug 23, 2009 7:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mountain Panic Byte Back Build
You could always update it. It's a wiki, remember? :)

OK, I've removed the larger logos, and added a demo icon for those I know of with a download available. It's not the prettiest of things, but if anyone wants to improve it - simply update the icon stored on the wiki!

I wonder if it might also be a good idea to move all projects with a download available to the top of the list - at the moment, it's ordered in Dave-suggested order, but if all the downloads were at the top, then we could just put a link on the front page direct to the WIP page advertising the demos and they'd all be there, clustered at the top ... thoughts?

Sam.
Author:  DaveF [ Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:08 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mountain Panic Byte Back Build
Samwise wrote:
You could always update it. It's a wiki, remember? :)
Sam.

Well I could've done yes, but thought it a tad rude to just remove something someone else had added ;)

New disc icon is OK, I expected the link to take me to the actual WIP page's "Downloads" section though rather than a bigger picture of the JPEG ;)
Author:  Samwise [ Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mountain Panic Byte Back Build
That's why we have the revert button. :)

Linking from an image is actually not as simple as you'd expect. I might take a look at it when I'm back at home, but it involves poking around underneath the covers ...

What're your thoughts on the ordering?

Sam.
Author:  DaveF [ Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
What ordering?
Author:  Samwise [ Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
See my thoughts in this post.

Also split off into a new forum, as we were getting somewhat off-topic. :)

Sam.
Author:  DaveF [ Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
Samwise wrote:
See my thoughts in this post.

Yeah doesn't seem so bad, although titles like Repton perhaps are instantly more recognisable so might be a good idea to get a demo of that one up soon :)
Author:  NigeB [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
Hi Dave

You mentioned at the show that you were having trouble getting feedback.. well I STILL haven't been able to download a demo! I can see some (very small) icons which say "demo available", but when I follow the link, all it lets me download is a great big .png of a floppy disk. I know I'm going to have one of those "Doh" moments when you tell me what I missed, but my personal opinion is that the first icon should take you directly to the file.

"WIP". I'm a software engineer and I never came across this acronym before I visited this site. So I didn't click on the link!

NigeB
Author:  DaveM [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 7:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
Hi Nigel, thanks for the feedback

Direct links are as follows ...

- Mountain Panic
http://www.bogus.net/~dave/ForumPics/panic2.ssd

- Sparse Invaders
download/file.php?id=241

- Quest for the Lost Football
http://www.dfstudios.co.uk/retrosoftwar ... l_pre4.zip

I agree that the floppy icon is confusing: Samwise, I realise it's against wiki standards but is it ok if one of us goes in and makes each icon link to the respective SSD?
Author:  Samwise [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 9:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
heh.

What wiki standards? ... Feel free to try!

If you read back a bit, you'll see I pointed out it's not quite as easy as it looks. I'll see if I can sort something out this weekend. It's more than just changing the markup, unfortunately, tho ... :/

Sam.
Author:  MurrayCakaMuzer [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 10:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
I tried, I think you need a mediawiki extension:

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:C ... Wiki/41789
Author:  MartinB [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
Samwise wrote:
...it's not quite as easy as it looks.
Whatever, Blah...Blah...Blah...

Just fix it Sam :roll:

Martin
Author:  Samwise [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
The links to The Search for the Lost Football archives are dead, so I've updated them to local links and notified Francis. I've also updated the thumbnails to point to the project pages and the floppy disk images to link directly to the download area of the relevant projects (linking to the SSD would mean we'd need to keep all of them updated, which would be a bit of a chore). No extensions required - just a config change on the back end.

Sam.
Author:  Samwise [ Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:46 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
MartinB wrote:
Whatever, Blah...Blah...Blah...

Just fix it Sam :roll:

Martin

Dammit! I did not see this post and I most definitely did not fix it under the orders of MartinB!

Grrr ... :evil:

Sam.
Author:  MartinB [ Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
Yeah, Yeah, whatever...

...but many thanks for your prompt attention to this matter.

Martin :lol:
Author:  PaulDv [ Sat Sep 19, 2009 3:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
I realise I'm a bit late to the party on this thread but I have a suggestion.

DaveM wrote:
I'm thinking of adding a splash to the Index page, containing direct links to the latest WIP builds. What do you think?

This sounds like a good idea. One of the main problems with the wiki is that there's no quick and easy way to see what's new. Those of us with accounts can subscribe to pages or use the Recent Changes special page but casual visitors don't have access to these facilities.

With that in mind, how about having a panel between the introductory text and the pictures containing, say, the top 5 latest changes. This could be split into 3 segments horizontally, e.g:

Code:
Latest releases            Latest demos                Latest changes
* The Krystal Connection   * Mountain Panic            * Mountain Panic - new screen shots
* Zap!                     * Search .. Lost Football   * White Light - video of BeebSID
                           * Sparse Invaders           * Repton: Lost Realms - screen shot

The 'latest changes' column could be used for reporting any interesting changes to a project that people would like to see such as screen shots or videos.

Alternatively, the panel could run vertically down one edge of the screen, probably the right hand side since the Zap! pic is on the left.

What does everyone think?

I'll have a go at doing it if there are no objections. After all, we shouldn't be expecting Sam to do all the work :)
Author:  Samwise [ Sat Sep 19, 2009 6:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Prominence of the WIP demos and image links
I have no objections to anyone trying stuff out - either on a sandbox page, or even on the main pages themselves. Being a wiki, it's easy to rollback if the majority don't like it.

Do remember, though, that the purpose of this site is to reduce the amount of work developers need to do on the site. So, if you're expecting people to update their own wiki pages and then go on and update the front and/or WIP page as well, I just don't think it'll happen. So, unless someone is willing to manually keep such information updated, it will remain out-of-date which is worse than what we have now.

Sam.
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