First attempt - Mafia Login page [Comments]

[Ganrakel]

Hey guys, this is the first time i try to do a login template or so on for a mafia game it's not 100% done but would like to know your comments
and feel free to educate me on some tips and tricks PS: if anyone know good place to find mafia vectors or cartoon like mafia dudes please share.

[Nox]

Hi
I think the watermarks are unnecessary

how do you plan to implement rotated letters and typing? imho it'll be very difficult and not worth it

It has a very low contrast - meaning it's hard to read as the colors of text and background underneath is quite similar (see books have almost black text X almost white bg -> max readability)

Besides red is imho the most aggresive color (although you used darker one which is less) ... while it might seem cool, I belive it's very unsuitable for websites where you expect users to spend a longer time (both minute-wise and day/month-wise) ... it's more useful for presentation web pages like presentation and contact to a restaurant or cosmetics (personally I'd never choose red even for cosmetics/escort/adult ... most likely rather violet-ish)
If you go through the most famous pages they are all milder and almost all afaik light color themed (but for games you can take a dark one, but with light text the)

And easy on the effects in the title (due to this and contrast I can't actually even read it)

The blood stain is nice


Imho for index page is much more suitable to place screenshots right away... Tops are more relevant for players that already play but you want to attract newcomers. Although the Tops can give sense that the game is alive spark some competitivness right away, but make it smaller

[Chris]

Gradient true type font player names? Can this be done in a browser? Do you plan to render all text in the game as images via PHP?

[Nox]

I guess http://www.google.com/search?q=css3+gradient+text

but yea...rather without that - keep in mind you'll have to code it one day (well unless you just discard it)

[DV8]

Unfortunately, different font types are supported by different browsers. OTF is supported by Chrome, FF, etc. but not by IE.

[Nox]

You'll just save it in more formats, specify them all in CSS and browser will use the one he can (googlable by "font-face" for example)

[FutureLost]

Maybe this can be useful for you http://www.jankoatwarpspeed.com/post/2008/08/09/Add-grunge-effect-to-text-using-simple-CSS.aspx. Very easy too implement and gives you more interesting headers without need for rendered images. Especially handy if you need to change text later 

[Nox]

But works only on solid color background and you can't change the color of background without modifying all the grudges :/ so imho not that cool

[CygnusX]

I'm more interested in how he plans to implement the slight rotation on the input boxes.... 

Also, I'd highly recommend you go back and choose a color or two that contrast well with Red/Black.  You need to make the title text of your game a different color, and also make a few more things pop out.  As is, its very flat and red. 

Good start though.

[Marek]

Yea, the contrast is a problem because I can't read shit.

The links at the bottom right are almost invisible to the naked eye.

It's an engaging design, though. Nice work with the guns.

[Ganrakel]

i decided to change it up a little because you guys thought it was to dark so i hope you like the edits i made it's not done yet!
so keep the comments coming thanks! << added screen-shot show and tell, and some grenade and new background etc etc..

[CygnusX]

I still strain to read the majority of the text... and my eyes are fantastic.  You really need to change the color of your font to something that contrast red well, such as yellow or silver. 

[Ganrakel]

on the desktop & in photoshop it seems fine when i upload it to img-host and post it it turns darker then when i look at it, but maybe i will turn up the colors to way more red and also change the whole contrast way high to a more in-depth light splash light to the center and see how that turns out, other then that you find the other changes ok the new style ? etc, I'm really a person who wants to read like 10 pages long on what you don't like and what you did like etc so don't be shy guys pile on with more comments thanks! (you are more then welcome to give me more ideas etc)

PS: did you like the new style or turn back to the old style ? (this question would be nice if i got comments on thanks!)

[DV8]

I like the new version a lot better than the old.

[chrisjenkinson]

Too much background stuff. My eyes are particularly drawn to the bullets as they're a very distinct colour. This distracts from the intended action - i.e. logging in. Try fading it out a bit more.

Impossible to read the text - particularly the title text. I am struggling to read what the game is called. It's not "square" enough - the text height is too tall and the letters are very close together. In addition the contrast is not high enough. Try changing into black and white - I imagine it will be almost impossible to read then. You need to make the text distinct from the background.