Well the last week or so has been a crash course in CSS implementation and layout design. The biggest thing I learned was that I should have STARTED with the layout and then built the website on top of it. Rather than create the game and then try to fit a framework around it. The fact remains with Conrohl that it took may have taken a little longer than originally estimated but it in the end it has come out pretty much how I wanted.

Some of the more stubborn problems I came across were screen resolution and browser compatibility. Which then led me into another crash course of having to learn about the differences between Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari (the big three browsers). It got rather frustrating when the site looked great in one browser it but fell apart in the other. After working through the browser differences I had to choose how I wanted to setup to resolution. As I learned it is impossible to make the site 100% compatible with every screen size that every person that comes to the site could have. So I settled on a on a width of 1150 pixels. Yes there are a large number of people that still have an 800x600 but I am willing to guess that the majority of people using this site will have something better than an old 15inch monitor set on the lowest setting. As I review Google analytics and determine that a majority of people aren’t able to see everything then I will go back and alter it. But for now I think it works well.

-frank

So we've been getting a few game testers to trickle in and we've decided that it’s probably time to start concerning ourselves with the look and feel of the game. So I've taken the last week or so and stopped development of the game and started focusing on the presentation of the content. Just when I was fully comfortable at manipulating data and organizing the navigation from page to page and BAM I have to completely change gears and start focusing on developing my artistic side. Step one seems to be a bit of a sticking point for me and that is selecting a proper color palette. Now we made a decision a while ago to go with a general black background to mimic the emptiness of space although I think it is the right decision I believe it makes it a touch harder to design an eye friendly color scheme. So I have been doing a lot of reading and researching other sites that look good and trying to find something that works. Also, I've come across the font Huxtable that is currently being used in game. To me it is crisp and detailed enough to be readable but fancy and scripted enough to exist in a fantasy/ sci-fi game world. I'd be interested to hear other peoples thought about it. Also, if anyone knows of any black/dark websites with good color schemes please just pop a reply in the blog. Alright time to put on my beret and bust out the easel I’m about to go make something beautiful.

-Frank