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Plan for Phil Carlisle

Name:	Phil Carlisle
Date Posted:	Apr 08, 2005
Rating:	3.0 out of 5
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Blog post

Websites..

Every game needs one. Every team needs one, everybody needs a blog. etc etc.

So why is it, that to get a high quality website it feels like pulling teeth?

Sure, there are solutions like PHPNuke and PostNuke and a bazillion other open source CMS sites. But they are generally a bit.. well.... strange?

Mark did the scaryhead site in .NET, which seems almost there. But to me, website dev seems a bit archaic still. I guess the whole standards (proliferation, lack of good ones etc) doesnt help.

I'm just surprised that no-one has written sort of "off the shelf" packages for things like a game promo site, or a game developer site (ya know, news, screenshots). Kinda like an ultra-light version of the PHPNuke idea.

All it needs, is a SIMPLE method of re-doing the artwork.

Maybe its just better to go to one of those external developer website coder-for-hire sites and get one done up?

Frankly, my head is too full for another language like PHP and all that html crap.

Someone (hint hint) should make an "indie game website template" website pack, with all the CSS crap setup for you so you can just tweak the bits. Kinda like CSS Zen Garden stuff.

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Submit your own resources!

Adam deGrandis (Apr 08, 2005 at 20:49 GMT)

Wow, Phil.... Thats a GREAT idea.

Michael \"Evic\" Wales (Apr 08, 2005 at 20:50 GMT)

Haha, that's actually a very good idea...

/me gets to work on it.

Matthew Langley (Apr 08, 2005 at 20:51 GMT)

Very good idea... coincidentally my team and I (I am a web developer on the side) are starting to get into hosting together and I'm trying to plan out a way to offer an affordable package for indies to host and maintain there sites as well as design them...

Phil Carlisle (Apr 08, 2005 at 21:10 GMT)

Matt: I wouldnt advocate hosting.. as hosts are VERY common.

But the concept of a "game developer website pack" appeals to me. Given that most of the projects Ive started didnt have a website worth a damn for a LONG time.

Mark Berry (Apr 08, 2005 at 21:10 GMT)

I found Mambo, a CMS, to be about the most straight forward to knock up a template for. There are plenty of addons for it, and the newsy style should go quite well for a game site.

Martin Schultz (Apr 08, 2005 at 21:23 GMT)

Yeah, try using the Mamboserver (.com). That one goes pretty close.

Matthew Langley (Apr 08, 2005 at 22:10 GMT)

very good point... since we are looking at doing the whole package I should probably exclude the word "hosting" lol ... definately don't want to be tied to the many simple hosting options out there

Mike Stoddart (Apr 08, 2005 at 23:20 GMT)

I wrote my own CMS, Wiki, News and Forum package as I didn't like most of the options. I could only work with PHP and HTML for so long.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/wsframework/

Alan Kantz (Apr 09, 2005 at 02:15 GMT)

In my humble opinion, most promotional game websites don't really need a CMS. More time spent setting up than you save in the end.

But CSS is kind of my passion, so I'm probably not an unbiased source here.

Vashner (Apr 09, 2005 at 10:22 GMT)

Purchased Macromedia's MX 2004 suite last year. With the intention of glossing up my game and cozumel websites. But I got sidetrack doing some stuff with it for Jump to Lightspeed last year. But seriously it's a great website development suite of tools. I plan on relaunching noobgames.com again with a better flash site later this summer. As far as forums I like Php bb.

EDIT: My programming skills are a joke compared to a pro like Phil so I need the whimpy gui tools to crank
out good websites.
Edited on Apr 09, 2005 10:24 GMT

Corey Martin (Apr 09, 2005 at 12:19 GMT)

I reccomend the Exponent CMS. Its great for small to mid sized pages, it's simple to get setup and tweak, and it looks good on all browsers.

Toby W. Allen (Apr 09, 2005 at 12:30 GMT)

Phil,
There is a solution to your problem - Geeklog.

This pretty much does everytihng you need for a game site and game developer. Since you can have plugins, you simply add mantis, gallery, whatever you want realy. If you got a good web developer, they can improuve this setup drastically, as Mantis' plugin is a whole version behind.

Some of the best solutions for Geeklog;
Mantis, Gallery, FAQManager, Download Manager, Forum or PHPbb Forums.

You're pretty well of with this, configure it nicely and you're pretty much rock and roll. You edit the visual style through templates and hey presto you've got a pretty nice Game/Game Dev/Whatever you want website.

Toby.
President
Game Development Society at the University of Leeds
www.gdsleeds.com

Greg Ellwood (Apr 09, 2005 at 13:03 GMT)

I've actually been working on a related idea (that could be used for this) for some time. It's a CMS called gameCMS that can be used to run anything from a game fansite right up to something like a full blown gaming site such as gamespot. One of my main aims with the CMS is that a site running gameCMS shouldn't have to look like any other site running it so you can have it power any layout you like.

The gameCMS website is currently a little out of date as I'm spending most of my time on the project.. but you can find more details here: www.gamecms.com/

An example of a site running on gameCMS can be found here:
www.xblnext.com/

I will be posting a detailed plan about this technology in the near future.

-Greg.

Vashner (Apr 09, 2005 at 18:20 GMT)

I want my game company webite to look something like this www.pixelranger.com/.
Ok well you can do it with Macromedia but I doubt my finished site will look half as good as this guys. Just had it saved as an example of what a website should look and act like.

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