Improved Icons

Hello,

I'd like to put forward some efforts that myself and the staff have been knocking about regarding the icons on the site. As it stands, we currently struggle - not just the staff - with not only consistency, but decent representation. For sprites, the area we give ourselves is far too small to suit recent games, post Playstation era. For models, the icons are practically useless due to their tiny size.

So, I came up with a few different options; but ultimately they all looked off. After collaborating, the staff and I have come to the conclusion of a design. This is still subject to change based on discussions that can occur in this thread, should one come about that ultimately works better.



On the left is our new icon style, on the right our old. The benefits of the left are extreme.

- Larger area for image.
- Separated backdrop from foreground; sprites are transparent images overlayed on the icon, instead of being a solid image.
- Text is rendered by the browser, not solidly attached to the image.
- Said text is called from the data. Edits made to the sheet from the database are called to the icon straight away.
- 3 lines worth of space on the text area.
- Wider text area for more input.
- Text is generated by a custom made font, that replicates Verdana but with a minor amount of anti-aliasing. This means that even if you have ClearType enabled in windows, the font remains extremely close to the original style.
- Full consistency throughout the site. No more random slightly-darker icons, or incorrect font size, or anti-aliasing, or wrong font all together.
- Easy to alter later in the game.
- We can theme icons for seasons if we want

With these changes means that, in years to come, should we wish to change any aspect of the icons, we can do so with great ease. A single change would be a matter of editing 1 set of files, instead of 56,000+


Now, the tricky parts;
- We cannot change the size of the sprite area later. What we pick now sticks until we do this again:
- We need to make new "icon images" for 55,000 sheets...

This is a big task, but not too hard. Sheet icons will now look like this:

148x125
Simple crop, with transparent background. This means that making new icons to put on the site after the initial batch will be incredibly easy. No longer will you need to write out the same name, twice, and try to compress the name to fit in the textarea.

We will also need to increase game icon sizes to relate to these larger icons; this is still a pending decision, but it'll be the exact same style as it is current, just... bigger.



This decision comes from the fact that these icons were designed when 800x600 resolutions were the norm, and CSS was but a weak, and PHP was but a developing language. We need to utilise these features, and we need to do it before we get into 100,000 sheets...

I will work with Pete to make a simple submission method for revised icons. If you'd like more information, or have any questions, or any suggestions, please fire away.


(That first icon has the longest name currently found in our database... That's how well it fits )


edit: I forgot to mention that the icon uploaded doesn't have to fit the resolution of the area exactly; if it is less, it will automatically be centred.