Game site I'm working on

[PsxMeUP]

http://gameobserver.com/xhtml/

It's not finished but any opinions are greatly appreciated. How's the look, layout, color, etc? I'm trying to go for a clean and simple look.

EDIT: And that's not the real logo, just something temporary. Will design it once the whole site is done.

[HortonsWho]

Haven't dug into it but it looks pro. Nice work.

[radio667]

Hey , so far it looks Great :D - i Really like the Clean Look of the Site and the Colors too !!!

[Aalexanderrr]

Wow, cool website! Bookmarked.

[Berjj]

I'm no pro about these things, but it looks good to me. You've got two links to gameboy up top though. ;p

[Mathlete]

"All PLatforms" is near the bottom, the L shouldn't be in caps. but that's no biggie at all, the layout looks great! good job :D

[PsxMeUP]

Thanks for the praise. All the typos will be fixed once the site launches. Don't dig too much cause there's nothing to dig. It's not up yet. Quite literally almost everything still needs to be done. All this fake content is there just to give an idea of how it will look. I'll probably launch with only the three newest consoles, without the portables. I just don't have the manpower or time to have so many sections so there won't even be a Gameboy section.

What worries me are the colors. I can't decide if there's too much blue. At one point the blue header strips (parts that say Top Reviews, Top Previews, Headlines) were light gray and didn't stand out much. I'm worried they might be standing out too much now. It also feels like it's missing something... Dunno. I might be staring at it too much.

[-=JUDGE=-]

Solid site, clean CSS code.. very nice.

[PsxMeUP]

Site design is being updated. I need opinions on the the news section featured in two columns on the bottom. Right now it's set up to show newest to oldest news by columns (from top to bottom). Newest news starts at the top of the left column, goes down, then continues on the right column from top to bottom. The designer originally wanted it to go by rows going from left to right. In my case I tend to expect the older news to be under, not to the right, but that might be just me. Need opinions. What's more instinctive, top to bottom or right to left? I love how this setup looks but I'm worried it might get on people's nerves. www.gameobserver.com still has the old design.

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/9216/gonew4sa4.jpg

[DeadMeatGF]

I'm with the designer - top-left/top-right, then middle-left/middle-right etc.

[PsxMeUP]

K, well it seems opinions are pretty evenly split whomever I ask.

[Nitestalker]

I like it with the two columns, most of it looks good, except that I can't read some of the words, even when I squint, and I don't see any pictures of the beach :) .

[PsxMeUP]

Normally the text is legible. I shrunk the pic to make is easier to view in a forum. I guess time will tell what people like more. Now I'm working on a logo. Going for something simple with dark red and blue. Trying to avoid the "shiny, glossy, metallic sphere" used by so many sites. It's hard to make some with G and O without it looking stupid.

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6903/logo12ch5.jpg

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8878/logo10vy3.jpg

Not sure about this logo, but still working on it.

Oh and no beach pics on my site. Posting stuff here though, that's another story... :)

[outpt.co.uk]

I like the old metallic text, but agree that it need a bit of jazz adding to it.

I'd try distract you from going down the route you are - but I'm bias because I dislike Times New Roman (also Comic Sans!). They remind me of web pages from 1997 (please don't take offense, as none meant).

I'd probably try to brainstorm ideas on paper - using key words related to both the name of your site and the impression you want to give, such as 'observe' and 'modern' for example. You can also use a Thesaurus to help develop your ideas.

[DeadMeatGF]

I'd try distract you from going down the route you are - but I'm bias because I dislike Times New Roman (also Comic Sans!). They remind me of web pages from 1997 (please don't take offense, as none meant).
I'd agree with this - Times is somewhat old-fashioned and is better suited to newspaper type, that was what it was designed for, after all. There are much better web fonts to use. Comic Sans makes a web-page look either childish or very tongue-in-cheek, and not always in a good way. If you're trying to make a "professional" impression then I'd avoid these two fonts (and any similar to Comic) and go for crisp, clear fonts without frills, although a bit of deco on titles/headings can work.

[PsxMeUP]

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9573/gooi7.jpg

Ok, reworked the name. Font is now Bullpen 3D. I like this better but it's still not there yet. I still don't have a logo. No time to fiddle around with logos and stuff. Busy building a retroactive database of games. Current count: over 2000 games. I figure the more the better since each game will have its own page, which will include the game's title in the url (search engine friendly).

It's worth noting that the site will eventually focus on statistics (surveys, polls, graphs, charts of current trends, etc.), in case you were wondering about the checkmark thing in the name. I used to work for a statistical company. I want to make GameObserver the authority on what gamers think. Comments and suggestions appreciated as always.

[Dorkorama]

I like the concept, though many game related sites have proven that it's tricky to get accurate polls (see GameFAQs' character battles). As long as you have some plan in place, it should do well when it launches.

I also took a stab at my rendition of your current logo design :

[PsxMeUP]

The statistics and polls will be later, maybe 2-3 years down the road. For now I'll focus on having a generic website with just news, previews and reviews (the "game" part). That way I won't get into something that might flop from the get-go. Once that part succeeds, I'll invest in the "observer" part.

The site will only have Push polls, meaning we will select who takes part in the surveys. Pull surveys (the kind you have on most websites) aren't scientific because anybody can take part in them. But time will tell if that can be done properly. Imagine an in-depth survey on RPGs which will analyze which perspectives people prefer in their RPGs, leveling up schemes, fighting systems (random fights, real-time), team sizes in single player, etc. All this split into demographics and presented with analysis. My goal is to create data which other sites and game developers will take note of.

As others mentioned, I don't want to use the courier/times-looking fonts. But there might something to how your fonts are solid. Might be too much transparency in my previous one, so here's another variation.
http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/4194/logo4qd5.jpg

[Dorkorama]

If you will be holding off on polls for that long, I'd suggest leaving the check mark out for now as it will undoubtedly lead to questions about it. (Creating that version ahead of time would help work out any issues.) Having the small capitals solid definitely helps with the readability. I like the tiered heights it creates with the hollow ones, along with the implicit "GO".

I was attempting to use two similar fonts with contrasting tones (one playful; the other more austere.) Those were the best I could find without resorting to anything over-specialized (a "Pac-Man" font, for instance.) It may come down to having to making customized fonts just for the logo. That's just my idea, anyways.

Lastly, it's good to make certain the logo will be discernible at small sizes for signatures, ads, other links, etc. (You may also consider an icon for the address bar (http://www.chami.com/tips/Internet/110599I.html).)

[TexasGtar]

Link seems to be down.

[PsxMeUP]

It's back up: http://gameobserver.com/

The site is technically not launched yet. It's hosted on the designer's private server while being worked on, so it goes down from time to time when they change stuff. It's temporarily hosted there to show me their progress. I'll eventually get a VPS. I asked them to password protect it, cause it can give a bad impression. They haven't done that yet.

As for the logo, ya, I'll keep in mind the different size variations, how it looks as a watermark etc. The address bar icon can be a bit different from the actual logo. Just needs to maintain key elements.

[TexasGtar]

Looks very nice. Alot of headers but i guess you are going to be very very busy with all the games and set ups. Good luck. It's going well i would say. Looks like you have a decent project plan.

[PsxMeUP]

Ya well, it's nowhere near being final. I'm projecting 2 more major design updates until it gets to where I want it to be. Tell you the truth I think I bit off more than I can chew. I'll eventually need help with the content.

[PsxMeUP]

Changed the logo. One of the two will probably be the final one. Can't decide if I want "observer" with the line passing though it or not. The circular "GO" icon is pretty simple but I won't use it in this version of the site cause there's no room for it anywhere (I only put in the preview pic to show how things "might" look with it one day). Though I will use it for the address bar icon.