Which window looks best

[Zach]

http://test.oldskoolgames.com

I'm doing this all to spite you know who

I'm should email him cool links every time so he can watch it get proressively shitty !!

[Jale]

Cool! Nice 3D effect and depth. Now await another opinion...
By the way, spit me!!!

[Jet Set Willy]

It doesn't sit right. Those linear gradients never look good.

[Zach]

Low and behold they aren't really gradients though. Its just the effect I got when I dumped a shadow on there to 'outline' the shape.

Gradients in general have always been tough to display the right way I suppose. But definitely not my intention. I'm shamelessly untalented when it comes to GUI work and art in general.

I imagine it will get tweaked somewhat, or I may just leave well enough alone.

[ScotchGuy]

Don't give up! It's looking great!

[Zach]

I'm also planning to try and do some good research into learning how to use cookies and stuff, so that people can select from alternate color themes.

It will be nice to set a default to go with the seasons, and also give other people the option to look at something more comfortable for them.

I'm quite open to color scheme suggestions to use in the future.
If you'd like to suggest something try to take into account how the different parts of the layout will interact with each other and their colors.

Background
Windows
Window Headers
Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks - hover color (mouse over)
General Text
Navigation and Window Header Text

[Zach]

I think these buttons might prove useful. My first time making buttons. Preshapes really, but it took some tinkering to get the dimensions and effects I added to work right.

If you notice the bumpy edge on the emboss thats my fault. When I originally made the buttons I didn't realize I was working in a zoomed out mode on the canvas, so I had to scale them down... I may decide to risk dissasembling them and writing down every setting to try and do them again in proper scale Though..

[Zach]

Well it looks like its all finally done.. The site anyway. I have decided to go with what I've got right now, and I can tweak a thing or two later if necesarry. The site looks pretty much the same in Mozilla and IE with only a few minor spacing differences. Updated the links to point to real files and updated those files to reflect a "we" personality of the site, rather than "I".

Just have to finish the PDF up, reorganize the storage of the theme files so I can easily add new colors, rewrite the CSS properly and commented to know wtf I'm doing when I open it two months later, tie in the database calls for the ad banners, news items, and latest issue window...

insert more random bantering into this post and I'm done.

/edit: oh god I'm starting to sound like Lefteris, agggghhh 1!!!!

[Zach]

I've decided to work with squared rectangles instead of curved as I couldn't really master the effect I was trying to convey. I also decided to visit my earlier design in the truest of ways and inverted the colors to mimic it.

Ad space, main navigation columns, main text body, and news posting body below that (same as ad space)

[Jale]

Add some grandiet effect on the blue bar