Here at The Average Gamer, we’ve been plodding along for just over two years with a design that I hacked together myself. It was ugly but servicable.
We now have a proper theme, designed by a proper web designer and everything! I have tweaked it here and there and it’s lovely. It’s a complete redesign so if you’re subscribed to the feed, stop by and have a look.
You’ll find featured posts, support for Gravatars, space for videos and lots more.
What do you think of the new look?
Popularity: 4% [?]
January 13th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Yay, fresh new look. I like it :-)
January 14th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I personally quite liked the old theme - there was nothing particularly wrong with it in my opinion, however the new look is also looking very cool, I like the new sidebar and the content on it.
Have you thought about registering with Amazon UK for their associate program and perhaps earn some affiliate income from that link on your sidebar?
January 14th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Thanks, Zath. It was all right as themes go but I got bored of the blue ;)
I am looking into more affiliate programmes - Play.com tend to be cheaper, though I might register with Amazon anyway.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:11 am
I’m only a recent reader so I can’t really remember the original design all that well but this design does look much more professional.
Although it does look a little bland. There are no images beyond the RSS button to catch your interest and direct you. Its all just text, boxes and lines. Some sort of image in the header would probably go a long way as well.
Its not terrible but its not all that fantastic either. I do like the little animation in the menu that does quite a nice effect as well. Although it can make my horizontal scroll bar increase when I move through the links.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
We have a guy working on a new logo for the header :)
Daniel, what browser and screen resolution are you using, if you know? I’m curious about this horizontal scrollbar thing
January 15th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Well, what can I say? I think you’ve just officially outdone my site. Good refresh. It looks like one of the big boys’ sites now. I just hope you don’t start doing ‘paid for’ reviews like Gamespot… THAT’S A JOKE BY THE WAY LAWYERS!
January 15th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Thanks :) It’s amazing what you can overcome by simply throwing money at a problem sometimes.
Nope, no paid game reviews here. Kinda violates the spirit of the site, really.
I’ll admit, I’m not above a fully disclosed service review - we did one a year or so ago on a Ventrilo service. That’s as far as I’ll push my blogger’s integrity, if there is such a thing.
January 15th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I use Opera at 1280 x 800. The horizontal scroll bar jumps in although there isn’t actually anything to scroll and it just flashes in for a second (the scroll bar not the animation) and then disappears.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
Hey if you write you should have integrity - whether you’re writing a novel or a blog about flowers. As for the fully disclosed service review - it seems reasonable to me. It’s something I’ve flirted with in the past but decided it was more hassle than it was worth :)