Guide to creating mod webstes Thread

Okay, given the sudden rush of Mod Webpages being pimped over in the other sections, I thought I'd just give a few pointers on how to go about creating a mod website. First off, Im just going to cover how to go about getting hosting for cheap, so everyone doesn't run out, get Geocities subdomains, and use www.blahblahblah.moddb.com..

STEP 1:
The Website is the first impression people get of your mod, so it has to look GOOD. Also, ideally, it should have it's own domain name (www.mymod..com, .net, .tk or other national extension. Those really random extensions just make me want to roll my eyes.) and a serious hosting plan. I would recommend www.godaddy.com for domain names and www.oktagone.net (Also MODDB's hosting provider) for a Name and Plan, accordingly. However, if your budget is tight, no one will scoff at a website hosted by your according branch of gamespy.com, since this is an extremely professional, well-known and respected Game site. The only catch with them is that you have to complete your website before submitting it.

It is very important that you get a .com or a .net extension, or something else that's fairly well known, If you have a domain name. It is important that you show the highest level of professionalism with your site. People say, "Never judge a book by its cover." Well, since, chances are, your mod will come out long after your site is established, people won't have anything else to go by.
-P.S. Make sure your hosting provider supports PHP, MySQL, and FTP
. More on this later.

STEP 2:
Now you have www.mymod.com,, hosted by whoever (Once again, I would recommend www.oktagone.net) it's time to build your site. The purists out there will beat into a bloody pulp unless you use good old-fashioned HTML, but personally, I think all you really need is Photoshop to create a good loonking website. The actual use of Photoshop and Imageready is beyond the scope of this article, but there ten gazillion books on how to use them, and Im sure you can find one.

Here are some things to keep in mind... graphically, with your site:
- Colour Scheme: Limit your palette of colours. Colour theory is also beyond the scope of this article, but I can cover a bit now: Dark, metallic, and red colours tend to make more appealing websites. Also, Never, EVER, EVER, use Red and Green on the same page, unless you're trying to simulate an old-fashioned computer screen. And keep the colours uniform throughout the website.

- Text: Text should be easily read against the background. Also, it is important that you use a simple font, like Times New Roman or Arial. Fancy scmancy fonts like Old English, Bank Gothic, and Sand tend to make things very irritating, very fast. Keep the fancy fonts to headings, logos and banners only, and try never to use such a font with more than a sentence or two at once.

- Nav Bar: A Nav bar (short for navigation bar) is 100% necessary. This basically includes buttons or links to the main sections of your site, and should be fixed in an obvious location. Unless you're creating a 'window' site (www.W-I-M-P.net) you'll probably want to use the tried-and-true format of a fancy, graphically interesting nav bar on one site, or along the top below the logo, and another in simple Hyperlink format along the bottom, in much smaller text.
There are pretty much 5 commonly accepted branches for any mod website:
Home or News
Team
Media
Forum
Contact
There's no rule against using more, but you should try to use at least those in your nav bar.

- Background: Backgrounds work best when subtle, and should be used with the utmost care. Background textures can make or break a site's appeal. It's usually best to go with a straight colour... obviously black and white work bestm, although pictures with the opacity kicked waaaaay down work well too, especially in gray scale. If you do decide to go with a texture in the background, keep a few things in mind: First, make the tiling seamless. If you are a texture or skin artist you have no excuse for making an obviously tiled background. Also, aviod making an eye-catching elements to the pattern. There was a half life mod site I saw recently that featured a badly rendered lens flash that I supposed was meant to be a sun in a starscape patter, but truth be told it sucked, and when it was repeated fifteen times down the page, it was extremely distracting. And most importantly: Never, ever, ever, EVER use bright clashing colours in the background. make it easy for the text to be read. If you insist on using a patter, use white or black, and ONE subtle colour. Any more could mean death. A simple star pattern, though cliche, is effective as long as the stars are few and far between, and not too bright. An excellent photoshop filter plug-in for creating great realistic-looking star patterns (Along with many other insanely useful plug-ins) can eb found at www.flaming pear.com.

- Forums: One of the most irritating aspects of creating a website is getting your hands on some forums. First, let me say DO NOT USE ezboards or some other free board program unless it is www.invisionfree.com.. In fact, I recommend them, over one of the 'real' forum programs. Invision free gives you the same abilities as a full, payed-for invisionboard program, but obviously for free, and the only catch is that you have a long irritating URL and a small ads section, both of which can be easily made more 'professional'. Since I doubt anyone will be going straight to your forum, they'll be passing through your website first. In this case, you can just use the link from your nav bar to the forum, and, if you're clever, and have it open in a new window, no one has to see the URL. Secondly, Invision Free offers a very great deal: For an extremely low price (like, $5 US) you can remove ads for each 1000 views to your website.
However, if you're an internet whiz, and your hosting provider has the services I mentioned earlier, you can walk the treacherous path to installing a 'real' board program. I recommend www.phpbb.com.. Its free, but still tough to install.

STEP 3:
Okay, you now have a mod website! There's another thread floating around on PR, and how to keep people coming back for more on your website. Check out, and get cracking!

EDIT: I added the background section. Oh yeah, and I'm watching my own thread now.

- Edited By EvilFish On Sun 2nd, May 2004 @ 1:00:45am

Yes, never never never ezboards. Grrr they suck so hard.

and very nice articale.

Anything I should add, post away.

disclaimer if your mod is based on another game, book, movie etc

About page were you explain what the mod is about and how it will be played.

you also can't really mod the invisionfree board is you can by invision powered board.

also have some heart for the one's that use low rez and the one's that cant have alot of flash stuff.

+ sounds are also neat but that depends on the theme etc (ALWAYS HAVE AN ON/OFF BUTTON)

I second the idea of a disclaimer. The world is filled with weirdo's and a disclaimer saying it is a work of fan fiction, that no challenges are made to other things, and your not responsible for what the mod does to a persons computer.

cool article, makes my head big But seriously guys, hes pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I use red&green on my site, There's also orange colored text on the site. And it's quite colorful in other ways too..

aww... I have a bad mod site.. so don't click that link in my sig...

- Edited By Jimi On Sat 1st, May 2004 @ 5:25:22pm

I hate all these sites using freewebs. It's such crap.

For those who can't afford Oktagone or don't like Gamespy, theres: The Hive.

Jimi wrote: I use red&green on my site, There's also orange colored text on the site. And it's quite colorful in other ways too..

aww... I have a bad mod site.. so don't click that link in my sig...

- Edited By Jimi On Sat 1st, May 2004 @ 5:25:22pm

It's okay most people are stoned when they go to your site

Yeah, but if you can't afford Oktagone you either have financial problems or you're too young to be leading a mod anyway. Oktagone is, by far, the best hosting plan on the net.
PERIOD.

EvilFish wrote: Yeah, but if you can't afford Oktagone you either have financial problems or you're too young to be leading a mod anyway. Oktagone is, by far, the best hosting plan on the net.
PERIOD.

Thats not very understanding.

I find the average modder is about 16, which is not a very easy age for gathering money. A Trolly Boys pay don't strech far enough for Oktagone hosting.

Nice tutorial, especially for the noobs.

Or you can be like me, and simply refuse to pay for any kind of modding tools - why spend money to make no money?

because 5 bucks a month for website hosting is not that much money, i spend more on my coffee in a day than i do on my hosting, well actually i dont drink coffee but you get the point.

33 bucks... a YEAR? How can anyone with a reasonable amount of money NOT pay that much? It's fan-tasmic. Of course Game Spy is a nice Alternative.

its $33 a year...? that is really cheap cuz one of our team members is trying to get a cheap deal to put his shit on the net... and yes i know i came out of nowhere.

n shit

- Edited By DirtyBeaver On Mon 3rd, May 2004 @ 3:46:58pm

Why pay for hosting if you never get anything in return? I doubt whether anyone will ever play a mod if you have to buy it, because that's the only way most people can possibly get money to pay for hosting. And if you don't make profit, then it's a waste of money. Unless, you say, people have jobs and stuff? Well, no one is near that age, you seriously think over 75% of all the modders out there is too young? Sounds pretty elitist to me. As is payed hosting in general. "Oh, look at me, I pay for my server, I'm sooo good!" Origin is great in that aspect, because it offers a modder everything he needs, and for (almost) nothing in return. Seriously, people should stop thinking about money and start thinking about what really matters - the end result!

- Edited By ImmoMan On Mon 3rd, May 2004 @ 10:27:38pm

umm....ok?

ImmoMan wrote: Why pay for hosting if you never get anything in return? I doubt whether anyone will ever play a mod if you have to buy it, because that's the only way most people can possibly get money to pay for hosting. And if you don't make profit, then it's a waste of money. Unless, you say, people have jobs and stuff? Well, no one is near that age, you seriously think over 75% of all the modders out there is too young? Sounds pretty elitist to me. As is payed hosting in general. "Oh, look at me, I pay for my server, I'm sooo good!" Origin is great in that aspect, because it offers a modder everything he needs, and for (almost) nothing in return. Seriously, people should stop thinking about money and start thinking about what really matters - the end result!

- Edited By ImmoMan On Mon 3rd, May 2004 @ 10:27:38pm

Calm down dude. 33 bucks a year is small change, even for most twelve year olds. And a lot of people (like new members of the modding community) don't realize how important it is to have a real domain name. It seems trivial but thats exactly what I wrote is about: First impressions are important, and I don't know about anyone else but usually subdomains just tell me the person isn't ready to make a widely popular mod. Think about it. When's the last time YOU played a mod whose homepage was some long extension? And I don't have anything against a little advertising on a site, most pr websites have it. But it's important that you come across as professional and a well-designed, domain-toting site is the way to go.

Whether or not you want to pay for a website depends on why you're into modding. If it's for fortune and fame then get a webpage. If you just like modding and don't really care for respect and glory then screw it.

Oh, "screw it." That reminds me, happy mother's day this sunday, everybody.

@jimi= your website rocks!:)

The Hive for life. I like it, it's free.. and yes, like detail said, many of us are in the age of 16 and can't pay their own host. If you are good enough your mod is good you get more webspace/bandwidth and you can also get a domain (like The Finest Hour). Be happy someone offer hosting for free!

And if you want 2 pay for ur site, just donate some bucks over pay pall

- Edited By Stino On Tue 4th, May 2004 @ 12:10:09am

I dont really see how people under the legal working age have the maturity and work ethic to sucesfully create a worthwhile mod. Thus if you are a 12 year old modder you probably should not worry about public exposure as much as homing your skills on private small time mods.

The legal working age depends on what country you're living in.

...Are you admitting that other countries are superior to where you may come from?

lol. I hope you're kidding Froberg.