Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

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Hedera
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Hedera »

TMC wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 1:02 pm Back in 2015 I uploaded a backup copy of Dragons! here (112MB). (Turns out I wrote a review for that game for 2014 In Review; I didn't remember that I'd ever reviewed any game.) However CP is a very unreliable host now. Try again later if it doesn't work.

What other games have dead links?
My browser (Edge, running on Win 10) says "dragons (1).zip can't be downloaded securely".

I, or more likely someone with a lot of free time, will have to go through all the HOTOR 20XX pages on hamster republic, to verify which links still work...
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by TMC »

Hedera Helix wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 10:10 pmMy browser (Edge, running on Win 10) says "dragons (1).zip can't be downloaded securely".
Wow, I didn't know any browsers had disabled HTTP downloads.
Just change the link to HTTPS
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

Mobile Update:

So, I figured out what was causing all of the images to shrink and get shoved off to the side (I think). Prior to launching the archives, I'd run some image compression on all of my site images, just in case there was a responsive failure along the way. As of now, I use an image compression service that delivers optimized content based on device and browser, and as long as the optimization is turned on, it's supposed to reduce file bloat and make it easier to load and display regardless of your viewing device. Of course, not everything is perfect, and I've had mixed results for different occasions, so I'd just performed a mass compression on all images just to cover my bases.

Well, apparently, that's like double-dipping, and the end result was that all of my mobile-responsive image shrunk to the size of thumbnails. Now that I've discovered the problem, I've reversed the compression, so all images should *hopefully* load as intended. I say "hopefully" because, well, bugs happen. It should display properly now.

But it might not. It seems different browsers produce different results. I don't know what your result will be. I've worked hard to ensure mobile responsiveness, but now I'm thinking my plugins to control this are overcompensating. There comes a point when I have to take my ibuprofin and move on.

Okay, now to respond to comments:
Bob the Hamster wrote:Don't worry too much about complaints. You can't please everyone. You made a good thing, and I am glad. Thank you!
I never try to please everyone, but I do try to give the best product I can, and having all of the criticism on a forum I rarely visit (and having it be mostly criticism) rubbed me the wrong way. I'm over it now. (I'm still done with hosting, but I'm in a better mood now.)
Swordplay wrote:It's interesting that as a writer, you pitched a contest to encourage games with more writing.

I would have entered if I had known that was its purpose (I like writing too)
It would've been great to see what you came up with.

I don't know that it was about writing, as much as it was permissive of (and perhaps encouraging) writing. It's bigger purpose was to bring back the long-form RPG and adventure game, but writing is a big part of that.
Swordplay wrote:Also the site looks great. Very snazzy :P
Thanks. It about broke me.

And it's still trying to finish me off.
Feenicks wrote:I ragged on the site a bit in Discord, but for an actual complaint:

The site's not very reader view-friendly. Most of the text on the front page doesn't appear at all while using it, and I don't think any of the images on any of the pages are visible through it.
So, I'm not sure what to say about this. I know different users have different viewing experiences, and I think I know what you're referring to, but if it's what I think you're talking about, it's usually related to individual cookie settings, which I can't control. The site isn't supposed to load any scripts until the user accepts cookies. If you reject cookies, it may not load as intended. I've seen mixed results here, but ultimately, if you disable cookies, you're likely to get a worse experience. That said, you should still get text, so I'm not sure what that's about. No one else has said anything about it, though, so I'm not quite sure what to do about it.

Suggestions?
MSW188 wrote:Well this was fun. I haven't read everything, and probably won't since the later years I was not really present for. But boy was this a beautiful send-off for a really great contest that lasted a remarkable number of years!

I look back on that 2010 contest pretty fondly. Man, including free tee-shirts for everybody just for participating was all kinds of rad. I still occasionally daydream about further work on Tales 2 and/or starting a project, but it's not really where I am any more.

It's a bummer that there has been some negativity at the start. I don't think the website is perfect. That doesn't mean it isn't awesome, or that I'm not thrilled at the chance to go down memory lane. Thanks Pepsi, for the HOTR and for all of this now.
Thanks. Part of the plan for 2022 was to add two new categories as part of the big sendoff, one of which Tales I would've finally been eligible for, and no, I don't mean you would've had to work on it this year to submit it. The "Encore Season" was going to be all about second chances.
RMZ wrote:I don't think anybody is trying to say the work isn't remarkable. I think we all had different expectations for how we wanted the legacy of the contest preserved. Navigating the lists of games is a bit goofy and the stock images soured some people when it felt like there wasn't a ton of coverage of the actual games themselves. Personally, I do most of my web browsing these days on mobile as I think the rest of the channel did the day the site launched and that unfortunately gave us a sour first impression because of load screens. I was made aware of the site from a link dropped in the channel, so I didn't see the disclaimer. I would encourage you to optimize the site as much as possible for mobile friendly layouts as that is the future of web design. A lot of sites nowadays adopt a fluid layout, which yours does for the most part. The key thing that bogged down load times was all of the effects it seemed. I would also question the file size of your images as I'm not sure if the site auto-rezzes them down or not, some scripts do that on the fly but most templates probably don't and that'll effect things. It does look much more impressive on the desktop, but then again, all sites kinda do, they're bigger and usually more powerful.
Originally, each season had its own single page, but the load times were, as you could imagine, reprehensible, so I had to split them up just to make them tolerable. 2018 wouldn't even load, so I had to reconstruct the whole thing. So, that's why navigation is what it is. Regarding the rest of the pages, the main goal was to create a "walking tour," where you'd just read to the bottom and click the button to the next page. I didn't want to limit readers to the tour, hence the ability to jump to the year of your choice, but I certainly hoped some readers would take advantage of the tour structure. I thought the split pages could accommodate that. But that's why the pages are laid out the way they are.

The mobile thing surprised me only because, a.) This is a game-making community that makes games, presumably on desktop, and b.) with the exception of you guys, almost all of my visitors come in on desktop, so I figured desktop would prevail, even if some would come in on mobile. That said, I have two versions of each page, a desktop display format and a tablet/mobile display format. My theme allows me to construct each one independently of the other. So, I definitely kept mobile viewing in mind. But I think you're right about the effects. I probably should've kept the effects for desktop and removed them all for mobile. I may go back and do that at some point.

Or, I may just remove them from everything. Now that I got them out of my system, I'm not sure I want them anymore. What do you guys think: slide-in or static? Never mind page speed. Assuming everything loads fast, which is more appealing?

Regarding image sizes, as I said at the top, they've been compressed and subjected to "intelligent" optimization, which means my image handler compresses images according to device and browser, so you should always get the best quality for the least amount of file bloat. The problem with load times has more to do with my host server than it does my content. In short, the time it takes the server to talk to the browser contributes to most of the wait. This is why more visitors (or more page loads) create longer load times. I could speed it up if I had more money. But I don't.
RMZ wrote:It does look like you are using a wordpress template perhaps, and I know there are a lot of constraints to those even though they are quite helpful and powerful. I helped on Sharkberg a long time ago and was a bit lost just writing nerdy articles. There is a whole other learning curve with Wordpress.
It's not so bad once you get the hang of it. I've got plugins to help me make the site look how I want, so it's less about the constraints and more about the conflicting features. The problem I run into the most is one plugin "flipping a switch" on me when I try to make a change elsewhere. It's like Whack-a-Mole. I don't blame that on WordPress. I blame it on the plugins I use for adapting the site for most viewing devices (like mobile...).
RMZ wrote:I'm happy the site was made, as you said, you didn't have to do it. We don't always preserve OHR history and it's admiral you took on this task, documenting six contests was definitely work. You have definitely shifted away from game dev to a more writing focused use of time, so it's nice that the OHR side of your life can show off more of your talents.
I've always been a writer first. I chose RPGs over other game types because they give me the forum to write. But I've been focusing on designing games less as the complaints over my writing for them increased.

There are also a few features I've needed and waited on for so long that I've given up on expecting them, but that's another topic for another time...
TMC wrote:Congrats on finally releasing it! Now I can see why it took so long... this is so over-the-top I can't describe it. There's so much, it can't even be intended that someone would read through all of it. Ah, there's a word: encyclopaedic. Well, I appreciate having a tour through the history of HotOHR (including the peripheral things that flesh out a history, like Barnabus's Tribute) because I feel there's a lot I missed.
"Encyclopedic" is a good word. I'll take it.
TMC wrote:Splitting out some of the details about individual contests, such as voting rules, to popups was a solid idea. Also, ha, the achievements finally explained! Did you actually still remember what they all meant?
The CSS animations are a bit annoying though; less is more.
No, I've forgotten a lot over the years. Much of the content in the archives is the result of fuzzy memories and lots of research. With the exception of 2010 and 2012, the achievements were already written, so I just copied what I had in my documents from each related year. The first two years, however, had a lot of achievements that had no previous definition (some did, but most didn't), so I had to go back to my thought process and try to figure out why I'd give an achievement the name I did. Fortunately, my 2022 thoughts aren't much different than my 2010 thoughts, so it wasn't too difficult to figure out what each one meant.

Thanks for saying something about the CSS animations. I've been on the fence about them since the beginning, and I haven't had enough feedback to make any firm decision about whether to keep them. Based on your comment, as well as RMZ's and Feenick's comments, I'm leaning toward removing them. I still want to keep the slight hover enlargements, but the slide-in animations have been under my scrutiny since I started building the thing, and now I'm less inclined to keep them. I'm not even sure websites still use them.

Is there any advantage in keeping them? Thoughts appreciated.

Okay, I think I'm caught up now. Thanks again for the constructive feedback.

And sorry if my image fix didn't fix anything. Again, we're running on hope right now. But I'm also tired of trying to figure out why I spring a leak every time I patch a new hole.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by TMC »

Reconstructed achievement meanings is good enough for me!
Oh oh, more discussion of the site rather than the contest...

Enlarging or otherwise highlighting clickable items when you hover over them is actually useful and is an established UI design element. (A UI buff would talk of it indicating affordances). However, even non-clickable banners enlarge when you mouse-over them, which is strange.

I think CSS animations to have things appear as you scroll has its place for attention/emphasis or suspense, usually of images, at the cost of making the reader wait before they can see the content. A lot of sites these days do it, but I often find it annoying, and I think 10 years from now it'll be considered distinctive of bad webpage design from this internet era. If you are going to use it, be moderate and don't use it for the text people are trying to read.
For example I think it's actually nice to use it for revealing the game results, though I'd probably only use it for the game name, rank and score, not all the little boxes, but that's not a big deal. I'm definitely against having appear animations for buttons and section banners and other mundane things.
msw188 wrote: Thu Feb 03, 2022 4:53 am I look back on that 2010 contest pretty fondly. Man, including free tee-shirts for everybody just for participating was all kinds of rad. I still occasionally daydream about further work on Tales 2 and/or starting a project, but it's not really where I am any more.
Oh, hi msw! Didn't see you there. Always nice to see people around.
If creating a game wasn't such big time commitment I think a lot more people would drop the hobby.

And how come I didn't see anyone else post photos of the t-shirts?
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by msw188 »

Part of the plan for 2022 was to add two new categories as part of the big sendoff, one of which Tales I would've finally been eligible for,
Oh that sounds like it could've been interesting! It was a slight bummer that Tales I never got entered into one of these, but I think it was the most fair choice.
Oh, hi msw!
Hi TMC! It's good to see you too. I do still swing by the forums from time to time, and was checking a bit more regularly after seeing Pepsi announced that the retrospective would be ready soon.

I'm not sure where my shirt is. I'm kind of in the middle of a couple years of moving a lot, and haven't fully unpacked in a while now. It really was a great shirt.
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by FnrrfYgmSchnish »

TMC wrote: Wed Feb 09, 2022 3:33 am And how come I didn't see anyone else post photos of the t-shirts?
Oh man, the Heart of the OHR shirts! I know I definitely still have mine hanging up in my closet, and I even wear it occasionally.

But I generally don't like taking pictures of myself much, and I never really post the few that I do take anywhere but Facebook (where people I actually know are likely to see them, and random strangers crawling up from the depths of the internet are probably not going to.)
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Re: Heart of the OHR Contest Archives (Now Live)

Post by Pepsi Ranger »

TMC wrote:Enlarging or otherwise highlighting clickable items when you hover over them is actually useful and is an established UI design element. (A UI buff would talk of it indicating affordances). However, even non-clickable banners enlarge when you mouse-over them, which is strange.
On the main page (of the whole site, not just Heart of the OHR Archives), the banners are clickable and take you to the adjacent pages they're about if you click them. But I know what you mean. I think I liked the idea of affecting every image by hover just a little too much. It got to the point where I'd get uncomfortable if I could affect one content block and not another. I have to reverse that now.

My plan for 2021 was to buy the tools I needed to make the website work cost-effectively, getting lifetime deal plugins and services to save on subscriptions. My plan for 2022 was to learn how to use them all. As you can imagine, 2021 was the kid-in-the-candy-store phase for me. Likewise, 2022 is the kid-ate-all-the-candy-and-now-feels-ill phase. Fortunately, I'd planned to make modifications to the site throughout 2022 according to user-input and bounce rates and all that web techie stuff I know nothing about but still read up on whenever I can. This means making better UI decisions over time.
TMC wrote:I think CSS animations to have things appear as you scroll has its place for attention/emphasis or suspense, usually of images, at the cost of making the reader wait before they can see the content. A lot of sites these days do it, but I often find it annoying, and I think 10 years from now it'll be considered distinctive of bad webpage design from this internet era. If you are going to use it, be moderate and don't use it for the text people are trying to read.
For example I think it's actually nice to use it for revealing the game results, though I'd probably only use it for the game name, rank and score, not all the little boxes, but that's not a big deal. I'm definitely against having appear animations for buttons and section banners and other mundane things.
I was giving the idea of animating important items some thought, and it occurred to me that animations are useful for calls to action or anything that the site owner wants the visitor to pay attention to. I think what you're saying backs that up to some degree.

Regarding buttons and banners, I'll be making it a short-term goal to return those to static positions. I want to make sure any essential content doesn't rely on animation to display, since that's where display problems come in if cookies don't load. That's why most of my text is static (except for on the main page, which is actually part of the original template I adopted when I first started building it). I agree that buttons and banners should be on that static list. I'm still not sure about the home page because my testing of it without animation didn't sit well with me, so for now, those will keep their animations. But maybe if the rest of the site works better with static items, I'll feel more comfortable bringing that to a static position, too. I've saved a template where most everything is static, so I can update it quickly.

I hope 10 years from now, I'll have done something different with the site, so whatever tacky thing I'm using that might define this era will hopefully be gone by then. But we'll see. Retro's a lot easier than cutting edge.
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