Website designer wanted - Free arcade in exchange for your skills!

[Turnarcades]

Right, it's like this....

I set up Turnarcades about 4 years ago and we are currently doing fairly well with a regular order schedule and good feedback from our customers. Around this time last year I finally found time to throw together a brief, but fairly informative website to increase our advertising range and put in writing and pictures what I found myself repeating in countless e-mails. However, the guys in this forum gave mixed opinions and I had limited funds so I decided to leave it 'as is' with the intention of completing or re-doing it myself at a later date. Turns out the half-site was enough to generate plenty more business on it's own and 12 months on I've not really touched it.

The time has come for an overhaul and although we are very busy, our profit margin is still slim and as I'm a new homeowner funds are now tight and will be for some time. I have a fairly precise idea of what I want from the site and how I want it to look, but I simply don't have the time or the skill to put it together in a manageable and professional way. So what I'm proposing is basically this:

• Roughly 10 page website, with a 'dark' feel to it, simplistic layout and some arcade theming
• Some logo work, photo-shopping of existing artwork/photos to match the theming
• An 'instant quoting system' - something like a checkout with options, but not a checkout system, just a price guide
• A manageable layout that can be easily updated by me (simple text and picture editing)
• Better tags, cleaner coding and faster page loading

I would like to offer a 'trade swap' to someone in exchange for creating this vision for me. Basically, I am offering a slimline 'Mini' or 'Bar-Top' cabinet as payment for designing and coding our website. These machines are usually priced between roughly £500 and £650 if ordered directly from us, so I would be looking at having a site designed with roughly this level of work put into it. I know a few people PM'd me in the past with offers of their services so this request is open to all as long as you are fine with the 'payment'. You can choose which design you would like from these two and we will customise it within our regular limits for you too (your choice of button colours, marquee design and control layout up to the regular 2 player 'fighting' layout). You would be getting something like one of these two:



Ideally I would like to avoid PM's and would prefer it if you could post any interest or ideas here. To give me a brief example of what you are capable of and what you propose, give me a brief description then (if you can), take the HTML from the existing website pages and knock something together to post here in this thread. This will give me a chance to respond publicly so anyone working on a design can modify it based on what I say I prefer.

Craig @ Turnarcades

[Blanka]

I think you should start with getting finished cabs into a photo studio and get some good example shots. The kitchen-look and mobile-phone-megapixels do not add up to the idea that it is business.

[surface tension]

Blanka's right on this one. The photography is very important. It doesn't have to be expensive though. Beg borrow and steal. Be creative.

Arrange to take your systems to friend's houses where there are locations that offer up more than your own place. Be prepared to supply lots of beer though.

If you have a friend with a decent SLR too, this is a real bonus.

Studio shots are also a good idea, but again, there are ways of doing this on a budget. Google it and see. You'll learn lots more on the way too.

[HaRuMaN]

 Yay.

1997 called, they want their website back. 

[Blanka]

And when photographing, take a white door or a big black, grey or white sheet of cardboard with you. Use it to control the reflections. It's not nice to see the photographer, his lovely assistant or a pile of crap mirroring in the bezel glass. And try to stay neutral on the lens. 50mm lens equivalent is good, 85 is even better.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Totally off-topic your site says your in West Mids. Where about? Im in Brierley Hill

[Turnarcades]

Thanks for the tips on photography. I did mention previously that the window for photo opportunity was limited because we only build cabinets to order and they go out for delivery just as soon as they are finished. This will obviously be addressed though, I have a library of much better shots now anyway from the last 12 months taken with a decent camera that, although not taken with a neutral background, would be easy to 'shop out with Adobe. This would be part of the task for my designer as I don't currently have the time myself.

I already said my HTML skills were limited so unless you are going to take up my offer and show me how it's done then please don't litter the thread with pointless comments as it puts people off who genuinely have something to offer. All the ---steaming pile of meadow muffin----kicking was already done this time last year (scour back through the threads) so unless you can contribute please don't post. The website was my first effort and everything has a learning curve; it's been great anyway but I recognise it needs an overhaul to have maximum impact, so that's why I'm making this request.

Oh, I'm on the border of Wolverhampton and Walsall by the way Rusty.

[parag0n]

Hi Craig,

I've been lurking here for a while trying to collect the info (and parts) to build my first cabinet, and seeing this offer definitely seems like a fit!

I'm a Web Developer (php mainly) by trade, based in Manchester, and do a lot of HTML and CSS work within my job.

Unfortunately i dont have anything very recent (design wise) online, since i'm working on internal company projects at work right now, probably the best example of my design work is my Blog.

If you want to talk here, via PM, or via email {parag0n aht ivixor dawt net} to me about some design ideas, feel free to contact me.

I definitely agree with the other guys on photography, I find the easiest way for something so big is to hang a couple of (white) bedsheets on the wall, light it well using 'pixar' lamps, and use a tripod & dSLR (if you own / can borrow one).

Ta,
Bob

[Turnarcades]

Thanks Bob - my brief is written in my first post, the rest is artistic licence for you! I kind of like the 'mood' of your blog as I would like to go with a dark colour scheme. Take the source from a couple of my pages, modify it a bit and post a simple .jpg on here of how you think it could be done and I'll compare it with what others comes up with.

[scriptfactory]

This would be a fun little project. Do you have your logo in a Photoshop/Illustrator format (or any format without the bevels) so we can use it in a mockup?

[Turnarcades]

Absolutely. I've uploaded the .psd logo to Megaupload for anyone who wants to work with it:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XEZVE5PL

Feel free to modify it as needs be, or even create me a new logo using the text only. A wire-frame cabinet with a 'hyperspace' kind of surrounding in black and silver would look great!

[Vegetable]

About time I used this membership for something...

http://www.spetom.com/storage/turn_basic.jpg

Hello! Thought I'd knock up a quick 30 minute Photoshop layout for you - nothing too complicated. All fonts / text are just really there to give a general feel. I don't really have time to create a new logo now!

I've consolidated and re-arranged some of your current pages (hope that's ok) to give 6 main pages.

The three 'Products' pages you have could, I think, be easily condensed into one main Products page listing them all, along with a separate page for each item. This would give plenty of space for multiple images of each product.

I've also combined your Examples page and the Options / Extras pages.

Graphically, everything is simple enough. Rounded corners, and the arcade buttons that form the main page links would depress as you roll over them while the text would change colour.

The image represents the site as seen in an 800x600 resolution display. Higher, and it would look more like:

http://www.spetom.com/storage/turn_basic_res.jpg

I'd do it in php, but you wouldn't find it any more difficult to edit text than HTML. With stylesheets, it'd actually be considerably easier.

Now where's the rest of those submissions! 

Tom

[Turnarcades]

Very nice work Tom - this is already close to what I have in mind. I like the colour scheme and the colour fade from left to right. The title font looks nice and retro, and with a reworked logo could look the business up there if 'blended' into some arcade artwork, similar to this effort by Bandit submitted last year:



Something like that across the top would be great, plus I really like Tom's idea of having arcade buttons as the page links. Having some varied button colours for each and perhaps having a 'click' animation of them depressed when the user clicks the link would be good. Tom's shows that photoshopping even the existing pics to remove the background isn't too hard, so some balancing of light and cosmetic touch-ups could improve this too.

[Blanka]

Just looked at the PSD with the logo and that one needs some polishing as well. If you print it for maquees, it will be that large that you see all hic-ups.
- Try to make it all vector
- Try to be less fancy with the filter layers
- Remove the background tile-emboss effect.
- Rotate Miss Pac and ghost in line with the overall curve (you can paste graphics on the text-line!)
- Make a mister-pac alternative for real males that order. 
- Use proper kerning. Some letters collapse now. You can put the cursor between any letter-combo and alter the distance with alt-left alt-right.

[parag0n]

OK, heres my quick concept for the site.

http://thinkl33t.co.uk/uploads/turnarcades/

Its based (obviously) around an arcade machine.

The left hand menu would drop down when a main header is clicked, and show any sub menus.

Pages would be edited through a CMS (content management system), using TinyMCE for the actual editing, so you should be able to avoid doing any HTML, and the text stored in a MySQL / PostgreSQL database.

I'd build the cart / order generation system in Jquery (javascript), and make it generate a nicely formatted order that customers can then email through to you.

The art for the marquee needs tidying up (as i just swiped the header from your current site for now), and i'd like high-res photos of the cabinets for the right hand side of the product pages.

-edit- stray parentheses

[Turnarcades]

Another nice design there from Bob. This seems to be gathering momentum now so I think my message is getting across. So far I'm torn between the two menu arrangements (upper row vs. side menus) but both artistic representations (arcade buttons and imitation sprites) are great. I particularly like Bob's colour scheme and proportional font sizes.

Just looked at the PSD with the logo and that one needs some polishing as well. If you print it for maquees, it will be that large that you see all hic-ups.
- Try to make it all vector
- Try to be less fancy with the filter layers
- Remove the background tile-emboss effect.
- Rotate Miss Pac and ghost in line with the overall curve (you can paste graphics on the text-line!)

See my previous posts - I'm looking for a bit of logo work that will be easy to shrink/blow-up and Blanka's tips are probably the way to go. I'm happy to lose the background of the logo but would like something else cabinet-styled to replace it, though I would like to keep the text arrangement and characters (though they may require re-working slightly). Having this text coupled with a stylish icon as I described will give me a recognisable logo that is more interesting than just text, but easily worked into other designs or made into a marquee with little trouble due to it's proportions.

If someone could show me something now based on Bob and Tom's designs and what I've said, and with a blended banner across the top as described in my last post, we're going to be close to what I want. Thanks for the input from everyone so far.

[TPB]

The title font looks nice and retro, and with a reworked logo could look the business up there if 'blended' into some arcade artwork, similar to this effort by Bandit submitted last year:

Did Bandit receive some goodies for his efforts ?

Who's going to earn the cabinet, if you receive worthwhile submissions from a number of members ?

I reckon you need to bite the bullet, and select the successful tender for the site re-design.  Otherwise, there could end up being a number of folk left with a sense of entitlement after the work they've put into designing their mock-up's.

[parag0n]

Ok, i've done a v2, with a quick pacman-themed logo.

http://www.thinkl33t.com/uploads/turnarcades/

As far as the logo goes, i've thought about putting fairly dim/faded sideart in the center bits of the 'walls', depending on what you think will improve it of course.

Not sure how much more work i can do on this before you make a decision though, having to do it in my lunchhour at work at the moment!

[Turnarcades]

Did Bandit receive some goodies for his efforts ?
Who's going to earn the cabinet, if you receive worthwhile submissions from a number of members ?

At the time I was mereley asking for comments on the existing site and he took it upon himself to do a mockup. I probably would have worked with him at the time but he has been absent from the forum since then.

Well the cabinet will be payment for actually making the website on my behalf. This thread was created as an equal forum to professionals and amateurs alike as there are some home-grown heroes out there who may not get a fair crack of the whip usually if it's not their trade but are willing to do this on the side and earn a machine in the process. It's fair to offer a skill in exchange for someone else's if they are willing to do it.

Thanks for your re-work and comments Tom; it sounds like you can deliver on what you say you can do. Save your effort for now and give me a few days to mull it over. Anyone else can still contribute though and anyone who submits a decent mock-up will receive a £50 discount on any complete cabinet or £20 off a bare wood kit.
 

[parag0n]

Since i have this here anyway, here's a bigger & tweaked version of my header.



Bob

[Vegetable]

Ok, I've spent a bit more time touching up the original submission, though it isn't vastly different:
http://www.spetom.com/storage/turn_basic_res.jpg

Web work is only a hobby of mine; I have a completely unrelated full time job that keeps me busy. I may be shooting myself in the foot, but in honesty, I can't claim to offer some of the features Bob is. It would just be a fairly basic php driven site.
The 'instant quote system' feature you ask for isn't a problem, but I would need to re-acquaint myself with JavaScript!

Tom

[ViciousXUSMC]

This is a great opportunity for me as I am on a $0 budget and want a personal arcade.  I can only do about half of what you need though

I am a semi pro photographer (I just got picture of the week in a world wide hotel photo contest yay)
and a pro level photoshoper (have won many photochopin contests and wow people with stuff all the time at work)
but only a basic level web designer.

I actually do a lot of the internal web work for my company but we use a wiki layout so its easy to do.

Well good luck with your new site, I hope you find the right person for the job.

[Turnarcades]

Thanks for your comments ViciousX, it's a shame you can't do more as a bit more advanced photography and graphic design skills could really lend to this project. I imagineyou could really throw together a great logo with photoshop.

Thanks to both Tom and Bob for these re-workings. I will sit down with these and try to get a picture in my head as to how it would all look in reality and maybe post some pics with my annotations on here to see if the points I make are feasible. Whatever I decide to do, you guys are in my cool book and would gladly be shown due courtesy if you came to me for a cabinet so your efforts have been worth it. 

[rootyb]

Would you be willing to ship the "payment" to the US?

My latest projects:

http://phase2games.com
http://phase2games.com/fetch
http://lasertagofcarmichael.com (I hold no responsibility for the non-graphical elements of this site. That's all the owner's doing)

[Turnarcades]

Like your stuff rootyb, however I've looked into US export before and it's extortionate (plus UK customs regs are a pain; when it comes to electrical goods over a certain value are very strict) so I'm afraid I can't do it. I was hoping for a few more bods from the UK would pitch ideas (I can think of a few names who expressed interest before in this kind of deal) but the ideas I've received so far have been great nonetheless. I'll give it a few more days then Bob or Tom I will be contacting you for business.

[rootyb]

No worries.

Best of luck to ya!

[Turnarcades]

Last call for this if anyone has a submission or ideas. I will be making a decision in the next couple of days. 

[Chukka]

Hi! My friend (and business partner) owns a professional advertising agency and websites are part of their expertize. We will be happy to make a real professional website with all the goodies for you in exchange for the cabinet (Because we love arcades  ). They can make a layout for you to show you exactly what they are capable of if you are interested. But I will have to send it to you by E-mail or pm.

[thatitalian]

Here is what I have done previously:

http://braia.co.uk/

Also No.1 in Google and in Yahoo if you type "braia"

[Turnarcades]

Hi! My friend (and business partner) owns a professional advertising agency and websites are part of their expertize. We will be happy to make a real professional website with all the goodies for you in exchange for the cabinet (Because we love arcades  ). They can make a layout for you to show you exactly what they are capable of if you are interested. But I will have to send it to you by E-mail or pm.

That's no problem - read my brief from the above posts and ask if they can e-mail it to me at either samshaw946@hotmail.com or craig@turnarcades.co.uk asap. Doesn't need to be hi-res or have all the graphic work done, but I need to be sure of your graphical capabilities and imaginative skills.

Here is what I have done previously:

http://braia.co.uk/

Also No.1 in Google and in Yahoo if you type "braia"

Like the stuff in there - did you create the animations etc. yourself?

[Chukka]

OK, good. You'll have it in 24 hours max.

[thatitalian]

Here is what I have done previously:

http://braia.co.uk/

Also No.1 in Google and in Yahoo if you type "braia"

Like the stuff in there - did you create the animations etc. yourself?

Everything was made by me.

[Guywiththegun]

Can I get in on this too? I work as a web/graphics designer and love getting more experience. The arcade wouldn't hurt either. 

You can check out www.fdtool.com for an example of my current company's website. All graphics and coding was done by me.

[Turnarcades]

Things have certainly got busy on here suddenly; maybe everyone was hibernating last week! 

I am going to extend this request for a little longer to give users a chance to put something together - obviously the speed the first few guys knocked something together was impressive so a quick mock-up gives me confidence you can deliver the product quickly if I take you on board.

So just to re-iterate:
- If interested, you must supply a mock-up within the next week or so. I need to see your creativity so I'm just asking for a .jpg of your idea.
- I need a brief of what you can do. Read my above posts regarding what I will need you to do as well as my follow-up comments regarding a logo design and layouts posted so far.
- The cabinet offer is only open to UK users so sorry US webmasters! However feel free to chip in an idea if it hasn't been covered already.
- All serious mock-ups posted will earn you a discount if you ever want to order from us so even if I don't take you on, there is a little reward for your effort.

[Chukka]

So, you won't even ship to anywhere else in Europe??

[Chukka]

Hi turnarcades,

I just sent you E-mail.

[Turnarcades]

Yes I'm afraid it's mainland UK only as we had to stop European delivery following some issues with couriers and UK customs, plus the delivery charges were astronomical and most interested European customers were either unhappy with the carriage cost or not confident about the safety of the cabinet. Maybe at some point in the next 12 months we can relocate and get another arrangement going but for now we are supplying to mainland UK only.

I've had a few designs now so will be compiling them to post here to get some feedback.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I have a suggestion for the pictures.

You could probably do them yourself.  Just make sure that they are behind a black or white background so that it will be easier to digitally remove them using Photoshop.  This will save you some money and it will look professional.

Here's an example of what I mean.  I took these photos on a light beige carpet and used Photoshop to edit out everything else.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Turnarcades]

Thanks D, already addressed that problem though, and all future cabinets will be photographed better. Some users here already though have successfully been able to filter out the background from the existing pictures so hopefully they can re-work the existing images a bit when they build the site. I have some slightly higher-resolution photos of most of our cabinet designs so it should be a bit easier than using the small images from the existing site too.

[drawfull]

Yes I'm afraid it's mainland UK only as we had to stop European delivery following some issues with couriers and UK customs, plus the delivery charges were astronomical and most interested European customers were either unhappy with the carriage cost or not confident about the safety of the cabinet. Maybe at some point in the next 12 months we can relocate and get another arrangement going but for now we are supplying to mainland UK only.

Craig, it will almost certainly be worth your while investigating using a european-based company for such transactions. I had a quote from a UK company of (I can't remember but the ratio is right) £1,000 to ship a machine from the states. I got it here for $500 - rip off Britain.

And I would say to your sceptical customers overseas, if you pack it right, it'll be right.

I appreciate that's above and beyond the topic but it's worth looking into.

Drawfull

[Chukka]

Too bad. I would be willing to pay the shipping costs.

[ratzz]

You'll never get exactly what you want for giving stuff away.

I am a pro website designer (recently completed www.zombiearcades.co.uk) and paid jobs are the only way to get pro results.

[HaRuMaN]

You'll never get exactly what you want for giving stuff away.

I am a pro website designer (recently completed www.zombiearcades.co.uk) and paid jobs are the only way to get pro results.

Nice...

[Turnarcades]

You'll never get exactly what you want for giving stuff away.
I am a pro website designer (recently completed www.zombiearcades.co.uk) and paid jobs are the only way to get pro results.

I do like the stuff you do ratzz and I like the work you did on his website, though my sources tell me he hasn't shifted many anyway as he priced himself way out of most people's reach. Shame really as your work does the product justice, but that's a topic for another day.

The situation still stands as is and this is the way I'm going to do it as many members have shown me they are as competent as (or even better than) pro designers and may never get a chance to showcase their skills. I built Turnarcades on the thesis of providing gaming solutions to people just like me and have continued to treat my work as a hobby. I may never break the bank but it's comfortable and that's enough for me. Getting the community involved and bringing out people's skills as I found myself when I started out makes me feel like I'm giving something back by offering terms an enthusiast would appreciate.

It's a fair trade of my skills for theirs and makes it a bit less formal - which is the way this business operates and what most customers/enthusiasts who approach me appreciate over anything else. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

You'll never get exactly what you want for giving stuff away.

I am a pro website designer (recently completed www.zombiearcades.co.uk) and paid jobs are the only way to get pro results.

Every website in this topic works with my iPod but this one.

[ratzz]

You'll never get exactly what you want for giving stuff away.
I am a pro website designer (recently completed www.zombiearcades.co.uk) and paid jobs are the only way to get pro results.

I do like the stuff you do ratzz and I like the work you did on his website, though my sources tell me he hasn't shifted many anyway as he priced himself way out of most people's reach. Shame really as your work does the product justice, but that's a topic for another day.

The situation still stands as is and this is the way I'm going to do it as many members have shown me they are as competent as (or even better than) pro designers and may never get a chance to showcase their skills. I built Turnarcades on the thesis of providing gaming solutions to people just like me and have continued to treat my work as a hobby. I may never break the bank but it's comfortable and that's enough for me. Getting the community involved and bringing out people's skills as I found myself when I started out makes me feel like I'm giving something back by offering terms an enthusiast would appreciate.

It's a fair trade of my skills for theirs and makes it a bit less formal - which is the way this business operates and what most customers/enthusiasts who approach me appreciate over anything else. 

This whole reply is absolute crap.

"competent as (or even better than) pro designers and may never get a chance to showcase their skills" -- if this were true, then why are they getting no chance to showcase their skills?

I tell you what you want to do, you want "to get the community involved" because you are a cheapskate and don't want to pay for a quality product. (remember the quote I did you for last year?) From the look of your work, they are not even a within a mile of the quality of Zombie Arcades.

"my sources tell me he hasn't shifted many anyway" -- tell you what Craig, watch this space for an update as I'm working on an update of his site in the next couple of weeks. But, like me, he's treats his business professionally too.

@DeLuSioNal29

You are delusional if you think that I, or Zombie Arcades are worried about your iPod! PMSL
The "websites" on this thread are also not websites -- they are .jpegs -- bit of a difference.
BTW, your site does not work on my WM5 PDA.

[surface tension]

I have to ask...

Your logo is using trademarked characters. I'm assuming you haven't got permission for this due to your budget? Please don't get on your high horse, this is just an observation that you might get picked up on in the future if spotted. Will there be anyone from Namco at Insert Coin '09?

-------------------------

On the subject of your website, it does feel that you're getting a lot of people to put in time and effort for nothing. I think you should pick a winner before too many other people get involved and this turns into one big shitstorm. (This has happened to one of your threads in the past.) TPB said this a week ago now and he was right then.

I will also say that ratzz is telling the cold hard facts. Yes, there *may* be someone out there yet to be discovered, but you should be paying someone to create the frontline of your business. If you are, as you say "comfortable", then there should be room to invest in a well-designed website.


I'm not trying to wind you up here, just offering my opinion on this as I see it...

[Turnarcades]

This whole reply is absolute crap.

Well if you're not interested then don't attempt to hijack the thread.

Well noticed st about the characters in the existing logo (and the shitstorm!). The logo work is part of the project as I'm aware of this situation. Forum member dk has already submitted a nice design for me (as I did him a favour a while back) and this element will be phased out of the new design.

I will be wrapping this up this week as I'm pretty sure I know what I'm going to go with now. As expected the topic has raised some controversy I won't entertain. Thanks to all who have submitted designs and chipped in with ideas - spacies and fatfingers last year mentioned this offer would be of interest to quite a few people and it has been so thanks to you too.

[ratzz]

This whole reply is absolute crap.

Well if you're not interested then don't attempt to hijack the thread.

I'm not, I'm offering a professional opinion, which I believe I'm allowed to do.

[thatitalian]

I have to say, I like the idea of exchanging services to be honest. If it isn't for you then steer clear but I think it is a bit harsh to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on the idea considering that is how we traded when money didn't exist. Just because we use cash now doesn't mean the concept is dead.

If someone said to me, "I'll build you an arcade for a website" I would definitely think about it. It isn't tight really, there is a cost still, it's just that the cost is shared. Payment is simply in the form of an arcade.

I am not trying to stir things up in anyway, I am not like that, I just think it is a little harsh, you can still get a quality product for less. Why pay is someone will offer it to you for free? Isn't that good business? Do blue chip companies pay more for the same product, it is simply tendering process, weighing up what is on offer and then purchasing that product.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Well said thatitalian

[DeLuSioNal29]

@DeLuSioNal29

You are delusional if you think that I, or Zombie Arcades are worried about your iPod! PMSL
The "websites" on this thread are also not websites -- they are .jpegs -- bit of a difference.
BTW, your site does not work on my WM5 PDA.

"delusional"    good one! (kidding of course, I don't want to pick a fight on this great site where everyone should all get along).

His "website" is on his banner, and when I clicked on it on my iPod, it went to his website, which worked beautifully.  I'm guessing he would like to have it continue to work with his new one.

P.S. - Portable Internet devices are the future and can expand the marketability.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[Guywiththegun]

Flash splash pages are also notoriously awful for internet marketing purposes.

Calling it like it is. Surely you can take what you dish out?

[extendedplayarcade]

Wow sounds like a pretty good job for me.  But I am in the USA.  I doubt you will want to ship it to me.

I still have all my parts to my arcade all over the place with no time to put them all together.  I didn't read all of the other posts so I don't even know if this is still going on.

I have a ton of examples and been doing websites since 1997 and I always feel like it is more of a tool for marketing and the most important thing is to target your audience.  Plus a website should look like a website.  Look how popular this site is and it is not fancy one bit and also look at the top ten sites like ebay.com, youtube, msn.com, facebook.com, google, etc.  It is all about content the target audience is looking for.

Just some food for thought.

Good luck I wish i could of entered 

[extendedplayarcade]

 

[dkubarek]

This has been covered a bit, but I think people can spend all the time they want doing a mockup for Craig because it is their time. Also, there's nothing wrong with the payment being an arcade cab if the original post said "payment will be an arcade cab." Telling people what to do with their time and what they should receive for payment sounds like advice no one here is seeking.

Technically speaking, ANY professional firm would surely provide a prototype of their services. So, asking for a jpeg image from all "bidding on the contract" isn't creating a shitstorm. In fact, it's customary. Perhaps it would be best to start another thread criticizing this one because this one is here because a member is seeking Web design work not input on how he should run his business.

[DIYROMArcade]

Hey guys, 

It’s really interesting to see all the different work and sites people have created. Unfortunately I am in the US so I don’t think the barter world work for me. Although it’s a great idea, I see people doing it on Craigslist all the time, and even more so now in light of the economy.

Just some general thoughts I had reading through the thread.

01. A CMS (Content Management System) would be a great benefit for the site as it would make it easy for you to update. The overall layout would be handled by the CMS with logo work, image work, and CSS changes to give the site the desired custom feel. Joomla is a decent free CMS that is fairly easy to learn, or maybe you could get by with a blog software like WordPress and just be creative with your layout.

02. Decide if you are going for traffic / SEO benefits with your site, or graphic design. Sites that use flash look awesome but tend to have less spiderable text on the HTML side. (Which helps search engines determine what your content is about since the spiders only really look at the code as they cannot view images or movies)

03. Use a standardized navigation / menu system on your site. It makes users less likely to get frustrated while trying to navigate your content. I saw a catering site that had it’s navigation menu wrap around a plate in script font, this was one of the most headache inducing menus I have ever seen. Hehe.

04. Background tiling images can be another aspect of the site that gives people headaches. I notice a lot more sites tend to use gradient color fades or solid backgrounds lately, over the tiling that we used to see on a lot of websites.

Reading all the replies had me thinking about a bunch of stuff. I am by no means an authority on this topic, but these are some of the considerations I have taken into account for many of the sites I work on.

Good luck with the search, and keep up the great work guys! 

[Bender]

Sorry Just had to put my 25 cents in

I think this is in principal is a great opportunity for someone
As a collage art teacher I'm always encouraging my students to look for opportunities like this, create some good work and they'll have a great professional website for there portfolio
but this could be great for anyone who designs websites as a hobby or even some professionals who want an arcade machine

sorry Ratzz, but there are plenty of professional results out there without the exchange of money, some of my kids have come up with sites as good if not better than that Zombie site and there not "pro" yet

As a professional myself I trade occasionally if I feel the barter is fair. This one seems fair to me, but both sides need to be VERY clear as to what is expected of each other, before work begins.


My one concern is getting more than one person involved (getting samples from multiple people gets sketchy cause you my end up using ideas from several different ones and would have to find a way to keep everyone happy)

[bigredsk10]

Technically speaking, ANY professional firm would surely provide a prototype of their services. So, asking for a jpeg image from all "bidding on the contract" isn't creating a shitstorm. In fact, it's customary. Perhaps it would be best to start another thread criticizing this one because this one is here because a member is seeking Web design work not input on how he should run his business.

While bidding for contracts and submitting mockups certainly does happen, it shouldn't be considered customary. A designer should be hired based on their portfolio and word of mouth. Professional designers deserve to be paid for their expertise and time, with a bidding situation, only the designer selected gets paid. Here's a good article I came across that explains it more than I could. http://www.no-spec.com/articles/design-contests/

When it comes to this contest, I don't see a problem with it. I make a living as a designer and I personally wouldn't participate. I need to spend my time on paying projects, so I moved on. But there are clearly people who are willing to put some effort into earning an arcade machine. You probably won't get quite the quality you would from a professional firm. But there are some very talented people here who think what is being offered is a fair trade. Sounds good to me.

Also, what is the reason behind designing the zombie arcades site entirely in flash? There isn't much animation, a few transition effects. The trade off for those transitions is poor compatibility and dealing with loading times. You're locked in this 600x800 or whatever box that, on a larger monitor looks silly. Not to mention it is frustrating to navigate and there is no scroll wheel control.

The logo needs to be featured more prominently on the home page. And I second the notion that the splash page needs to go.

[Chukka]

This has been covered a bit, but I think people can spend all the time they want doing a mockup for Craig because it is their time. Also, there's nothing wrong with the payment being an arcade cab if the original post said "payment will be an arcade cab." Telling people what to do with their time and what they should receive for payment sounds like advice no one here is seeking.

Technically speaking, ANY professional firm would surely provide a prototype of their services. So, asking for a jpeg image from all "bidding on the contract" isn't creating a shitstorm. In fact, it's customary. Perhaps it would be best to start another thread criticizing this one because this one is here because a member is seeking Web design work not input on how he should run his business.

The only problem is that he should have mentioned right from the start that it was only for people in the UK, so some of us wouldn't have wasted our time.

[TPB]

The only problem is that he should have mentioned right from the start that it was only for people in the UK, so some of us wouldn't have wasted our time.

You're still eligible for the consolation prize :

anyone who submits a decent mock-up will receive a £50 discount on any complete cabinet or £20 off a bare wood kit.
 

[Turnarcades]

Just to let anyone know that this offer has now closed as I have made my decision as to who will be developing the new website for me. The member has been notified and I will be working with him on the new website which will be upped during the coming months.

Thank you to all forum members for their input in this thread and big thanks to anyone who submitted a design for consideration. It's good to see the talent we have among the community and I hope your skills can be put to use for other purposes as every submission was great. All members who submitted a design have been noted and will gladly be given 'mates rates' if they ever come to us for anything. 

Craig