Splash DamageBlogNew Splash Damage Site Launches! Excitement!

Splash Damage Blog

New Splash Damage Site Launches! Excitement!

Welcome to the new Splash Damage website!

Yes, it's taken a few years, but we've finally gotten around to redesigning our own private corner of the internet. This design has been several weeks months in the making and we're very excited to finally launch it into the online cosmos. The new site's prettier looking, sports better typography (fun fact: 4 out of 5 dentists and their kittens prefer 11px Verdana) and is much easier to navigate.

But it's more than just a fresh coat of paint. We've got an all-new backend driving the whole thing, which allows us to have a lot more content on the site and more of what we refer to internally as cool bits. It's all very technical, but basically the number of cool bits is directly proportional to visitor satisfaction.

We've also got this blog contraption you're reading now, which we hope to use as a less formal outlet for our nonsense - expect to find sporadic updates from inside our underwater fortress here along with stuff that doesn't quite warrant an official news announcement.

Feel free to have a look around and let us know what you think in the comments. We'll continue to work on the site and improve it where we can. We've also got additional cool bits in the making that will be implemented in the coming weeks and months. If there's anything you'd like to see added or changed, don't hesitate to bring it up in the Site Suggestions & Feedback forum and we'll see if we've got a place for it.

Speaking of which, we've also replaced the forums with the all-powerful vbulletin, which those of you loitering around the ETQW Community Site should already be familiar with. We've imported all the data from the old forums - including user accounts and posts. If you had an account on the old Splash Damage forums, you should be able to use the same login information to sign into the new site (perhaps via the convenient Sign in link at the very top of the page).

We did lose a few posts that apparently didn't quite have what it takes to play with the cool kids, but the vast majority of forum content is alive and kicking. Some user accounts with special characters in the name may also have been corrupted, since vbulletin treats these characters differently than the old software. If you have one of these accounts, don't hesitate to get in touch - we'll do our best to sort you out.

Alright, enough blabber from my side for one day. Have fun digging around the new SplashDamage.com and don't forget to leave your feedback!

47 Comments

A new story entry has been added:
At long last, our new website is here and we couldn't be more excited! Along with the updated look, the site sports a multitude of newly added features, including the [URL="http://test.splashdamage.com/?q=blog"]Splash Damage blog[/URL], information on our various [URL="http://test.splashdamage.com/games/"]games[/URL], an in-depth look at the [URL="http://test.splashdamage.com/about/"]studio[/URL], updated [URL="http://test.splashdamage.com/forums/"]forums[/URL], and more! Check out [URL="http://test.splashdamage.com/?q=node/112"]this blog post[/URL] for more information on the relaunch and how to best get us your feedback on the new site.
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 17:03
Looks good, Steve!
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:02
looks great, but gonna need some geting used to so bright!! :D
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:03
Woooo, excellent.
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:08
Very nice ! In exactly the same time, our french QW community site is born too ! [url]http://www.quakewars-fr.com[/url] La classe 8)
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:09
I already miss the seamine :(
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:11
Frontpage look nice!
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:22
woooo first post!!! (sorry I had to) :)
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:30
woooo first post!!! (sorry I had to) :)\
well you can get another 25+ first posts! But I doubt you would really have enough time for that :P But to stay a bit ontopic, it is a very nice site! Very much liking the explosion top left!
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:35
OMG SPAMMED ADVERTISEMENTS! ([url]http://www.splashdamage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16278[/url]) INFRACTION! !!! :D :D :D (looks awesome)
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 22:45
Looks good, but on my 1920x1200 screen it looks very small. And there is a small bug at the top (though this might be Mozilla (not Firefox!) related). Click for [url=http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=splashdamageqk9.jpg]screenshot[/url]. I have the same problem (bad room use) with the etqw forums btw.
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 23:16
looks great, but gonna need some geting used to so bright!! I guess this means that SD is growing up. It's a long way from Q3F. Nice!
Posted on 18 February, 2008 - 23:40
I still need to adjust to the new colors. Kind of got used to the gray on the old scheme.
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 06:17
Looks great and unique!
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 06:25
Looks good. The only thing i don't like is the font used for the topic headers. They look really low res.
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 10:52
Glad to see the Forum is back!
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 10:54
Huzzah! Have At You!
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 12:32
Glad to see the Forum is back!\
They've bene up almost a year :P
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 15:42
Yay! Congrats on the new site.
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 15:46
looks cool!
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 16:35
Ooooh - shiny! And I see your tapirs got us some brand new feature$! EDIT: Hmmm, the link in my signature did no longer work. I guess we need to raise a call to update one's signatures and links. This may also affect internal links, unless some inhabitants of the code monkey closet managed to find/replace all the old links.
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 18:27
where are more emoticons?
Posted on 19 February, 2008 - 21:24
the makron is satisfied :D
Posted on 20 February, 2008 - 00:15
Overall, very nice, but I have to say I find the orange on off-white to be a bit jarring. :nag: The lack of :nag: and :tapir: also cast doubt on your loyalty to the makron :)
Posted on 20 February, 2008 - 02:23
at last! when i click on the last page of "Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Previews and Interviews", i get to the last page :D
Posted on 20 February, 2008 - 09:33
Looks very nice, but it could use a smaller header for the forums.
Posted on 20 February, 2008 - 09:46
so what happened to the tapirs? How come there aren't any on the main page?
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 07:27
Well, we had to eat something while working on this thing.
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 10:56
Right on, looks great. Gonna miss the 'ol grey, need some themes mebbe, eh? I guess this guy ate the extra emoticons :cool: :stroggtapir:
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 12:38
Who made the header? I want to know how he did that. What techniques he used. I'm doing a lot of photoshop but I never made something that beautiful. The cool thing is that just like the previous one, it really expresses splashdamage.
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 15:38
The header art was mainly done by [url=http://www.splashdamage.com/?q=node/77]Laurel[/url]. [url=http://www.splashdamage.com/?q=node/82]MoP[/url] took a pass after and added a bit more depth to it. I'll see if I can get a bit more information out of them. :)
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 15:55
BaronBlabla: Glad you like it! Badman actually got the thing started before he handed it to me :) Two different techiques used on the white metal and on the explosion itself -- The explosion itself was made with a combo of painting (with wacom tablet) and photo overlays of real explosions. There's no magic trick to it- you really just have to have an eye. The bits of metal debris were just painted in. There's a bit of motion blur on them to make them look like they're moving. The cracks on the left side dark bits were pretty much just painted in very finely. I started it and MoP sharpened it up and added more rusty corroded bits. The rusty white metal texture was a combination of many photo overlays manipulated in photoshop to be the correct colour. Bolts were one, rust drippies were another, metallic scratches yet another, then all brought together with the paintbrush and some other methods. It was done largely with techniques used for game textures. I'm sure MoP could point out stuff more specifically than me -- making textures specifically being part of his job. There are tons of tutorials on making game texures online, but it takes practice to get really good at it.
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 16:20
There's no magic trick to it- you really just have to have an eye.\
I have two... I fear I'm overqualified :( Edit: Do glasses count as cheating? Quad damage!
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 16:40
I don't have a Wacom tablet, but my I ask which one you used? I was thinking of buying one myself since I'm very interested in Photoshop and I have some drawing skills. And if it's very expensive, what kind of cheaper tablet would you recommend? I don't have a lot of money (I'm 15 years old...) but I would like to get one under 100 euros. PS: How long did it take you?
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 17:18
And if it's very expensive, what kind of cheaper tablet would you recommend? I don't have a lot of money (I'm 15 years old...) but I would like to get one under 100 euros.\
If you (rarely) paint some quick sketches, Wacom tablets come as cheap as 30 euro (I bought me one of those when I was 17). However, those are really basic and mostly have a surface which is way too small for any serious work. If you are serious about drawing, it's better to try to aim for larger and better tablets, but those don't come in the 100 range, I'm afraid. In fact, you might be better off to just do it the old fashioned way - drawing on paper and scanning it. However, if you are a professional artist, I've heard a quality tablet can be a real time saver.
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 19:24
BaronBlabla, I recommend using [url]http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/cat/533/?currFilters=&orderField=prijs&orderSort=asc[/url] to look for a well priced tablet - perhaps a wacom bamboo or graphire 4? ;o
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 19:50
wah tapir died, wah, tear, cry, sob, any synonym of crying, whine, etc. The only thing to remember the tapir from is that mug of the tapir on the slipgate africa map.
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 21:14
BaronBlabla, I recommend using [url]http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/cat/533/?currFilters=&orderField=prijs&orderSort=asc[/url] to look for a well priced tablet - perhaps a wacom bamboo or graphire 4? ;o\
well, the graphire4 looks pretty nice. It A5 so not too small. It doesn't show photoshop itself which would be very expensive, but I can see there is some kind of system for putting photo's on? The Bamboo thing also looks very nice, but it's twice as small? And it says 2450dpi which is even better than my mouse so it's very accurate? Maybe if I have one I can do some artwork for Splashdamage? :)
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 21:32
I don't have a Wacom tablet, but my I ask which one you used? I was thinking of buying one myself since I'm very interested in Photoshop and I have some drawing skills. And if it's very expensive, what kind of cheaper tablet would you recommend? I don't have a lot of money (I'm 15 years old...) but I would like to get one under 100 euros. PS: How long did it take you?\
The Bamboo Fun is probably your best bet at moment if you want to buy a new one -- the graphire4 seems to have been discontinued by the company, but if you can get a slightly older one that's a bit bigger it might be good. Size isn't everything, but more space is nice -- easier on the wrist. I used a 4x5 tablet for years and I was just as able to use that to make good artwork on that as I am using my 9x12 Intuos. The size of your desk is also a factor, cause some of those bigger tablets take up tons of room. Honestly, I don't remember how long it took -- it was spaced out over a few weeks while I was working on other things. Plus then MoP worked on it, so I'm not sure how long he took. If I were to make something like this from scratch it might take me day or two, but at work there are often a lot of revisions from management types who want this or that changed for various reasons. If you're thinking about this stuff at 15, you're probably gonna do ok :) I got my first tablet when I was 16. Just remember that it's all a matter of a lot of practice and developing your skills. Definitely get a tablet if you're interested in all this -- I've seen people go from complete noob to amazing pro artist in as little as a year, but that was a result of an insane amount of work (i.e., no social life, just creating art ALL day every day in a very focussed, driven fashion with pointed and often harsh critiques from better artists that kindly help them). The artists here have worked hard for years to get their skills to pro-quality. There's no one trick that will make it all work, just a lot of learning as you go along. Photoshop doesn't do the work for you.. it's basically like a very elaborate pencil and sketchpad. It can help you create amazing things, but it can't make a novice produce professional work. I'm such a buzzkill. Hard work -- it's a cliche cause it's true :tongue: MoP: :rolleyes: signofzeta: There's still the running tapir smiley! :stroggtapir:
Posted on 21 February, 2008 - 22:29
[url]http://geizhals.at/eu/?cat=pads&sort=p[/url] Lists nearly all mentionend tablets including prices (though mainly from German and Austrian shops).
Posted on 22 February, 2008 - 01:46
How about those Trust Tablets? Are those good? I can get a 8x6 one for 69 euros. They're a lot cheaper but I heard it might be of bad quality.
Posted on 22 February, 2008 - 13:54
Looks nice and clean, I like!
Posted on 23 February, 2008 - 10:55
Much better than the myspace page! Now to figure out how to fix my signature images...
Posted on 24 February, 2008 - 00:13
Lookin good peeps
Posted on 24 February, 2008 - 11:01
Nice new "Dash Splamage" site ! woohoo!
Posted on 28 February, 2008 - 22:32
I was at school today and we had turn to some page with Chemistry, then I saw a picture of a part of the sun exploding. But when I looked at it for a while, I noticed a black part that looked exactly like the one here at the header of Splashdamage! Is it true that you used a picture of the sun? BTW:
How about those Trust Tablets? Are those good? I can get a 8x6 one for 69 euros. They're a lot cheaper but I heard it might be of bad quality.\
Anyone know what's the difference between those trust tablets and wacom tablets's performance? Probably my tablet will come in 1 or 2 months, I just bought some stuff including a 22' monitor which should help me with photoshop. My income is not very high so I need at least 1.5 months to get a Wacom Bamboo A6 tablet...
Posted on 3 March, 2008 - 19:37
I just got my new Samsung 223BW, the header looks even better now! I can now see more of the explosion as well because I got widescreen now and a larger resolution. Sorry I keep replying about the header but I just love it.
Posted on 10 March, 2008 - 18:29