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For the past 6 months we have been working on a redesign of ModDB and IndieDB, whose design was last updated in 2008. We invite you to join the alpha.

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Can you believe that the site you are looking at was designed in 2008 (check out Old Timers for our history)? That's an eon in tech-years, and plenty has changed in the past 9 years. The biggest has been the introduction of responsive mobile friendly websites, and while we don't care about mobile because we are part of the #PCmasterrace, a bit of a refresh is still well overdue.

v5 homepage


The challenge

The biggest challenge we faced when redesigning ModDB and IndieDB, is we really like what we've made and we don't really like change. 9 years ago when we launched v4, we broke a lot of new ground with a website that was basically entirely community run. Afterall it only makes sense that ModDB is as moddable as the games listed on the site are. And a refresh will mean breaking a lot of backwards compatibility and many of the beautiful custom profiles you've spent a long time making. This is unavoidable, but we hope with a more modern approach we can open the door to even better custom profiles.

v5 alpha aims

  • Maintain current layout box structure with admin buttons as you see on v4
  • Create a responsive layout that works on all devices from widescreen to mobile
  • Make the site easier to use for newbies, highlight downloads and content submission more
  • Update the comments & follower systems, so you get notified when the content you care about changes
  • Enable CSS support so profile customization becomes even easier

v5 homepage


Join the alpha

We believe we have completed a lot of the above now, so we are inviting you to help us test and provide feedback on what we've built so far. To participate you must join the DB Testing group then click the following link (for ModDB or IndieDB) to toggle v5 mode on & off. Once in we encourage you to join the discussion in discord, here or on the DB Testing group profile. We look forward to your criticism be it good or bad, as we want to make sure we get it right!

We need a designer

In terms of next steps, right now the v5 alpha is a little dull. It lacks the heart that v4 has, and the excitement that a gaming site should have. We need a kickass designer to help us change the flat colors and simple boxes into something more exciting, befitting ModDB and IndieDB. So if you consider your webdesign skills as elite, and know CSS well and can tweak and change what we've made with ease, we want to employ you! Please reach out via hello@dbolical.com

Post comment Comments
Kark-Jocke
Kark-Jocke

Looks great with v5, but to be perfectly honest, I like as it is now. Before " I.imgur.com " After " I.imgur.com " I been here since 2010 and for 7 years I loved how it looks as it do right now.

Do not take me wrong, I really like changes. Just that it looks really good, as it is now. I also see that the "Header" part for the profile is not in the v5?

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INtense! Author
INtense!

Rest assured you will be able to customize your profile to make it look how you want. We may also allow people to choose to run v4 mode or v5 mode, this is only step 1!

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Kark-Jocke
Kark-Jocke

That's great news! Now I'm looking forward to this. ^_^

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AnimeLoverForever
AnimeLoverForever

So we can still use the v4 mode, nice!

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INtense! Author
INtense!

You will, we won't be switching it off. However it won't be maintained, so it'll be a failure on our part if you think that v4 is better than v5

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AnimeLoverForever
AnimeLoverForever

Who knows, I can't say that before I try it. It's like Windows, 7 is way better than 8 xD

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Brettbren
Brettbren

I strongly recommend that you allow people to choose v4 or v5 modes.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

As I mentioned above, we are not going to switch it off but we'd really prefer it if people used v5 in the long run

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Nomada_Firefox
Nomada_Firefox

I have not made deep changes at my moddb sections but I did not see any errors with the v5. However, I am more interested at features than graphics.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

I forgot to mention we added recommendations as well which I just blogged about Moddb.com

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Ori`verda
Ori`verda

I would like to request the return of the themes Mod DB used to have.

Like the Playstation purple theme, Nintendo cyan and Xbox lime.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

I'm not sure we will be bringing them back, isn't ModDB red timeless ;)

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Darkness
Darkness

Indeed, a change is most welcome. Resolution has changed a lot since 2008, as well as new tendencies, and of course, better support for portable devices.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

As a long time user have you had a chance to trial v5? What were your first impressions?

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OrangeNero
OrangeNero

v4 is just really really good and a timeless design.
You're undergoing the same changes that many other sites did.
Techspot is one of them:

Web.archive.org
Web.archive.org
Techspot.com

The first one looks kind of like v4 and the new one seems to have a similar design philosophy like your v5.

In any case, given the great customizability of v5 I am sure I wont miss v4.

Maybe try to have some more of that noble black from v4 in v5. Its kinda slick or sexy or noble. There is no english word for the german Edel xD

That said I might stay in v4 as it feels familiar and as said it ain't bad at all. Definitely cool that you want to give us the ability to choose.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

Are you talking about the black borders? I'm like you and still like to browse and use the familiar v4.. but I think i'm going to force myself onto v5 because there are a ton of improved elements in the site

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OrangeNero
OrangeNero

no no I mean for the bars and overall all the black elements on the middle. The backgrounds for all those titles.

Summary Comments Mods

or News

or other things. The black gives it some nice accents and makes ti look more valuable.

In v5 you're going for grey and dark red elements instead which makes it look a bit cheaper imo. Its a very subjective thing.

INtense!

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SpaceCowboy730
SpaceCowboy730

I've been here since 2006, launched a few mods. I'm glad Moddb is getting a makeover it deserves! I'm *also* glad mobile is getting better access, even though we're still on top with the PC :P. Keep up the good work, ladies and gents, I love this community and I'm happy to still see it thrive...

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INtense! Author
INtense!

Been a long time coming, and we are still going strong because of amazing community members like you, so thanks!

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Marek33
Marek33

The new visuals look great and sorting by the comments by the Karma is also interesting.

However, it needs some things to be added. For example, someone who has his profile private still can't be reported (I'm guessing that will be added) and also those which require to be friends with you. And especially reporting should be done only by the members and not by the guests since then can be easy to report almost anyone.

The site is loading slowly, but that's because its PreAlpha and it will be fixed.

Then, there should be more images showed at the profile and not only five. Before it was six and now it could be eight, but instead of that it's only five. People who have hundreds of images would take me a lot of time to find the one which I want to see. The best option, it would be if selected by the individual users since someone with a very high resolution it would be enough if he has five or six, but someone with a lower resolution like I could choose even eight. And the Archive is a great idea which mostly fixes this, but I would still like to have an option to have six or even eight images.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

Slow loading is due to image caching, so that won't occur for long! And have you tried scrolling through the images in a profile? It should be easier.. plus isn't a slightly higher res better?

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Marek33
Marek33

That's good to see!

Yes, I tried it, but it's not needed in my honest opinion. Mostly higher resolution is better, but I think that would be better if everyone would have an option for the amount of images they want to see. It's great for a mobile user, but not much for me as a PC user.

Also, who disliked me? The new design is good and the old one is better, but its still Pre-Alpha. When someone wants the old design he should say that in the comment and not by giving me a dislike.

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Olku_
Olku_

pls no
My sugestion would be to only improve the V4.

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Tomah_Errazurih
Tomah_Errazurih

I'm really going to miss the black bits and borders - they're what makes MoDB what it currently is imo... v5 looks so, uh, bland, even sterile in comparison.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

A few people have mentioned this, the black borders are problematic but they are unique to ModDB. We will be doing a design review and seeing what should be kept or improved before going live

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Reus.
Reus.

Completely agree with this. This new design is just bland and generic. It's too minimalistic. I'm not really a huge fan of it. I do agree that the site needs a makeover, but I feel like this new design is just too modern. At least the page will look better, I guess. But please don't make it too easy to customize pages. I do realize that you want it to be more user-friendly, but I feel like we're going to "lose jobs" if you make it too user-friendly. I've made some pages for mods, and I was just about to work on three new ones as well. Guess I have to wait till the new site has launched. And if you make it too user-friendly, then I might not even be needed after the launch, as anyone can just customize it. Please don't let that happen. And the borders; please keep the borders. Can't we just keep the current design, but update it to look more modern. I feel like the placement of things on the current version is pretty good already.

However, I would suggest letting us set custom job titles for the development team of our mods. This is already a thing in the company group itself, but it's not a thing on the actual mod page. Would be nice if we were able to set custom job titles instead of the 'Author' and 'Creator'. It's a bit easier than having to make it in CSS, which is what I've been doing.

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BioDestroyer
BioDestroyer

I like the fact it's still the same layout, I've noticed some small changes, but I'll test it during the next few days (going on and off between v4 and v5) before making an opinion and giving feedback.

I would complain about the minimalism (as I always do), but according to the end of the article and the v5 Design job posting, it seems that's yet to be worked on, so I'll wait to see what the actual design will be like. (I dislike minimalism and I'll stand against it fervently.)

I'll bear with the minimalist design for now to test the layout and features.

As some preliminary feedback, I think the summary should still be above everything else, as it was before. It doesn't make sense putting it under the media bar, and it buries the articles further down. And where are the profile headers?

And some general suggestions: Don't simplify the looks, keep borders and divisions, keep details. For example, the v5 level bar on profiles looks bland, a bar with rounded edges and a simple colour, meanwhile v4's has a design, a personality. I always liked it.

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OrangeNero
OrangeNero

absolutely the desciption should be on top and also expanded again. many "recent" decisions towards redesign of mod pages were rather horrible like video location.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

Well we thought if we put the description where it is we could make it full height instead of having a "read more" button. It also makes profiles in general more consistent.

I like minimalism but I know where you are coming from, right now the design lacks heart because most sites are designed like this. Phase 1 was trying to move to a responsive modern layout. Phase 2 will be trying to make it feel cool and gaming like ModDB should. We won't go live until we have achieved that goal.

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Damfoos
Damfoos

I like the current look tbh, it is informative enough while also stylish. But id like to test the new version, especially if there are improvements for notifications system.

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INtense! Author
INtense!

Well the notifications update works in v4, you can go Damfoos to see it in action

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Damfoos
Damfoos

Right, but in v4 if someone replies to your comment you don't get any notifications in your profile, you get an email which is good, but not as good as a notification right in your updates menu.

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Herr_Sturmführer
Herr_Sturmführer

Can we be allowed to keep the old V4 designs as a choice? As much as I look forward to an update, I will soon be releasing my project but will no longer be maintaining the webpage, hence if I could leave it in its current state, that would be a better condition to leave it in that if it was in a broken state.

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Templarfreak
Templarfreak

What's going to functionally be different on the everyday-site-use perspective? There is a lot that can be improved upon for normal use of the site (Comments, notifications, Google Notification integration, better Forums, better moderation, much more information being displayed on a user's and a mod/game's profile such as games/mods, a separate bar for videos, files, and addons like there is with images, and much more) even if that means visually it doesn't change. But that seems to be the only aim of this update, to make visual changes.

I've never had problems with the sites on mobile (Although I am very rarely on mobile so I guess my opinion here isn't too important) except buttons can be pretty small which for the most part that can be fixed by simply turning the phone sideways, especially on bigger screens with higher resolutions and better zooming.

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8472
8472

I like the simplicity of v5; everything is nice and clear. I'm quite a fan of flat and simple UI designs, but I look forward to seeing what exciting designs ModDB manages to come up with.

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DOOMGABR[RU]
DOOMGABR[RU]

Nice concept :)

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ArcadePreMan
ArcadePreMan

Wow, with this new feature it'll be compatible on mobile devices. Seriously amazing.

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ImperiaI
ImperiaI

Hmm, it happend to me 2x on the mobile phone (in v4) that I accidently hit the delete button for comments.

I hope v5 will have a "Do you really wish to delete this comment?" button that follows after the delete one?

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Guest
Guest

really looking forward on this :)

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TieSKey
TieSKey

A little suggestion: add some kind of reminder of the optimal image/video dimensions in the insert pop-up when posting news items. It is really easy to miss that out and end up with images too big (percentages are currently allowed but it's not obvious).

At a more personal level, I think applying really simple patterns using 2 really close colors (same tint, different luminosity or something like that) is a lot more gentle to the eyes (like the ones in v4).

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SpaceCowboy730
SpaceCowboy730

Any updates on this??

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