HOLY SHIT THIS IS BEAUTIFUL.

Seriously, it's obvious the amount of work you guys have put into this site. Just looking at the preview forum online is mind-bogglingly beautiful. Are the images all pixel work? Plus I adore the consistent and just, really cool aesthetic.

I will definitely keep an eye on this. This is an ambitious project for sure, but considering the effort put into it already, I have a feeling it'll be a success. The world, too, seems very original and exciting.

EDIT: The only thing I would say is that the amount of tables and links makes everything look crazy busy and confusing. Maybe find some way to streamline the formatting of the forum for easy navigation & readability?

Thank you so much! Gosh, I really hope it does well, for all the effort that's gone into it. Haha! I've actually done most of it on my own over the last year and now that it's almost finished I'm really tempted to scrap the skin completely and go with something cleaner. A lot of the design was planned when there wasn't much info going into it, so I got away with all the clunky boxes. Now though there's just so much going on, I could even redesign a lot of the art since I'm finding I've got a lot of wasted space, especially the front page banner. (Not to mention, I've learned a lot about coding since I started!)

I've also been told all that green is overbearing and hard on the eyes, so I wouldn't mind getting rid of that, it's a 50/50 decision though, since it'd mean even more time before I actually open up for people to rp. 

(Honestly, if I had extra income I'd probably take the time to make every single box a fully painted image, so the site looks and acts like an interactive game interface instead of a forum. I love interfaces. SO. Much. Sort of like these:)

The site's aesthetic, at least to me, feels a lot like a classic tabletop or something. It's not super clean, some images appear way too sharp and there is a bit of clutter, but it feels incredibly stylized and I think that can be a really good and charming quality. A complete overhaul on the look probably wouldn't ever be necessary, unless you REALLY wanted to take that route.

That said, the green - not necessarily the color, but the sheer amount and the BOLDNESS of it all - can certainly be a bit too much. Most of the greens are fine, and far from problematic; however, I'd say that all the areas with the thick green borders can be cleaned up and it would probably vastly improve the look. That's just my take though.

Really digging the effort put into this either way.

Thank you! I'm definitely gunning for that feel.

The whole forum is actually really really rough, it was never going to be the full skin but I got attached to it and went with it, I ended up putting a lot more effort into it then I intended though, and now it all feels too slapped together. The art up top was actually my second go at sorting out a more streamlined design, but again I tried a lot of new stuff with it and I could do a much better job of it if I gave it another go. 

The green borders are definitely getting the sack, was sort of okay but I have to admit it does make it all a bit much on the eyes. 

you say that like it's a bad thing lol. Honestly, when I first saw the site, I could immediately tell that you put in a lot of effort. Skinning/designing is not easy by any means at all.

I see you're considering doing a complete reskin so I'm actually going to try to dissuade you from doing so unless you really want to because of a specific reason.

Disclaimer: I don't play tabletop rpgs and my advice is just based on what I know second-hand, sorry.

I agree that the overall aesthetic, while not my personal cup of tea, is really reminiscent of tabletop games. So if you are aiming to get members who like those kinds of things, it works. It is an aesthetic that appeals to your intended audience and is familiar to them at a glance. I don't think you need to do a complete overhaul on the design at all because of this but changing just only a few elements can vastly improve things.

There are a whole lot of information going on for the eyes all at once everywhere. Could it be neater? Yeah. BUT from what I know of the gaming community that enjoys this type of aesthetic is that they generally like having as much necessary information upfront as possible and a lot of them seem to prefer function over clean design as well. It's one of the reasons why a lot of mmos tend to have that same """clunky""" look to them. I personally do not like that general look tabletop rpgs and mmos have at all but I don't know if you should scrap everything and go for a "cleaner" look. It MIGHT actually be detrimental to attracting fellow tabletop rpg nerds. Keep in mind that a lot of members on PP like myself probably prefer a less heavily stylized and more stream-lined type of site but I don't think most of us are your intended audience. As a result, I am hesitant to suggest any design changes other than what I mention below. 

I like the vertical boards. I think they're very unique and interesting but for the width you've chosen, they aren't very good for paragraph text. If you keep them, I suggest either keeping the board description REALLY short/non-existent or go with a bullet points. If you want to keep the info as it is, then I highly recommend adjusting the width so it's wider. It's hard to read a block of text that's only 3 words a line.

Like for the market and residential boards, maybe change the width so each individual one is as wide as the space the two of them currently take up side-by-side then move the other board below the first. From a glance, it is the only design issue that impacts readability.

Font and text-color wise, it's fine for readability. For the actual font itself, this may be too much of my own personal tastes coming in here but I think it might be best if you choose a different font since this might even turn off your core audience. I don't think it is the right font to use for your cool post-apocalyptic super alien world as it does nothing to add to the overall alien mood and tabletop look. I feel like it takes away from it by making it less serious and more amateur. Even the designer poked fun at his creation by saying the name means “not knowing how to create fonts right” in its description.

For the green borders, it really is harsh on the eyes. I tend to keep my screen brightness on the dimmer side and it's still pretty popping. I like the added glowing effect it does to that green crystal-organ thing in the forum's footer image but having it everywhere else is a bit much. If you like green borders, I would suggest choosing a less saturated/darker green. That way it's easier on the eyes and doesn't clash as much.

Alternatively, you can try changing from green to one of the other colors you used for the skin so it looks more harmonious.

The overall world is super interesting and I am just amazed at the amount of effort you put in and how you're even so willing to do a complete reskin for your site if necessary. It's extremely admirable! I know how hard skinning can be. I don't know of any other potential problems you need to look out for just glancing at the info and stuff.

Oh, and in terms of gaining members, I suggest you remember to advertise in places dedicated to tabletop gaming as you're more likely to find members there. Maybe posting about it on Reddit in the right subreddit if you haven't considered that already. I know that there is a big community of tabletop rpgs fans there that would probably be interested in joining. I can't point to any particular subreddit because that's as far as I know.

Good luck with your site! I hope it does well. Sorry for so much text or if it but I hope at least some of my advice is useful/relevant to you. I genuinely want to see you succeed so I guess I may have rambled on too much as a result. haha

Oh gosh, thank you for the awesome review! Lots of good stuff in here. I did decide on a reskin but it's planned for much later in the year to give me an opportunity to work on and improve anything that we notice to be an issue or not quite seamless over the next few months. I'm also definitely going to redo the category area, it was my first attempt at a multi table layout and it worked out pretty poorly, I've learned a lot since then, so once I streamline that I'll be making the long side images wider so they don't look so awkward with their descriptions.

The font is actually the third one I've tested, I always seem to get some dispute with them and I can't find a decent font that really fits the forum. I might eventually just make my own custom font but beyond that I have no idea what font to use. 

Thank you for all the wonderful feedback, you've soothed a lot of my nerves about the layout, and I've had a few people lately join the discord and they're just as positive about all the content, despite it being a bit in your face. When I do the re-skin I'll remove the side tables, I actually have a semi planned layout set up. Animated buttons and sounds when players click/hover, more like a game interface. prntscr.com/m8btrc

I'm definitely going to fix up all that green, but I'll leave that again for the reskin, it's a bit of a pain to go back and edit it out of all the images so I'll have to let players know it's planned but not for a bit. I get a lot of mixed feedback for it, some people love it, a lot of people don't. <3

Thank you again for all the wonderful feedback, and I'll definitely look into reddit. I hadn't actually considered reaching out to table top gamers, I'm so used to going about it just by posting ads on other forums, but it might be a great way to bring in the hard-core players. <3

Made some dramatic layout changes, I think it's marginally neater now, not such a cluster. Condensed all the vital info into a main table.

Last bump for this thread! Changed a lot. <3

The new additions look really great, Lorsynth! That navigation bar at the top is super convenient, and I like that you kept the aesthetic in tact while making everything a bit more stream-lined.

Also I'm still crazy impressed with the art. The texturing on the "frames" around the forum look extremely professional, like something in a late 90's/early 2000's video game (with a higher resolution, ofc).

Thank you so much Malachy! I spent a bit of time trying to figure out how to get it to all flow properly, and ended up backtracking on a lot of codes so I'm glad all the fidgeting paid off.

I'm so glad you like the aesthetic too, I've always been a sucker for the old school rpg feel, like Baldur's Gate and the original fallout 1&2 (Among many other gorgeous interfaces). It's actually all designed to go along with an isometric rpg we've been developing and I wanted to bring the same sort of game & stat feel to the forums. I still keep finding things I want to tweak, change and improve but I'm happy it's looking so sleek now, it was really quite clunky in the beginning.