" Not to showcase a project properly is a great sin. If people can't be bothered to
showcase their project properly, then I dread to think what the project will look like. "

A warm welcome to you. If you are checking this before showcasing your project, then I offer my hearty congratulations to you.

This guide is primarily for people who don't know HTML or for those who would dare post a full text showcase. I will be listing my top tips for creating sexy showcases that will draw the masses in to gaze in awe at your work.

Showcasing is very important, it lets people know about your project. This should boost your downloads, and the better you make your showcase the more downloads you will get. Showcases need to be informative, concise and pleasing to the eye. They are your best way to advertise your project to us.

So without further ado, I will list my top tips, helpful hints and annoying alliteration. The following is a short list where you can jump to each topic by clicking the link, if you know nothing then please read the whole thing.

Contents:

• Information and layout
  
  • Information
    
  • Grammar rant
    
  • Layout
  
  
• BBCode and HTML
  
  • BBCode
    
  • Text beautification
    
  • HTML
    
  • HTML tables
    
  • Forum tricks
  
  
• Screenshots
  
  • Image size limit
  
  
• Images
  
  • Percentage bars
  
  
• Videos
  
• Uniqueness
  
• Golden rules (Summary)

Information & Layout
Giving information is important. When people come to your thread they don't want waffle, they want something straight to the point telling them what your project is about. If you are new then a line or two of introduction can be fine, but telling people about the project should be very near to the top, only below a title and/or percentage bar.

Now I'm going to have a grammar rant. Communicating information in a grammatically correct manner is the most important thing about showcases. If I come to look at a thread and see it littered with spelling mistakes, bogus apostrophes and l33t there is no way I am going to look any further. Grammar lets people know about you and the project. If you can't be bothered to use good grammar, then people will think your project will be equally messy and careless - and you really don't want that. Capital letters and full stops are also your friends, I promise you they won't bite and they must be used in the right places to prevent your showcase becoming an unreadable mess. I appreciate that for some of you reading this, that English may not be your first language. However it really doesn't take long to run it through a spell check does it?

When you have told everyone about the basics of your project, you need to format your thread. People will not even try to read a huge wall of text, especially a grammar-less one. It is important to spice up your thread with other devices. The forums offer a lot of BBCode and HTML options, so why put them to waste (more on this later)?

Laying out your showcase in a correct order is not as important as the above points, but it's still useful. I don't really have to explain much here, as it's just common sense and what works for you. You should have the following near the top: A banner for your project, percentage bars, status information and a small opening paragraph.
Your opening should inform viewers about what your project is about. If it's a scenario; what genre is it, and is it multi/singleplayer? If it's a mod pack; what will be included?

You should probably include screenshots or youtube videos at the bottom if you have them all in sections, but there's no harm in having them on the sides throughout your showcase too.


BBCode & HTML
You may be wondering how I've managed to get bold text and other things during this showcase. Is it voodoo? Is it black magic? No, it's using the inbuilt forum BB functions and HTML.

BBCode stands for Bulletin Board code, and it a quick and easy way for you to format your thread. With BBCode you can achieve such magic as colouring, underlining, bolding, italicing, listing and more.
For HeavenGames' extensive reference for BBCode, check this.

Before you go spreading BBCode over your showcase like some hideous marmalade, you must first think about how to use it in a good way.
My first tip is do not use the inbuilt colours or 'absolute colours!. Inbuilt forum codes mean using [c=red]text[/c]. We see it all the time and it gets very tiresome. One of my forum pet hates is people using [c=orange]Yeebaagoooon[/c] as it looks nothing like my proper colour and is rather sickening.
Using the hex system is the way forwards. The hex system is a way you can define your own colours by using a 6 character code. Hex is in base 16, so you can have the numbers 0-9 as well as the letters A-F. To use this system, simply use [c=#xxxxxx] text [/c], and replace the x's with your desired character.
You may have noticed I colour coded the #xxxxxx, that is because the first two characters represent the red value, the second two represent green and the final two represent blue. You can mix colours to your choosing, but try not to use [c=#FF0000] pure coloured text [/c], as it can be quite unsightly. Also avoid using very bright colours like yellow, they're almost invisible against the thread background. See?
Just play with the letters, and mix a few around.
If you are interested, the background colour of the forum main post is #DDC997. This is very useful if you are making your own images.

Here is a massive table with hex colours for your copying pleasure:

000000	000033	000066	000099	0000CC	0000FF
003300	003333	003366	003399	0033CC	0033FF
006600	006633	006666	006699	0066CC	0066FF
009900	009933	009966	009999	0099CC	0099FF
00CC00	00CC33	00CC66	00CC99	00CCCC	00CCFF
00FF00	00FF33	00FF66	00FF99	00FFCC	00FFFF
330000	330033	330066	330099	3300CC	3300FF
333300	333333	333366	333399	3333CC	3333FF
336600	336633	336666	336699	3366CC	3366FF
339900	339933	339966	339999	3399CC	3399FF
33CC00	33CC33	33CC66	33CC99	33CCCC	33CCFF
33FF00	33FF33	33FF66	33FF99	33FFCC	33FFFF
660000	660033	660066	660099	6600CC	6600FF
663300	663333	663366	663399	6633CC	6633FF
666600	666633	666666	666699	6666CC	6666FF
669900	669933	669966	669999	6699CC	6699FF
66CC00	66CC33	66CC66	66CC99	66CCCC	66CCFF
66FF00	66FF33	66FF66	66FF99	66FFCC	66FFFF
990000	990033	990066	990099	9900CC	9900FF
993300	993333	993366	993399	9933CC	9933FF
996600	996633	996666	996699	9966CC	9966FF
999900	999933	999966	999999	9999CC	9999FF
99CC00	99CC33	99CC66	99CC99	99CCCC	99CCFF
99FF00	99FF33	99FF66	99FF99	99FFCC	99FFFF
CC0000	CC0033	CC0066	CC0099	CC00CC	CC00FF
CC3300	CC3333	CC3366	CC3399	CC33CC	CC33FF
CC6600	CC6633	CC6666	CC6699	CC66CC	CC66FF
CC9900	CC9933	CC9966	CC9999	CC99CC	CC99FF
CCCC00	CCCC33	CCCC66	CCCC99	CCCCCC	CCCCFF
CCFF00	CCFF33	CCFF66	CCFF99	CCFFCC	CCFFFF
FF0000	FF0033	FF0066	FF0099	FF00CC	FF00FF
FF3300	FF3333	FF3366	FF3399	FF33CC	FF33FF
FF6600	FF6633	FF6666	FF6699	FF66CC	FF66FF
FF9900	FF9933	FF9966	FF9999	FF99CC	FF99FF
FFCC00	FFCC33	FFCC66	FFCC99	FFCCCC	FFCCFF
FFFF00	FFFF33	FFFF66	FFFF99	FFFFCC	FFFFFF

With hex you can have over 16 million different colours. And I'm not listing them!

And now on to the wonders of HTML...
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language, and is like an extension to BBCode used to design entire webpages. With HTML there are a lot of powerful tricks at your disposal. The main showcase HTML feature is increasing text size, using a horizontal rule and tables.

Firstly, a simple <hr> will give you a beautiful horizontal rule across your page. You can use this to seperate paragraphs. Traits can be applied to this tag like width, colour and height. Here is an <hr>:

---

If you want to make your text bigger (for the title) simply use: <font size="+2">. Do not use this a lot, just for main titles and headings. You can of course replace the 2 with another number, but don't go too high.

Now, let's move on to tables. Tables are the best way to organise lists, they can even be used to make your showcase look really sexy.
All tables start off with <table>. You can put more traits inside this tag (explained later). To define new rows use <tr>, and use <td> for columns. Don't forget to close your tags too! </td></tr></table>

Here is a list of useful extensions you can add inside your table or td tags:

width="100%" - Defines the width of the table in pixels or percent	height="47" - Defines the hight of the table (in pixels usually)	bgcolor="#xxxxxx" - Defines the background colour of the table	background="image url" - Defines the background image of the table	colspan="2" - Makes a cell span 2 colums.
rowspan="2" - Makes a cell span two rows.	valign="top" - Aligns the text in the cell or table vertically.	border="1" - Sets the width of the table border.	cellspacing="1" - Sets the spaces between the table cells.	cellpadding="1" - Sets the padding on the cells.
bordercolor="#xxxxxx" - Defines the border colour.	align="center" - Aligns the text/image inside the cell.			Put the tags together for a blank cell.

When creating a table remember that you must not use the enter key, otherwise your table will sink to the bottom of the thread. If you have to use enters, check the 'do not convert new lines to br' box at the bottom of the new topic interface.

<table><tr><td> No gaps! </td></tr></table>

Comes out as:

No gaps!

<table>
<tr>
<td> Lots of gaps </td>
</tr>
</table>

Unfortunately comes out as:

Lots of gaps

You may have seen some showcases break the forum table allowing for full width. You can do it by putting the following at the top of your showcase:

</td></tr></table> <table width="100%"><tr><td> 

Feel free to add other elements to the above table, but if you are breaking the forum table you MUST re-enable it at the end of your showcase otherwise you might be visited by Papaya and his pet axe in the middle of the night.
To re-enable the forum table, post the following code at the END of your showcase. You don't need to do the first line if you've already closed your table.

</td></tr></table>
<table class="thread" width="100%" border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5 align=center >
<tr class="alt2"><td valign="top" width="20%"> </td><td valign="top" width="80%">

Screenshots
Screenshots are the backbone of every showcase. Without them people will not take an interest in your project and your showcase will collapse and take an all expenses paid trip to the bottom of the forum.
With this in mind, you still need to put thought into your shots.

I don't want to see an unfinished section of the map - your screenshots should try and tell everyone how great your project will be. Take shots of some amazing eyecandy or trigger work if you have it, get different angles if you're proud of something and make sure your screenshot will stand tall.
Some things to remember:

The edge of the map is something nobody wants to see. It is a black void of oblivion and showing it in screenshots looks unproffesional.

Skies are good. There are 4 skies you can use with the gift of the render sky trigger. They are: SkySunset, SkyBlue, SkyStormy and SkyWinter.

Avoid Grass A at all costs!

Use camera tracks to get the perfect angle.

Screenshots should ideally be spread throughout your showcase - although there's nothing wrong with having a section devoted to them. Screenshots can really be put anywhere you want, just make sure you do it neatly! Tables might help you with this.

But remember, the server is against you. If your image is larger than 1 GB the image size limit will devour it. You can resize in basic programs like paint.


Images
Images are bound to liven up your showcase. But we don't want to see a smattering of random and useless pictures. They can be used to style your showcase or simply as props to replace tags.

You could use them as your own bullet points, to make sexy coloured text, or just some amazing borders. Make sure your showcase is still pleasing to the eye.

Among our best kept secrets are percentage bars. These nifty little images are for everyone to use to show progress on your project.
Take a look through all of these topics to view my percentage bars. They can certainly beautify your showcase.


Videos
We've got a lovely new youtube embed feature. So if you've made a youtube video, then why not use it? To embed, simply put the URL into your showcase, simple as that. If you just want the link you need to enclose it in url tags.

It's a great way to engage interest - but don't worry if you can't use this feature. Videos only become viable if you're making a huge project.


Uniqueness
What makes your project special? If you don't have anything here then you won't engage much interest. You need to have something special about your scenario otherwise it just becomes a clone.
There's nothing wrong with using well known genres, however you need to make it interesting if you want to become well known.

There's also a unique way to present your project. To get you started, I haven't seen anyone use a mascot/character in their showcase yet...


Golden rules of showcasing
This is just a brief list of what to do, and what not to do.
DO NOT:

Announce a project less than 10% complete. Odds are you won't finish it.

Use a couple of sentences to explain your project, surely such great work needs more?

Use massive pictures that stretch the forum table, use <img src="URL" width="400" /> to resize it.

Make a 'showcase' where you want people to do all the work for you. Not only is it unlikely to happen - but there are plenty of guides for your reading pleasure.

Use apostrophes where they are not needed.

Make one huge wall of text.

Ignore grammar.

DO:

Give at least a detailed paragraph about what your project is.

Spell check.

Provide screenshots.

Lay your thread out nicely.

Utilise BBCode and HTML to their full potential.

Make something unique to keep people interested in your project.

If you're making a long project, always underestimate your % complete so you can pile it on at the end .

---

Well, that concludes my guide. I hope you find it useful.

---

______________________________________ Yeebaagooon ______________________________________
____________________ AoMH Seraph ____________________
"You can't trust yeebaagooon to lead a rebelion, He would send everyone to steal mirrors so he could bask in his own brilliance." - Out Reach
"Yeebaagooon had never seen a more handsome man in all his life. He couldn't control himself, He needed to act. Gripping the mirror in his strong arms he kissed the figure before him..." - Out Reach
AoMH: Unfinished Scenarios|Singleplayer: Codename Ripto|Multiplayer: Minigames Z|CSC 7
Ex Seraphs Dictator, Spore Heaven Seraph

[This message has been edited by Yeebaagooon (edited 06-06-2010 @ 01:46 PM).]