Looking for thoughts/quotes on advanced gaming community site.

[Guzik]

Hello all! First off I would like to thank you for taking the time and reading over my post. I'll try to keep it short and sweet.

I'm looking for someone/a team to design and code a website for my gaming/server administration community. I'm looking for a professionally modern with a slight glossy/smooth design. There would be a flash header/navigation bar that would have drop-down menus on mouse-over.

The navigation bar would consist of the following...

Home
News
> Community News (integrated through a news publishing software where I could assign individuals access to publish news/announcements on the site easily without html knowledge)
> Individual Game News (same as community news)
> Individual Game News (as many of these as needed)
> Archives (archive news posts and e-mailed newsletters)
Community
> About
> Roster (which would consist of a user updatable list with Alias, Flag, Contact, Games Played)
> Forums (IPB or VBB)
> Contests
> Downloads
> Store
> Web Links
> FAQ
Membership
> Gold
> Silver
> Bronze
> Compare
Servers
> Game Servers
> Voice Server
> Player Statistics (via HLstatsX)

There would also be small navigation buttons in the corner that would allow the user to contact certain groups within the community via email/PM.

We would be integrating it into a domain with an SSL certificate so that in the future we can run our own shop (which will be currently run out of CafePress/etc.) from our own website.

The home page will be used as portal that would include a user login that logs you in to the forum (that would use either VBB or IPB) as well as a user control panel that is specific to our company (which would include a unique point monitoring system and certain user fields that would automatically update the roster). The home page would also include lists of the latest published News posts (which could be pulled from the forum), Popular Threads, a Poll.

The bottom would include a list of Sponsors and Affiliates.

As a "gaming" website, we need it to look trendy to that sort of audience, yet not be over the top as it is a more premier/adult group.

I would want a mix of both flash and html/xhtml/css/etc. so that I can easily update it (I have experience in web design, just not to degree of which I'm looking for this site to be developed).

The project is not exactly in any rush, but we are looking to get it going. We understand this is an in-depth project, and may required more than one individual (designer/coder/flash-er/user-interface creator)etc. We are also well aware of the cost that could be incurred from a project of this scope.

If there are any suggestions of where else to look for help, please let me know! Thank you and take care.

Regards,
Joe G.

[Guzik]

Lots of views and no responses. Anyone know of other good communities to look for help?

[lordofduct]

It's a big project. I'm assuming you need the person to develop each of those individual sub pages as well.

I actually was one of those views and had only read half of it last time because it got kind of confusing to figure out what exactly you are asking for. Reading it again, I'm still kind of trying to register what it is you exactly need.

Like what do you mean by "Game Servers" and "Voice Server". I could come to a couple conclusions in my head, some of which I wouldn't want to even mess with.

... ugh, sorry, there was more I wanted to say, but I just woke up, I'm tired.

[Guzik]

Hi Lord of Duct! Thank you for responding.

Each individual sub page would have to be developed, yes. However, most of those subpages would be very similar except for the main content area.

We are a gaming community that runs gaming servers through our own dedicated box. The web developer does not have to have any experience with game servers or game server providers. The list I made was to give an idea of the different sections/sub-sections of the website we are looking to have developed. The sub-section "Game Servers" would be a page similar any other that listed the gaming servers we run (i.e. COD4 32 Man @ [Server I.P. Address]) etc...

The project is a big one, but being a web designer myself (to a lesser degree than this project would require), I would be able to help steer the designer in a very clear direction so we would accomplish this in little time.

The User-Interface I'm looking to have is a little more complicated, and does not have to be handled right from the start.

I am looking for both...
1.) Quotes on how much you think a projcet of this scope would cost.
2.) Designers/Coders/Developers interested in learning more and helping out

[lordofduct]

well I'm heading out of town on the 12th to New York and then Boston for a week and a half. Before then and after then I'd be more then willing to chat with you.

E-mail me at: lordofduct [at] gmail [dot] com
or AIM me at: lordofduct