The story of how Digital Devil Database came to be is not really much of an interesting one. A few years back, as the US release of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne was nearing closer and closer, I (Tony) figured that it would be fun to make a site about the game and Megaten in general. To say I was (or even am now) extremely well versed in the series would be an exaggeration. However, I thought it would be a good hobby and a good way to further any web site design skills I had at the time.

The original version of Digital Devil Database was based heavily around Nocturne in design. I found myself increasingly unhappy with the design. I showed it to a handful of people and, while their responses were largely positive, decided to scrap it entirely. The ideas for sections and other such things were not fully developed yet and very little of its construction was used when making future versions.

The second version of the site is probably the one most people are used to. It had a more technical look, heavy on greys and blues. Jack Frost was at the top of each page, telling you where you were and why you should care. I stuck with this design for many reasons. I thought it fit the series. It was also quite different from most designs I typically do, which are extremely heavy on brighter colors. At the time, it seemed like it would be easy to add new sections to, as I had an image template for nearly every thing.

This version of Digital Devil Database is what was actually launched. In many ways, I suppose it could be considered 1.0, while the previous unseen version would be 0.5. Version 1.0 lasted for a good two plus years. A lot of content was added, the forums were installed and other ideas were played with that hadn’t quite materialized yet. The Demonary and newsletter come to mind very quickly. Still other sections never really were filled in as much as hoped, whether they were the Lexicon or even specific game pages.

Along the way I found myself tired of the design and began work on a Version 2 look. A short hiatus was imposed on the site, complete with a news post announcing the reasoning. This new design was far more heavy on color. It went as far as being up and implemented for quite a few sections of the site. However, I decided something was off about it. It never fully materialized and I went back to working with Version 1.

Unfortunately, during this time period I found my outside life becoming increasingly hectic. Fewer and fewer major updates were made, the site was getting ignored for long stretches of time. This was largely thanks to my job at the time, which was stressing, time consuming and completely unrewarding. This cleared up near the end of 2006 when I found a new temporary job… although I still had little time, I found myself in a far better mood and more willing to work on Digital Devil Database. In February, a lot of this went away entirely and I found myself with a new, great full time career and far more time and energy to work on things that I enjoyed.

In March, once I got more settled in to that job, it was decided that a new design was really needed. In my opinion, its current design was in use far too long. The fact that it used images for navigating pretty much every thing was becoming more and more of a problem. With the help of Traci (the only consistent content help the site has ever had and I love her for it), I took my old Version 2 design and revamped it. Personally, I think I was able to capture what the original was missing. Version 3 was born.

That’s the design you see today. While perhaps less complex on the graphics front, it better facilitates so many things. Sections can be added on the fly without disrupting the flow of the site, which is probably the biggest advancement. I’m also happy that the site is more colorful, avoiding the gray and black color scheme that would have been so easy to use.

Who knows what will happen in the future. Hopefully with the help of Traci and Alan (and other things from various visitors) the site will continue to grow. With newfound time and energy, we should see the completion of so many ideas that have been brought up on this site before. I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks for visiting,
Tony

This page was published on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 1:26 pm. You can follow any responses to this page through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.