This is just coming from guy who works a full time web development job from both back end and front end perspective haha (I hope this doesn't come off as big headed of me I just wanted to point that out before I bring up my points!) but I think that design needs to be touched up a lot, I don't know if you're using default buttons, colors and whatnot seem like it's exactly the same style as bootstraps site, (It's hard to describe but design wise it doesn't feel like smash if that makes sense) and color choices specially seems a bit strange, it feels like a programming/github-like site rather than a modding one if that makes sense.
My second is that while it does seem cleaner than Brawl Vault you might want to trim down a few things because a lot is going on, or rather I personally think there's too much going on the downloads page haha, most people I know just want to:
> Click Mod
> Look at image/description
> See download link/download count (I assume that's what Stats would be anyway, I can't think of much that could go into stats)
> Download Mod
As for a modder I (myself for example):
> Press Upload Mod
> Type description and upload file
> Type type/version/compatability
> Upload screenshots
> Upload
Additional stuff that could be added:
- See compatibility with which type (PM, Brawl, Melee) - I see the game there so but I notice for some reason you have License?
- I also notice that there's no sub section, like when you upload a Mario mod, you want to look into the Mario section on Brawl Vault for example (Or well, that's the most simple way of searching Brawl Vault in any case) you might want to add something like a tag or whatnot to it, you can actually replace the tag with an icon of mario's head for example, little things like that.
I assume when you click on the mod it opens up that section displaying the downloads and such,
While version types are nice it might be confusing for first time modders and in some cases they probably wouldn't want an older version of their mod if they're updating it (I did 4 versions of Snes Golf Mario but I wouldn't want anyone to download to older versions because they're not optimise and whatnot, though that varies person to person!)
Though I think the biggest issue is that they're not much modders around these days that you can bring in, so I wouldn't think you would need an API this early in, if it's getting a lot of people and a much wider range of users then I think it's a good idea but essentially a modder would just want to upload their mod on the site right? So I can't think of much use on having anyone use an API at all, even big sites such as nexusmods doesn't have an API from my understanding.
It's a really neat idea but I think you should trim down on the technical stuff and focus a bit into the design a bit more, tis just be my opinion though so take it like a grain of salt if you must!
(Now this is the bit where everyone jumps at me for going to far or argue I'm a bit harsh ;_; I'm mainly just want to help give advice on the idea in case anyone thinks otherwise, I do apologise if this comes off as too harsh though! I actually worked on a PM fan site once a year ago before, though now I'm working on big business site designs haha)
I actually attempted at this idea once before, but because of my Job I don't get much time to these days:
That was a simple layout I whipped up in 5 mins on the spot, but this is what I was referring to in the design aspect of it, again, going with your own style is a good way to bring in more people and such.
Again, sorry if I'm going too hard on this! I just like seeing ideas improve more and more and your stuff so far is really neat! And I hope it goes well!
