Announcements & News

Today's Dev Update announces future changes to the website layout and dark mode.

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We are happy to preview two major changes coming soon to the Flight Rising website: a new responsive layout and dark mode!

Responsive Layout

Since its launch, Flight Rising has had a fixed layout. This means that pages look the same no matter what screen you're viewing them on.

A responsive layout selectively resizes elements and moves them around to work better with a range of screen sizes and orientations.




With a responsive design, we can increase the size of text and buttons to reduce, or even eliminate, the need to zoom when navigating the site on a small screen. Larger screens will be able to use additional space for less scrolling.

Even while on a desktop, responsive layouts can factor in the size of individual browser windows. This can make it easier to browse Flight Rising on a smaller window alongside other programs.

Switching to a responsive layout is a significant change and not something that can be applied to an entire website all at once. When the new responsive layout goes live, it will target the front page and a few low-risk areas of the site.

Other pages will have a refreshed look, but will be locked to the current "desktop" size until they can be reworked to be fully responsive. This will happen page-by-page and feature-by-feature over many months.

This slower rollout will allow us to gain insights into what works best and factor in your feedback as we move on to more complicated sections of the site. This process will also include improving overall mobile support for features that don't currently function on touchscreen devices.

This change is something we have been silently planning over many years, coinciding with our push to refactor as much of the website as possible to a newer code base. While some areas of the site continue to run on older code, we have only recently reached a point where altering the overall page layout like this is possible.

We hope you will enjoy this major milestone when it goes live soon!

Responsive Layout FAQs

• When will the responsive layout launch?
  An exact date has not been set, but we expect the first responsive update to happen in the range of weeks, not months.
• How long will it take before the entire site is responsive?
  Converting the entire site will likely take more than a year, especially for some older sections of the site that are still running under the old code base.
• Can I still view the full desktop layout on smaller screens?
  Yes! This feature will launch with the option to force pages into whatever view you want, regardless of screen size. If you don't select a preferred layout, pages will automatically select the most appropriate option for your current screen.
• Will mobile layouts have less functionality than the standard desktop layout?
  No. We intend every layout to maintain full functionality. You won't miss out on features just because you are viewing the site on a smaller screen.
• Will the site look exactly as it does now if I'm viewing it on a standard desktop screen?
  We have tried to keep the new layout roughly identical to Flight Rising's current look, but this rewrite required changes to the overall website frame and some common layout elements. These changes will be noticeable no matter what screen size you are using or whether the page you are viewing has been made fully responsive yet.
• Will there be a toggle so I can go back to the old site if I don't like the change?
  No. In order to facilitate a dark theme and improved accessibility, device responsiveness, and modernize the site overall, this is intended to be a permanent site-wide change.

Dark Mode

The new responsive layout will include the launch of an official Flight Rising Dark Mode!

This is a feature we have wanted to implement for a long time, however there is a great deal of hidden work necessary to make it happen with the degree of polish and future maintainability it deserves.

Images, icons, and backgrounds must be altered to work with other color schemes. Many site elements must be altered to reference entire color pallets, rather than specific color values. So, as with the responsive layout, dark mode will roll out over time as we convert individual pages.

Unfortunately, rapidly switching between supported and unsupported pages can be disruptive or irritating. To avoid this, Dark Mode will launch with an optional override toggle that will allow you to force all pages using the new layout into dark mode, regardless of whether or not that page has been fully optimized to use the dark theme yet.

These pages will be less polished than those that have been fully reworked, but viewing them will be less jarring than switching between the regular and dark modes.




Dark Mode FAQs

• Can I still use browser plugins to alter how the site looks?
  The launch of an official Dark Mode does not change our stance on browser plugins. While we cannot endorse a specific plugin, verify its safety, or guarantee its future compatibility with the site, players may use such plugins as long as they don't alter gameplay.
  
  Please be aware that such plugins will likely need to be updated for the new layout when it goes live, as much of the base code will change.

@Dev Updates