Hello all,

We first started selling our game eight days ago. We've had about 250 downloads and about 30 hits on our order page, but most of those hits were me when setting up the order page. We've also yet to make a sale.

As far as I'm concerned, 250 downloads isn't too bad, but I have nothing to compair it to. Is that decent for just starting out? Should I wait a while before considering my registration incentives weak? Should I start tweaking now?

I could really use some more experienced advice. Does my webpage need to be streamlined? Is the demo too short/have I disabled too many features? Should I rework my registration incentives? Should I just wait it out and see how things go for the first month?

I was going to launch into a long post about how it's too early to panic but it's never too early to improve, hopefully others can give advice but right now I'm too busy... but hey, I'm not *that* busy.

The website looks great, really good first impression with that bright happy banner. Straight away I'm thinking fun. But sordith, you're missing something very important. I don't know how to buy your game!!

Looking at the front page, I can't see a purchase or buy link anywhere. You need big bright "Buy Now" buttons or a Purchase link somewhere. It should be in your main links at the top of the page and at the bottom.

Also, I don't understand why you have a Muttonhead link and an About Us link. At first, I assumed they were both about your company, but now I see it's about the characters in your games. I don't think that needs to be a major link on your pages - replace this with Purchase or Buy Now. (Also, it'd be nice to see pictures of the characters on their dossiers, perhaps in a Polaroid style frame with a little paperclip holding it in place :)

Just a matter of taste, but I'd change the font to some kind of Sans Serif.... Arial, Verdana, Trebuchet, something like that. Unfortunately Times New Roman reminds me of webpages written by people with little HTML experience. Besides that, I really like the look of the pages, they're very clear.

Well, I just found the Buy Now button, tucked away on the Games page. It's about the last place I looked :) It's a shame because your graphics look sooooo pretty, I'd hate to think you're missing sales.

Lastly, I'd make your download link for the game more prominent on the Downloads page. My eyes are drawn first to the (beautiful) wallpapers, and almost as an afterthought I see "oh, and there's a game I can download too". Try making a screenshot next to the download link (maybe of the title screen?) and put one of those beautiful download buttons next to it, perhaps with the HTML link. Draw my eye with your gorgeous GFX! (By the way, the Installer is nearly double the number of KB you say on the page, you should fix that up).

Oh well, I've learnt a lesson today. It's never too early to start tweaking!

Some other thoughts:

You should put the price on your purchase page, I'd rather not have to click through to the shopping cart to see it. Try putting it next to the Buy Now button. (But you may yet find it's better not to show prices, you'll need to test this kind of thing). As it is, the price was $5 more than I expected, but that isn't too expensive by any means.

The installer doesn't give me an option to run the game after it's installed (which confuses me a little - but go easy, I'm a non gamer!). Also it put a shortcut on my desktop and in my start menu that I'd prefer not to be there. Perhaps take a look at Inno Setup (http://www.innosetup.com/) or Ghost Installer (http://www.ginstall.com/), both of which are free and better featured than NSIS. (I use Ghost Installer for my software).

There's no music in the title screen or in game, that left me kind've disappointed. (I was expecting some cool music like Purple Motion's stuff in Wonderland).

I tried playing the game without reading the rules (of course!) and couldn't figure out what's going on - in fact I thought it wasn't working. The rules shouldn't have to load a webpage - try making them images visible in the main window, that I can read through using Previous & Next buttons.

The buy link from within the game asks me to click a link to continue - instead, you could redirect me automatically using the Redirect command in htaccess files on your webserver.

It's a bit hard to tell when tiles are on the same level vertically, and my impression was that it was up to chance whether I won the first level or not, rather than skill.

After seeing your wallpapers and graphics on the site, I thought this was going to be some kind of 3D game with animals (and the Citizen Muttonhead looked like something from the Animal Farm cartoon, so I thought this might be going to be a bit like Animal Farm). Either that, or maybe a platformer with cool characters, something about food. I didn't realize it was going to be a puzzle game. I guess that shows I didn't really read your website closely though.

Hey, congratulations on being the first person here to actually get me to download and try their game! To get a non-gamer to do that is an achievement.

Hmm, I wrote this very long (and insightful :)) reply, but it got lost in the voids of cyberspace. Here is the short version:

- Why bring up the "News" page as the first thing a visitor to your site sees? I would show the "Games" page instead.

- The information about Tigamadag on the "Games" page is very short and doesn't really tell me anything about the game. I am forced to click "More Info" to find out what the game actually does, but you're not giving me any reason to do so. I would put more info about the game here, including a nice screenshot. Maybe also compare it to other games to give people an idea what it is all about ("it's like Tetris meets Monopoly, etc").

- I suppose you will be putting more games on your website in the future, but for now you could even put all the Tigamadag info on the "Games" page.

- The installer clutters the start menu with shortcuts and whatnot. Granted, it's all under the Muttonhead group, but it looks unprofessional to me. I really hate it when installers do that.

- I downloaded and installed the game a few days ago. I uninstalled it after 2 minutes. Why? I could not be bothered to read your "rules" file to find out how to play the game. I would add an in-game tutorial ("How to Play") to explain the basics.

- The dropshadow on Windows XP pull-down menus flickers somehow. Are you repainting the window very often?

I hope you will take this as constructive criticism :). It looks like Tigamadag could be a fun game, but you really have to give people more reasons for downloading and playing it.

Oh, and about the uninstaller: it removed everything from the start menu but left the Muttonhead group and the link to your website. Bad bad bad. :mad:

mmm feedback, lovely sweet feedback. Thank you.

SyneRyder:
My artist will have my head, but I'll get a buy link up there somewhere. Maybe throw 'games' into 'downloads' and make the first button a buy link. Sound good?

I should probably change the text from 'muttonhead' to 'characters' or maybe 'cast'. I'm hoping to eventually market my loveable set of characters instead of a group of unrelated games. That way our games will be instantly recognized (I hope). We're in Orlando, so we obviously thought of Disney. Because of this, I'd like to leave that link at the top. I've been meaning to add pictures to the dossiers instead of making them a link for a while. Thanks for reminding me.

Installer: I'll give the other installers a shot and add some more options (start menu, desktop shortcut, and run after install).

Music: Not to go into too many details, but we had a professional who was doing the music who didn't act all that professional. Waiting for the music set us back by about six months. We eventually decided to release without music. I agree with you 100% on this, but unfortunately we couldn't swing it for this version.

Rules: just about everyone has said this so far. I'll add a tutorial or flash some simple instructions before the first level.

"It's a bit hard to tell when tiles are on the same level vertically"
God, I wish I knew how to fix this. We did a 180 on the gameplay about a month and a half ago. Originally, this wasn't an issue. With the new gameplay it is. We'll continue to work on it, though.

Game type: We came up with the MuttonHead concept after this game was three months in the works. Most of the games we have planned after this one will include MuttonHead and the other characters. We're planning a platformer, a barnyard wars game, and our next game is another puzzle game called "Mutton Cannon" (yes, you shoot sheep).

Thanks for downloading the game and giving feedback. I hope game doesn't scare you off :)

Matthijs:

I'll try to consolidate all the game info onto to downloads page and the Tigamadag page. I'll throw some descriptions and a screenshot on the downloads page.

Installer/UnInstaller:
If I had the uninstaller get rid of the MuttonHead group, it would wipe out any of our other games installed. There's probably some way around that though. I agree it's cluttered, and I dislike random links thrown into my start menu, but I'm now an evil buisness man and I'm to do evil buisness type things. Do I continue to promote my site even after they decide to uninstall? That's a tough ethical question. Any thoughts?

"The dropshadow on Windows XP pull-down menus flickers somehow."
Yes, I'm repainting often. Does it flicker constantly, or only when the menu is being used? This is a known bug which I have to work on yet.

Thank you for the feedback. I take all criticism as constructive criticism. How else am I to improve than to have my peers point out my mistakes (laughing optional)?

If I had the uninstaller get rid of the MuttonHead group, it would wipe out any of our other games installed. The point is, you should get rid of the separate Muttonhead group altogether :). Consider this:

1) You currently don't have any other games.
2) How likely is it that people will have more than one of your games installed for a long period of time?
3) Pointing people at your site to get other free game demos will most likely increase your downloads but decrease sales. The reason is simple: why would anyone buy if they can get more playtime for free by downloading your other demos? (Alternatively, you can point them at your other games when they uinstall, or after they bought one.) You may want to experiment with this, though.

Does it flicker constantly, or only when the menu is being used?Well, obviously only when the menu is open because otherwise the dropshadow isn't visible :)

"It's a bit hard to tell when tiles are on the same level vertically" God, I wish I knew how to fix this.It's only a problem initially. By about the third level I'd worked it out - was still a little awkward, but not impossible. And it completely changed the gameplay when I worked it out, until then it seemed a lot more random.

Maybe throw 'games' into 'downloads' and make the first button a buy link.I'd be inclined to make it at least the second link (for some reason I expect to see Buy Now around the middle or to the right), but anywhere up there sounds fine. You should add an HTML link to the page at the bottom ASAP regardless. Consolidating Games and Downloads sounds like a good strategy.

you should get rid of the separate Muttonhead groupNot sure that I agree with this, the Microsoft guidelines are that you should do it exactly the way you have. I'd be inclined to get rid of the shortcut to your website though (do people actually use those?) or at least move the shortcut into the Start Folder for your game. Just throw the shortcut in with each of your games. You'll also increase the chances of it being clicked! :)

I had the uninstaller get rid of the MuttonHead group, it would wipe out any of our other games installed.That just shouldn't happen. If that's the only option your installer is giving, you need a new installer (as you've already said you'd look at). The installer shouldn't delete the folder if there's still files in there.

the Microsoft guidelines are that you should do it exactly the way you haveTo each his own, of course, but I'd rather not annoy potential customers than follow whatever Microsoft fancies.

Apparently, it is also a Microsoft guideline to not put Uninstall in the program group (so users will have to pay a visit to the control panel). Personally, I do not think that is a very good guideline either. Especially if you tend to uninstall most of the software you try out, to begin with :)

Screeenshot! As soon as I clicked on Games, I wanted to see at least one screenshot from the game right away.
Also. no matter what your first page is, there should be a screenshot of the game as well, I think.

I made the changes to the web site. There is now a buy games link at the top, and the games link is no more. The Tigamadag entry that was previously on the games page is now on the downloads page and is accompanied by a screenshot.

I need Javascript enabled to buy from you? no way! :)
(maybe find a service which doesn't need JS)