Hi Forum,

I didnt realise this section was here. Hazard Ball has been available for a few weeks now, from what I can tell there has been a lot of downloads. Currently 400+ from www.avault.com alone! But I'm not having any luck what-so-ever. I have added the game to as many sites as I possibly can.

This is my very 1ST game release and attempt of a shareware game, I'm very proud of what I have achieved so far but no results yet.

With the comments from experienced indies perhaps I could get some feedback on what I could be missing which will help things get going.

Hazard Ball game and website can be found at

www.hazardball.com (http://www.hazardball.com)

Response on the site design and the demo, as well as any other comments, would be very appreciated!

Thanks again

Chris.

Is it possible to play the game in a window. For some reason your game doesn't work in full screen. ( I get the same problem with all allegro games )

Looks like rock n roll / factor 5 is back :)

thanks
pat.

Thanks for trying it,

No window support as the game runs in 8bit. Is there an error when you try to play? Rock n roll was a great game :)

I haven't tried the game yet, but I have some comments on the web site.

The screenshots are small and mostly a kind of muddy colour.
All that Courier text is really not tempting me to read it.
Maybe the award graphics could be bigger so I can read what they say.
The Hall of Fame looks pretty sad with no entries.
The documentation page is very long - maybe you could break it up a bit.

Just some thoughts.. hope this helps.

I'm using the Opera web browser and your game's homepage is just...white. there's nothing there.

ok fair enough, any suggestions about the scoreboard? take it out?

I'll change the font and make screen shots bigger.. and split up the help documentation.

Aggrav8d : To see if I could find the problem I installed Opera web browser but it still appeared fine here? What OS are you running?

Thanks.

Shows up in Opera fine for me too.

Whew!

I have just revamped the website for Hazard Ball!

if you dont mind, could you re-test it Aggrav8d?

I would also suggest getting your own domain. I know I personally would be hesitant to buy software from a site that wasn't a ".com" or ".net". I usually think If they can't afford $15 a year for a domain name, then why should I pay $15-20 for their product? It just looks too amateur and when you're trying to get people to pull out their credit cards, you want your site to look as professional as possible. It's not enough to just show screen shots and a download link, if you want to generate actual sales through your website then you need to inspire consumer confidence with all aspects of your website and that includes the domain name.

Also, having a domain name makes it easier for people to remember your web address. You current domain name of "http://homepage.ntlworld.com/online.gaming/hazardball/" is not at all easy to remember. The Kickme url isn't much better.

Chris, I would consider taking a long look at the logo in the top left (ball of wool ?) and the "Hazard Ball" text itself. Perhaps something more dynamic, to suggest danger, hazard, excitement. Is that what those kind of thorns on the letters are for ?

Don't take this badly, it's easier for me to criticise your web site than work on my own problems :)

Thank you for your advice,

I have now registrered a domain which will be available within 48 hours!!

So the logo and title for Hazard Ball needs updating? This is something that I have changed about 5 times. Is there anywhere you can suggest I can get help to improve it? personally I quite like it but I'm always open to suggestions I just dont feel I can make it "better" now..

Thanks again :)

Hi again :D

www.hazardball.com (http://www.hazardball.com) is now up and running. The site has been slightly updated again and since my last post here I have actually had a review on Hazard Ball from GamersHell.com!! (see link on hzb site)

So how is the site now?

Thanks for the advice,

Chris

That's a pretty good review! Nice one! I'm a bit disturbed that the game reviewer doesn't have a joystick - not exactly hardcore is he :)