We are looking at changing our website http://www.addictive247.co.uk over the next couple of months.

It would be great if you guys could have a look around it and give me some opinions on what you like/dislike and any other general feedback.

Cheers!
Marc.

What strikes me right away is that the site is currently very dark and not cheerful or positive at all.

You are selling 'fun' and the site should reflect it, so some happy colors and some playful design elements would fit quite well.
Just don't overdo the cheerful thing. One hundred buttons blinking in all possible colors will not work :D (Many sites have this problem, they aim for too much cheerfulness and overload the site, which just confuses and annoys the visitors in the end)

A really good site always transports emotions to the viewer in order to maximize the results. (sell more games in your case)
The subliminal part should not be underestimated. Afterall your goal is to create a desire, to make the viewer really want to buy a game.
Approaching him with facts, and openly showing him how good the games are is only a part of the whole process. You also need to put him in the right mood.
Colors and forms have a huge influence on which emotions we associate with things and which desires flash through the back of our heads.
There are some great books on color-psychology or how archaic forms influence us. Very good literature for anyone who works on websites. (or any other design-work)

Also, if the user enters the site and has the feeling it is unfitting, amateurish or too boring, there is a chance he won't take an indepth look at your information at all and will never see how good your product is, even if you provide a lot of infornmation. If he clicks away, he won't see it.

So you need to get the users attention right away. Maybe use an eyecatcher when he enters the site, present one game in the center, with a nice screenshot or something like that.
'Catch' the user and make him want to see more. People have extremely short attention spans nowadays, you need to keep them entertained and interested or they will leave.

well, generally all needed info is shown and good thing that you place your games so visible. that's always good.

some notes:
-Your base "architecture" is okay and info is shown clearly
-I dislike if people use more colors than it is necessary. For example you have at least six different colored links (green, blue, white with red background, red with yellow background, yellow, white...). Your text is shown differently depending on page (color and layout is changed. Sometimes it's yellow text sometimes white text. Sometimes it's black text on white background. sometimes centered sometimes not. I'd suggest you get rid of extra colors and only use the colors what you use in your logo. Black, blue, brown and white.
-The other big issue is that I personally don't like "advertising" ("joinjoinjoin it's freefreefree"). I would simply put one link and say honestly the "benefits" you got if you join. No any extra rubbish.
-Your games are shown good, that's a big plus.
-Ah, missing image link in the first page ;)

My estimation: good ground for good pages, needs a bit refurbishin ;)

Thanks for the comments so far. Some good points were made. If anyone has any other comments then please let us know.

I have to agree with some of the other posters... your site is very dark and it doesn't really suggest "fun". Depending on the audience you are trying to reach I suppose the dark look could be a good thing, but if you are looking for mass market acceptance I'd try to lighten things up somehow.

Your site could use some additional "graphical elements". Right now, other than your logo, everything is simple and very... rectangular... The Dexterity site is also simple, but Steve uses rounded edges for his boxes. This extra little touch helps give it a professional look.

While not really a big deal, at higher resolutions your logo and navigation buttons (home, games, in-dev, etc.) are shoved way over to the left, while everything else on the page is nicely centered. Justification is a problem on other pages, as well, particularly the ones with Game info. On my machine (1280 x 960) the RotaDim logo isn't centered over the "Watch the hours fly by..." caption.

Your "Games" page is almost identical to your "Home" page, it just has less information. I clicked on the Games button looking for new information, but I got the exact same information... presented exactly the same way. Perhaps you could include more screenshots, or a longer description of each title.

On the "Purchase" page, it might be nice if the name of each game was a link to a product page (opened in a new window). Someone ordering RotaDim, for example, might see that Smucs is only $5.25 and think, "Hmm. That's cheap. What is that game about again?" It would be nice if they didn't have to leave the order page to go 'look up' info about another product.

Your 20 Day Money Back Guarantee button doesn't seem to be linked to more information. I wanted to read more about your guarantee because at the bottom of the screen there is a note that says: "Refunds will be given at the discretion of the Company Management" (That doesn't sound like much of a 'guarantee'...)

On the plus side, the contest is a great idea. And I think your information is well organized. I also like all the quotes and awards on your product information pages!

Originally posted by Addictive 247
Thanks for the comments so far. Some good points were made. If anyone has any other comments then please let us know.

Hi Addictive,

How is it going with your Cosmi deal?

Best Regards,
Johnson

Thanks John for all your comments. A lot of the things you mention are things we are looking at changing. It's nice to have someone else clarify them though.

To answer Johnson's question about Cosmi - Everything is going very well. The guys at Cosmi are doing a nice job of the box artwork. The CD is going into production this month and it should be out in the shops for March/April. We also got a nice cheque through for handing over the master CD!

Can you explain why you get paid upfront for giving a master CD? I haven't heard of this before.

Receiving a payment upon delivery of gold master is extremely common in retail publishing. There may be other milestone payments as well, depending on how the deal is structured.

This was just one of the terms in the contract - as soon as the master CD was received by Cosmi then they would send us a cheque.

We will also get royalty payments every quarter.