Hi, I'm making a home page for my game and wanted you to tell me your comments. Notice that Im not including any kind of 'Buy' info because I still don't know if it will be commercialized or not.
Some friends of mine like it, some say it is a bit 'strong' of colors.
Well, you're the experts here, thanks in advance. Rob.
Oh, I almost forget it, the web page is: http://monkeysodyssey.servegame.com/

I think it looks good. I cerntainly don't have any complaint about the colors. I think it fits. Yellow like bananas (your monkeys do eat bananas, right) and orange like...I don't know, monkeys probably eat some type of orange fruit.

The one complaint I do have is that the top logo bar occuplies way too much of the screen. This may not be a big deal if you end up just giving the game away for fun or whatever, but if you wish to end up selling the game eventually, this could be detrimental to the selling power of the site. You want to catch a customer's eye right away, and throw things that sell right in their face. As it is, half their screen will be yelling "Monkeys Odyssey" at them on every page, and they will be left saying "yeah, so what's your point?". If they come through your front door, they will have already seen the logo nice and big...they don't need to see it much anymore. Make the title bar and nav bar 1/2 of what it is now, maybe 1/3 would be even better.

I'm not expert (yet) but here's my C&Cs:

I don't mind the colors. The text is easy to read, the background is not too noisy, and the site organization is pretty straightforward and easy to grasp.

I don't think the splash screen buys you much. It was a little slow to download and the first thing I saw was "click the logo to enter" but there was no logo. It then loaded in. For selling the game it's just extra sceen a user has to go through, so I'd get rid of it.

I agree with the other post, the header is pretty big. I'd shrink it, for sure. The graphic is good, I like the logo.

I'd move the Highscore on the homepage to the bottom and put your game details at the top. Try to expand on the "original gameplay" aspect so we know why we'll like your game. Paint a picture with words. I'm pretty bad at that, but Dexterity is really good at it; like the first sentence off of the Once Twice Thrice text: "Join three adventurous wizards who control the elements of earth, fire, and water." That sentence just makes you want to find out more. Adventure? Wizards? controlling the elements? Cool!

I like the "Game details" bullet points (i need to add some of those to my site)

I think the home page needs some screenshot thumbnails, before the powerups.

I like the powerups, although I think they take up too much room. the way they're done right now make me want to click them. I'd shrink them pretty tight and perhaps put a link to a screenshot of that powerup in action.

I like the highscores page, and the "do you think you could do better?". I'd make that a link to the download page. I think the highscores table shows the game is active and being enjoyed by people.

When I make thumbnails (small images) for screenshots, I tend not to just shrink the full shot, but I crop it to get some cool details, then I shrink that. this makes the subject in a thumbnail bigger. When I look at your thumbnails, I see mostly the cool blue background, and so all the thumbnails look similar. But if each thumbnail were a closeup of the action for that shot, each thumbnail would look very diffierent. Check out my screenshots to see what I'm talking about: http://www.monolux.com/games/rocknorsbadday/screenshots.htm

One other thing I try to do is I try to put an action item at the bottom of every page. Becuase the way I see it, if people are reading the page and come to the end and there's nothing to click, they may be more inclined to visit a different website. It's like reading a book: when you get to the bottom of a page, you want to turn it. On my site I try to evaluate what I want the (potential) customer to do and drive them to do it. So, on the main pages, at the bottom of each page, I drive them to the free download. I could drive them to store, but we all know most people are going to want to play the demo first.

All the links and whatnot in the free demo drive them to pages that promote the full version.

I'd but a contact link in there. I don't think anyone will pay money to someone who doesn't list who they are. I'm working on getting a PO box now for my contact page. I think that will instill more confindence in people thinking of paying money.


Hope you like my C&Cs. I think it's a good site.

Hanford

Thank you very much for taking your time to 'review' my site. I agree 100% with you about all your points. The best idea is the one about the thumbnails. I'll implement that today.
I'll also remove the highscores from the main page, maybe put some screenshots in before the powerups and reduce the size of the main bar.
Hey, thanks again!