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View Full Version : How Front Page Screen Shots Attract Customers


APE
10-16-2002, 08:23 AM
Can any usefull information be gathered as to how the screen shots on the main page influence potential customers to look at the specific game pages? I understand that the pics need to be small to keep the page-loads fast and so that more games are on the screen at one time without scrolling, but sometimes they're so scunched up that they don't show much about the game other than just how colorful it is. For example, Stockboy is a stellar game, but its screen shot on the main page here is a cramped little postage stamp that reveals nothing about the game.

Are there any significant differences between how many views the individual game pages get? And is there any evidence to credit this to the pic on the main page?

Perhaps a better attract screen could be made for some games. To use Stockboy as an example again: Perhaps instead of a screen shot that shows a 20tilex20tile game screen, mabey use a 6tilex6tile portion of a game screen that shows some significant game elements. Or perhaps in game screens aren't the best way to go, and other character art or game concept art would be a better draw from the front page into a game page.

Also, another strategy to get a customer's attention is to give them something new to look at. Just like how the nag screens in many games rearrange themselves at random just so the player has to take an extra second and look more carefully, would it be a good idea to rotate the front page pics from time to time. A new pic may get a new customer onto the game page of a game they had previously ignored. Or it may get a few more precious seconds of interest from a customer who's already downloaded the demo but aren't yet sure they want to register. If they see something interesting in the screen, that they haven't seen in the demo, they may check out the demo again.

Midnight
10-16-2002, 08:49 AM
Dont' have any statistics yet, but that's what we're trying with our next game, Wonderland, at http://www.midnightsynergy.com/wonderland

The small shots were just fuzzy blobs of colour, so we just took a quarter of a gameplay screen and displayed that. If a user clicks on the image they get the full-screen full-size version of that pic.

Dexterity
10-16-2002, 09:24 AM
We don't have statistics on linking the thumbnail images to game page hits at present, but it would be an interesting thing to try. Down the road we'll also experiment with variations on the text. Right now we're more focused on getting the macro elements right first.

Fenix Down
10-16-2002, 05:27 PM
Originally posted by Midnight
Dont' have any statistics yet, but that's what we're trying with our next game, Wonderland, at http://www.midnightsynergy.com/wonderland

The small shots were just fuzzy blobs of colour, so we just took a quarter of a gameplay screen and displayed that. If a user clicks on the image they get the full-screen full-size version of that pic.

Yeah that seems to be what Blizzard does (http://www.blizzard.com/war3/).