Enticing people to join

[mindstorm8191]

Hello everyone. I am currently working on a computer game where you play the entire game from a website. It is a realtime strategy style game, and I'll be offering it for free.

The game has quite a ways to go with it yet, but I plan on continually working on it for a good while. One problem I see right now, though, is enticing people who come to the site to at least give the game a try. It'll require people to register to the site, but it doesn't require email authentication. I don't have much to work with yet (only front-page contents), so I was wondering if someone could provide some input.

My website is http://vesuvious.x10hosting.com. If anyone can provide some advice on what to show on the front page, I'd appreciate it.

 

[risendead]

First a graphical header or something would be nice.

Have the body centered instead of off to the left.

Make the username and pass text input box line up better.

More graphics or style. Maybe a menu or something.

When signing up fix this:
mode=3, level=1, count=0
...err, ignore that, its just debugging data!

When signing up for a pass use password input type:
<input type = "password" name = "" value = "" />

I know it doesn't encrypt it or anything when using the password input, but people do feel safer typing in their password when it appears on screen as bullets instead of plain text in open view.

Hope this helps.

 

[mindstorm8191]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I do understand that a nicer-looking page would help, and I do have a bit of debugging data still showing up (that signup part is probably working fine now). I will try to fix the password thing as soon as I can, sounds simple to do.

Can anyone think of other ways to encourage people to sign up? Like perhaps a more detailed description of the game? Or perhaps an enticing description of various high-level units? Risendead, I know I haven't provided any instructions on how to play, but did you pick up on what to do at all? In-game instructions is something else I plan on adding, really soon.

Any help here would be appreciated. I'm hoping I can get this game to take off, somewhat... but then it does still have quite a lot of work left do be done.

 

[risendead]

Sorry didn't realize that's what you were asking. :happysad:

Anyways yes I would add F.A.Q. and maybe a beginners walk-through or a tutorial mode explaining things that can be turned on or off.

Through guessing and clicking I think I know what to do, but it wouldn't allow me to upgrade or anything. I kept receiving errors. It seems like you start off at your base. Through farming and resource gathering you would build up you fortress and then possibly expand. I definitely think a walk-through at least to get the player started off in the right track would be nice. A game forum would be helpful as well players could post bugs or talk to other players to get help.

A couple screen shots of the game would be helpful as well. That way the viewer knows what to expect before signing up. On the e-mail thing when signing up, it should say (optional) next to it or something that way people will know immediately that they don't have to fill it out.

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I tried logging into the game a moment ago and received this message:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@vesuvious.x10hosting.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

 

[asoit]

Try to make an attractive graphical interface - that will make it more interesting

 

[mindstorm8191]

Risen, thanks for the ideas, I will definitely make a FAQ to help people learn about the game more. I also plan on having some in-game instructions, probably only by a single message when the player start. I guess I was avoiding trying to build some kind of sample space for someone to learn to play - that'd be more than I could handle!

asoit, I'd like to make the interface more graphical, with a nice dark atmosphere to fit the Vesuvius name, but I don't have the means yet! I could surely use some help in the graphics department right now.

 

[risendead]

Here's a header if your looking for an image. Just some quick ones I threw together.

http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss318/qwertysam09/header.png

Altered color:
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss318/qwertysam09/header2.png

Here's a skinnier version:
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss318/qwertysam09/header-s2.png

Altered color (skinnier version):
http://i587.photobucket.com/albums/ss318/qwertysam09/header-s.png

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Seems your sight has an infinite loop running. I get this message repeatedly and it just keeps going.

Warning: mysql_error(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL-Link resource in /home/danbar10/public_html/include/event.php on line 93

 

[mindstorm8191]

Thanks for the info Risen, I added something to my event system to keep bugs out, and I used mysql_error() instead of mysql_query() - oops!

 

[freecrm]

The first impression I had was.... er.. half the page was telling me about a game you play online - good! but didn't really tell me what sort of gam other than its seems like a RTS.

I like good graphics in a game - so the page wasn't a good invite!

If you don't need an e-mail address to register - say so!! A lot of people won't register because they don't want junk e-mails or pass personal details on.

Try not to take up half your text telling people theres a problem on the site - it aint good advertising and people probably won't come back, fearing that it might "break my laptop" or something just as rediculous!

Hope this was of some help

I didn't register - sorry

 

[Livewire]

I'd still post about problems but I would shorten them up to "Fixed a glitch in the event system," and leave it at that - users dun need to know exactly what the glitch was, just that there was one and it's fixed, so if they experienced a problem with it, it should be fixed, or they need to file a bug report.

Does need graphics too, it's pretty plain looking. Only reason I didn't register though is because I'm not big on most online games, although I'm still working on one of my own (which also has zippo graphics right now too). For the purposes of bug-testing, zero graphics is nice, but it definitely is key to getting people to stick around once you've got enough of the game running