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Mattias Gustavsson
Mage
Joined: 10 Nov 2007
Posts: 457
Location: Royal Leamington Spa, UK
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 Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:25 am Post subject: Starting my own portal... |
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Well, not really, it's just made to look a bit like one. Or not.
www.TopHatArcade.com
What I really wanted to do is collect a lot of the nice indie games out there from the genres Roleplaying, Simulation and Strategy, and present them in a clean, consistent manner, and in a way that sets them apart from all the "casual" games which dominate the major portals. A little thing to act as a tiny counterweight to the casual games things...
It's really just an affiliate sales site, and I'm not planning on this being a cash-cow: I have no marketing budget for starters. It's more something I want to do "for the community", as they say. Maybe it will get some developers one or two extra sales, and that'd be great - and it doesn't really matter much to me if they buy from my site or the developer directly, which is why I have nice clear links to the developers sites.
It's early days, and I've only added three games so far, but I thought I'd try for some early feedback from you guys...
So, any thoughts and feelings on this is highly appreciated. Is it a useless idea to start with? Is there any point at all to doing this? Is the site too freaky looking or full of flaws? Too boring?
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Verious
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Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 409
Location: Online
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| Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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Overall I like the style of the site; however, I would recommend using an interface like Lightbox 2 for the screenshots instead of opening them in a new window.
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Mattias Gustavsson
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Joined: 10 Nov 2007
Posts: 457
Location: Royal Leamington Spa, UK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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no way! I really dislike those types of things, just makes it awkward if you want to quickly look through a bunch of screenies. And I'm not alone in thinking that - a lot of people like being able to just click all the images and then go look at other stuff while they load. In a tabbed browser, it's so much nicer.
But thanks for the suggestion :-)
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine
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Verious
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Joined: 06 Jan 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 2:53 pm Post subject: |
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I understand your point of view, but keep in mind, most people use Internet Explorer as their main browser, which opens "_blank" in a new window as opposed to Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, which all open "_blank" in a new tab.
There are many unobtrusive variants of Lighbox that do not break the browser's default CTRL+CLICK (or SHIFT+CLICK) behaviour; one such variant is Lighbox Gone Wild, which gives control back to the user by allowing them to choose where the new content will load as opposed to forcing the content to open in a new window.
Overall, I think Lighbox style functionality improves the user experience for the average user when implemented properly.
Just my two cents, in the end I guess it comes down to personal preference.
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Mattias Gustavsson
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Joined: 10 Nov 2007
Posts: 457
Location: Royal Leamington Spa, UK
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| Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 3:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Verious wrote: | | Just my two cents, in the end I guess it comes down to personal preference. |
Yes, I think you're right. I still value your input on this though :-)
| Verious wrote: | | Overall, I think Lighbox style functionality improves the user experience for the average user when implemented properly. |
You sure about that? When reading on various forums, I've mostly seen developers praise this type of tech, while users would just as soon have ordinary links to click... Would be interesting to see if there's any statistics indicating either way...
(oh, and btw, middle-clicking in IE opens a link in a new tab, which is quite useful)
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www.mattiasgustavsson.com - My blog
www.rivtind.com - My Fantasy world and isometric RPG engine
www.pixieuniversity.com - Software 2D Game Engine
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Rainer Deyke
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Joined: 05 Jun 2002
Posts: 672
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| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 2:55 am Post subject: |
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I browse with NoScript. Count that as a strong vote against clever Javascript.
However, the correct behavior for links is to open in the same tab of the same window. If I want a link to open in a new tab, I'll middle-click.
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DeveloperX
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Joined: 04 May 2003
Posts: 1626
Location: Decatur, IL, USA
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| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:28 am Post subject: |
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| Rainer Deyke wrote: | I browse with NoScript. Count that as a strong vote against clever Javascript.
However, the correct behavior for links is to open in the same tab of the same window. If I want a link to open in a new tab, I'll middle-click. |
I agree completely.
I use NoScript as well, and I don't like new windows opening up on me.
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Verious
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| Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Rainer Deyke wrote: | | I browse with NoScript. Count that as a strong vote against clever Javascript. |
Unobtrusive JavaScript means the website developer has separated presentation code from behavior code and if they have followed best practices, the website will degrade gracefully and will not fail when JavaScript is disabled or unavailable.
| DeveloperX wrote: | | I use NoScript as well, and I don't like new windows opening up on me. |
Keep in mind, an anchor tag with a target of "_blank" will still open in a new window/tab regardless of whether JavaScript is enabled.
Mattias, the new game you added, "Be a King" looks pretty cool. Reminds me a bit of Warcraft back when it was a RTS game.
I noticed the following information seems to be missing from the game description pages:
- Number of players the game supports (local/network)
- Whether the game can be played over a network
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Mattias Gustavsson
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Joined: 10 Nov 2007
Posts: 457
Location: Royal Leamington Spa, UK
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Verious
Mage
Joined: 06 Jan 2004
Posts: 409
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| Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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There appears to be an RSS feed available for Top Hat Arcade, but the file is missing (404 Page Not Found).
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