Please check out Grey Alien Games' new site layout

Hi all,

I've spent all day redesigning my site http://www.greyaliengames.com
so that:

- the main page is now a games summary page, not some crappy "about" page.
- each game now has it's own mini page with screenshots, system requirements, download and buy buttons etc.
- all the free stuff/demos are no longer on the main "pro" games page
- Xmas Bonus (last year's hit) is now live on this site, fully wrapped etc. In fact I'm selling it at 50% off so take a gander!
- The Easter Bonus download button doesn't work yet, i'll wrap and upload it tomorrow.

Anyway, please have a poke around and feel free to comment - I may even take you seriously ;-) (Oh, and please state which browser you are using, thanks)

I've got a newsletter so if you are interested please sign up! (click news on the menu bar).

Also, if you want to buy Holiday Bonus as a present for yourself or loved one, I've set up a special 10% DISCOUNT for Blitzers! Just use this discount code: UYR000HR

Coming soon: a Grey Alien BlitzMax Game Framework page...

As a matter of interest, I highly recommend Innosetup: it's free and RAD, with great Help. I got everything I wanted done in 30 minutes! I also recommend Armadillo Pro (and I know a sneaky way to get 10% off), although it's a bit tricky to understand and has some major interface issues, once it works it's cool :-) Also I recommend Windows Notepad - invaluable.

I look forward to hearing from y'all. Took me all day and I'm off to bed now...

That is a really attractive design, Grey!
It's very cleanly organized :)

Just one thing:
The bit at the bottom of the home page with "More free games and demos" looks a bit odd because it has the same background colour as the surrounding area. It looks broken as a result; as though its background fell off and was forgotten. The link style also looks a bit off to me, partly because it's bigger even than the "Featured game" title!
Have you tried putting the "Free games and demos" link as another entry that blends with the other games?

Mr. Picklesworth: Great, thanks for the feedback.

Yeah that bit at the bottom gave me a headache for ages. I could remove it and rely on the "Free" part of the menu. Or as you say shrink the link. But as for the background, it's supposed to be white. Could move over to the left and have only one picture so it looks like one of the other games, but then although it may look neat, it won't stand out (maybe I shouldn't worry about that). Oh the dilemma!

I like it, it's clear and uncluttered and easy to navigate.

either your counter is broken, or www.dampes8n.com gets more hits than you...

Look impressive and professional.

Feeling like a game portal also, good start.

Can't read any of the text (it is too small to read from the couch, and the layout screws up if I try to enlarge it), and there is way, WAY too much whitespace on the page for my likeing.

I like it, but I'm not a good judge since I generally like anything other then sites with dark purple background with blueberry text. (not meant as a negative on your site in any way, but rather on my ability to compare)

Thanks for your input people.

DampeS8N: it hasn't had any marketing yet.

Good that's the idea. Pro look gives the buyers confidence in the games and company.

Text is no smaller than other sites - in fact it's medium. Altering the text size does nothing on my PC because it's all a fixed size (Except for the menu and footer), certainly the layout doesn't screw up so I'm a bit non-plussed. What res do you run at that makes lots of whitespace (or do you mean greyspace around the actual page?)

wha? www.dampes8n.com has been around about as long as your counter says yours has. And I'm sure you can tell that my site has almost nothing on it and I'd be crazy to market it... although. www.dampes8n.com/timebridge/ could be the cause. It gets the most hits...

I link to dampes8n.com here, on DA, on www.williambralldesign.com and on places like myspace and okcupid... that's it... Can't really call that marketing.

Jake,

I like it a lot and agree as above it is clear and uncluttered. You can see exactly what you want to see.

Nice work.

IPete2.

DampeS8N: ACtually my web stats show a lot more hits, my counter shows less for some reason.

IPete2: Yeah I like things simple and effective, actually takes a while to get it like that.

Simple, straight forward and easy to use.

Seems like you accomplished your goal.

Site's OK but please ditch the hit counter. It makes the place look as tacky as those god-awful 'Comet Cursor' things everybody on Geocities uses.

Only you need to know how many visitors you get, and you can do that through web stats I assume.

Yeah, I guess a long time ago I was proud of the hit counter. I can just turn the display off.

I would ditch the google ads, they do nothing to make your site appealing.

Also why is the blog on a secure server? That makes no sense.

I didn't say it was. Most other sites are equally annoying. However I wouldn't have guessed you'd be the kind of person who measures yourself by other peoples mediocrity. Each letter on screen is about 8mm tall. There is no way you can read that two and a half meters away

Hold down CTRL and scroll the wheel. Watch all the content disappear off screen until only a cut in half menu remains.

1920x1200 on my laptop, 1380x720 on the real computer.

It depends on the browser, in IE7 doing that zooms in and out of the page, and changing the text size only affects the menu. In Firefox it screws up royally.

Another site with google ads - <sigh>

I know, I know, but they make me money. Maybe programmers don't like them but your average customer doesn't give a stuff, the portals are plastered in ads.

This totally doesn't occur for me, all that happens is the font size on the menu changes. what browser please?

well that explains a lot. Not exactly normal resolutions for customers. Lots of other sites must look similar i.e. lots of whitespace.

Testing in Firefox is on my to do list. As for how to fix any firefox problems, I really won't have a clue as my web programming skills are next to 0.

OK just tested in Firefox. It doesn't like bgcolor=FFFFFF (IE is OK with it), so I had to change to bgcolor="#FFFFFF" and now the google adds and "more free games and demos" have a white background not grey. Now I understand what you mean Mr. Picklesworth!

It is always a good idea to check if your website is actually corretly constructed ... and no our current one isn't :)

Code in Firefox, and then fix for IE.

Also try conditional statements

	<!--[if lte IE 6]>
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.pjio.com/css/ie_fix.css" type="text/css" />
	<![endif]-->

fredborg: Yeah my site will no doubt bomb like a pig on one of validator sites. Oh so it does. I may fix this given some more time...

Indiepath. Thing is most "target market" customers don't use Mozilla, maybe yours do, but then that's exactly why you are always having to make IE fixes, I'd personally rather it was the other way round. Anyway the If statement is cool thanks. Plus I may need to talk to you about this hosting "deal" v. soon...

Firefox 1.5.0.8

I think it's funny how people who sell games to the "casual" market make assumptions about how people who play casual game would rather play a game on their antique 1990's laptop or whatever, rather than their brand new MPC they have hooked up to their HDTV.

Yes they are. Which is why I'm not buying anything from them either. I can't be arsed to get up from the sofa in order to buy a videogame.

Not being funny but its hardly Grey Alien's fault if you sit so far away from your monitor that you can't read anything on it.

Oh, and update your browser. It might be borked in IE3 also, but who really cares?

The market being targetted doesn't have an MPC hooked up to a new HDTV. They're running Windows 98 on a shitty CPU.

Checked it and purchased the Holiday Bonus, which immediately stopped any further checking of the site. ;-)

Mmmm... now.. which level am I on at the moment?

Barney

Does that validator, give any website the thumbs up?

Ross... I've had sites that validated ok. Also have ones that validate ok and still look different in each browser.. so it doesn't really mean all that much to me any more.

I'm probly going to buy the Wizard of Oz one soon. I'd get Holiday Bonus but I'd get all depressed playing a christmas game in January I think.

Grey, it's interesting to see big fish games released a very simliar game today called 'Holiday Gift'....hmm.....

RoastDuck: Yeah I gotta agree with Warren, you are not the target market - but hey I apprecitae your feedback anyway thanks as it made me get round to fixing the duff table colour in firefox issue.

Barnabius: Cool! You dude are the first of many :-) I haven't really started the advertising etc but it's all about to kick off soon. Enjoy!

re: the validator. Like I said I may give it a try just, if anything, to stop web purists going "ne ne ne nah na your site isn't validated and you stink ;-p" or something ;-)

GfK: I'm flattered, glad u like it. Holiday Bonus is slightly better inmo but the fundamentals are the same. However, OZ has diagonals and HB has the double power gauge which adds some pretty cool tactics :-)

You should get Holiday Bonus sooner rather than later, Gfk. I got it today and am enjoying it a lot. And I don't think I'll be depressed when playing it in January (or anytime). It's a nice relaxing game with good non-intrusive sound. It does not frantically push you into any direction. You do everything in your own time at your own speed. Just the way I like it.

Barney

That sounds like a clever marketing strategy. Target people with no money.

Edit: Oh and by the way, argueing that people who are not in your target market segment (whatever that is) should be prevented from buying your game is the most absurb thing I've ever heard.

Another sale, yay. Wonder if they bought it on their giant TV hooked up to their PC or not?

Even more 'absurb' than sitting so far away from the TV that you can't read anything on it? o.O

Next time, Grey, would you be so kind as to set the volume of the music in your games to cater for those people who listen to it from the next room?

There's a good lad.

Nice site, btw. Very similar to a bought one (figure of speech, not an accusation!).

Well cunningly I've got a nice shiny volume slider on the options page for such people ;-) But I regret that at the moment the music volume is perfectly balanced with the sfx volume...

Would this be the sale I made last night? If so, no, I didn't buy it for my giant TV hooked up to my PC. I bought it to play on my new wide screen flat panel monitor. :)

TomToad: Well no matter watch screen you're going to enjoy it on, thanks anyway :-)

Woooo - I would love to see this on a very large tv screen...

Jake you need to get down to the local shopping centre where you could plug the laptop playing Holiday Bonus into a large widescreen in a tv shop and attract loads of potential tv customers into the shop looking for a fab tv and a Fab game to play over the Christmas Period!

I did something like that for city centre chain store Lasky's once, a long time ago, and it attracted loads of customers to the Atari 800 display over Christmas - well I did say it was once long ago!

IPete2.

haha yeah that's quite long ago. It's a possiblity, but I have to consider micro marketing vs macro marketing and which will yeild the greatest payoff (see my other thread about press releases)

tee hee - I just sent WireFM an e-mail... let's see if they take me up on it!

IPete2.

Like the site - just one thing - the free games.

I know they're free, but you've moved on with some very polished games since - I think you could lose Shroom Eater and Iron First.

The graphics are poor (amateurish) compared to your latest shareware games. It gives a less professional appearance to your site including them (the other free games and the demo are ok though). Just a thought. :-)

I liked the site, and I use Mozilla. I liked the way your links page looked...

Ipete2: Cool, fingers crossed. I've emailed the local paper too.

Steve: Yeah, Shroom eater is a joke (like funny haha), the graphics are supposed to be cheap and funny, but it is a complete game (you ever played it, it's fast n furious - I have loads of ideas how to make it "proper". Also maybe the subject matter is dodgy. Tetroid is a finished game. Yeah Iron Fist, all those graphics are stand-in none were finished, it's only a demo, same with Jewel of Orion. Really I should probably loose the lot but I'm kinda proud of them as my first Blitz things and they are part of my past. As my site grows I may sideline them. Also I may have to hide my blog so it doesn't appear I'm such a one man band and also so I'm not talking about how I did things and my marketing techniques etc...