DangerLands incoming!

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 A few days ago one of the developer of DangerLands, a MMO developed by a very small indie team, left a few comments on this blog to present their game and also invited me to  contact them so I could get more info on the game and talk about it here.

Before going further I want to say that of course I know they are doing some PR (public relation) by getting the word out on their game and I’m fine playing along. I’m happy to support small developers who are trying to make their mark and make something happen. Instead of just looking at the current state of things and complaining about what is wrong( as I tend to do) they actually made something and they have very bold ideas. I love that.

So, instead of reviewing their game as I did other games here I will do things differently this time. There’s a few reasons for this. The first is that their game is still in Beta and it would be unfair to threat it as a finished product. They are still working on it and improving a lot of things based on user comments so it would be unfair for me to come in and say there’s a few bugs for example. The second reason is that I have a unique opportunity here to talk about the developement of a game with the game developers as it progress. Since I love talking about this subject I think it would dumb of me not to take the opportunity.

So there will be three posts(might have more later) to present you DangerLands. The first one being this one where I present my first impressions without imput from the developers. The second post will be an interview-like post and the last one will be my comments and impressions on the game so far.

Finally I will also do this putting on my developer hat instead of my “loud-mouthed fan” one. I  truly wish for their game to succeed and I feel that by giving comments from a professional perspective (I feel weird calling myself that) it might help them more than just raving and ranting about things.

The very first impressions

When trying to sell software the very first impression you give off will make the difference between having people look at your game or simply close the browser and move on. Just like in an interview you have to give off the best impression and convince everyone that you are the “one”. That without you their life is meaningless and pointless. Only by picking you can they have any chance of having a fulfilling existence. Exaggerating?? Barely.

The very first thing I heard about Dangerlands was on the Multiplaying website talking about an indie MMO being developed for iPhone. iPhone MMO?? OMG!!!! Someone actually crazy enough to try it! So right away I started googling like mad and found the forums/website for Dangerlands. I looked at things for a few moments and then walked away.

Yeah, the first impression I got wasn’t very good. What I saw was a grey website, showing pictures of blocky legless characters who looked somewhat like legos. The textures looked like something out of a N64 game, everything was pixellated and rough angles. To be blunt I tought it looked like a college student project that wasn’t very serious. Probably something they were making on their own to challenge themselves without really thinking about releasing it.

Of course after seeing a few other mentions on Multiplaying.net and realizing that Dangerlands was actually a serious project I looked at things with new eyes and realized that it was a game still in developement with two people working like crazy to make it happen.

Remember my post on front-end vs back-end? When I talked about front-end selling a game and back-end making it succesful. This is a perfect example of this. If it wasn’t for Multiplaying.net keeping talking about Dangerlands I would not have given much thoughts to the game. In this case the front-end(the website) did not do much to make me interested in the title.

Winin asked me in mail to offer my suggestions for the website and I want to do it here so everyone can comment and help them too. Based on my work experience here’s what I would improve for their website.

Just by looking at your website, someone should know what you are about.
This is the first and probably most important rule of website design. Only by looking, not even reading, the text someone needs to know who you are and what you are offering. Someone in design told me that an average user will look at your website for less than 5 seconds before deciding if it’s worth his time This means you have 5 secs to sell yourself.

Currently the Dangerlands website does not do that. What I see is a grey forum, not an MMO. To give an example of how things can be done just look at other MMO websites. Blizzard directs you to a splash page with a single image and a caption to tell you what the current new feature is. Then the website oozes medieval fantasy game. The lettering, colors, and top images tell me clearly that this is about a fantasy adventure. Aion uses a lots of whites and space to give an airy feeling to their site (less obvious with the current Christmas theme however), important when your game features flying as one its main features. Another example is Wizard 101 with his bright colors and light text is aimed at a more children audience. They also get you right into the game since they know kids won’t have the patience to search around a website.

Simple choices, deep content
When building a website intended to give information about software you need to be able to find quickly what you are looking for. This means clear and simple options to find where to go. Once the user makes a choice you give him more detailed content without overwhelming him/her. The general rule is that the deeper you get into the website the more detailed the content is. This way the user can choose how much information he wants to see. He sees as much as he wants to.

They got this part down over at the Dangerlands website. Few links but with clear purpose and I know perfectly where to click depending on what I want to know. The lore section could use a few divisions and a FAQ page would be a nice addition but hey it’s not that bad.

Internet explorer, Firefox
If you want your website to be seen by the most people it’s considered essential that your website displays well in both IE and Firefox, no matter how much you hate Microsoft. I’ve seen a few things pop-up weird in IE.

There’s a few more little details I could write about but it would be nitpicking. I know the guys are working on a new website design and I’m pretty confident they will get a lot of things done. My main advice would be to get someone who’s specialized in website design to get a few things together like themes and CSS(style sheets) custom-made to represent DangerLands.

Once again I want to congratulate the devs and thank them. Overall it’s an awesome result for a small team who’s in beta and with our feedback things can only get better. The sheer audacity of making a game for portable devices like iPhones is worthy of our admiration. I’m reserving my impressions about the actual game for later when I actually have time to sit down and mess with the beta and ask the devs a few questions since I want to get my facts straight.