Feedback needed for my new word game

[Caribbeing]

Hi everyone. I'd like opinions about CrossClues, my new word game. Anything is fair game - the gameplay, graphics, sound, website, pricing model, etc.

I'm especially curious if the game seems too hard.

Thanks a lot!

http://www.CrossClues.com

[luggage]

I quite liked it.

Did spot a couple of bugs...

* a piece would occasionally get stuck to my mouse so I was no longer holding the mouse button down but I was still 'dragging' it around. I couldn't place it and the only way of fixing it was to pick another piece up.

* I think it was a Star Trek puzzle where I had POCK done but when I tried to hook up an S the other side it wouldn't work. I had to instead use a different S for it. Maybe a problem with case?

Apart from that the game shows promise. The graphics and polish could all be improved. Maybe allow people to make their own puzzles and upload them?

[Caribbeing]

Thanks. The pieces getting stuck to the mouse seems to be a Flash issue with drag and drop in a restricted area. There doesn't seem to be anything I can do about that...

As far as the "S" not fitting - I thought I had fixed that. I'll have to check it again.

I originally did have the ability for people to create their own puzzles, but I removed it. Very, very few people even tried it, and those that did created puzzles with their names in it, or misspelled words like crazy, or just created puzzles that were stupid. So I took that functionality out and created the puzzles myself.

As far as polish and graphics, what kinds of things did you have in mind?

[sticksfirmly]

The game is okay. Not really into puzzle games, so I wouldn't count on my opinion too much.

But, I HATED the website. It looks ameateruish and doesn't invite me to play the game longer or download the game.

For example, I understand having Google ads on the website, but it just seems like there are a lot of ads on the side of your page.
In addition, (not sure if this is true for everyone, though) when I look for the "DOWNLOAD" section of the website, I always look on the upper part of it. You have it tucked all the way down on the bottom. How do you expect people to download it if you have the link hidden away?

I would like to also point out that, respectfully, if I saw this website on my own without your "About" page, I would have guessed that a 13 year old or something made it. The game doesn't seem GREAT, the website doesn't look professional, and I wouldn't have thought that someone with 20 plus years programming made it.

[WaveRider]

Enjoyed your game.

Another bug: I made a match over another tile. When it attached there was no way to get to the other tile underneath.

[papillon]

Oops, too-high version of Flash required for me. (I had some problem with Flash 8 and adblock once and intentionally downgraded, because I wanted adblock more than I wanted the latest-greatest Flash. That might have been fixed by now, I haven't checked...)

[soniCron]

(I had some problem with Flash 8 and adblock once and intentionally downgraded, because I wanted adblock more than I wanted the latest-greatest Flash. That might have been fixed by now, I haven't checked...) Gosh, when was that? The dark ages? ;) We've all been using Flash 9 for the last year now. *laughs* :p

[tafty]

I quite liked it - I like word games and this is pretty good fun.

My main bug bear with the online version is that the timer starts before I've started the game. Maybe you could have the timer start the first time a tile is picked up? Though I'm guessing you don't do that so that the player doesn't just sit and workout all the letters first? Perhaps obscuring the letters would help? Or maybe even a start button!?

I also could see no upsell to download the full version - what insentives are there to do that?

Actually, I've just gone back to the page and clicked on the "Full Version" button - I'm not convinced that hiding all that information away behind a fairly obscure and uninviting button is the best thing to do. And then I clicked on the "Full Version" button on that page and was taken straight to PayPal! Not what I was expecting at all. I expected to download a "proper" demo - maybe that's just my perception?

Oh right! Finally, I've clicked on the tiny Download link (that I only noticed because a previous poster mentioned it) and got an explanation; the "full version" buys you a password to play online! That was quite a journey - to be honest, I would've given up once the PayPal window opened up if I wasn't trying to give you feedback.

[luggage]

there was a version to download?

[Caribbeing]

Thanks for everyone's comments - they have been most helpful.

First of all, I think I've fixed the problems with the "S" not placing, even though it should have, and also the problem with the part being covered up.

As far as the web page itself goes, I understand that having the menu at the bottom was a bit confusing, so I've moved to both the top and the bottom. However, having the menu at the bottom was an intentional choice, since I really wasn't that interested in someone downloading the game, since the download version is precisely the same as the online version. When you buy, you get a password, and you can use the password in either the downloaded version or on the web page, so the download itself doesn't have a ton of extra value (other than I can distribute it to different download sites).

As far as the web page looking "amateurish" (which, by the way, is the correct way to spell that word), I don't see it. I'm not thrilled with the logo at the top of the page, but other than that, it looks fine to me and I haven't heard any other negative comments.

In terms of pushing people to buy, you can always press the button that says "Full Version". However, once you play all twelve demo puzzles, you'll get sent to that screen anyway.

Granted, that screen doesn't have a ton of information on it, and maybe that is a problem. To me, saying "100 new puzzles for $19.99" tells people what they need, especially after having played 12 in a row.

I suppose I could do a better job of "selling" them at that point, but what else is there to say? Because of that, I figured that sending them to PayPal would be appropriate at that point. Is it really that confusing?