Feedback Request: Game Site

[itero]

After several weeks of hard work I’ve created game site that I like. Now I would like to know your opinions about it. I’m interesting what your first impressions about the site? What causes negative emotions? Do you think that this site worth adding to favorites? And why?

Link to site: http://www.inril.com

Thanks for any help.

[Tertsi]

I like the design, simple but good and loads fast. You might want to add more games there though but I guess you will.

"There is so many fun games... Enjoy them!" -> There are*

[itero]

Thanks Tertsi.

Yes, I try to add game every day. Sometimes more than one. But for me, first of all is a quality of content - not quantity.

[bignobody]

Looks nice. Very clean design, easy to navigate. I like to logo as well. I'm just curious about the word "Inril". Is it a person's name, or does it have some meaning? My point is by itself it's not easy to remember (not being a word I've ever seen before) and doesn't really describe what the site is about (take "indiegamer.com" for example. Easy to remember and quite descriptive). Good luck!

[MattInglot]

Very nice. It can be so frustrating getting a site design you like so congrats.

[itero]

Thanks guys.

It’s interesting but “inril” doesn’t mean anything. Just short beauty word. However, after searching in Google I found this word in some unusual vocabulary. “inril” there means “love”.

[itero]

Please share your impressions. I need your feedback.

[DanMarshall]

To be honest, my first impression was "aargh! what the hell am I supposed to click on?"

I'm a firm believer that websites should be incredibly simple. I'd lose the text to the left.

[Reactor]

Ya, have to agree... there are just too many links. There are links in places that really don't need links, for example, in your welcoming text. Links work best when there's only one available, so having the same link on one page two (or more) times is just overkill.

Also, the text under your title, "Free PC Game Downloads Specially For You! Download Best Games For Free!" seems badly written. The rest of the text on your page looks fine, so...

Lastly, the low contrast, pastelly colours of the main title really don't grab me at all. In fact, I just want to move on past and ignore the page altogether. In other words, it's not striking in any way... or attention grabbing. That could just be me, but I thought to make mention anyway. As it is, I wouldn't add it to my favourites, because there's no reason to go to it (because you're offering demos, and not free games). Of course, that doesn't have anything to do with design... but hey, you asked

[itero]

Interesting, but it was my main goal to make site simple to navigate. There is only to columns. At the left panel there is five latest added games. Then – search box – very convenient way to find specified game. And then 4 genre categories with last 3 games for each. Due to this visitor see what has been added no matter at what page he is. However, I agree that it can be confusing to see so many links, but I don’t know how to solve this.

About welcoming text, Reactor, maybe you’re right. But I think that if I tell visitor that here you can find (for example) arcade games, I need to provide direct link to it. Someone can become angry if he see “arcade games” but could not find where are them.

Could you suggest how to change text under the title to make it sounds well. Maybe just “Free PC game downloads created specially for you!” ?

Thanks for mention about gamma. I don’t even think about hooking by gamma. I created Axi to make it.

[soniCron]

Please share your impressions. I need your feedback.

Honestly? It looks like the 2.4 billion spam page results when searching for "free games". Waaaay too much text. Waaay too many links. Bad grammar throughout the site. (I assume English is not your native tongue. It shows.)

Look at Reflexive and PopCap for examples of great (but still too-busy, IMHO) page layouts.

[itero]

Thanks for reply, soniCron.

If I not mistaken you mean that Inril Games has the similar look to many spam pages? While creating it I didn’t think about copying any site. Could you explain why you think so.

There is I’m confused: way too much text, way too much links. How it can be simultaneously? About links I mention in previous post…

You are right, English isn’t my native language. I’ll try to make it better. It will be great if you’ll point some mistakes.

Reflexive and especially PopCap has tremendous artwork, but they are heavy for slow connections. soniCron, I didn’t think that their page layouts are great. I like GameHouse site design and I get many ideas therefrom. But I think it’s subjective topic…

[oNyx]

Looks nice, but I felt a bit lost and it could use some contrast... looks a bit dull the way it is.

But my main reason to reply is actually this link:
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/fauxcolumns/

Its a neat little trick for making a two column layout were both columns go all the way down (well, not really... but it looks like that ).

Oh and those RSS things on the bottom are pretty smart

[Reactor]

Someone can become angry if he see “arcade games” but could not find where are them.

True, but if you have one link, they'll find it. It's good to help people out, but it never works when you try and spoon-feed an adult

I like the new text. It's shorter, and catchier... but I'd knock off the word 'free' from the front of it. It really does sound as though you're hammering the 'free' word a little too much on your page.

There is only to columns. At the left panel there is five latest added games. Then – search box – very convenient way to find specified game.

I agree with you on this, but the thing that makes the page seem like overload is because it's a thin page, and you essentially have the same links on both the left and right sides of the page. That's why people feel the left side should go... which I'm not sure I agree with, but something has to be done to lower the repeating of links (in my opinion, anyway).

[itero]

oNyx, huge thanks for this tip! Very interesting solution. I have implemented it and now both columns go all the way down. Site looks better. Thanks again!

Ok, I’ll try to find another more contrast (and hooking) color gamma but a bit later. I want to get feedback from my visitors. It’s interesting what they think about site appearance.

Reactor, I think you’re right. I’ve removed a spoon-feed links . Now it’s less confusing.

“Free” word is part of main search keyword – “free game downloads”. That’s why it appears as much as possible. I didn’t think that the word “free” is superfluous. Site offer free downloads and it should be clear. However, maybe there is a bit overload.

[Martoon]

Overall, a clean, usable site. Nice work!

I'd get rid of the "created specially for you!" part. Obviously, these games weren't created just for me. I know better than that, and so will anyone else coming to the site. It just comes off as cheesy.

I'd also lose the introduction paragraph ("Welcome to Inril Games! My name is Axi.", etc.). It just adds more text to clutter up the page, and doesn't really tell me anything. I can see immediately by looking at the rest of the page that the site is about game downloads.

Keep the essentials (thumbnails with short game descriptions, category links and search boxes, email sign-up, etc.). Get rid of anything else that distracts from that.

[itero]

Thanks, Martoon.

Here is dilemma. Intro phrase “Free PC game downloads created specially for you!”. Reactor has suggested to remove first word “free”. You suggest remove back part “created…”. After that there will be only pure “PC game downloads”. I want to make this phrase a bit personal. And I think that in general, games are developing for players, hence for site’s visitors. I agree to replace it by some another phrase, but not just remove it. Do you have an idea?

I don’t think that removing welcome is a good idea. Site theme is clear for me, for you and many others. But someone couldn’t understand it by just looking at the page. And again, it adds a bit personality to the site.

I think that every site (and game) must have something special, something personal, which will hook the visitor…

[amannis]

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but I'd really change the blue links and red mouse over to something less bright. Like closer to the color of title image.