GameSalad.com's frontpage or: GS Creator is not as important as GS Arcade
entersimon
Member, PRO Posts: 273
GameSalad Creator is not as important as GameSalad Arcade...at least that's how it comes across from the GameSalad frontpage.
This feels really backwards to me since Creator is required to upload to Arcade, so why is all of the focus on Arcade on the frontpage?
Look at the GameSalad frontpage as though you had never heard about GameSalad before but stumbled across the site for any reason. What does the site appear to be about? There are lots of graphical references to games on the arcade. There's a graphic for the forums that seems pretty inviting. There's a nice big graphic suggesting it may be time to upgrade to Pro...but upgrade what to Pro?
The "Download the free app" button with lots of bland looking text looks like a header for the games mentioned underneath them. There aren't any graphics explaining creator on the frontpage...
That's not good.
Why bury the lead? Promote the hell out of the power of Creator. Don't make the revolution of GameSalad's ability to do Android publishing a single line of text...Don't disregard Creator in a way that makes people who visit the site have to search for more info about it.
I want GameSalad to succeed. In order for that to happen you need to attract developers and game players who may want to develop. Don't just assume that people will come to GameSalad.com to play games, then look around a bit and realize Creator exists and then have them decide to dedicate a huge amount of their time making games. That could happen eventually, but first you need to be focusing mostly on attracting serious and not so serious developers with Creator rather than focusing mostly on attracting a few passerby gamers with Arcade.
Frontal assault with Creator and then flank em with Arcade and Marketplace.
This feels really backwards to me since Creator is required to upload to Arcade, so why is all of the focus on Arcade on the frontpage?
Look at the GameSalad frontpage as though you had never heard about GameSalad before but stumbled across the site for any reason. What does the site appear to be about? There are lots of graphical references to games on the arcade. There's a graphic for the forums that seems pretty inviting. There's a nice big graphic suggesting it may be time to upgrade to Pro...but upgrade what to Pro?
The "Download the free app" button with lots of bland looking text looks like a header for the games mentioned underneath them. There aren't any graphics explaining creator on the frontpage...
That's not good.
Why bury the lead? Promote the hell out of the power of Creator. Don't make the revolution of GameSalad's ability to do Android publishing a single line of text...Don't disregard Creator in a way that makes people who visit the site have to search for more info about it.
I want GameSalad to succeed. In order for that to happen you need to attract developers and game players who may want to develop. Don't just assume that people will come to GameSalad.com to play games, then look around a bit and realize Creator exists and then have them decide to dedicate a huge amount of their time making games. That could happen eventually, but first you need to be focusing mostly on attracting serious and not so serious developers with Creator rather than focusing mostly on attracting a few passerby gamers with Arcade.
Frontal assault with Creator and then flank em with Arcade and Marketplace.
Comments
You don't have to worry about marketing Google Chrome from inside the browser because the tool has already been adopted. You wouldn't go looking for web apps to use and find Google Chrome by happy accident. It's the other way around. You use the tool to find the fun things you can do with the tool.
I didn't come to GameSalad and invest over a year of full-time work because I liked some of the games put out with GameSalad marked on them. As a matter of fact that's the very reason why I was hesitant to use GameSalad as my development tool. I had seen a lot of very poor work and I misinterpreted that as lack of quality in the dev tool.
GS Arcade requires you to build you apps in GS Creator. You don't get submissions from random people around the world who have never worked with GameSalad Creator because it's impossible. In this way, GS Arcade can never be something like Newgrounds. The market for games on GS Arcade is tiny tiny tiny because it relies COMPLETELY on the community using Creator...But Creator isn't pushed to the forefront on the frontpage. It isn't pushed as being the creative tool you can use to EASILY make the games you want to play.
If GS Arcade is to be a good marketing tool then you need to show people right away what the tool is you're trying to market. Hiding it and forcing people to look for the advantages is counterproductive. It would be better to show the potential for what COULD be made, rather than focusing only on what HAS been made. It's developers you're trying to get after all. It's paying developers that are needed. GameSalad, believe it or not, is not a gaming company. It is a company that provides a tool for game creation. It is this tool that got them a large investment which has helped development move so swiftly.
Why hide the tool?
Why bury the lead?
When you search for GameSalad on google are the press releases about new, cool gmes that have come out on GameSalad Arcade? Are the articles about how much good content there is on GameSalad Arcade?
I'm seeing lots of articles about the innovation being made with creator. There's an article about how GameSalad is expanding to Android. There's an article about the expansion of Creator to be able to publish using HTML. There are lots of articles about how GameSalad is a good product because of how easy it is to use.
I get that Arcade is a marketing tool. It's just not THE tool.
Think of it like this.
GameSalad Creator is a gourmet meal. Some chefs have put a lot of time an energy into it so that it tastes good to as many people as possible. Well, you want to put that gourmet food on a nice plate to make it even more appetizing. That's marketing. You're trying to make your food look more appetizing.
You don't cover your food with the plate and put little crumbs on it leading to the full meal underneath...
I think GS Arcade is a really good thing for developers and has potential to be a very successful marketing tool, but if it were me, i'd separate it out a bit more so you could have serious developers go to one site directed at them, and time-killing gamers go to Arcade and find their way to GS that way. It doesn't sit well with me and that's why I'm voicing this.