Glaciate Store interface – opinions needed!

[Exception]

Well, this is a platform that I'm making for Glaciate, currently named Project MagmaArmor (Yes, the name is ironic/incidental, but it was randomly selected. ). It's effectively for me to keep the stuff that we make managed in one place, made with VB.NET and GDI+, but I'm not here to discuss function, I'd like to collect some opinions on the UI.

A little walkthrough on the interface:

* On the header, you have your forum avatar, your name, and the total Ice Shard credits that you have to spend (Just to note, yes, it is monetary-based, but it's mostly for add-on content.). It also has a gear for settings, on whether you'd prefer the slide view, list view or the tile view, music/sound on/off, and a few rendering options. (Well, this can't be done and still look good on purely GDI.).
* The game library scrolls through the games you own. I'm showing the default slide view, where you scroll through. Only the first game shows the title, description, the rating for it, and the play button.
* Imagine the others (Media, and store) doing the same thing in terms of aesthetics, and you'll find that it **effectively functions much like a tablet interface**. The "go to" simply opens up the site in your default browser.

EDIT: Another note…I truly love the Metro design language. I'm trying not to make it look as if it was directly copied, but I think I went a bit over the top. 

Update 1



[TheRexion]

I think it looks and sounds neat. But you ought to know that "Metro" doesn't exist, according to Microsoft, hahah…

[Exception]

Bleh, Microsoft Design Launguage/Modern UI Design Language, then…stupid legal cases.

And, thanks. Any additions/removals to suggest? Even in function?

[JohnPony]

It would be neat if this functioned like steam.

Allowing a user to interact with friends throughout the different games your studio releases.

[Likestodraw]

I. Love. This.

[aaaron]

This is awesome. Nice job.

[Exception]

Well, asides from interface, what kind of function would you like to see happening?

[Socuine]

Pretty good. I've probably would have done a darker blue, like below:


[Exception]

Oh, cool! What's that font?

Settings looks much better position..could you share a PSD file of it? I'd like to take a more in-depth look. 

ToDo: ~~tile view button~~, ~~list view button~~, active downloads button/menu, gift code menu, and ~~icons for the menus~~, ~~search\see all in list option for library and store~~, staff/rated pick of the week. Suggest stuff!

Oh, and a question for the musicians/photographers/filmmakers of the forum: if I allowed you the oppurtunity to sell your media through the store (Where you'd receive 70-90% of profits, am going to consult the rest of the team on rates.), would you take it?

I'm already going to allow game developers be able to sell their own games, and generate their own revenue, through the Glaciate Store at a similar rate, so I was wondering if it would be good to look at media, otherwise, the media library would be quite redundant, and I'd most likely replace it in favour of active downloads.

[Guest]

> **70**-90%

O_O

[Exception]

Well, of the people I asked, ~70 was the general lowerbound. Think it's unreasonable?

[Guest]

Very. Obviously I can't tell you Desura's or Steam's (only because I don't know Steam's) but it is really unreasonable compared to them.

[Exception]

*shrug*. It's only on the basis of people I asked. Means squat, at the moment.

Edit: Took a look. Funilly enough, Desura's is 70%. Lemme go look up Steam.

Also, as an added note, App Store is 70%.

Edit 2: Steam is dev-dependant. It ranges from 60 to 80, on the basis of what I've seen other devs for it say.

So, from that, I'd say the lowerbound is the same in terms of Desura, and slightly more unreasonable than what appears to be the average for Steam. Also, from talks with my team, so far, we agree on 80-85.

[Guest]

> *shrug*. It's only on the basis of people I asked. Means squat, at the moment.
>
> Edit: Took a look. Funilly enough, Desura's is 70%. Lemme go look up Steam.
>
> Also, as an added note, App Store is 70%.
>
> Edit 2: Steam is dev-dependant. It ranges from 60 to 80, on the basis of what I've seen other devs for it say.
>
> So, from that, I'd say the lowerbound is the same in terms of Desura, and slightly more unreasonable than what appears to be the average for Steam. Also, from talks with my team, so far, we agree on 80-85.

I'm pretty sure Desura is dev-dependent. I may be wrong though.

[Exception]

Bleh, regardless, it's early days to be talking about rates, as it's not something I'm going to have for the start, anyway. I'm currently more concerned on function and aesthetics, the sooner I can sort that out, the sooner I can focus on making games, and the sooner I can get this out.

[JohnPony]

I would take 0 percent revenue until your studio becomes more known throughout the internet.

[Likestodraw]

> Pretty good. I've probably would have done a darker blue, like below:
>
> 

Ooh. Somehow this just got better.

[Exception]

Alright, updated things a bit. Credits to Soc for some obviously inspired bits (font, header, and background changes), but I'd like to try and make it look like I made an effort. 


[Greendude120]

The idea is great. The UI looks great too.

The issue is, if your going for small dev games like eclipse, rpgmaker, game maker or any sort of 2d game: why would they join you?

Your platform does not offer any advantage except for maybe the transaction part (costs hundreads of dollars for SSL encryption for transactions). If you make transactions on paypal though, then anyone else can do that too. Any eclipse games can set up a paypal payment system. So in that case they have no reason to join this platform. Infact they would lose 10-30% of profits.

Could you explain what advantages the platform would give games and why such aggresive prices for a platform trying to compete with steam greenlight?

[Exception]

> The idea is great. The UI looks great too.

Why, thanks.

> The issue is, if your going for small dev games like eclipse, rpgmaker, game maker or any sort of 2d game: why would they join you?

Where have I stated that?

> Your platform does not offer any advantage except for maybe the transaction part (costs hundreads of dollars for SSL encryption for transactions). If you make transactions on paypal though, then anyone else can do that too. Any eclipse games can set up a paypal payment system. So in that case they have no reason to join this platform. Infact they would lose 10-30% of profits.

Of course they can do that. They don't have to, and I'm indifferent about anybody on Eclipse who'd want to. I'm only offering it to share with anybody else who would _wish_ to. Anyway, you say they would lose 10-30% of profits, a large number of Eclipse games have NO profit, and generally make more losses on the basis of hosting costs, development time, etc…so...what would they be losing?

> Could you explain what advantages the platform would give games and why such aggresive prices for a platform trying to compete with steam greenlight?

I'm not trying to compete with Steam. Attempting to compete with Steam at the moment, given the currently small memberbase of Glaciate, would be **bloody foolish**…and, I haven't give any specific details on "pricing", so, what aggressive prices?

Is there some invisible impression that I'm giving here? Because honestly, this seems very selectively read.

Anyway, could we get back on topic, onto the interface? I'll ask about the logistics another time.

[Greendude120]

You did say 70 to 90%. I just didnt quote it, but I read it above. So thats 10 to 30% of their profits (if any). I know that they don't all have profits. But whether they do, or they don't, i just couldn't find the benefits of the platform for them. I do see the benefits for the games of the glaciate staff. 10 to 30% of profits is quite aggressive because, as you know, games struggle making any profits in the first place.

> I'm only offering it to share with anybody else who would _wish_ to.

I know. That's why I was asking: What are the reasons why people would want to.

I think you may have taken my post as some sort of attack. I just wanted to know what advantage a project would get for joining. The selling points.

I still don't feel like you've answered that. And even if the answer is "None", I still think it's cool that you have a platform for Glaciate staff games.

[Exception]

The answer is none, as logically, I can't compete with the likes of Steam at the minute,

Anyway, I didn't mean to appear to take it as an attack, and, thanks. :3

[Greendude120]

Well regardless, I think it's cool that your staff can showcase your games together. I suggest maybe having a "Game showcase of the week" or something. This way, if players always play 'The tower' but do not know of other glaciate games, they can see it and start playing those as well.

It would help share the playerbase amongst the games in the platform. That would also become a selling point for projects to join. They would maybe get showcased and get a few players. (In exchange for a higher profit %)

[Kinjiru]

UI wise the second one you did looks MUCH better than the first.

[TheRexion]

I totes think the little wave on the UI should animate.