Storefronts

Today we are looking at and researching digital storefronts so we can create a website to sell our game to the public. So to start with, I’ve been tasked with researching storefronts to see what they do well.

For the first game I looked at today, i decided to check out Lego Batman 3:Beyond Gotham as it was on multiple storefronts so i can compare how they are presented. Here is how it’s presented on the Green Man Gaming website: 

The thing your drawn to most on this page is the game play video front and centre of the screen. This makes sense as a game play video will be the best way to show off a game and attract people’s attention. Another thing that stands out is the green ‘Add To Cart’ button that allows people to purchase the game. On this website, it features a game description and key features underneath the slideshow of pictures. This is good as it allows people who want to read into the game an overview of the game and key features without them needing to leave the storefront. Overall i feel like Green Man Gaming has presented the game well.

Next i looked at Humble Bundle, and how they have presented the same game. This storefront went all out with the promotional images for the game, as the main screen is filled with only images and a game play video. I feel like this is weaker than the GMG storefront as the slideshow mainly shows off characters, not game play or the game world you can explore. It also doesn’t feature the description that was present on the other storefront on the main page, requiring you to scroll down the page to find it. Overall i feel like how Humble presents the game is still strong as it has all the necessary features, however i feel like it could be presented better as some people may prefer to read about a game, rather than just seeing screenshots.

Looking at these storefronts, i feel like a good design to go for would be blending the use of photos and text to create a storefront that is both informative using text but shows off my game using images.

On the Epic Games store launcher, they have a library of games to choose from. Looking at these, the game Journey caught my eye, as seen below.

This is because the light orange colour scheme stands out against the darker colours of the games beside it, as well as the launcher itself, which sports a black colour scheme . Another factor that drew my attention to it was that is has double the screen space that the other two games have.