Quote: "how would you make it better?"
Get rid of the splash screen/welcome page. There is no point + its SEO suicide.
Although people argue otherwise, most people who design web pages accept that using tables for layout is a bad idea. They're slow to render, its not what they're meant for (ie, its semantically wrong to use them like that), they're bad for screen readers and those with disabilities and they make re-deisgn's hell compared to using a structured CSS+HTML system (google for CSS Zen).
Too gimmicky... Its like you found a toybox of javascript and emptied it onto the page. So much flashing, movements and those annoying festive snowflakes (although they're cute, movement draws the eye - its a primate thing for defence I think - so your eye finds it hard to find what its looking for).
Style... Or lack-thereof. I see about 3 shades of grey being used for different things... To me it looks like you just couldn't be bothered to pick the same one.
TOO MUCH FLASH! (
) I wrote that in capitals because Flash annoys me personally. Its fantastic when its used correctly (eg an online game, a you tube video, something that requires funtionality it provides) but when you use it for navigation, not only are you commiting SEO suicide for the 2nd time but it means if I dont have flash installed then I cant navigate your site! How silly is that - punishing users if they dont have flash
Why is the main content on a why background when the rest of the site is "designed" around grey?
Generally speaking the site looks like you've emptied a box of toys onto it and arranged them. The bits that weren't toys and you did yourself look poor (eg lime green buttons on white background on a grey background surrounded by boxes of slightly different shades of grey).
Take a look at the CSS Zen site for idea's about design.
I perfectly understand if design isn't your strong point, it never was mine (and to an extent, still isn't). You should have seen some of the joke's that I originally claimed as my own sites, they were truly appalling - worse than yours... But I listened to other people's comments (even if they were harsh) and took them onboard. Whenever I found a site I liked I quizzed myself on WHY I liked it. Why was it good and not crap?
Most importantly (and recently) I've been working closely with a colleague who, in my opinion, is fantastic at design (this is one of his (but by no means his best):
http://www.teachingexpertise.com/) and I've been getting tips from him and watching what he does. He makes it look so easy!
Personally I am really pleased with my Thingy Ma Jig design... One of the things I kept in my head when designing it was "DONT OVER DESIGN". Simple is definitely better. Whenever I found a new feature in Photoshop I held back and didn't use it on the site otherwise it looks like I've emptied my toybox on it.
The most important thing overall is, as has been said above,
initiative. No offence - but you dont seem to have any. So many questions I've seen on this board from you that could have been solved by 5 seconds of googling.
I dont want to insult you or demoralise you - I want entirely the opposite. I can see you have plenty of eagerness to get on, but I think you sometimes get ahead of yourself.
In terms of game's - after you're done with the FPS, sit down and think of a fun and simple concept for a game... For example - one I had a few months ago was like the Tanks game where you fire across a mountain range at each other (like the classic) but instead you were pirate-style ships with canon reload delay and the game was played in realtime, not hot-seat... Whenever a canon shot missed and landed in the sea then it would cause waves and ripple's your ship would ride over, effecting the trajectory of your shot. The concept of it is really simple but there would still be a certain element of skill to it...
Its that reason I think my
Dodge The Fart and
Gravikill games are fun - simple concept with an edge of skill you can build up but still fun for a "n00b" to pickup and play.
This is my advice and its your choice to listen to it or not - doesn't effect my life either way... I think you have potential to do well if you calm down and build up before going straight for the kill (eg going for experience at EA before you've proven yourself, setting up a linux server on the net directly after installing it for the first time, etc). The FPS game is good and I personally know that from a coding point of view its harder than it looks - but if you show that to someone who has no idea about coding and basis their opinion on comparing it to Half Life 2 then you're going to come off badly, especially when a £30 bit of software called FPSC can make something that looks better for less effort (according to the screenshots).
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