Changes large and small

Thanks for the feedback! Some changes may be made accordingly.

My intention was to make the look of the website more closely resemble the 16-bit nature of the game. However, i understand your concerns and will give some thought on how to make it more appealing.

Honestly, i tend to work harder when honest feedback like this is given. I did my best, but i will continue to try and do better. You all deserve it!

 

I personally like the zoom level.

The bubble of the left builder is a bit strange, Build is too close, needs to be centered in the bubble.

I still say I'm not the hugest fan of those large builder/knight, they seem misrepresentative to me, similar to when you read a book and have an image in your mind of a character and then see the artists' ideal representation and your jimmies get rustled.

(basically like Tali in ME)

 

Firstly, I'd just like to say that I really think the new kag2d.com page is incredibly, incredibly sweet. Great job guys!
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However, Salami, I need to say that as awesome as the big builder & knight are (and they look like they've had a ton of work put into them!) I honestly don't know if they work with the rest of the page. :(

Basically, there's a lot going on, visually speaking, such that there's really nowhere for the eyes to rest. This quote:

demonstrates what I mean when I say that the need for eyes to 'rest' (something learning to deconstruct children's picture books --a mind-bendingly deep subject in itself-- has taught me) is important. As I write I'm looking at Monsteri's mockup for comparison and, even though I'm not sure about all his tweaks, I find that the empty spaces left by the removal of the big builder and knight is making my eyes much happier.

As I said before, there's a lot going on visually on the main page - such that you want to allow the graphics to convey the message (in this case: "KAG = epic, buy it NAOW") without overloading the visual cortex (and it's surprisingly easy to do, even with people who've been exposed to screens all their lives) without the big knight/builder & their speech bubbles (who already take up space that could be visually restive) doing what they're currently doing, which is being kinda superfluous (sorry if that sounds harsh, but... :\). Again quoting Monsteri:

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Also what is a HUGE problem, for me at least, is the lack of visual differentiation when I mouse over a number of the buttons - in many places there's nothing besides my mouse turning into a hand to tell me that it's a button/link (such that I found myself having to spend time looking at my cursor as I searched the screen for 'clickable' spots - like I was playing some poorly designed RPG, ugh ).
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Additionally I have agree with Monsteri in that the lime green (that the FB/Dev blog/Twitter boxes are made of) isn't quite the right tone; it's a bit off-putting - though I can't put my finger on exactly why that is, I'm afraid. :S
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That's all I've got for you now, but if you say you like honest feedback/constructive criticism, well, you know where to find me. I applaud you for your excellent efforts thus far! Please keep them up!

Yours,
~FBB

 

The big knight and builders eyes look off. Having the same colour eyes of their uniform is weird. Especially on the knight.

 

You guys are the best!

Thank you for your thoughtful suggestions and explanations regarding the new site design. I'll be working to clean things up very soon, taking your suggestions to heart.

It's obvious that this stuff means a lot to you and i couldn't be more excited about that. I'll do my best to make you proud!

 

You're welcome, Salami. Honestly, with what you're putting out, it's a pleasure to be able to help. :)

One other thought: thinking back to the very first time I encountered the new page, I tried a few times to click on the Windows/Mac/Linux symbols --> maybe having them also link to the downloads page would be a shiny thing?

 

To drop some info about progression (its not finalised yet but it's what we're thinking at the moment):

Jackard is right in his hearsay about stats. Let me explain how we're thinking that will work at this point:
There will be 3 character stats, STR, INT and DEX (working titles)
Stats will be gained through doing stuff thats either fun or productive ingame (ideally both), and each of those activities will have a stat gain falloff curve and a maximum number of points (about 3). EG if you get 1 STR for 5 kills, you'll get the next +1 at 25 and then 100, and then no more.
Each stat caps out at 10.
Each class has a minimum stat requirement, swapping to a class requires a specific building ("gear shops" like the armoury and archery range). The three base classes (peasant, chopper, miner) can be swapped to at a tent, which will actually be a deployable crappy quarters and class-swap device. We dont want static spawns in either of these modes because we want to allow people to set up base wherever they like.
You'll get a couple of stats to disperse as you create a character (note that this implies the stats are per character - if your dude dies, he's gone). Migrants will have them randomly assigned and will not migrate as "migrants" - they'll have a class and stats that fit that class. This means that you can get a stock of migrant recruits and go on a rampage with them to buff up their STR, then come back to base and upgrade half to knight half to skirmisher. The party system is something that will be very important in these modes, as your units will form a stock of lives to help prevent permadeath ragequits.
To help prevent joining the game late being a horrible massive disadvantage and to avoid discouraging people too much with permadeath, you'd likely get slightly more stats to allocate on character based on your teams overall tech level (probably some arbitrary embassy building upgrade) - higher tech level would also mean conscripts-knights scouts-archers migrating in rather than peasants for a good stock of soldiers to order around :)

As a side note, swapping class would take a bit of time. Someone with stats 10,10,10 would technically be able to play every class, but we dont want them to be too much of a multi-tool. Think of it as a unit conversion time (it'd probably be 10-30s contingent on class)


Re: MINING AND CUTTING WOOD ARENT FUN WHO'D WANT TO DO THAT
there's a whole section of the post outlining how we're aiming to make them more fun. Mining = dungeon explorer minigame, woodcutting = playing woodsman/hunter at the same time, plus you get to shred things with saws.