Improving IndieGameStand Bonus Content and Bonus Games

[mgnade]

Hey Folks,

We have a ton of developers that want to bundle together 1 or 2 of their games for some upcoming deals and we're working hard on getting this functionality improved for 2013 so that we can give out steam/desura/gog keys for bonus games and allow developers to easily bundle together any of their games for their scheduled time slots. We are really struggling with how to integrate this into our current site design and checkout system. We are looking for an elegant solution and would love to get some feedback and ideas. We'd love to get some pictures posted here to look at too! Can you guys help?

[mgnade]

Here's some pics to see what we're talking about:

Mockup #1 - simple implementation to make bonus content more visible on the sale page mimicking the style of the Charity:

We're ok with this, but not in love with it. It would work well for the more generic bonus content, but isn't prominent enough for a bonus game with Steam/Desura/GOG key.

Mockup #2 - Checkout revision displaying bonus content with thumbnail pics/graphics

[mgnade]

Submitted to us via Twitter:

mgnade wrote:

Here's some pics to see what we're talking about:

Mockup #1 - simple implementation to make bonus content more visible on the sale page mimicking the style of the Charity:
http://i.imgur.com/WKar6.png
We're ok with this, but not in love with it. It would work well for the more generic bonus content, but isn't prominent enough for a bonus game with Steam/Desura/GOG key.

Shouldn't Bonus Content be in an upper place, so you can see it as soon as you get in the page?
Right now, I have to scroll down to see the Featured Charity, and, well... since it doesn't really matter much to me, I don't use to do it.

[PlayerReview]

Instead of "Bonus Content" rename to "Beat the Average" and use small icons left-to-right with text float-over (with captions and alt img tags).

[mgnade]

I definitely think that the best location for the bonus content or beat the average stuff is in the left empty space below the social sharing buttons. We will work on a mockup and post it here so that folks can comment.

Did folks notice the regular price / you save calculation in the checkout?

[mgnade]

Here's a new mockup for the game deal page. Bonus games would appear as wider images in the beat the average sidebar. Soundtrack and other files would have square thumbnails.

[mgnade]

Concept 2: All bonus content is square thumbnails - hover over content for description - click for popup video for games

First one: the bigger, the better.

[PlayerReview]

I like concept 2 (maybe with color coding to denote if game or OST (maybe colored borders on the thumbnails)), a small-font static caption under each thumb would be nice as long as it doesn't take up too much screen real-estate. I did like the wider pics for bonus games on concept 1 though, so maybe an amalgam of the two? Also, lower left still draws the eye and does even more so with the Header that leaves the page-space. Not as aesthetically pleasing as the list-table in concept one, but it will grab eye-attention more for better bonus conversions. I think some custom HTML could do wonders galore.

Anyway, good stuff and I have always enjoyed your site design.

On a side-note to your earlier question. The money saved feature seems to work on most consumers, even in a pay-what-you-want environment. I'm not a big fan, especially when it is a $5.00 MSRP game, but it seems to get more conversions in my e-tail experience.

[mgnade]

Thanks for all the great feedback and keep it coming! I agree that we have great elements from both concepts and we'll work on hammering out this over the holidays.

One of the reasons that I am leaning towards concept 2 is because I am thinking about displaying things horizontally in the checkout phase and the square thumbnails will allow for more things to be displayed. We need to have the front page and checkout page work well together...

[mgnade]

Here's concept 3:


I think this is my favorite. It puts emphasis on bonus games but still looks clean and unobtrusive. Time to figure out how concept 2+3 would work in the checkout...

definitely concept 1!

I like concepts 2 and 3, 3 being my favourite of the two.
Although, I think either would be fine.

[PlayerReview]

Looks like it is coming along. A thin green border might be nice around the table-list too. But, not sure what you are building with (too lazy to view source code). I say go for concept 3, you can always tweak as you go. GL on the checkout transition, sounds like you have a well-laid plan.

[canj]

#3

[mgnade]

Just an FYI and update on this - we really like #3 but do not like the header for "Beat the Average". Dan is a perfectionist - so we're talking to some people to see if they can tweak this a little more.

[mgnade]

Here's a glimpse at our new checkout page. There's still a few tweaks, but this was our favorite mockup:


This will roll-out shortly after the new beat the average sidebar. As you slide to the right (or click the images/icons), the items that you are receiving will light up.

Wow, this looks great.

That looks awesome!