Ralph and I continue to try and improve our web site for Universalis, and already we have quite a bit of support up.

Check out Ralph's essays that didn't make the book due to space considerations. Also on the same page are ideas that people have had for new and interesting ways to use Universalis (people's ingenuity with the system never cease to amaze me). Soon we'll have a listing of add-ons, our favorite gimicks on that page as well. Also, slowly but surely, we're posting examples of play that highlight certain features of Universails.

As we continue to make changes and add things, we'd really appreciate any feedback as to the site, and suggestions as to how to improve it. If you have an idea or comment, just reply to this message with it.

Thanks,
Mike

Mike and Valamir,

Before I critique the site, I just want to say congratulations to both of you. Universalis sounds great and I intend to order a copy sometime during the next week.

I've been moving towards this style of gameplay for the last several months and Universalis sounds like the game I've always wanted to play. I can't wait to get my hands on it and start my Universalis cult!

Now for my comments on your website:

1) I've never seen the need for a title page or splash screen on a website. The very first page has nothing but a large image of the cover with the words "CLICK TO ENTER" at the bottom. I'm your potential customer, not a dog. Don't make me jump through a hoop just for the hell of it. I want content and I want it now, damnit! :-)

2) Your second page should be your first. I like that you've made it easy for me to find the way to buy Universalis, but why are you making me click again to find out what the hell Universalis is?!? You're killing me! :-)

Seriously, I would put the contents of your "What Is Universalis?" page right on the front page of the site. That way, you'll only have really interested people poking around the rest of your website. You won't be wasting their time or your bandwidth.

3) You have awesome content. I love the essays. I love the play examples. I love all of your content. Do you want me to read it?

Light colored text on a black background makes your content very difficult to read for any length of time (more than a couple of paragraphs). You would be much better off with black text on a light colored background (preferably white).

4) How do I get a hold of you? Oh, wait ... there it is ... down at the very bottom of the "Links" page. Do you really want me to contact you? Don't bury your contact info. Always make sure your potential customer knows how to contact you from anywhere on your website.

I hope you don't feel that my comments were harsh. They were just a tongue-in-cheek way of letting you know what goes through the mind of a potential customer.

Your content is great and does a good job of exciting the buyer. Just remove a few hurdles and make it easy for me to buy.

Roy

heh, heh Yeah you saw the bare bones of the site where our goal was to get it up and running as quickly as possible.

I just uploaded a full update that pretty much replaces everything on the site with a brand new look and some cleaned up content (it also seems to have done away with that nasty splash page...which our hosting service inserted by default, btw...we hate 'em too...)

I still have a few tweaks in mind that I want to make and there is still more content to add but you're now looking at the fully functional site.

I'm a little concerned about the light text on the dark back ground. But I'd really hate to give up my cool new background.

So yup, your feedback is more than welcome...feel free to redo it relative to the new look

Valamir wrote: I'm a little concerned about the light text on the dark back ground. But I'd really hate to give up my cool new background.

Hey, I just ordered a copy of Universalis today. I can't wait until it gets here!

So yup, your feedback is more than welcome...feel free to redo it relative to the new look

I like that you've made it easy for me to find the way to buy Universalis, but why are you making me click again to find out what the hell Universalis is?!? You're killing me! :-)

You have awesome content. I love the essays. I love the play examples. I love all of your content. Do you want me to read it?

Light colored text on a black background makes your content very difficult to read for any length of time (more than a couple of paragraphs). You would be much better off with black text on a light colored background (preferably white).

Roy, Lael,

thanks to the both of you for the feedback; good notes there. Sorry that you had to deal with my original layout, Roy and then have to comment on the changes. I should have waited for Ralph's changes before soliciting feedback.

I agree that we need to do something about the readability. I'm not sure how we'll adress that, but I'm sure we can do something.

I think that we can probably put a contact button on each page, too. That seems to ba a very good idea as well. Ralph had already improved that a bit from the original layout, but it can be further implemented, I think. Also having it purchaseable from anywhere is a great idea. What we want most is for people to buy the book and actually play. Talking about it is fun, but we're all about the play.

Lael, I hope you get your play in. Looking forward very much to your review.

To the both of you: we'd love to see sites based on the game. We can probably put links to them in our links page. The more people see the game supported, the better.

Thanks for your enthusiasm gentlemen; makes it all worthwhile,
Mike

yeah, throwing a contact button, and even a buy button on each page (or at least each of the top level pages, is a trivial thing to add.

As for the background...what I'm going to try first this weekend is to play with the image and see if I can't wash it out a bit to make it lighter and then use a darker shade of blue for the text. If it works that change should be easy to make because I should only have to actually change the theme.

Thanks alot for your interest.

Thought I'd join in here. Universalis looks interesting, but the website doesn't do you justice. I read though some of the play examples, and the game sounds really innovative, but it hurts to read. If I didn't know you guys from the Forge, I'd not have bothered.

A few quick suggestions: Optimise that cover image a bit, it's way too big for a slow connection. Try and use a font other than Book Antiqua, since most people won't have it installed. Also, use plain colour behind text, it'll aid readability.

If you're interested, I could put together a cleaner template for you.

-Matt

I took the liberty to play around with your cover image a bit and I managed to reduce the file size for you. It was originally 724k but now it's down to 63.6k. That's as small as I could get it without the lens flare going nuts.

Email me at roypenrod123@yahoo.com and let me know what email address you can receive attachments at.

Roy

Ok, messed around a little bit with the site this weekend. I think I fixed a big part of the readability issue by darkening a couple of particularly bright sections of the background. See if that does the trick.

Added the last play example from my GenCon Demos to the site: The Gangs of New New York. Eugene will recognize this one. We played it in his graciously donated booth.

Soon Mike will begin adding his own demos and older play experiences, and we'll have quite the collection going.

We'd love to have some player contributions to the page also, so if you've played a game that you thought was pretty fun, write it up and let us hear about it.

Well, another update to the site is finished.

I added a seperate link for international orders (can't believe I forgot that).

Mike has a new play example for us, and there are a couple brand new downloads available on the resources page.

Check it out.

Hi Ralph, Mike,

I just tested the international order link...so I'll see if I ear from you. :)

The site looks great, the deeper blue and the tuning of the background image worked great for the reading thing.

Hum, there's still a minor point. The visited links are grey, and barely "read-able" (is that an english word ?).

The exemples of play are greatly interesting, and show how the game can be used (I know you knew that already, but I felt like telling you they were great).

Well, I hope you'll be able to link the Add-ons soon.


Fabrice.

Fabrice G. wrote: Hi Ralph, Mike,

I just tested the international order link...so I'll see if I ear from you. :)

The site looks great, the deeper blue and the tuning of the background image worked great for the reading thing.

Hum, there's still a minor point. The visited links are grey, and barely "read-able" (is that an english word ?).

The exemples of play are greatly interesting, and show how the game can be used (I know you knew that already, but I felt like telling you they were great).

Well, I hope you'll be able to link the Add-ons soon.

"I'm a little concerned about the light text on the dark back ground. But I'd really hate to give up my cool new background." Valamir

Well on behalf of all your customers who like to take 5 minutes out their working day and sneakily check out games that they've seen reviewed on rpg.net...

Black backgrounds always look suspiciously unlike reports on European economic trends. Its easy to tell a browser to show no pictures but the backgrounds are still a give away that someone's not working. (and yeah its also very hard to read) :-)

Great site though - tonnes of great info on the game.

heh heh. I hadn't thought of that. Cool looking sites are harder to use surreptitiously.

Is it still hard to read? I had hoped I had fixed that.

Front page is great, very clear, but I found the blue type used for the essays (which I obviously I scrutinise very closely) to be a bit tough on the eyes. :-)

As one surrepetitios reader to another, I use the following technique.

Select All
Copy
Paste to Notepad
Continue reading with an excel file in the background.

Or if you want to be really sureptitious, and fast, just do a View Source, and read off the HTML. They'll think you're coding.

Nobody suspects that the Notepad default monospaced font could be anything other than a technical readout.

:-)

Mike

Put up a ton of new stuff on the site last night.

A bunch of Add-ons are up (including a number of PC related ones).
Let me know if the organizational format I used for arranging them is useful or not. Basically, I tried to sort them by the Chapter they'd effect as a way of keeping them consistant. Let me know how that worked from a useability perspective.

Also threw up some new play examples. These are player's play examples that I lifted out of this forum (and edited slightly for spelling and punctuation where it was obvious enough even to me) so regulars here will likely have seen them all. If you see yours up there, let me know if you want to edit it, or would just rather I not put it up.

If any of you hang out on sites that might be interested in knowing about the update, please feel free to help me advertise it.

Dammit, Holmes, where's the write-up for Avatars of London?!

Chop, chop, ol' boy!

Yeah...I even transcribed the notes from that game for you weeks ago...
:-)

Jason L Blair wrote: Dammit, Holmes, where's the write-up for Avatars of London?!

Chop, chop, ol' boy!

Mike,

The thing that stuck out most for me was how such disparate elements can end up fitting together. "Superheroes," "1880s London," "No Iron," is a laundry list I wouldn't have imagined otherwise. In fact, the first thing I thought while playing Universalis was, "Damn, this would be a sweet brainstorming tool."

I don't know if you could use that as a Featured Effect, but I thought it was cool.

More new stuff on the web site, including a bunch of new add-ons by Mike and one from me. Also posted Bob's latest Temple of Bast session. Got a great new idea for using Universalis from Lou Goncey...he suggested using it to write Fan Fiction. Thought that was a great idea...put it up too.

Jason...Mike still hasn't written up your session yet <nudge> <thwak>
Maybe someday...:-)

Check it out, see what you think of the add-ons.

This just in: We have official report from the Sukass Embassy in the Tie-Ping-Shitup region of Getchoassonit. Mike Holmes is indeed a Sukass. I repeat: Mike Holmes is indeed a Sukass.

Thank you and good night.

Another web update to check out. Mostly just throwing up a few of the add-ons and topics that have been discussed here on the forum onto the site.

Another Update update.

A new entry in the art contest from Bryan Bankhead.

JB Bell proferred up a PDF version of the play aid and

Alfredo Sendin Dominguez translated the play aid into Spanish.

That's a cool picture!

hmm... its actually my favorite of the three
(maybe I should get to work again on a new one...except I have all these gifts to finish before holidays)