In this entry, I would like to discuss one of our up and coming games, Dokapon Kingdom, and let you know what goes on behind the scenes in the area of web design. Many of you are aware that of our projects come from other parts of the world, and typically a website has already been created for each game in another language. For example, with Dokapon Kingdom, there is a Japanese website that was built back when the game was originally released in Japan. The first thing I did was check this site out. Generally speaking, few websites transfer over well from a different region. Often, Japanese websites are heavily text-driven, and by the time a game is announced for North America, the technology has aged and the site could use a facelift. Below you will see the Japanese site for Dokapon Kingdom at http://www.sting.co.jp/dokapon/kingdom/index.htm
With this site as a basis, I came up with three possible layouts for the US website. The first is essentially the same as the original Japanese version, while the other two offer stylistic alternatives. With these three options, we began our discussion of what would be best for the game and what would best accommodate the updates we had in mind.
Version Two:
Version Three:
After much extensive discussion amongst our design team, we decided that certain layout elements from each of these prototypes would be used in the final layout. We also felt that Dokapon Kingdom, being a very fun and interactive game, deserved a flash-based website rather than an html or text-driven site. In fact, a few upcoming challenges for me will be creating flash-based games for the US website. Right now, we have several in mind, including a Matching Game, 13 Cards, and of course the slot machine. It's quite difficult to create a game that is easy enough for an 8-10 year old to play, but also challenging and interesting enough for our older audience.
We ran into a similar problem with Ontamarama (http://www.atlus.com/ontamarama/wm.html) and Draglade (http://www.atlus.com/draglade/sg.html). Most of our staff members were passing the games with hardly any effort, which is not much fun. So I increased the speed, shortened the time, and created more variables to make the games more challenging, but still left the easier versions for those who preferred them. I'd like to know what you guys/gals think about the games section for each of these sites. Leave a post in the forums if you have any comments or suggestions.
The next challenge I faced while working on the Dokapon website was adding new content. We wanted to add a "world" section, something that was not available on the original site. In this section, players would be able to see the many places that can be visited in the game, as well as the quests that can be undertaken.
We also made a number of smaller changes. For example, you can see in the first alternate layout that we changed some of the menu icons. The link to the forums, formerly a star, was changed to the icon showing two characters. The link to order the product was changed from the two characters to a coin. Since winning money is one major objective of the game, you'll understand why we tried to incorporate elements such as the coin to a greater extent http://www.atlus.com/dokapon/.
When we announced the game, we included the banner below in the newsletter. We noticed that the general reaction was that the game looked very cute and friendly. This was not a bad thing, but we felt there was a lot of depth to the game, and we didn't want fans to have any misconceptions.
Our worries were confirmed when we posted this banner on our homepage; people were still saying the same things. We wanted to get across the RPG elements, so we decided that further changes were in order.
So we opted for more action-oriented character art. We felt that this art better conveyed the thrill of the game. After all, in Dokapon Kingdom you'll be battling a host of enemies, trying to save the Princess, amassing riches, and crushing your friends' ambitions in the process.
Most people think a company like ours is all about game localization. Well, little do they know, there's often a lot more localization involved beyond the game itself, especially when building a website. We hope you enjoy the information and games featured on the official Dokapon Kingdom website (http://www.atlus.com/dokapon), and that you buy the game upon its release October 14, 2008. You won't regret it!
CLICK HERE TO DISCUSS
______________________________________________________________________________________
