

Review my startup: free services for casual game developers - latch
http://www.mogade.com/

======
mshafrir
I'm not a game developer, but even if I was one, I don't think I'd be able to
tell right away what your service is offering me. Tell me within a sentence or
two exactly what I'm getting if I use your service, not just that your product
has great features. Screenshots on the landing page would help.

~~~
mirkules
I am a casual game developer, and I second mshafrir's statement. The only
verbage that gives any hint what is this service offers is the somewhat vague:
"Before you know it you'll have the best leaderboards, achievements and social
hooks available."

In my opinion, this should be your opening line, and everything that follows
should expand on it, and what sets you apart from your competition (i.e.
ScoreLoop, OpenFeint, GameCenter, etc). I looked around the links, but
couldn't find additional info. Maybe an about, faq, or info page might do the
trick?

Additionally, I can't tell if you specialize in mobile gaming, desktop or
other. I think this needs to be more clear.

~~~
scrrr
Scoreloop, OpenFeint, GameCenter are already quite established and
comprehensive frameworks. It will be hard to catch up with any of them unless
you offer something unique or unless you can identify and address some of the
pain points developers might have with what they are already using.

It seems like it's a "late to the game" situation. However, the space is hot,
so if you're clever you might put some pressure on those guys.

A little background:

I've assembled a team of devs, we've started developing our game (
<http://traingame.tumblr.com/> \- yes, shameless..), and we're currently
favoring Scoreloop.

Convince me: Why should we choose Mogade instead?

~~~
latch
I appreciate the constructive feedback. I agree it isn't going to be a walk in
the part. This was one of those launch-early type things, so I can't honestly
come up with a compelling argument (unless you're dying for WP7 support...).

I think if you want something simple/straighforward, or you are particularly
keen on the open source nature of the drivers (which has its pros and cons) we
offer a solid solution.

At the very least, I'd ask that you look us up again for your next game and
see what's changed :)

~~~
AlexC04
Perhaps a graphical representation of how things work?

Fill the front page with images of the leader boards and all the other
services you offer being taken care of on your servers.

Show a picture of the _ONE LINE OF CODE they add to their game.

Show everyone smiling at the end.

Make the text really really big.

Have arrows connecting it all like a flow chart, so I know where to start
reading.

Have the flow chart end with the "SIGN UP HERE" call to action button.

(at least that's my "gut reaction" recommendation based on what I hope for and
what I like on signup pages.)

_please make sure that it's roughly one line of code :)

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mattmaroon
All the website really says is "Here's a solution, just install our code in
your game. It's easy!"

If the problem is just that I don't have third-party code in my game then I
guess you got me. Otherwise I'd probably need to know what problem is being
solved and how.

From reading your API page, it looks like you're building something sorta like
Xbox Live (and now Open Feint and Gamecenter). Managed leader boards,
achievements, ,maybe buddy lists and invites, etc. Is that correct?

~~~
villiros
For what it's worth, I took just one look at the front page and it told me
pretty well what the product is. But then, I've spent years working in this
exact field, so it might be a case of a blurb aimed at those in the know.

~~~
mattmaroon
He changed the page in the interim. It now is more descriptive.

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codypo
My startup has a slightly similar pitch to developers (shameless plug:
<http://www.famigogames.com/developer>). Well, we DID have a similar pitch at
one point. After many customer development discussions, we've iterated on our
pitch greatly and I think you should too.

Keep in mind to whom you're marketing here: developers. The average casual
developer doesn't need a ton of help when it comes to adding neat new features
to their games. After all, they're developers; they can build those features
themselves and probably enjoy it thoroughly.

Where they do need help is in marketing and sales, and they need more help
than you realize. (Speak to several casual developers and you'll quickly
realize that it's both very hard and quite expensive to compete with the major
players.) For us, that meant changing our messaging from "Features! Yippee!"
to "We bring you a huge new base of customers via these features, and here are
metrics and stories to back that claim up!" Features for the sake of features
as the value prop, when the developer is probably already losing money, didn't
work well for us.

If you can adequately explain how integration leads to dollars, then your
developer base will skyrocket. This part of the story is missing from your
site, imho.

~~~
latch
Its missing from more than our website :) Launch early and try. Great advice
though and delivered in a non-crushing manner, much appreciated. Food for
thought!

~~~
codypo
Happy to help! It definitely looks compelling, and you're well positioned to
do some great things here. Best of luck, and keep us updated.

------
senko
How will you make money?

If it's free for developers to use, and you don't force them to run ads, or
sell/use the user data (which I don't see mentioned anywhere on the site, so I
presume you don't), how do you plan to at least cover your expenses?

Also: in your TOS, you say "we reserve the right to modify or terminate
mogade.com service for any reason, without notice at any time". If you want
people to rely on your service, this won't fly. If I'm making, say, Android
game, and rely on your service to provide leaderboard, I have to have
confidence in you. At least to the point that you'll notify me _well_ (in
months) in advance, so I can switch to another provider or roll my own, update
my game, push the update to my users and hope most of them updated. So, I
wouldn't use something like this without at least basic SLA.

As codypo commented - if your service adds value, don't be afraid to charge
for it. That solves both of the issues I mentioned :)

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jeffclark
Definitely needs some kind of case study. Right now it's a bunch of marketing
speak. Prove to me that you know what you're doing and that it's actually
worked before -- and that you're not going to steal my email address and sell
it to those damn Nigerians.

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benologist
I don't think free is the way to go - I provide a bunch of services for game
developers and that stuff _really_ adds up if you get traction - I have almost
4 gigabytes _just_ of leaderboard data with xxx,xxx new submissions a day and
a whole lot of requests to show scores.

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toolate
"Manage your game online and integrate our open source libraries in your code,
its that easy."

That should be "It's". No comma and an apostrophe.

I have to agree with the other commenters that this needs a better landing
page. I had no idea what the site does.

