Well, I didn’t intend for my second hazard to be about another Space Empires site – but how can I resist the creator’s home page. Before I get started, I should point out that the owner and developer, Aaron Hall, has stated on numerous occasions that he’s no expert in web design had uses simple programs to achieve what he needs. Older editions of the site were very simple, and this current version was designed by his new graphics artist, David E. Gervais – who has, I believe, also expressed that he has limited knowledge in HTML. I cannot recall for sure, someone please correct me if I’m wrong.
However, this new design does take advantage of several recent changes in web design trends and changes in computers.
The PROS
- The Website is themed after Malfador Machination’s flagship product, Space Empires. However, this is also a con too.
- Use of a favicon is very nice, my only complaint is that it should have been optimized to make use of newer transparencies for a smooth appearance.
- The New “Eye” logo for Malfador is nicely rendered and depicted.
- The basic navigation has nothing wrong with it. You can reach every section and major page from the first page and that’s the way it should be. I would’ve given fan pages their own link, however.
- News is right up front so in 2 seconds you can know if the website has been updated and can see the current patch releases. Very nice.
- The website is designed for 1024 x 768 recognizing the fact that newer computers, newer monitors, by default are set to this resolution.
The CONS
- Because the website is themed to Malfador’s flagship product, the website also suffers from a lack of professionalism. While I personally grant great discretion in web designs to fit the desired theme and niche, Malfador.com made a bad call by theming it’s website to the game only. Many developers make this mistake, to showcase their product over themselves to potential publishers. None the less, when you sell a product to publisher, they want to see a professional. Malfador should have had a basic simple, but elegant, three or five-page website showcasing his company first, then his products.
- Colors is an issue. the usage is very consistent, but poorly handled. Goldenrod/Brown/Grey doesn’t work. It screams 70′s toaster oven in space here. The company’s name for example has very low contrast against the header which isn’t any fun for the color blind.
- FRAMES! In today’s Internet, there is nothing worse than frames. They hurt navigation, confuse users and browsers and spiders alike. They inhibit the flexibility of your website creating a “confined space” feeling. Worst of all, they are not valid coding and, as a result, damage the site tremendously to search engines. It’s a horrible little relic of the early 90′s that needs to die. 2 of these frames provide no content at all, 1 is for fan sites, one for the header, and one for content. Very unprofessional.
- The Header hurts a lot. It uses 8 lines in 3 separate colors. Okay, but when you consider the text on it, company name, needs to be legible and isn’t because red doesn’t work on orange. Also, people don’t need to be told any more that a website is optimized for 1024 resolutions. Most computers ship today at this setting and Malfador’s recent works can only be played at that resolution of higher.
- Links are not thought through. It goes “Home, SE2. SE3. SE:IV, Dungeon Odyssey, SE:Starfury, SE:5, Contact, and About”. It’s flagship product is marginalized in this and linked to inconsistently. “Space Empires” and not “SE” should be the links. there is a space consideration, however, Only 4 of those games needs a dominate feature on the page and more real estate for links could easily be had by removing the frames on the side.
- Fan Sites do not need to be advertised on the front page unless they are really important, like the Play by Web site. Malfador needs links more to the on line vendors that have the product in stock than to the fans.The goal of any developer is to move their own product, not drive traffic to their fans.
- Contact is just an email link, again not professional. People want to know that you have a real business behind your website and proper contact pages is the way to do it. instead we find the proper contact information under the about us page… Why?
- The pages for each game, while also in frames (this also indicates the site is frames nested in frames) is nicely themed for the most part. The SE5 page has a few inconsistencies, but works for the most part.
To the final review, is that while Mafador Machinations makes diabolically good games (some of the time), is that it has a diabolically bad website. Avoid it as much as possible and rely on some of the fan sites, a good portion of them are put together a lot better than the creator’s site.
