As I browsed the Apple apps store today, looking for new iPhone toys, I stumbled across a great looking flight combat game by a studio who shall remain nameless.
The title was catchy, and although the description was too long, a skim of it seemed promising. But do you know what there wasn’t?
A picture of the game.
The developers, instead of choosing the most exciting screenshot they could, had instead chosen to use their title splash screen as the image for their product.
And in that one silly decision they lost my interest and the interest of who knows how many other people.
You see, if I can’t tell at a glance what your game is about and then chances are I will keep looking. I am unlikely to try and go to your website to learn more (although in this case I did and there were no images there either!).
Screenshots tell me so much about a game at a glance. Is it a first-person sort of game? Third-person actioner? Some sort of puzzle game or a platformer? Don’t make me read your wall of text and risk $5 of my cash based on how amazing your splash screen is!
And if you go to the iTunes store yourself you’ll note that almost all of the Top 100 games have a screenshot instead of a splash screen for the picture. I guess I’m not the only one who likes to see what a game is about before I buy it!
@TinyPirate 
pulse
/ January 30, 2009You don’t even bother to correctly spell ‘developer’ in the title of this article. lost interest…
TinyPirate
/ February 2, 2009^ Damn! You’re right! Never blog when tired I guess.
I should note that recently the Apps store on the iPhone has done a much better job of handling screenshot display (it’s more clear when there’s more than one) and in general it seems that developers themselves are doing better at putting up a selection of good screenshots from their products. Good stuff.