Pre-Launch Review
Site Name: Cool Games
Site Type: Games Website
Age: N/A (not yet opened)
Appearance
I am actually a fan of dark themes, but your current dark theme feels a bit too plain for me. Looking at the banner, I can barely read the "Cool Games" text there. Seems like you're trying to apply the idea of cold to the text, but it makes the text hard to read. Change it to something grand, bigger, with icons and pictures, to make it stand out more. You can use it for favicon too; your current favicon doesn't show anything related to games, for me. At the body of the website, I see that news category is empty and the "view more" link is not in line with the blue box, but outside. I think it'll be better not to show the category if it has no entries in it so it won't mess up the layout. The overall theme and background are plain and boring; maybe you can add picture of the games you provided as the background or for icons around the website, for links, for example? Just to spark things up. Last in my opinion the footer is rather not necessary. The two links you provided in "Links" box lead to the same destination, so one of them will be enough. "Latest News" box is empty and the "Hello" box is useless down there as no one will read it. Move them somewhere else, in a place better to be seen. "Hello" box, for example, will be much better at the top. There you can write about what website Cool Games is, what features it has, and why visitors should join. Simple, but can be important in first impression.
Layout
The layout is good enough. As I wrote above a bit, I would rather you remove the "News" category from public viewing until you actually have entries there, since it looks different with other categories. I think "Popular Games" and "Newest Games" should be at the top of side bar for quicker notification; listing 10 games there are good enough. Maybe you can show very short descriptions of what those games about so visitors and members can tell what they are going to try. From the footer you can move links and news to side bar as widget, at the bottom part of it, and move the "Hello" box up to give proper welcome message to everyone. That way it will save people from unnecessary page scrolling. Same goes with the "More Games" column when I clicked on a game is too long; three or four suggestion should be enough.
If you need more space, you can enlarge the body of the website since there are still many free space next to it.
First Impressions and Interest
I didn't have a very strong impression of the site in the beginning. Maybe it is because I am not used to playing games online like that, but I think maybe your website is a bit too dark and plain. Nothing much can be seen except games. I think this can be improved by, as I mentioned before above, tweaking the color and background more with adding pictures, use eye-catching fonts and slogan, and so on.
Content
I think you already have enough games to start with. Try to populate each category with more different kind of games and various difficulty. Maybe you can offer special features such as if members won many games and got certain number of trophies, they can exchange it for something you offer, for example. Looks like you already have points system, though I'm not sure what it is used for. This can help to gain interest in your website and games too. Grammar wise, I want to advise you to use capital letters appropriately. For example, in your navigation menu, it should be "Time Management" instead of "Time management" since both words resemble one group of games. Same goes with "Featured Games", "Member List", "Submit a Game", and so on.
One minor note I want to tell you is about copyright and credits of the page. Usually websites have them; software they use, copyright of the website, and so on. This is important for identity.
Words from the Reviewer
Your greatest enemies are probably those social networks which integrated games with them. People may be more interested in such kind of site since they can do many things simultaneously without switching from one site to another. For that, you will have to keep yourself fun and up-to-date with many games and features to offer. Good luck!
Star Rating
After reading your review, please click here to rate your review.
