You see, one of the things that's next on the docket for the games is to add some kind of real account registration to the site. There are a few reasons to do this, but it all really boils down to "there are about a half-dozen cool things I'm planning down the road, and most of 'em are going to require that you be registered with the site".
So eventually the scores won't be on the honor system. Brace yourself for it.
So I'm working on site registration. Here's the current registration control panel. If you see anything I missed, lemme know. It's not yet hooked up to any kind of back-end, so don't worry about accidentally creating anything.
The problem as I see it is that I will end up with several of these little panels, and it's starting to go against my "make everything as simple as possible for the outside world" mantra.
Thus far I have:
1. The shopping-cart-buy page. This is the page where you can pick games and buy 'em.
2. The Download Machine. This is the page where you're sent after you're done buying a game. Simply enter your magic registration number and get your game here.
3. The registration control panel. This'll be the place where you create/edit your user account for the daily puzzles.
and next will be.
4. The stat-o-matic hall of fame page. This is the page where you'll be able to view loads of meaningless statistics about your game-play habits (scores, number of times at number-one, etc). It'll also hold your trophy case -- more on that later.
Unfortunately, I can't really think of a good way to make these any more concise than having four separate panels. The stat-page and the registration page could certainly go together, but I'm really rather hoping that you forget about the registration page after you register for the first time.
I was thinking of merging the download and the account page, but there are problems with that. One thing that would be handy would be to keep track of your purchases and make 'em available on your account page. A good example of this is Macromediadobe. Even in the post-merger world, I can go to their page, enter my account login, and re-download anything I've purchased from 'em.
Obvious problem with that is that your Code Zone account email and your paypal/google-checkout ID aren't necessarily the same.
Also, I don't want to force anyone to create an account if he just wants to buy some games and move on. If someone's willing to plunk down a couple of bucks for some games, I'm presenting him with as little hoop-jumping as possible. It's okay to do that with Macromediadobe purchases, as they're expensive and come with such things as tech support, but I wouldn't want to make someone go through a similar process for a $10 game as I would for a $900 development tool.
So, best I can tell, I'm stuck with my four panels. I was thinking of giving each its own set of watermarks (currently some little gears) so they wouldn't be assumed to be the same thing.
Opinions?
