I need a guidance for designing a gaming web site.

Question

I am a game designer, that means I design a board game, a board design, game rules,etc. I do not design a web site. I am totally unaware of web page designing skill or any other type of software development knowledge.

I had designed a board game which blends playing skill along with luck factor. This board game is first of its type. The concept behind this game has been derived after watching and a lot of thinking over game player's & gambler's psychology. I am willing to launch a web site of this game. I am planning to add many more games on this web site later on. For this purpose, I am contacting angel investors and venture capitalists for last few years. Unfortunately I had not received any funding for this business yet.

From last few days, I am thinking of designing this web site, its web pages myself. I read an article before few days which express opinion by a leading IT expert. According to this article, nowadays it is so easy to design a web site that Internet start ups do not need an angel investment at all.

Well, I am unaware of current web site designing tools. I do not know whether a person like me, who is totally amateur, ignorant about web site designing can use these tools with ease. I have got little or no training about web page designing tools or other software development tools and I am afraid I won't use them with professional skill even if they are meant for amateur like me.

Will any of you gentlemen inform me whether this is possible for me to use these tools and create web pages and consequently an interactive, gaming web site?

Some of the web sites offer new web designing tools, but I do not know which web site, offering free web site designing tools and facilities should be better for my purpose?

Also inform me whether I need to learn C, C++ or Java languages? How much time it will take for a new comer like me to buy books on these languages and learn it at home? Which books do you recommend?

Will the expert members advise me regarding my web site designing project? Including a list of 'Do's and Dont's ' for my self designing project? Please post your answers with an easy English, without difficult technical words and abbreviations of terms related to IT and web designing.

I would also appreciate if any of the senior members could offer me detailed advice and prepare a list for me about which steps I should follow to design my intended dream web site.

It will be my pleasure to discuss my project, a self designed interactive gaming web site, with the senior members and expert web site designers. I will be highly obliged for your valuable advise.

Answer 1

To be honest, I can't think of a way in which you can map your current skills to those required to build a good web site. If you want your product to succeed online, you will need a good web site, and, in my opinion, a single book or two will not bring you up to speed enough to accomplish your goal.

That said, if your needs are simple (just a few pages of text and images without any Flash or highly interactive sections) than a professional designer/developer can do the work for a reasonable fee (likely under $1,000 USD, almost definitely under $5,000 USD).

I would suggest you continue reading online about the development process in order to build a vocabulary and help prepare you for the questions and common issues which can arise in a web project. That will keep you from spending money in the wrong places (like search engine optimization) and prevent you from getting taken for a ride by an unscrupulous developer.

If you blanch at the figure I've posted above please consider what it is worth to you to have the site built and designed well. Learning web design and good development practices are not weekend projects to be taken lightly and mistakes can be costly. Especially if you need sell your game through this site which opens up a whole host of issues including privacy, credit card processing and other concerns.

In short - hire a good developer/designer. It'll be worth it in the end. If you still want to learn to build web sites, go ahead. Start here and maybe build a blog or other trivial site first before attempting to build your business.

Answer 2

The quickest way of putting up a simple website is to buy a template set and modify it for your needs.

There's any number of template sites out there - Google "website templates". Many are free, but it's worth paying a few dollars for a better quality one - these generally are more comprehensive in what they give you too. $100 should get you a pretty reasonably designed with half a dozen page layouts. I've used Template Monster in the past and I've been quite happy with what I've got.

As you're not a designer yourself then just don't entertain designing from scratch. Also you're best to stick to static html/css - most people are incapable of writing code and I'm sure that's not what you're 'Expert' meant at all (well, one hopes not). You might just about manage to integrate Paypal if you want to sell from your site (the Quick Sale function is largely cut and paste), but beyond that you really do need to buy in the expertise.

Answer 3

From my experience, if you're in business for yourself and your main business isn't building web sites, then hire somebody to do it for you. This way you can work on improving and selling your product and not starring at a screen trying to build a website.

Since you are a designer, I'm sure you would be able to provide ample source material for whoever you hire to do it, so they will appreciate that.

Answer 4

I say just hire someone from around here :)
There are tons of talented web developers.
You can also check rentacoder.com.
You'll find very good programmers there.

Answer 5

If you want it done properly, hire an experienced developer to get you going. Be wary, though, that you know what you want or find someone that can work with you to figure out exactly what you want BEFORE you have someone start down the path of developing an unclear design.

If you want to save some money and help the local community, go to your local community college and find out if there are any soon to be graduating students that need a project to satisfy an intership or who want something to beef up their resume. The results may take a little longer and may not be optimized for performance, like you would get from the experienced developer, but it should get you up and operating.

While all of this is happening, if you are serious about running a small shop gaming website, go back to school and pick up at least the very basics so you are better informed when you hire someone to do the work.