I agree with you that whatever is happening is the consequence of multiple factors.
I was commenting on the fact that some people automatically associate what they see to something old and dated. In this phase, these people have not even used the interface or tried the game, they just saw screenshots or videos or demos. So it’s possible that it’s related to the pixel art and it’s also possible that it’s related to what that kind of interface suggests to them.
It’s difficult to tell without doing a serious research. Every time Ron shares information about how the game is doing (and even how it will probably do in the future) it seems to me that the scenario in not particularly positive, but maybe something will change with the new ports and I wish them to find new ways to improve the sales in a significant way.
ADDED: About interfaces, in touch devices some adventure games use one single tap/drag to combine an object with another object. The quantity of movements to do to achieve something is an important factor in usability.
agree. it’s like websites with dropdown navigation, as opposed to having links right in plain site. hiding the ui might look slick but it makes for a more clunky UX
Generally this is a good thing for an official forum: users who didn’t know of the forum may become interested readers (or even active participants if they like the forum contents) and game journalists/bloggers who often search for news about the industry may also learn new things about the game and its developers.
It’s nice to know that the forum has a chance to get a bit of exposure out there.
Have you double and tripple checked this by logging out of your account (if you have one) running the browser in private mode and maybe even using a proxy so google REALLY doesn´t know it´s you? I´m asking because it´s very likely that Google knows this is you and that you visted this thread often (judging by the color of the link google knows you´ve been there before) so only you would see that top story as they are often manufactured according to your tastes. But hey knowing you, you know that and tried all that already, so I´m trusting you there.
Yes, of course. While that screenshot comes from one of my (unlogged) browsers, every time I see something interesting I always validate the observation using either external tools or making requests that mimic an unlogged Google user who does the search from a specific country/IP.
Actually, it’s pretty common for Google to select a TWP developer blog post as a “Top story”. This is just the first time that I see in that spot a TWP forum post.
Mmmh, it´s just that this never looks like this for me. I´m just not sure if this wasn´t influenced by your browsing history, which is an important factor in how google builds it´s results.
There is no browser history nor cookie sending nor account logging nor IP information associated to my country nor browser language settings that might influence the search engine results in an unwanted way. My personal browser is banned from this kind of checks and, as said, sometimes I also use external tools.
Okay, it´s just I don´t think I would have ever seen it, because these days google in germany makes it really really hard to see results in other languages. You used to be able to manually switch but nowadays no matter what I do I´m always redirected to the german site prefering german speaking results.
Listen, I´m glad if this happens the way you´ve said that many people saw it for a while and might be directed this way, I´m just asking you that you maybe not overrate it?
Sure, I was not trying to overrate it, I was just happy to discover that the forum was one of the sources that Google can/will use to pick their “Top stories” from.
The forum is not a very visible website on Google searches, not even on searches related to Thimbleweed Park, so I’m glad that it can be promoted in that special place to the benefit of those who search for the game.
What if I said you were not the latest and greatest?