Review: mapBattle.com

[marc_gfx]

This site lets you play a sort of geography quiz, I've seen similar things before, but never using the Google Maps API. You can create your own maps and play maps provided by others. Theres a simple high-score list for every map, but I'm not quite sure if my Score-Calculator is very good yet (although it took me comparably long to do...).

I've been working on this site since Sunday evening. I'm pretty happy with the result, but I am running out of spare time. I've done quite a lot of testing, but there are no guarantees everything will work as planned. I have so far only tested it in FireFox. It's 5:38 AM here, so I don't care...

Would appreciate feedback (design, ads, gameplay, gamecreation)

http://mapbattle.com

[knslms]

Need to put that info on the home page. Look at your site from you visitors point of view. To much adsense to little content. Adsense will break you long long before it will ever make you.

[marc_gfx]

you might be right, but it's not a content site. I mean it's basically just a game, but maybe it will stop people from even trying to play.

[searchacar]

I think header is fine, but he need to sort stuff out below header. Matche some color of header in the body to make it more colourful. Otherwise it looks too simple. Also too many google ads, and less contents.

[Skinny]

Not loading for me . . .

Skinny

[Jontish]

I would remove one of the Ads.
Else, it looks okay
Simple but clean & good.

[Calisonder]

it's to white/bland. and there are much better ways to incorporate your adsence ads to your site. put some sort of header graphic above them for starts, make those into colomns that are differant color then then content.

[scarolan]

Originally Posted by searchacar

I think header is fine, but he need to sort stuff out below header. Matche some color of header in the body to make it more colourful. Otherwise it looks too simple. Also too many google ads, and less contents.

this guy hit it on the dot for me

sc

[BrendonC++]

I like the design very nice!

[Jobbertown]

I like the concept of what you have going on. But you are going to have to put some directions on the main page as to how to play the game. I spent the majority of the time trying to nav thru the continents and took to much time to answer the question. It was not very clear to me on how to select the location of the answer. I think someone else would get frustrated and leave before really giving it too much time. Always play to the lowest common denominator ya know?

Definately lose some of the adwords on the side. with them both on the side like that, they overshadow the lack of content on the main page.
I did notice also that when I finally figured out how to select my answer, if I was right it congratulated me and when I was wrong it gave me the right answer. KUDOS!
I think this would be a great tool to have my kids sit and give it a try, but until you give some clarification, my sixth grader will lose interest.

The logo has a good start with the reflection aspect of it...I would go to dafont though and see about maybe a font that resembles either a battle font or one that is similar to the milton bradley board games.
Great effort though, keep it up we will come back to play some more

[arcel]

looks very clean... maybe because it's too white...
if this is a game... better put up a forum...
is this like Travian???

[zeruel]

The first thing that I thought about this site is that it looks more like a Made-For-AdSense site. Nothing special. No content. Design looks good though. But you have to put something that visitors would get attracted. If this is a gaming site. Go set up pictures or graphics about what the game is all about.

[woof75]

i like the design but maybe a little more information on what it is your site offers will latch people on to it.

[marc_gfx]

thanks for the comments, especially jobbertown. havent had time to change anything for the last month, just watching what happens. clarification will be my first target (as it is not what i am best at...). highscores will also be improved, giving every player a result and a position (depends how long the list gets i guess).

I'm not so sure I will get rid of the adsense though... as I have a pretty good click rate and in a way, making money would be a target. don't like it myself really, we will see.

[lloyd.velarde@gmail.]

the large space on the home page caught my eye and has too many google ads on the side , I think it is better to put something in the homepage like some images or logo. design and appearance need some improvement, thats what I observe...and the rest are all good!

[camp185]

You have a killer (great) idea, but I could build it better in day. Get rid of those silly Google ad columns, format the site so it uses more of the screen. Don't play the what size monitor game. The best way to do that is define for what most people use. Right now that is still 1024, but don't set site width to pixels, set for percentage. That way, if they are not using 1024, the site will still look roughly they way you want it to. Another problem I was getting, was I tried playing the American game, and the first question was where is Bolivia. I thought I was playing U.S., so you may want to just title it what continents or be more specific. I understand South America is America, but you will confuse a lot of U.S. people. And finally I would create a login so members can keep track of their scores or something. I think you will get some very competitive people here. First good idea I have seen in a while.

[marc_gfx]

Thanks for the praise on the idea. It's not really that new though, I have seen similar stuff. I'm sure you could make a nicer site in a few hours. It just hasn't been my focus so far and I wouldn't say its what I do best. I spent about 3 days in total, most of the time trying to get the code right, so I'm pretty happy so far.

My first version didn't allow choice of screen resolution and I got complaints that people on large screens couldn't really see much, so it seems like an improvement to me.

The games were also produced in a very very short time (<15min) using the editor that is also provided for anyone else's use. I wanted to add a USA challenge but so far I haven't produced the tools to evaluate state information.

keeping track of scores sounds like an interesting idea, combined with a login, perfect. will be done, thanks for that!

[David_ Bowie]

Good concept if you now how to use Google maps. I saw no where on the site for some detailed instructions. Instead of those Google ads, you may want to replace it with members who had high scores.

David

[marc_gfx]

Instead of starting a new thread...

I've reworked some of the game mechanics and added some features that have been requested by players. I've also added all this social network stuff,... so if someone feels like digging.

However, the game-editor now allows to create areas or lines that the user must click. This can be used to create country borders, mountain ranges, lakes or rivers. In the game these areas are then highlighted after the user has given his answer, increasing the learning experience.

So far I have only added new games for Europe and finally the USA (all the states). If anyone feels like creating some maps, just give it a try. It took me quite some time to get all the borders done, but on the other hand it also provides a good way to learn.

---

I still don't have any instructions, but I am going to add a forum and maybe a quick introduction later on. Just don't find the time for everything

[khucthuydu]

Originally Posted by Skinny

Not loading for me . . .

Skinny

me too