As the title says, is there some way that I can improve my games' thumbnails? (here) (with the exception of It's a Trap!)
Any kind of suggestions are welcome, ranging from too much going on to not enough colours on the screen (?).
Thanks!
Is it to increase click rate? I wish I knew myself haha.
General things I think that can help improve your thumbnails. But take it with a grain of salt.
1. Using more stylized font or custom font (i.e. Final Boss fight was a good use of it)
2. Ensuring font doesn't blend into the rest of the image, making it hard to read (i.e. high command and goblin raid)
--> This could be due to the colors being close in range, or there is too much noise near the font.
Let me know if you learn some other tips and cheers~
You could look if there is a common theme for games that are very popular and are similar to your games.
Making a good cover image for a game is hard.
Specific impressions:
The text on that goblin game is not readable.
The command game promises rts.
The boss game and the sword game promise pixel art.
I can't figure out the sword game.
The boss game promieses platformer.
The goblin game some 3d stuff tower defense like.
If that was your goal, goal achieved ;-)
So you should at least preselect the target audience correctly so far.
Maybe have a look at your short description as well and not only the cover image.
A tactical RTS full of strategic decisions and
A short, fun, local-multiplayer game where one
A fun tower defence full of invading go
A retro platformer dungeon teeming
A fun, fast paced infinite flyer with p
Those read ... not very interesting. Sounds like you asked an AI to summarize your game description. I actually did not read the texts when I tried to figure out the games based on their covers. So information you give there might be redundant. And boring.
I had a look at the cemetary game. Reads AI too. You might want to have a look at your tags too. Why tag indie, this is Itch. And point & click is wrong. Every game is point and click if that one is point & click. People browsing https://itch.io/games/tag-point-and-click will not find "A subgenre of the adventure game, point-and-click games typically involve interacting with background objects, talking to non-player characters, and using an item inventory to solve puzzles that allow the player to progress through the story." in that tower defense game.
You could highlight that it is a jam game made in 5 days. The shorttext "Made in 5 days for Halloween Jam" would be a lot more interesting in my opinion than "A fun tower defence full of invading go...".
The description of that jetpack game is a lot better. That jetpack game. Jetpack. Why is there no bragging about the jetpack?! I can't decypher the item being a jetpack from the picture.
"A fun, fast paced infinite flyer with plenty of sharp things to dodge".
compare to
"Fly a jetpack. Dodge swords. The usual".
Thanks for your advice. I did not use AI for the description, but I have been told before that my writing looks like it.
About the point and click, I have played those games before and did not associate them with the name. Thanks for clarifying.
I will try and redo my descriptions. You are correct that they sound a touch dry, I guess I was unintentionally repeating myself.
Thanks again
There is two things. The hover text when you hover your mouse over a game's cover image in browse section. That is the first paragraph of the game description. At least as much as fits in the pop up. Along with the first two screenshots.
And the line under the image. That is a separate thing you can enter in your game's meta info. This will get cut off, depending on size of the grid. That is why my citations were cut off.
Short description or tagline
Shown when we link to your project. Avoid duplicating your project's title
It is under the title. If you read the title, you probably will have read the line under it. Consiously or not.