[quote](it’s somewhat representative about Java gaming in general, so ideally it should really look good)
[/quote]
That is so true! I’d give a high priority on the presentation of the site. It’s not crucial for now since I guess that the site is not indexed yet by search engines.
Google it (java game tome) and it is the first site 
Not the name of the site. I meant keywords like java games for example. This type of search has a great impact on how java games look in general for the average people.
So this site is for Java game developers to see what other Java game developers have done?
Yeah, you shouldn’t hotlink the screenshots. (Although personally I don’t care).
Also if you don’t have time to crop the screenshots, you can use CSS to keep the aspect ratio. Try either the “max-width” or “max-height” property to scale or the “clip” property to crop.
+1 Need to work on the presentation
It is a step in a good direction though.
The problem is that we want to keep it as simple as possible and I defend the idea of deep linking as it is easier for the users. However, if an author prefers linking to his website, he only has to change the game URL and that’s all, everyone is happy.
Christoph wants us to wait for some weeks before promoting the website as it is still ugly.
It is a good start, thanks 
Christoph will improve the look and feel as I said. Your idea of scaling through PHP is interesting. I will speak about hosting images to Christoph before making a decision.
The website is destinated to “normal” users mainly, not only developers. I will look at what you suggested in CSS.
If you nail down the look & feel, it could work. heavygames.com is only game links, but it’s extraordinarily popular for what it is (no reviews, no walkthroughs, no real community features, just game links)
My only advice would be to make it obvious what users get when they click a game - applet? webstart? web page? Most won’t know jnlp from php, and unpredictability when clicking a link can be a turn off to casual users.
Saying that linking screenshots to games is easier for normal user is not a strong point in my opinion. There’re other options to guarantee simplicity. One is to display evident links below the screenshot, be text or image. This way the user has the choice to either start the game immediately or having more info by clicking the screenshot or the view info link.
That is why I avoid providing only a JAR file… but I can’t force all the developers to use a single technology.
I have asked one of my friends to see the website and to test the games. He is really ill at ease with computers… What was his first reflex? Clicking on the image. What did he expect? Play. The problem is that if I put a button “Play” whereas some authors don’t want me to use direct links, the users will expect to be able to play immediately and sometimes they will access to the game’s website but they will have to find the other button or link to play, it is not really logical, you click on “Play” but you have to click another time somewhere else to play. The problem is almost the same with the principle of “click on the image to play” but it is worse with a button called “Play” as you announce something that you don’t provide immediately.
Imagine that then I don’t display the button “Play” when I don’t have a direct link. Is it simple for the users to understand that sometimes he can click on “Play” to play and sometimes I need to go to the game’s website to play???
Good point. What about adding overlay image with “play” or “visit homepage” icons (like youtube do for starting videos) to distinguish the operations? It could be small icon in bottom right or something like that. I suppose most of games will allow link directly anyway.
+1
I really like this idea. It fulfills all the needs we’re discussing.
Good idea but I hope you’re right about the direct link.
On the other hand, the system that counts hit is ready. Please don’t cheat, there is no fun… I have not clicked on my own game, I have clicked on Bloodridge for the tests.
Finally, Incredibuilder! has been updated and Snowman Village has been removed. A robot tried to add something according to the traces in the database.
I am still working on the site layout and design. Please bare with me! I am fully aware that the site currently looks ugly. The goal is to come up with something as good or nicer as heavygames/gametunnel, it’s just going to take some more time. Sorry… ;D
We will also address the other issues (direct linking, image scaling, spacing…) in time. All games that we linked to without permission will be removed. Sorry if we caused you any troubles.
@gouessej: let’s store properly scaled thumbnail images for each game in the database. How about 100x80px?
Ta.
What does it mean? I did what you wanted.
I will contact the authors of the games but currently, only one asked me to remove his game and that’s done.
I can’t make a decision now about the size of the image, I should have a better idea of the design before.
‘Ta’ is a short form of ‘Thank You’.
Julien, mon vieil ami, pourquoi êtes-vous si sensible? Laissez-nous être tous les amis!
Ok fine thanks.
As you know, I have added the system to count hit for each game yesterday evening and now I discover that there have been about 200 hits!! Bloodridge is 1st, TUER is 2nd ax eaquo with IncrediBuilder and the dark monastery.
I spent some time working on the interface. Let me know what you think so far?
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/6540/interfacetemplatev03sc9.th.jpg
Note: do not get too excited about those page hits, it’s probably just me ;D
Looks pretty good to me. The title bar is maybe a bit heavy. Look forward to seeing it live
Kev