I’m releasing a significant project of mine, you could say my life’s work, in March that has been in development for seven years (DNF anyone? ;P) and have just posted the 1st version of the landing page that attempts to boil down it’s purpose to the most minimal & abstract presentation. This project will definitely interest folks here. I’d like to get a developers perspective/comments on the landing page. After some folks respond I’ll reply with exactly what I’m trying to communicate in a couple days. I’d really like to hear your unfiltered opinions/thoughts first though:
Err… Click on link above, look at pretty picture, post your comments here… ;D
The purpose of which is to help me fine tune the high concept presentation of my project. Without describing too much; it is a component oriented OSGi framework for cross-platform development of real time apps & games for Java on Linux, OSX, Windows, & Android. It supports LWJGL, JOGL, Android OpenGL ES bindings & relevant 2D libraries of desktop Java and Android. I’ll post a link to more info as it does a bunch more too… Some folks on this board will recognize me from over the years and such, but I’m interested on a general developers perspective on the high concept presented at the link.
I’m basically trying to come up with the essential 3 words I need to first tell an investor regarding what the project does and how it affects peoples lives.
[quote]but I’m interested on a general developers perspective on the high concept presented at the link.
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I think switching “design” and “develop” would add a better flow reading the page from left to right. Those 2 could also be combined to something like “create” if you want to add a different “high concept” like “interact” or something for you forums etc.
To make sure I even understand the basic ideas my first impression is that:
Design will lead to documents/tools to help with the game design aspects, such as organizing your ideas into a design doc.
Develop will be the technical info like JavaDocs/ tutorials/ etc.
Engage will help people get the game seen after it has been created.
Typhon would be the general “about us”/“contact us” company info type pages.
IE from a dev perspective sure perhaps design goes before development. This definitely more so in a traditional waterfall model of development.
That is an interesting idea on how things will interact on the landing page such as design and develop. I’ll mention my idea behind those two shortly.
Engage was the most spot on in regard to the fact that I’m definitely trying to help developers engage the end user with not only a better experience, but give end users a certain confidence in tech made with Typhon like how folks view apps/games made with a commercial engine like Unreal3, etc. I also want to give the impression to developers that they’ll be some assistance in publicizing their apps/games. I’m not building a 3rd party market, but plan to create a catalog of Typhon based apps that are good quality through the web site and a Typhon catalog app found in the Android market where end users can view info on Typhon enabled apps, try short demos (maybe), and have links to download them on the actual market.
The interesting thing when asking a non-developer about the landing page they had no idea what engage stood for and were a little confused by it. This individual also made the comment that GUIs can be developed and code can be designed.
Thanks for the art nod too. I don’t work with outside artists as often as I should (or can afford to presently as like most of us here so to speak), but I did this time to develop these high concept graphic assets and the product logo. Both of them did a good job. I’ve got reasonable skills, but sometimes I OCD a little too much over it and that is better left to the code than the art.
It’s nice to get an outside take on things as what I’m trying to communicate is how Typhon affects three different types of users: developers, designers (design houses, etc.), and end users. So, the picture presented isn’t necessarily showing a use case flow from just a developers perspective.
Originally the idea was to actually have pictures of people, but perhaps abstractly drawn, but the artist came up with the purpose oriented icons instead. I think it’s way better than cheesy photos of people abstract/silhouetted or otherwise, but only as long as the abstraction doesn’t totally confuse. I narrowed things down to develop, design, engage.
The design orientation of Typhon covers the additional tools and features for designers to build/create GUIs via XML. The 2D Android GUI components of Typhon expose the blending and compositing features of the 2D API via XML allowing very attractive GUIs to be created and procedural GUIs to be defined by XML. There is a big issue with screen sizes/resolutions with Android and its very easy to composite art assets with Typhon of course by an code API for devs, but XML for designers. One offshoot product is a WYSIWYG editor for designers to visually manipulate the Typhon 2D GUI components. That being particularly affective for creating procedural GUI assets and such for a variety of screen sizes.
Developers… Well, there’s a metric ton of benefit from Typhon and that won’t be hard to prove or discuss. That is Typhon’s strong point. Typhon does provide a lot of ready made components for real time app/game dev. On Android a good deal of attention was also focused on solving fragmentation issues and providing a coherent framework that runs across the entire ecosystem of all devices.
Selling the idea to designers and end users is the real task especially because I’m a developer myself and am most comfortably describing Typhon to developers.
Where is all this going. I’ll talk more about that in a further reply as it’s actually kind of late here… But recently I went out to an entrepreneur meet up in SF and afterward was at the open bar reception I passed by my developer high concept phrase to the guest. The guest speaker was a reasonably well known angel investor / blogger of silicon valley, Dave McClure. He’s kind of on boisterous side of things. Hrm… Probably NSFW (video): http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2010/02/with-apologies-to-kathy-sierra.html
but gives you and idea… :
So I basically said, “What’s your opinion on middleware for Android?” :: blank stare :: “We’ll, I’m developing Typhon and it’s the missing framework for Android.” :: blank stare :: Reply from McClure, “I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.” Bang, further discussion closed as it’s a loosing battle for me to continue talking about the technical glory of Typhon; even though it is true… :persecutioncomplex:
That is my developer high concept phrase and it does ring true for anyone who has lots of experience on Android in the last year as it is a direct way for me to continue talking about how Typhon deals fragmentation with fragmentation and the ability to release an advanced GL app, etc. across the entire ecosystem of all devices.
So, I’m trying to refine a larger target… Right now my high concept is, “Typhon helps anyone develop, design, and engage people through creating better apps & games for Android and beyond.”
Not a whole lot of investors have any strategy for Android right now and as we kind of know historically definitely no strategy for Java when it comes to client side real time apps/games. So, it’s necessary to widen the net and talk about how more than one category of folks are affected by the project. From my experience thus far investors are not interested in the technical merits per se of the technology (at least up front!), but aspects like product/market fit (which I believe I have), traction, and social proof. How does the product/project affect everyday people. In my case with Typhon being so developer centric “everyday people” are designers and end users.
The 2nd revision of the landing page will feature lightbox popups for each icon that goes into reasonably high level, but specific details on each user type and how Typhon benefits them. In addition there will be a video popup featuring a 3-4 minute video showing all sorts of cool things Typhon can do and how it helps or affects those three different user types. I believe this additional functionality will drive home what I’m trying to communicate.
So, yeah, with the above in mind maybe someone has a perspective or opinion on how to better get across the idea/image that Typhon affects developers, designers, and end users each benefiting in a certain way. Am I headed in the wrong direction?
Well it looks fine, clean and simple. I wonder if the url and the slightly cartoony visuals conflict slightly with what sounds like a very substantial technical project, but that may not be the case.
Clearly it needs more substance - right now those are very high level concepts which could apply to any number of things, so without having read your post it wasn’t clear what Typhon actually is. I did assume a tool, but it you could just as well be advertising some sort of consultancy or outsourcing. If people landing there have some sort of idea up front of what they’re going to find - which I suspect is likely to be the case - and if further information is easily available, then it could work well.
It sounds like the biggest thing you’re missing is some user base, so that people do actually arrive there looking for a tool that they’ve heard good things about. The best thought out page in the world won’t help without something driving quality traffic there.
I hate to be negative but it’s nothing special to me. It doesn’t even make me want to return to the page.
Again like the post before you don’t know what this is hinting at without the blurb you posted in this topic. Your site should be able to express what it is without you needing to be there explaining it. I also personally don’t like advertising that tries to express the product through a couple of words. It’s like your putting more effort into being clever with how you express it rather then just telling me what it is. Clever banners and design buzzwords can blur your message making it more difficult for them to understand what your providing.
I’d especially tone this down if it’s aimed at developers. You need to express more on what this will do to help get their job done. I mean more then just using buzz words; I’d like to see real examples of how your framework solves their problems.
Indeed. I think things are borderline on the “cartoony” side of things, but in my opinion it is better than having something more gauche and cheesy like typical corporate images of people depicting the 3 user categories.
This is spot on especially about it being a little too abstract and applying to other purposes. The 2nd revision I’ll try to get posted by the end of February will have lightbox popups for the three user types and a 3-4 minute video. This first version actually is of course what I have up now, but will be going on the back of my new business card. So it’s definitely the abstract presentation. I’m replacing the “Q1 2010” text with the web site for the business card.
Definitely the biggest attraction of the web site for developers will be a large set of tutorials covering 2D / 3D dev. A little of the content will be like NeHe. I’ll also be convering some math aspects as well. The main demo is Auriga3D, a quake3 class game engine, and the plan is to dissect the code and help folks understand an engine of that magnitude.
I hear you! It’s a good thing this is not the official launch page, eh… Personally, as an engineer, if I’m interested in something I’m looking for the white paper and the details. This is an effort to strip things down to the bare minimum and build up a landing page that communicates just enough to get a variety of folks, not just engineers, interested in leanring more and digging deeper.
I think the 2nd iteration which should be ready in a 2-3 weeks will provide a good middleground providing enough info along with a video to get the message across clearly, but not turn off any particular user category.
I agree. Since this project/framework leans towards developers as the main participants and users they’ll be a prime focus in the next revision. The video will show examples of how Typhon helps developers and designers.
“JKL235”, you are actually a developer who this project could benefit nicely as I see you are mostly involved with applet/OpenGL/JOGL game dev from your sigs web site. Typhon will make it easier for you to simultaneously release an applet and an Android version from a shared codebase thus enabling your games to reach a wider audience.
The 2nd revision is going to attempt to present things expediently, but with clarity. I suppose you could say there are the busy developers who want the info right away and quickly. There are also developers that want the white paper with all the details. Regarding Typhon the later will come on full site launch.
Thanks for everyones input. It is helpful and I when I come back in a couple weeks with the 2nd revision we’ll see how well I address folks comments from above!
