Game Website
Overview
Do you need a website for you games?
Yeah I'd recommend so, here's why.
1st you should have a newsletter (here's why you should have a newsletter) and for a newsletter you will need a domain.
Because you will need a mail like "hello@domain.com" from where you can send the mails as well as a landing page with a form where people can subscribe
to your mailing list.
Aside from that it's generally good to have a place with all your links to social media, presskits, your games and so on.
And since you will need a domain and hosting service for the newsletter anyways you might as well put it all in one place.
I have a bigger section on Websites in general but here will be some more specific advice for game websites.
Style
So how should your site look?
Generally it's UX over aesthetic here.
People don't come to your site because they want to experience your webdesign. They have probably found the link on your social media account and now want some specific info.
So make sure you always first and foremost focus on functionality and making sure people can get where they need to go and find all the
info quickly and intuitively.
So keep in mind webconventions like having a navigation bar at the top and such.
You can still make it pretty of course but that shouldn't be the focus if it's professional. (of course if it's a hobby site, do what you want).
Here are some things to avoid:
The good thing is, generally these mistakes are when people add unnecessary complexity and annoying animations to their site.
In other words: keeping it simpler on the coding site will often lead to a cleaner user experience.
Game Websites for inspiration
I don't believe their sites are perfect but I think they offer some ideas and inspiration.
Simpler designs:
more complex designs
Content
So what should actually be on your games site?
Your Homepage can be loads of things but I find a lot of sites use them as like an overview of the whole site.
Giving a bit of info on all the subsections.
I'd recommend doing this one last.
Of course you'll need a Games section. Plenty of websites have a drop down menu in the navigation with the game titles but I much
prefer being led to an overview page that shows all the games with a description and some pictures.
I don't know your games and clicking on random titles feels weird.
You can also have a subpage for each game but I'd only do that if you enjoy doing it. Otherwise just link to your store page and save
yourself the time and effort.
You can also put your presskits here or put them on a seperate page.
An About section. In my opinion it should state what you do (indie game developer for example), where your from (country)
and how many people you are (solodev, team of under 10, team of 50? etc.).
You might think it's clear what you do but it's often not. Many companies also offer commission services for other studios rather than making
their own games, or they also develop none game related software.
So it can be helpful to state pretty clearly what kind of products you make.
I think country is more helpful if you want to work with freelancers or have employees. They will want to know that for tax reasons and such.
Also if you're a solodev, please talk in the first person. I think a big advantage of being solo is the authenticity you have that a
corporation could never copy. So why give that up by talking in the 3rd person? We all know it's you who wrote it anyways.
I think it sounds weird and may come across as arrogant even.
(this can be done funny like on Maddymakesgames.com but otherwise I wouldn't do it)
You can of course add more. Like if you want to have your whole backstory or whatever, go off. I just think above is the minimum what you should have.
The Newsletter landing page should be there with a form to subscribe.
Also don't just say "subscribe to get updates". No one wants updates. You have to give people something interesting.
More on that in the newsletter resource section.
There should be a Contact page with a mail or social media (or both).
You can also mention what people can contact you about (and if you speak mutliple languages, what languages in).
Of course you can also mention what not to contact you about, like asking if you hire anyone when you know you don't. But I
personally only add that once people start actually asking me.
Like I won't try to fix an issue that doesn't actually exist in the moment.
Also important if you collect any kind of data (like you would with a newsletter or with google analytics) you need to have a
Privacy Policy.
And if you're a registered company in germany you need an Impressum/ Imprint (legal notice).
But I don't know too much about the legal stuff so do your own research there.