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Drex 19 Jun, 2023 @ 11:12am
On the topic of using this page style for things like Next Fest et al
So I've noticed lately, that this style of page is often being used for things like Next Fest right now. I'm not against this it's not a bad layout, but I think this is a page style trying to emphasize sorting which is nice, but also more importantly, buying.

The thing is, most things in these big show-off events, are not for sale yet, you may occasionally find something for preorder (unlikely in indie games as many of these usually are) or early access, but usually there's no price yet.

Why do I bring this up? Well, looking at Next Fest right now I'm going down the column of games and I'm just seeing "coming soon" again and again and again in the box for price on each one.

The thing is, on a discovery event where you can't buy things yet, this is irrelevant data. Also I notice when I hover over a game tile and it pops the detailed one up, it'll show if a demo is available. A demo? Now THAT is important information in an event like this.

If not replace the coming soon button, I really think at the very least, on the discovery events that aren't pure sales, you should consider putting the button showing a demo is available (or at least just text saying it till you hover) on the front of the tiles you see glancing while scrolling by and not just on hover.

Personally I am far more likely to look closer at something if it says a demo is available, than just screenshots and video clips. Some things I might not care about peeking at much, I might be far more inclined to try if there's a real demo, but, hovering over each item in a big event like next fest is rather impractical, so I think adding a button about demo availability would be a good thing for the discoverability of these games for a lot more people not just myself.

Even if you only add more data to the tiles scrolling by during an event like this, and not one where it's actually focused directly on selling, I think it'd be a good improvement.
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Zio 16 Feb @ 10:05am 
I know what you mean, though personally I have more gripes with the whole thing. The problem though is, that those panels are not designed for that purpose, they just pick the steam store page info and project it. It's not supposed to be...well...better. Guessing even that there aren't many people doing anything for these things anyway, and those who do probably even couldn't if they wanted, they probably just pick the categories and stuff and let their algorithms do the work. Valve is trying its best to minimise costs and that's the easiest way. It would make sense to change displays for various reasons for various things. Though if we think this through to the end, it would result in only the most popular things most people already know to get better/special treatment because those are what sells and sales are what counts. Therefore projecting the store page info is what's done (ie their price tags screaming BUY ME)

edit: oops, sorry for necro, I misread the date as JAN instead of JUN, should have checked the year I guess
Last edited by Zio; 16 Feb @ 10:21am
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