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Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

taxi-mogul.com

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Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#11
post #5

Spelling Nit to fix immediately: "Purchased cars are delivered immideately" BureauPoints seems like an odd name at first.

Haha, fixed, thanks.

BureauPoints was meant to evoke feelings of battling bureaucracy. I suspect that got lost somewhere along the way.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#13
Okay, I'm going to rail into you. This is only because it will help you out in the long run

1) Your website looks like a slipshod piece of junk. It's a crap blog format with some images. Where's a video overview of the game? A column showing recent scores and users? A smoother interface? Come on, there's tons of things you screwed up on.

2) Where's the hook? I need a 6 word hook, a tagline, something to say "Maybe I should keep reading about this." Nothing.

3) I don't give a damn about taxis, so why should I give a damn about your game? At least with other games, I'm building a galactic empire or taking over the world. Those far more attract to imaginative personalities that play these games.

4) What's the reward?

5) Your logo's a piece of junk built with standard templates in photoshop. The lack of effort in your logo shows.

There's an entire lack of effort on the front-end and a lack of hooks to get me to EVER play this.

And what's the business model? Advertising is going to make you money? Not in this market. Freemium is dying.

This is jumping on an ancient business that's dying out rapidly. The Facebook application is the only positive I have.

Sorry if I was harsh. This is how I feel, and I hope it helps.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#14

Okay, I'm going to rail into you. This is only because it will help you out in the long run 1) Your website looks like a slipshod piece of junk. It's a crap blog format with some images. Where's a video overview of the game? A column showing recent scores and users? A smoother interface? Come on, there's tons of things you screwed up on. 2) Where's the hook? I need a 6 word hook, a tagline, something to say "Maybe I…

I didn't have so nearly a negative reaction. How it went for me:

* Visited the page

* Saw screenshot on right (thought: "cute enough")

* Read paragraph next to it

* Said "huh.. running a virtual taxi service? might be kind of fun to try out sometime especially if friends are involved. No time at the moment, though"

* Closed browser tab

As a potential user, I wasn't turned off immediately by much of anything else named above. I agree that I'd work on some of those things if you're trying to make a stellar product, though.

If it's more for a fun project, I wouldn't worry about the "bad mood" sort of review above. I've seen worse from games that I've enjoyed a whole lot.

If you made this into a decent iPhone game, I and my friends would definitely install it to try it out, just from the initial description.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#16

Okay, I'm going to rail into you. This is only because it will help you out in the long run 1) Your website looks like a slipshod piece of junk. It's a crap blog format with some images. Where's a video overview of the game? A column showing recent scores and users? A smoother interface? Come on, there's tons of things you screwed up on. 2) Where's the hook? I need a 6 word hook, a tagline, something to say "Maybe I…

Thanks. Most of your points are very much valid, and this sort of frank opinion is very much appreciated. Naturally, we will be improving the site based on the feedback we get.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#17

Okay, I'm going to rail into you. This is only because it will help you out in the long run 1) Your website looks like a slipshod piece of junk. It's a crap blog format with some images. Where's a video overview of the game? A column showing recent scores and users? A smoother interface? Come on, there's tons of things you screwed up on. 2) Where's the hook? I need a 6 word hook, a tagline, something to say "Maybe I…

This is one of the best review I have seen in a long time on HN, Harsh and constructive. Take it with a positive mind and go back to you drawing board and remake it for the better.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#18
Loved it! To all the harsh comments, do not forget it's not a google beta. These guys are probably working their ... off to create an original gaming experience, that as far as I could see, is really adictive, took me 1 minute to start playing and really really liked it. Great work. Congrats!

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#19
Here are a few critiques solely from the game & Facebook perspective:

- You've got an iframe app and you have both horizontal and vertical scrollbars (on mac FF at least). Get rid of them, they drive people insane.

- First time experience is pretty horrid. The "tutorial" is 20 click beast that goes through every aspect of the game at once. Make the game learning process a little more progressive. Don't let me do all 50 things at once. Give me one thing to do, and once I've done it, unlock another 2-3 things I can do.

- User interface, as has been stated already, could use some re-work and some polish. That being said, my old app (Warbook) looks terrible and still got pretty big.

- The virtual goods + advertising model is solid in this space right now. Ignore what other people are saying against it, you're pretty close to a great revenue model. Just remember - people buy virtual goods for two reasons: to "speed up" time and to gain social status.

With all that said, I think the game concept is pretty novel. Hopefully other people find it fun.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup - Taxi Mogul, a persistent browser game

#20
I just tried playing your facebook app. I've gotta say you should just do this a facebook app and nothing more. 86 the website or hire a designer. Do not waste people's time: i am not going to enter text into any inpot boxes to get started playing your game. Perhaps this is because you hit me with too much text to start out with. Pictures are worth 1000 words.

People see login fields and cringe. On the facebook app a instructions form came up. I clicked through as far as i could but I'm very ADD and there was nothing to keep my attention, and since the app didn't catch my attention, I didn't even read the instructions. It needs to be painless. My suggestion for you (and anyone that wants to build a facebook app) is to add e.g. MobWars , Playfish and play them. See how long and how many gestures you have to do to start having fun.

Kudos for googlemaps integration though... and releasing! Its tough i must say.

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