Better main menu designs

I have written a n开发者_C百科umber of games now, but feel that I fall down on my main menus. I usually use photoshop to create 2d text and buttons. To me the end result is very amateurish compared to other games out there.

Can anyone give me some tips to improve my main menus? My last game was written in OPEN GL ES - is there any easy way to e.g make the buttons 3D?

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Martin, you know what the true solution is? Hire a desginer which will cost you as little as a couple hundred bucks. Just go to getafreelancer.com (or whatever web site is current today) and post saying you want to pay $200 to have a nice fun game menu designed.

You'll get about 40 responses immediately and most of them will do some sort of sample for you, to see if you like the approach. Pay using PayPal, and wait a few days to get the files.

(The fact of whether or not it is 3D is irrelevant: you just want it to be "really good". Another way to look at it: if you are not an artist/designer in 3D, your own art/designs in 3D will look equally bad. I am a hopeless guitarist and if I try to play the organ, I am equally hopeless!)

A good designer will make it happen for you, and you'll never look back.

Hope it helps!

PS an important tip with designers: to get the best result give very simple instructions. No detail. For example, "I want a Christmas look" or "I want a sci-fi look". And just let your designer run. Do NOT try to tell a designer your ideas on design, or detail issues such as where things should be. Try for the "five word rule" - do not use more than five words telling a designer what you want! (eg, "I want a fun look" or "It's for small children".) Also, do not pay too much! Hope it helps!