Thoughts on Demo's?

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MishMash

Guest
Hey, I've had a few people ask whether we'll be releasing a free demo version of our game when it's released. At first I thought I definitely would, but after having more time to think about it, my opinion has mostly changed towards not releasing a demo for the following reasons:

  • If you put too much in the demo, it takes away from (de-values) the experience of the full game.
  • If you don't put enough content in the demo, it doesn't serve as an accurate representation of what the game is really like to play.
  • If you have a time-locked demo, these can set themselves up to be exploited if you don't have a fixed number of levels.
  • ... When you really look at it, games are pretty cheap, and if you have good media, do you really need a demo?
I thought it'd be an interesting topic for discussion. I can see that having a demo can be beneficial in bringing in people who are on the fence, but it can also do the opposite. As you can tell from my queries, i'm starting to be against the idea, though I want to know what other people think, and whether it entirely depends on the genre of game.

(Note: I feel it would work well for games with specific levels, but not so well for open-world/sandbox-y games like mine).
 
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Gerald Tyler

Guest
I can't speak for everybody...but when I was younger I literally bought dozens of games purely based on enjoying the demos. Many adolescents only get so much money a year, mostly from Christmas or Birthdays, and can be VERY picky buyers.

Additionally, we live in an age where E3 is filled to the brim with flat out LIES about what the games will be. I for one am getting sick of that, and I'd imagine countless others are as well. I don't preorder anything anymore, and always wait for reviews from trusted independent (Not IGN who are shills) reviews like TotalBiscuit or AngryJoe. Having a demo means that you actually believe in your product, and aren't just hoping to trick me into a purchase that I'll regret. That's one of my 2017 resolutions actually, to release a demo of the game I'm working on. If I don't have the confidence to actually let people try before they buy, why the hell should anybody listen to me? The industry is oversaturated with over promising and under delivering. A demo shows people that you're actually planning on delivering, and that you're not just lying as part of a marketing campaign.

Again, sure that others will disagree. And it's not as though demos are only pros and no cons. If your game is a POS, releasing a demo only serves to prove it to people. Which is why most AAA companies don't. They'd rather spend millions on marketing their garbage, than to spend a little bit more money on making the game worthy of its budget. Additionally no game will meet everybody's needs / desires. Somebody who Would have made a blind purchase may decide after your demo that the game just isn't the right fit for them, it happens. There's a financial and a time cost to releasing a demo, which may be better served on the actual game itself. And if your demo winds up having a lot of technical issues, it'll put off a certain percentage of people even if every one of those issues is fixed by release. That being said, I'm going to demo when its time knowing full well the potential risks involved. That doesn't mean that it's the right decision for You though.

As far as the genre, both Minecraft and Terraria have had demos available so I wouldn't be concerned with that.
 

Jabbers

Member
I currently don't believe releasing a demo version is necessary and I agree with the reasons you gave. It is a very dated idea. These days people will Google for reviews and watch gameplay videos on YouTube before making a decision, so I would put the effort into getting the ball rolling with some comprehensive gameplay videos, and sending copies of the game to reviewers. I understand Vitality will be released on Steam, so customers have the option of getting a refund if they don't like the game anyway.
 

JackTurbo

Member
Having not shipped anything of substance, my views may be of limited worth.

I'd say it depends on how you're planning to release. If the game will be good to go, then maybe dont bother. If however you're trying to crowdfund then I think they still have a lot to offer, especially for smaller unknown devs. It shows that the project is more than vaporware and that you can be trusted to produce the finished product.
 

Fern

Member
@Jabbers is on the ball. Demos used to be essential in the early 2000's and 90's, but due to YouTube's growth and everyone having a voice of their own on the internet, that is no longer the case. @Gerald Tyler isn't wrong about demos previously being very helpful when it came to attaining customers.

In all of my life, only one demo ever encouraged me to buy a game, Just Cause 2. Every other demo showed me the essence of a game and that was enough for me to feel fulfilled without making a purchase. Maybe it varies from person to person but from my experience never posting demos for any of my products, sales seem to have gone ahead unaffected. I've never seen a single comment that said, "I wish there was a demo".
 
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MishMash

Guest
In all of my life, only one demo ever encouraged me to buy a game, Just Cause 2.
I played the demo for JC2 quite a lot, only actually got around to buying the game when it was like $5 on steam though haha :p!

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. For the time being I think I won't bother releasing a demo, though it may be something i'll pop out a few months after release to drill up interest if needed.
 
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Rusty

Guest
The effectiveness of a demo is determined by your audience, game and quality of demo. A demo isn't use a marketing tool to attract customers anymore, it's also a useful way for you to get a feel for the size of the market you'll be shipping your game to and in which areas (and.or countries) you need to apply extra advertising too.

Point A) Your Audience;
Your Audience is (I'm assuming from your signature as unfortunately I am not familiar with your game itself) RPG gamers. Demos to this audience are a great idea, as they tend to snub most indie RPG's due to amount of crap that tends to flood into the genre. A lot of the time your game will be snubbed by most AAA gamers because of it's indie title, and that's not fair or profitable for you. If you can make a short and free version of your game, which highlights your games main mechanics and excitement points, then you could really grab their attention. Nobody says no to free stuff. If they're impressed with the mechanics of your game they'll take a second look at purchasing the full game rather than passing it off as the same old indie junk. Better yet, this a good way to get reviewers turned onto your project and building hype before your game's actual release date.

Point B) Your Game;
If your game is a game of some substance then it'll stand a better chance of succeeding in general, but particularly more so if you decide to release a demo of the game. If your game is say... tetris, and you give the people a 45 minute trial of tetris, then like Seabass said, it's enough time to get a feel for the game, having played the entire game and decided not to purchase it. If your game is, for example, the Walking Dead Season 3 demo I played recently after being unsure about the new concepts, then yes, after giving gamers a taste they will definitely purchase that. You need to have more than the demo provides for it to keep gamers interested.

Point C) Quality of a Demo
The truth is a lot of games still produce demos (we call them Betas now) to get their market buzzing. Mass Effect 3 released a demo and tricked gamers into thinking it was better than 2 (it isn't), I can't remember the last multiplayer game that came out that didn't have a Beta to build up it's market and I've played more than my fair share of game previews. Don't think that just because they've been renamed in the industry that they don't exist anymore. Think of it like those movie trailers that come out for everything ever, a lot of them are produced by idiots who give away pretty much the entire movie and plot in 3 minutes, so why bother with a 2 hour version? You need to hit them with the game, the good points and the excitement, otherwise it's going to hurt your game rather than help it. The hard reality is that a lot of people don't know how to do that. Giving the player 45 minutes from the start is just forcing them to play the god damn tutorial twice if they buy the game afterwards, If you look at the recent Pokemon Sun/Moon demo then you'll see a really good example of a game demo. Hit the player with a level 50 monster and let them go crazy killing stuff in a small area, if they did a 45 minutes from start demo, you'd have to go through all that bloody dialogue that goes on forever for literally no reason.

In conclusion, demos are still a very valuable and effective form of marking, call it a demo or a beta or a preview, but you need to be able to do it right.
 

NazGhuL

NazTaiL
It's good to try a game that worth more than 40$ before buying it. But my opinion now has changed. I can now see if a game is made for me simply by watching a let's play video on youtube.
A very good let's play video explaining the basics and showing some features is good enough.
 
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gamedev4life

Guest
facinating and very relevant topic :)

imo although demos def arent what they used to be, they still serve a purpose, albeit a specialized one: demos and updates/iterations imo are invaluable for indie devs who dont have a following or big reputation and who are trying to get their game known and to one day make some sales. for such unknown devs, demos are invaluable to building a following of players/fans. via "lets play" videos on youtube, gamejolt downloads, etc, an indie game devs can increase their following and expand their base, assuming the game is actually decent. also, little known indie game devs can get some good feedback and testing of their game too. indeed, a game demo for little to unknown indie game devs should be a corner stone of marketing strategy.

demo are less necessary, imo, for indie game devs who already have notoriety, who are published, who are making 'casual' games, who have been picked up on mainstream game review radars.
 
facinating and very relevant topic :)

imo although demos def arent what they used to be, they still serve a purpose, albeit a specialized one: demos and updates/iterations imo are invaluable for indie devs who dont have a following or big reputation and who are trying to get their game known and to one day make some sales. for such unknown devs, demos are invaluable to building a following of players/fans. via "lets play" videos on youtube, gamejolt downloads, etc, an indie game devs can increase their following and expand their base, assuming the game is actually decent. also, little known indie game devs can get some good feedback and testing of their game too. indeed, a game demo for little to unknown indie game devs should be a corner stone of marketing strategy.

demo are less necessary, imo, for indie game devs who already have notoriety, who are published, who are making 'casual' games, who have been picked up on mainstream game review radars.
Depends on your game. Sometimes a very slick trailer will push more copies than a demo will, no matter how good your game is.
If you game is ugly/boring looking, but plays well, do a demo.

If your game is amazing looking and looks great in a trailer, skip the demo. No matter how good your game is, a demo will never match what you can put into people's imaginations with a great trailer. On top of that, if you give people an amazing trailer, but withhold the demo, your audience will feel more tempted to buy your game, to get a taste of what you teased them with. If you give them a demo, they might play with that for five hours instead, say "I'll buy later, when I have a bit more money," and then forget all about your game as the weeks go by.
 
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gamedev4life

Guest
Depends on your game. Sometimes a very slick trailer will push more copies than a demo will, no matter how good your game is.
If you game is ugly/boring looking, but plays well, do a demo.

If your game is amazing looking and looks great in a trailer, skip the demo. No matter how good your game is, a demo will never match what you can put into people's imaginations with a great trailer. On top of that, if you give people an amazing trailer, but withhold the demo, your audience will feel more tempted to buy your game, to get a taste of what you teased them with. If you give them a demo, they might play with that for five hours instead, say "I'll buy later, when I have a bit more money," and then forget all about your game as the weeks go by.
i totally get what youre saying, but i have to then ask, how do you get your awesome trailer in front of enough people's eyes?
 
i totally get what youre saying, but i have to then ask, how do you get your awesome trailer in front of enough people's eyes?
Put it where someone can see it. I've seen people on Twitter get like five thousand followers from a gif or two.
I've talked to a bunch of people who have done Kickstarter campaigns, and they all told me roughly half their traffic came from KS itself, with another huge chunk coming from unidentified links - so probably people passing their game around through word of mouth. People love to show people cool things. Make something cool enough, and people will tell their friends.

This advice only works if your game is ridiculously rad looking, though. Nobody shares things they thought were "pretty good," hahah!
 

RangerX

Member
There's indeed a point where a demo needs to stop. I think you need to find thrilling moment of the game that is, at the same time, representative of the overall experience. If possible a part of the game that really makes the player understand what the game is. If it's well done, it will help sales. If its not well done, it will not help sales as much. Not making a demo is like not buying a lottery ticket to be 100% you don't win.

Me as a gamer and with how precious is my gaming time at my age, I will not buy a game over 5$ that I don't precisely know what it is. This means I need to play a demo of watch some very explicit videos of what your game is. Else you need to be a game I already know and that can't really suck, like a new Zelda or something. ;)
 

NazGhuL

NazTaiL
I want to point out that the best demo ever, in my opinion, is LIMBO.
Enough to feel the thrill and mechanics. As soon as you reach the end...instant buy.
 

Jabbers

Member
i totally get what youre saying, but i have to then ask, how do you get your awesome trailer in front of enough people's eyes?
It is easier than getting people to download and install a demo eitherway. This is a question which concerns marketing, and there is no silver bullet, unless you can somehow get big-name Youtube an Twitch channels to promote your game, or get on the right side of the Reddit gaming community. Otherwise, the traditional method has been to contact websites, reviewers, Youtubers, and hope someone bites.
 
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MishMash

Guest
It is easier than getting people to download and install a demo eitherway.
This is very true, a demo wouldn't automatically bring in more fans, because those people would still need to have seen a trailer in the first place to even be aware of the games' existence. So I guess this falls back to not so much being a discussion about marketing to seek new players, but rather about trying to compel those who have already found your game to buy it.

As far as marketing itself is concerned, this is a whole other beast, as you said, relies on finding people to help promote your game.

My approach to marketing is just to try and be as jammy as f**k by lucking your way into random scenarios :p
 
If the point of the demo is to get people to buy, you need a demo that is limited but gives players something to look forward to. Every limitation should also advertise what buying the game would give. So if you can work out a demo to be fun and exciting while also holding back in an obvious way, you can really sell your game. Now if you set those limitations to cut off everything fun or fail to advertise what the full game will offer, the demo will turn people away. You already have these points listed as reasons not to make a demo so if you think you can pull off the balance, I'd say go for it. Done right, it can only help.
 

Vxss57

Member
All i know is if i had tried a demo of half of my steam games, i probably wouldnt have purchased them.
Project Zomboid was one of those games i really wanted to get but wasnt sure whether to go ahead, but after playing the demo for 10min i was purchasing it. So demos can come in handy
 

Jabbers

Member
Project Zomboid was one of those games i really wanted to get but wasnt sure whether to go ahead, but after playing the demo for 10min i was purchasing it. So demos can come in handy
But would you have purchased the game if there wasn't a demo? We won't know for sure, but I would guess you would have bought the game anyway. After all, you really wanted the product, and you already have a Steam library full of games that didn't offer a demo.
 
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