The Xenogears demo in one of the Squaresoft demo discs was one of the most amazing demos I ever played. I literally played that demo everyday until the game came out and immediately bought it.
Your Demo Sucks
- Thread starter Shamus Young
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The phenomenon of brief, worthless game demos is not new. Does anyone remember the demo for the game "Requiem: Avenging Angel?" It consisted of one boss fight and was all of thirty seconds long. One of Penny Arcade's early strips referenced this.
Publishers don't make demos anymore because they sell games purely on hype. The fear is that if someone plays a demo of the game and satisfies their hype-driven curiosity they will then not buy it, thus resulting in a "lost" sale. Cliffy B said as much when he explained why there would be no Gears of War 2 demo; he said that it was a game people would feel compelled to play, and that he wanted to force them to buy it to satisfy that urge.
What the fuck is that? Where is the confidence in their product? A well-done demo says the exact opposite; it says to the player, "Look, this game rocks so hard, we are going to show you everything it has to offer, because we know you won't be able to put the controller down. You will get so pumped you will kick your mom in the face!"
The last game I bought because of the demo was Bioshock. I was really on the fence about that game but the demo convinced me to get it, and I don't regret it. That demo equaled +1 sale for them. It was the full opening section of the game, with story intro and everything intact.
Before that, the last demo I can think of that convinced me to buy a game was Xenogears. Ten whole years ago. I popped the demo in with very low expectations, and several hours later I was so enthralled with the game I bought it the very next day, and it remains one of my favorite games ever since. The demo was the whole opening segments of the game, complete with the mindscrew opening video, the plot-exposition opening narration, the first town, and the first wilderness/dungeon area, where two extra characters join you from later on in the story, complete with all their special attacks, so you could check out the combat system to your heart's content. Then it all ended on a massive cliffhanger and showed a montage of scenes from the entire rest of the game. The whole thing said very effectively, "This game is so friggin' epic it is going to rock your socks off." It was a great demo for a great game, and convinced me to buy something I otherwise would have overlooked.
Publishers don't make demos anymore because they sell games purely on hype. The fear is that if someone plays a demo of the game and satisfies their hype-driven curiosity they will then not buy it, thus resulting in a "lost" sale. Cliffy B said as much when he explained why there would be no Gears of War 2 demo; he said that it was a game people would feel compelled to play, and that he wanted to force them to buy it to satisfy that urge.
What the fuck is that? Where is the confidence in their product? A well-done demo says the exact opposite; it says to the player, "Look, this game rocks so hard, we are going to show you everything it has to offer, because we know you won't be able to put the controller down. You will get so pumped you will kick your mom in the face!"
The last game I bought because of the demo was Bioshock. I was really on the fence about that game but the demo convinced me to get it, and I don't regret it. That demo equaled +1 sale for them. It was the full opening section of the game, with story intro and everything intact.
Before that, the last demo I can think of that convinced me to buy a game was Xenogears. Ten whole years ago. I popped the demo in with very low expectations, and several hours later I was so enthralled with the game I bought it the very next day, and it remains one of my favorite games ever since. The demo was the whole opening segments of the game, complete with the mindscrew opening video, the plot-exposition opening narration, the first town, and the first wilderness/dungeon area, where two extra characters join you from later on in the story, complete with all their special attacks, so you could check out the combat system to your heart's content. Then it all ended on a massive cliffhanger and showed a montage of scenes from the entire rest of the game. The whole thing said very effectively, "This game is so friggin' epic it is going to rock your socks off." It was a great demo for a great game, and convinced me to buy something I otherwise would have overlooked.
Last demo I played that actually caused me to buy the game would be Steambot Chronicles. I'm glad I bought it, the game is an absolute gem as far as I'm concerned.
The demo for Burnout Paradise was so fucking amazing that my brother and I played it all but constantly till we finally bought the damn game.
Shadow of the Colossus. I got it in a Playstation magazine a few years ago. It's funny though, I wanted it for a couple of years, could not find it anywhere. My brother ended up buying it off eBay.
I was not disappointed.
Similar situation was Farenheit (Indigo Prophecy), which I played the demo of way back when it first came out, but only bought it on Xbox Live.
But I did REALLY want both those games, and I looked for them in shops for ages.
I was not disappointed.
Similar situation was Farenheit (Indigo Prophecy), which I played the demo of way back when it first came out, but only bought it on Xbox Live.
But I did REALLY want both those games, and I looked for them in shops for ages.
Mirror's Edge is a great example of what a demo should be.
It was long enough that you were able to get a feel for all aspects of gameplay(Runner vision, melee combat, gun combat, and the free-running itself),but short enough that it didn't spoil the game by letting you experience its shortcomings(the horrible repetition).
Can you say near perfect marketing tool?
It was long enough that you were able to get a feel for all aspects of gameplay(Runner vision, melee combat, gun combat, and the free-running itself),but short enough that it didn't spoil the game by letting you experience its shortcomings(the horrible repetition).
Can you say near perfect marketing tool?
I'd have to go with Overlord...... it kind of dropped you into the first level without the opening stuff. But it showed off the gameplay and humor of the game. Seeing a game with that much character for the first time in awhile definitely made me want the game.
Psi-Ops. Much like the demos you described, the demo had no real plot; all the cutscenes and unique dialog was removed from the demo levels, replaced with pop-up tutorials on how you cna use your powers in different ways to solve puzzles. But they did include several trailers, and developer diaries with it.
Very recently, I tried the demos for both Braid and The Longest Journey, both of which are on Steam.
Braid's demo was great - it gave you all the story nuggets you usually get in the main game, then proceeded to give you the entire first world, half of the second, and one or two levels of the third. The first two worlds gave me a good idea what the game contained, and the third was the 'look what we can do!' hook that got me to buy it.
The Longest Journey was a little odd, since it does actually dump you in the middle of the story and doesn't explain anything to you. You're plonked on a boat at sail, you just have some weird 'Amulet of the Balance' (plus some candy), and your character is keen to get to some island to save the world. Somehow. And the captain is adamant not to go there so to avoid a Chaos Storm. Or something.
Yet regardless of not knowing the full story, I DID manage to relate to the scenario of trying to get this boat to go towards the island I wanted to visit. The demo lasts the entirety of the boat scenario, meaning you don't get cut out whilst in the middle of doing your thing. The game lets you finish off this little thread of the story, leaving you wanting to see what your efforts ended up doing in the terms of the full story.
Braid's demo was great - it gave you all the story nuggets you usually get in the main game, then proceeded to give you the entire first world, half of the second, and one or two levels of the third. The first two worlds gave me a good idea what the game contained, and the third was the 'look what we can do!' hook that got me to buy it.
The Longest Journey was a little odd, since it does actually dump you in the middle of the story and doesn't explain anything to you. You're plonked on a boat at sail, you just have some weird 'Amulet of the Balance' (plus some candy), and your character is keen to get to some island to save the world. Somehow. And the captain is adamant not to go there so to avoid a Chaos Storm. Or something.
Yet regardless of not knowing the full story, I DID manage to relate to the scenario of trying to get this boat to go towards the island I wanted to visit. The demo lasts the entirety of the boat scenario, meaning you don't get cut out whilst in the middle of doing your thing. The game lets you finish off this little thread of the story, leaving you wanting to see what your efforts ended up doing in the terms of the full story.
The last demo I enjoyed was for a little game called Katawa Shoujo.
The first thing I did after playing the demo was play it again.
And again.
And again...
Finally, when I'd gotten close to 100% (still had some stuff to see), I went to their website hoping to buy the game.
It was a free game made by a bunch of guys who were making it for fun, so I looked for a donate button, and seeing none, I was left egarly waiting for a free game.
The first thing I did after playing the demo was play it again.
And again.
And again...
Finally, when I'd gotten close to 100% (still had some stuff to see), I went to their website hoping to buy the game.
It was a free game made by a bunch of guys who were making it for fun, so I looked for a donate button, and seeing none, I was left egarly waiting for a free game.