What happened to the demo?

[Napolean Bronaparte]

I keep hearing people talking about it, and I'd like to try the game before I throw money at it. But it seems to have vanished.

[bsg_joel]

Sorry, the PC demo was only available during the Steam Next Fest last year. It may return one day, but for now, the same demo is on the Nintendo Switch, if that helps at all!

[Napolean Bronaparte]

Well that's disappointing - I don't have a switch so that doesn't help. Why have a demo for a limited period of time at all for PC, only to take it away and leave it on the Switch? Feels manipulative.

[Napolean Bronaparte]

Wow, no need to resort to name calling.

If the demo is available on the switch, then imo it should be available for PC. The fact that it was available for PC (granted, for an event) and taken away when it's available elsewhere to me, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I could understand if it was for the event and that's that - fair enough. Or if the demo was only built for the switch and just not ported to PC - fair enough. But that very same demo is available on the switch, and pulled from PC isn't that a bit unfair? Why can't I try the game to determine if I want to spend money on it, but my friend who owns a switch can?

[Ziggurt]

Originally posted by Napolean Bronaparte:

Why can't I try the game to determine if I want to spend money on it, but my friend who owns a switch can?

While I am all for demos, the fact is that all of the demoes from that time event were removed from steam so this is not something peculiar to these devs. Nothing gonna change it between now and release.

If you need info on how the game looks and what is about, there are streams of the game available, covering area beyond what demo shows (which is far more important, since demo shows only limited functionality and area of the game and they can always be manipulated to look from the best).

As of writing of this post, Nookrium has stream on the twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/nookrium

Splattercat has also posted a stream on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO9JkoOcZtI

[Napolean Bronaparte]

Thanks for replying to me like an adult.

I can't help but feel that if it went up in the first place, then it can go back up again especially since the demo exists elsewhere still. But it is what it is I suppose.

I'm very mechanically focused, so viewing streams won't give me what I want to try the tactile feel of the game. I do appreciate the suggestion. I suppose I'll wait till that demo makes its way back here to PC, or maybe see if I can borrow a friend's switch for the weekend.

[Newbie]

You're also acting relatively weird, but I'm not going to judge that directly.

Not every game has demos. If you basically don't buy games that don't have demos, then so be it. But... you can also play the game for 2 hours and then decide if you like it. Accordingly, your thread and your "weird feeling in your mouth" makes absolutely no sense.

Removing a fairly old demo is perfectly fine. Even more so if it can no longer represent the current state of the game itself.

[Arnie Rimsy BSc.SSc.]

You have two hours to try before refund anyway. The demo was good though, so I'd say it's a great game.

[Scootaloo]

If I were being charitable, I would assume the demo was built on an older version of the game, thrown together for Next Fest. Since the demo wasn't part of the planned dev...plan, they just took it down instead of kept maintaining it. That doesn't explain the Switch version, unless it's just difficult to take down Switch demos for whatever reason.

I too wanted to check out the demo and don't have a Switch. Also the "play at Pax but not at home" analogy is fundamentally flawed since it's a virtual at-home event. More like "Why can I play at home, but not at home?" which is a valid question.

[Dehexed]

Originally posted by Meowth:

Also to the people saying to play the game for less than 2 hours and refund it; If you do that enough times Steam can and will refuse to refund you for a game. Its not an unlimited demo system but a way to refund a game you actually had a problem with. Its also not a solution to the devs simply making a demo available like it is on another platform.

This is not true. One of the reasons you can specify when asking for a refund is "It's not fun."
You'll get a no-questions-asked refund as long as you ask for it within 2 weeks of purchase and limit your playtime to less than 2 hours. I've been refunding games that turned out not to be fun after all for years. You won't get a refund if you buy Steam keys on third party sites though.

As long as you don't buy a lot of games and constantly refund them, there's not going to be a problem. Valve will send you a warning if they think that you're abusing the Steam refund policy.

[Napolean Bronaparte]

Originally posted by Meowth:

Its actually quite funny the two individuals who called you things already bought the game before release which would fit them into the category of white knighting for the devs.

I had a whole post written up, but then decided against it because if that just means I'm going to be insulted by more people just because I want to try a game before I throw money at it (yes, how weird), then it's not worth my time either. I'm glad at least a couple other people also find the situation strange so it's not just me ;P

[Arnie Rimsy BSc.SSc.]

Originally posted by Meowth:

Originally posted by Napolean Bronaparte:

I had a whole post written up, but then decided against it because if that just means I'm going to be insulted by more people just because I want to try a game before I throw money at it (yes, how weird), then it's not worth my time either. I'm glad at least a couple other people also find the situation strange so it's not just me ;P

For me the Day 1 DLC turned me off (come at me white knights) but I was willing to try it out again. With the demo gone all I can do is watch Splattercatgaming's video but I'm on Steam & reading through news instead of actually watching the "riveting" gameplay of him slowly steering a boat around empty waters making corny jokes.

Maybe just leave this game to us pro gamers and go play your little babies stardews valley.

[Icemoo]

Originally posted by Napolean Bronaparte:

Also to the people saying to play the game for less than 2 hours and refund it;
If you do that enough times Steam can and will refuse to refund you for a game. Its not an unlimited demo system but a way to refund a game you actually had a problem with. Its also not a solution to the devs simply making a demo available like it is on another platform.

Yeah no you don't. Maybe if you do some EGREGIOUS ♥♥♥♥ like buying and refunding games every day but checking my history in the past year(jan 2022-now) i have refunded 11 games. If i went back even further i know i can quintuple that number if not more. Hell there is one game i have bought+refunded like 5 times cause it gets EA updates and i AM interested but every time i buy it it just doesn't click so i refund it the next day and wait for the next update.

Of those 11 games 5 of them were in this past holiday season, such as calisto protocol, a new indie game i didn't like, and a coop game that was buggy for my friend so we both refunded it.

You can't be disciplined for doing this as it would be against the law in some countries, its the entire reason steam got a refund system to begin with cause of laws.

As for the RE: white knighting i will refund this game if it turns out to be POS too. I highly doubt it will cause the demo was great and as for day 1 dlc i don't care about that either.

[jigglephysics]

great to know the demos on switch!

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by bsg_joel:

Sorry, the PC demo was only available during the Steam Next Fest last year. It may return one day, but for now, the same demo is on the Nintendo Switch, if that helps at all!

Just tried it on the Switch, awesome game, getting it on steam today!

[Arnie Rimsy BSc.SSc.]

Originally posted by Jimbo:

Originally posted by bsg_joel:

Sorry, the PC demo was only available during the Steam Next Fest last year. It may return one day, but for now, the same demo is on the Nintendo Switch, if that helps at all!

Just tried it on the Switch, awesome game, getting it on steam today!

Yep, I just played it too. Really enjoyed it.
I'll play again tomorrow after work.