Community Question: Demo?

[rujuro]

For those that bought the game, what brought you to us, and would a demo that got you as far as the first space dungeon entrance have made you want to buy the game? We are considering this to raise awareness when we reach full release, but thought we'd get your opinions.

The plan would be your progress would save and you could start where you left off.

[Nellcromancer]

At PAX East you let us play up untill after we got the PRO Hands I actually really like the idea though of a demot that "Bugs out" when you get to the MAZE Cutscene Bit, where you get trapped in the cutscene bars i think that fits the theme quite well.
Demo's in general are a briliant Idea for more high risk games like this one (very much an you either liked it or you didn't kind of game)

[masamunesword]

Yeah I think a demo would be a good idea here and I think that cut off point is a solid one. By that point you've gotten the basics of the game play down, have a good handful of secrets open to you , but can't quite break out of the mold too badly. I'd love to be able to get folks to just lay hands on this for a a good session so they can get the idea and themes in.

[Snicker]

Demo is good, yes. Demo that fits the theme, even better - I like the idea Misremembered has, but I would START the demo at the world tree (rather than going through all the talky bits of the first chapter), and cut one major secret at the tree. (The biggest one). The reason I would cut the intro is because a) almost all the walkthroughs are covering it, and b) it's mostly a passive experience (as noted in a recent published review).

[rujuro]

Yeah, that is true, but we are seeing that people seem to really GET the game because of the intro section. Removing that could destroy most all the context. I think we would be quite scared of doing that since the goal of this is to bring in people who have no clue what the game is, not the ones watching let's plays.

The question is, would having the intro area turn you OFF the game. From watching lets plays, we are seeing the opposite, but I am interested in opinions.

[Snicker]

I, personally, got it, and was excited by it, because of the Let's Play-ish video I watched, but I think the reaction you saw in the Pocket video was a mild version of the reaction some more hard-core gamers might have. If they can't DO something in the first 2 minutes, the game is a fail in their eyes. To that end, I think you have a lot of eye candy (and ear candy) in the first few minutes, but very little actual activity. In fact, most of what the players sees is what they CAN'T do.

[Codex]

I think a demo could help. Either that or explaining the mechanics through the idea of chairs twerking like was done at PAX... That seemed to draw a lot of people in ;)

That being said, I definitely feel as if a demo would be helpful. Either getting to the ship or with a little bit of PRO's explanations at this point would be fantastic. Letting people get the hands might be far enough, as I feel PRO's dialogue at this point to be enough to really get in to the nitty gritty of what the player is "doing."

[it's shoe]

I picked it up because of the price, the bizarre concept, and the assurance of tons of reviews (with zero negative ones) that this was really something special and different.

If there'd been a demo, I would have tried that first but definitely pulled the trigger after trying it. I think the best place to let off, though, would be some simple demo-only puzzle at the beginning of the section you're talking about. Something that forces the player to mess with using NPCs. Until I absolutely had to, I didn't bother programming much of anything, and mostly relied on draining enemies of their ability to hurt me. I didn't want to waste behavior flags and stat points as long as this remained an option, so it wasn't until the door puzzle in that dungeon that I finally started editing guys. If you cut the demo before you reach that point, there's going to be players like me who hit the end and never bothered making allied creatures.

[////]

pf... it wasn't the demo joke for sure...

i noticed art, then tags which... let's be honest, not fitting with each other very well. then it gave me lot of tarded questions, and i was forced to check some videos... that's how i realized what game it is.

but i haven't bought it yet... :P i don't buy games just to have them in my library and i have other games to play atm. so... don't make it very cheap in the future. :)

[Turtman]

I played 5 minutes into the demo and quit because I thought the game was amazing and didn't want tot spoil any of it. But is the demo uniqe content, or is it just a slice of the full game? Thanks devs, amazing job!

[rujuro]

demo is the beginning of the game. Not unique