On creating demos

[Phayre]

How much gameplay usually goes into a demo? I'd like to release an Ember Sky demo once I get my resources together, but I truly have no idea.

[Prpl_Mage]

Well most of the time a demo is more or less the intro and the first dungeon or up to when something special happens, like when you see the villian for the first time or when the plot gets triggered.

Iīve seen shorter ones andd thye havnīt  been as exciting as the ones mentioned above.

The longer ones can be good if the start isnīt the greatest, that gives you the opertunity to make up for the lack of action during the first parts. But a long demo that just doesnīt have anything  great in it... Itīs just not worth playing.

And Iīve also played a couple of demos that isnīt the real beginning of the game, like starting with 2 heroes at a village where this old man ask tells you that in order to defeat the evil ect you need to travel somewhere and find something, and then itīs like 2 towns and 2 dungeons, itīs quite fun but you need to know what is going on as well.

And gameplay in exact time, well 30min and more? Around 1h perhaps? Whatever fits really.

[Ben]

It all depends on what you want to publish. Some people will publish a battle system demo...Some like a full half hour of play, some will go further.


Id advise publishing at least the intro and basic systems.

[Phayre]

Ooh, can do. Thanks for the input.

[DragonBlaze]

Yeah, I'd say a demo should be long enough to give the player a feel for the game, but not long enough to give away any major spoilers. So yeah, intro and first dungeon is pretty good, I'd say that should be the minimum legnth.

Some people are just concerned about getting the longest demo they can out, and that can be bad a lot of times because 1, it gives spoilers, and 2, when they release a final version, the player would have already played through half the game and then they'll have to redo it all.

So yeah, make it long enough for the player to get a good feel for the game, but not long enough to give any spoilers out.

[*-^-CociCookie-^-*]

Most games with stages that I've played, ar usually 1 stage long, for example House of the Dead 3 has the Prologue as it's demo.

Other games have a time limit on them of about an hour, but that is usually only commercial games that have been finished.

The last type I've seen is an area that isn't part of the game at all, just a demo of the games systems. Warcraft 3 having the prologue to the game as it's demo.

I'd say however, upto the first main boss is an ok length of gameplay for a demo.

[Phayre]

Up to the first boss?
Seriously?
In that case, I've got a finished demo on my hands!!! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! *is ecstatic*
Oh...............sorry 'bot that.