A good time for demo?? Question....

[Gfunkera]

When would everyone recomend a good time to release a demo of a game??? Like should it be like 4 or 5 rooms??? Some info on how you guys decided to post your demo, and when you thought it was ready....




* I don't even know If I understand what I said now?? lol

[MrColossal]

Never if you can help it, since the majority of games are like 20 rooms long you're basically releasing half of your game... just finish it and release it

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

I think I read this somewhere... a demo should be a teaser. In oder fot it to do its job, it should be about 10% of the whole game. This implies, of course, that the game is big enough and good enough. Most AGS games don't need a demo, unless they're quite the project *cough*indyfountainofyouth*cough*.

[Andail]

I think most demos that have been more than just one room have just spoiled it for me.

The Byzantine demo should definitely not have been more than just the intro (with that majorly ass-kicking soundtrack) and the first room.

I basically think that a demo should feel like a professional, thought through product as well, and not just "well I just release the work I've done so far to make people realise I still work on this project"

[Migs]

Don't forget you can release a trailer, too.  That's another option.

[Gfunkera]

And what might a trailer for a game consist of?

[c.leksutin]

Trailer


C.

[Hollister Man]

Does anyone remember the SQ6 demo?  The whole demo was made using rooms from the finished game, but had nothing to do with it, it was actually more like a minigame.  I never did manage to finish it.

[m0ds]

With adventure games, it's also adviseable that if you release a demo, the puzzles within are different from those in the final game. Well, thats the approach FOA took and I thought that was a good idea.

Of course, us who make smaller games probably wouldn't have the time to make a whole seperate demo.

[stuh505]

usually a demo is just to show the level of graphics and the interface.  so 1 room..and if your interface isnt revolutionary, then no reason to make one.

[Davis]

And what might a trailer for a game consist of?

You know those things that run before the actual movie at the movie theater? Like at apple.com/trailers? It's a little teaser featuring (in a movie's case, a small amount of the scenes and dialogue and special effects and plot that will be in the final version to attract viewers when the movie is out) some of the dialogue, graphics, and plot of your game, it's not playable, and it often has that campy on screen text like "In a time where evil was law..." "One man will fight..."

You know what a trailer is.

My 2 cents about demos:

The Monkey Island demo was great, too. It was just like the SQ6 demo (which I also never finished, Hollister. That was a hard one.) You met some of the characters that were in the game, but they gave you the demo's own dialogue, when I ended up getting the game I figured I was going to breeze right through the first few screens only to discover, that, you know, nothing was the same.