Topic: Demo or early access?

[TheFrighter]

Many developers try to raise funds to completing their games by selling demoes or early access version (EVA in short).
Usually demoes are short but have an end, early access contains a couple of missions that once completed you  con only roaming pointless until you shut down the game.
I'm glad to support indie developers, but someway buying demoes or EAV I feel half empty.

Said that, do you think that selling demoes and EAV really works? Have you esperience in those things?

_

[Cassiebsg]

Early access, sounds to me like you are paying to be a beta tester.  And paying for a demo? Unless it's a short game that isn't part of the full game, then no. A Demo is short for "demonstration" and is meant to try and sell the game, and for me it should be free. It's a "play a bit and see how you enjoy it".

So I would not pay for for EAV or a Demo. But then again, I'm the wrong target, since I don't buy games anymore. 

Here's a good exemple of good sales tactic (though it's a book):

A few weeks ago, there was this "book week" where children from 9 to 12 could go to a book shop and get a free book. So, since our son is 9, we went and got this free book. He started reading it, and thought it was rather boring, but since he had nothing else to do (I had punished him with a week off computer/tablet/tv) he continued reading the book. The day after it was starting to be interesting and by the time he was done reading it (the end of the week - it was a rather big book might I add), he was hipped and could barely wait to read number 2. Number 2 will be lunched on the 19th  so I decided to get it and give it to him for his birthday (the 20th). Had he not gotten this book for free, he would never have read it and I would never have bought nr.2 ... and will likely get nr.3 as well (think i's suppose to be a trilogy).
So free book = more sale... Probably a good deal for both the author and the publisher. 

[Pax Animo]

Many developers try to raise funds to completing their games by selling demoes or early access version (EVA in short).
Usually demoes are short but have an end, early access contains a couple of missions that once completed you  con only roaming pointless until you shut down the game.
I'm glad to support indie developers, but someway buying demoes or EAV I feel half empty.

Said that, do you think that selling demoes and EAV really works? Have you esperience in those things?

_

Personally I don't think a "Demo" should be considered in anyway a way to raise funds or at least not directly. A demo is a way to show potential buyers or non buyers a glimpse of your product, a way to build interest/acknowledgement for your product. I consider a Demo to be the software equivalent as to a Pilot for tv shows, (the developers take a chance on a project, show it, get feedback, get feedback from a publisher if using one, decide it's future).

At the end of the day a "Demo" is just a way to share a demonstration of your work no matter what the size or how much of the product you wish to share, which in my opinion should be free. "try before you buy" :-)

As for EA,

Well that's a whole different ball game. I know I have no where near the experience as a developer in that department, so I'm not going to attempt too explain the many ups n downs of EA, but I'd sure like to have a good rant about EA one rainy day. For now I'll pause here.

[Babar]

Why is the short form of Early Access Version "EVA"?

I don't think either method would be a good way to raise funds. Demos are expected to be free, and an Early Access version of an adventure game will not be fun for anyone to play. If your specific goal is to raise funds to support continued creation of adventure games, you might go with an episodic style of games that reuse locations and characters

[mkennedy]

Early access, sounds to me like you are paying to be a beta tester.  And paying for a demo? Unless it's a short game that isn't part of the full game, then no. A Demo is short for "demonstration" and is meant to try and sell the game, and for me it should be free. It's a "play a bit and see how you enjoy it"....

In the case of Kickstarters I feel that granting beta access to backers is actually a good thing to do, though I'm not quite if that qualifies as the same thing as early access since the number of backers would be limited and they may have to sign an NDA as well.

[Danvzare]

Early access, sounds to me like you are paying to be a beta tester. 

I remember when this indie game tried that once, and everyone on the Dwarf Fortress forums were saying the same thing. They all said that it was a terrible idea, that the game would never be finished and it was basically just a scam.
...
That game was Minecraft. 

By the way, I agree with Babar. Demos are supposed to be free, and Early Access doesn't mix well with Adventure games. Episodic would probably be the way to go for continued support.

[TheFrighter]

Why is the short form of Early Access Version "EVA"?

How silly of me! 

_

[Stupot]

Maybe I’m showing my age I’ve never heard of anyone selling game demos. The whole point of a demo it is so that people can decide if they want to pay money to play the game. Paying money for the demo kind of defeats the object.

Early access is good though, if you get enough interest, because you end up with a number of players who feel that they are part of the team. That can help build a community and spread word of mouth.

[Crimson Wizard]

I've bought few "early access" games in the past, including Minecraft, because they were relatively cheap and looked as a promising concept. But besides the price imho there's also another factor such as whether the game genre is prone to "spoilers". It's one thing when there's a procedurically generated game supposed to be replayed many times; but when there's a strong story focus, I'd prefer to play the final game release to not spoil it to myself, and not have to repeat same sequences over and over again.

As for demos, as Stupot said above, the whole point of a demo is to give a free of charge try of a game, so selling one is bizzare.

Although, tbh, personally I often get a pirated game from some torrent to check it out before deciding whether to buy or not, this works as a sort of more convenient "demo" for me.