Groucho

I’ll admit up front that I’m a demo junkie. I am constantly on the lookout for new ones to be downloaded. When the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine or PCGamer comes, I can’t wait to pop in the disc. However, it’s a love/hate relationship. More often I am apt to be disappointed by a poorly conceived demo, which in turn usually leads to me passing on an actual purchase of the game.

Can demos be misleading? Absolutely. The demo for Splinter Cell on the Xbox completely turned me off of the game. Just last week I gave the full version a try and found that I loved the game. The opposite can happen too, of course.

Anyway, here a few suggestions I have to make game demos better at selling the game they represent:

1. Release the demo BEFORE the game is in stores. This is obviously difficult to implement, but it makes a difference. When is hype about a game at its peak? HINT: it’s not 2-3 months after the game is released, folks. Now, if your game sucks this will bite you in the ass. See the recent fiasco with Lionheart on PC for an example of this.

2. Include a tutorial level. I’ve already mentioned Splinter Cell. All I got when I tried the demo was a splash screen showing me the controls. That wasn’t enough, especially with all the complicated controls (which are intuitive, but do take a little practice). My experience with the demo: walk into a room, some random dude sees me and shoots me dead while I try to figure what to hit to get my gun out. Attempt 2: I sneak past the guy, come to another guy who I shoot from behind. “You just killed a civilian!” WTF? Too overwhelming…next game please!

3. Include unique content. The demo for Half-Life was brilliant. It gave you an excellent picture of what the full game was all about…yet it consisted wholly of a “micro-story” that wasn’t actually part of the main game. The great part about this is that if you liked the demo and went out and bought the game, everything was entirely new. You didn’t feel like you were replaying the demo, and everything was fresh. Obviously, this takes a lot of time and resources, but it’s kudos to the few developers who do this.

4. Include a bit of variety. I don’t want game developers to show us EVERYTHING a game has to offer, but give us more than one level. Most demos consist just of level 1 (and sometimes less than that), and that’s it. The best demos include an easy level, a middle-difficulty level, and a hard level. It’s important to see varying aspects of the game.

5. Does your game include multiplayer? Put it in the demo too! This is impractical for console games, I suppose…but I hate it when I play a demo for a PC game that touts multiplayer…but I can’t see what it’s like in the demo. I always wonder what they are hiding. Actually, this goes for most features in the game. Limit content, not features.

6. Let the demo stand for itself. So you get done playing a demo. You’re ready to delete it from your harddrive. But wait! You have to sit through a slideshow of “features” that you’ll get if you buy the game. Grr. Look, if the demo sucks no amount of blurry screenshots is going to change my mind. If the demo is great, I’m already on my way to the store.

The bottom line: nothing sells a game better than allowing your potential customers to play it first. Actually sitting down and trying it out is worth a reading a thousand magazine and website previews. It’s a wonderful opportunity to put the best side of your game forward…you can control exactly what the player does and does not see. So why do so many developers blow this opportunity?

Thoughts? Opinions? Flames?

MasterofDVD

I used to like game demos but nobody seemed to try and do a demo the right way lately. The Half-Life demo you talked about seems like a great idea but that idea would be more cash than most tight a$$ed companies would spend.

Lately I got some PS2 demos and they were all crap.

Most every month the XBOX mag demo disc is 100%, total, complete, filled to the gills CRAP! The renewal paper came the other day. I rolled my eyes briefly before I tore it up like a bear attacking a sleeping camper. The only mag I pay for and it's easily the worst one.

Adam Tyner

That's good to hear -- I had a similar reaction to the demo, which killed off my interest in buying the game.

I may be the only one, but I was reluctant to buy Halo after playing a demo. I couldn't get a feel for the controls at all. I relented and bought the game when it went on sale one week, and, similar to what you noted about "Splinter Cell", my feelings about the game took a complete 180 once I got my feet wet and had some inkling as to what it was I was doing, exactly.

I'm a sucker for demos, but they rarely seem to have any influence on my purchases. "Kung Fu Chaos" is the only console demo I've played where I went away thinking "I have to own this game".

Joshic

There is some new DVD technology that has been developed that is currently in the consumer-testing phase. It is going to be used for DVD movies. When a consumer opens the DVD, exposure to the air starts a chemical process on the DVDs so that after 6-60 hours (exact time frame determined by manufacturer), the DVD turns black and becomes unreadable. Prior to the unreadable time limit, it works just like a normal DVD.

They could do this for game demos. Put the entire full-length game on a DVD, and after a few hours the disc becomes unreadable. That way the gamer gets to fully see what a game is like without any features or contents removed. If he wants to continue playing the game, he can buy the game.

Or I guess he could just rent the game instead. Or buy the special DVD repeatedly until he completes it. Ok, forget it. This was a dumb idea.

Forkboy

or, you know, just copy it before the time limit is up.

siber

I agree totally with Groucho on how game demo's should be done.

However, the game companies would probably lose more sales than gain from the demo's. Look at your own game libraries. How many of them do you think you got your money's worth? I'll bet most of you would agree that only 20 - 25% of the games in your library are worth the original purchase price. Why'd we buy the rest of them? Interesting game concept, graphics, reviews, etc.. These things don't provide as accurate idea as to what the game is like as compared with a demo, even a bad one.

Bottom line is that game companies are more interested in sales and profits than in satisfied customers.

Just my opinion....

RoQuEr

I think study upon study has shown that demos are bad business.

With that in mind, developers, if they are going to make one, shoud devote as little time possible to the demo, and more to releasing a flawless game.

Groucho

Link?

For the moment, I'll assume your assertion is true. Why is that? If the game is good, shouldn't the demo reflect that and help sales? If the game is bad, a carefully built demo could hide the flaws and increase sales.

If demos were done better, sales of all games, good or bad, should go up.

Decker

I think there is the rare demo that helps sell a game. Battlefield 1942 was one that became very popular. I think the in-store demo of Zelda Windwaker increased awareness of the game and helped assure people who were worried based on the screenshots. But by and large, I agree that demos don't do much to help sales. They often give the impression of an unfinished game rather than leaveing them wanting more.

I remember the Jak and Daxter demo being rough and the framerate choppy. I played the same level on the finished game and it played much better.

Groucho

I think demos have turned me off of more games than they sold to me, and I doubt I'm in the minority on that one. On the flip side, I've bought a few crap games that I never would have touched if I'd played a demo first.

nickdawgy

speaking of playable demos, I was at BB today, and they are selling the preview disc that comes with the Gamecube for $39.99. I was shocked to say the least, lol.

Groucho

I don't know why Nintendo doesn't package demos with their official magazine. It seems like a no-brainer to me.

Josh H

I like demos, but I honestly can't think of a single game I've bought because of a demo.

I generally know what games I want before hand, and demo disks are just a chance to play a little of them early. The only time demo's have affected a purchase is when I didn't like it and decided not to buy the game.

Joshic

I've bought games in the past because of demos!

They are usually the types of games that are a little unique and would not get my attention otherwise. Back in the PSX days, I had a demo disc that contained the first level of Parappa the Rapper. I thought the game concept was cool and fun and bought the game for shortly after.

Early last year I bought a copy of OXM for the DOA3 booster disc. It also contained a demo of Jet Set Radio Future. I ended up buying the game for $50 because I thought it was fun.

I have Xbox exhibition disc 3. It has the Gladius game demo on it. I had never even heard of this game, but after playing the demo I really want to buy it, and probably will.

Demos make me want to buy games.

mtucker

I used to be excited when the newest PC Gamer arrived with a CD's worth of demos to try out. After a while I just didn't have the energy anymore to install them and give them a fair try. Nowadays I'll download a demo if it has a good buzz going, but I don't bother with the majority of demos that are released.

On the console side it's a little different since I don't have to bother with the install/uninstall process for each demo as opposed to the PC. It's much easier to pick up a demo and give it a try.

It used to get on my nerves though when a demo was released of a FPS that contained the middle level of the actual game. That just bothered me for some reason.

<small>*still waiting for that Unreal demo*</small>

Outlaw

Thats exactly how I feel about demos. I don't buy too many games, so the games I buy are ones that I already know are good and want to play. Typically I don't like demo's because they're missing parts of the game, like the intro story or music or something like that. I usually rent games to try them out if I'm unsure about it, there's no need for a demo disc, why not try the real thing?

btw i thought we all agreed I was going to get to write this weeks Monday Musing? .........oh wait.....we didn't, did we . I had a really good topic but I forgot it anyway.

Groucho

In the console world, renting is a great alternative to demos. Plus, if you like the game you can easily carry your saves over. But on PC, it's demos or nothing (legally, anyway).

mwj

I used to download a lot of demos, but they have gotten too big for dial-up, unless it's something I am really anticipating.

trigun

I can't think of a game I've bought because of a demo, unless you count Doom.

Groucho

Doom is actually an interesting example. It's one of the last games distributed under Apogee's old shareware model. Basically, they would split a game into three "episodes" of about ten levels each. The first episode would be free...fully featured, nothing disabled. If you payed for the game, you'd get the second two episodes. Other notable titles distributed this way were Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein 3D.

I did feel that more time and effort were often put into the first episodes of these games...not surprising since once you got the latter 2/3 they already had your money.

It was an interesting model, and it worked quite well for a period of time.

tanman

This is my way of thinking too. Most of the games that I buy I know that I will like at least to some degree.

PC demos are just too much of a pain to me. You basically have to go through the pain of installing a full version game for just a couple of levels. And PC game demos are usually a lot less refined then console.

Heck PC games period are a lot less refined since they can just slap on a patch to fix any issues that come up after release.

ONe of the demos that really hooked me was Command and Conquer. Have just about every version since then.

GatorDeb

I don't use demos because I can't use the Action Replay with them (I suck big time at video games so my only chance is with infinite lives, ammo, etc).

I've found the pictures, videos, previews, and reviews from GameSpot, IGN, and the game magazines is enough.

nickdawgy

The only game I ever bough after playing a demo was the Thief series. Man, a great game. Can't wait for Thief 3.

stingo

Guess I'm more in a rut than I thought - I can generally tell without a demo if I will like a game or not - or at least be open to the possibility of purchasing it.