Indie-Resource.com

Do you think a console and/or computer game should have a demo? Thoughts?

For indie development quite certainly yes. Anyhow even AAA games usually have demo version which are given to journalists and more. Without a demo version you can hardly see the quality and interest of a game and people may stay out of it.

On games less than $5 then videos will suffice. Anything more then I would recommend some kind of demo.

For small, unknown indie games that have a high price tag (higher than $15), I would say it is a good idea. However, for most other games, I would say pass. Even if your demo is directly the first couple of levels of your game, it will likely be a non-trivial amount of work to create it. That is energy that could go into making the game better. At worst, a demo may need a slightly different level layout to create a cohesive experience in a smaller package, new UI elements (those spiffy "coming soon" images, etc.) among other changes.

For cheap indie games, I would say it isn't worth it because most users aren't against blinding spending a few bucks on a game based on images and a video alone. For AAA games, it is pretty well know that making demos is a lose/lose scenario.

Jackolantern wrote:For small, unknown indie games that have a high price tag (higher than $15), I would say it is a good idea. However, for most other games, I would say pass. Even if your demo is directly the first couple of levels of your game, it will likely be a non-trivial amount of work to create it. That is energy that could go into making the game better. At worst, a demo may need a slightly different level layout to create a cohesive experience in a smaller package, new UI elements (those spiffy "coming soon" images, etc.) among other changes.

For cheap indie games, I would say it isn't worth it because most users aren't against blinding spending a few bucks on a game based on images and a video alone. For AAA games, it is pretty well know that making demos is a lose/lose scenario.

That makes sense. I think we are pricing Ailton to be around 9.99 - 14.99.

Depends what you're working on. Anything too small and cheap isn't worth the time. Anything too big having an open beta (or even a closed beta with names who's reviews are valued) works. Those that play as you develop get it cheaper for helping out and normally good reviews and "hype" build up a game far more then demo's could. Word of mouth is still the best advertisement. I'd say demo's are placed somewhere in the middle. Not cheap but not massive games.

So... I guess the question is what's the project?