Your Demo Sucks

[MarsProbe]

The difference here though is that the "demo" of Plants vs Zombies is the actual game, it just comes with a 1-hour limit before it stamps a toll booth between you and the rest of the game. And frankly, what better demo than the game itself?

Braid had the same sort of "the demo is the game" model to it. It has the full first world, and about half the next two worlds. I wasn't fully sure if I wanted to buy Braid or not, but after getting done with the "demo" (that was actually just limited access to the full game), I couldn't plunk down $15 fast enough so that I could continue the game.

Also, the game "And Yet It Moves" has a good demo as well. Interesting that it's mostly Indy Developers that are getting the demos right. :/

Yeh, that's the way I remember demos - simply the first level or section of a game including all the introductory stuff required for the whole thing to make sense. I don't think I actually played the trial of Braid (note how on X-box Live for the more indy games they refer to them as "trials" but the big games have "demos"), I must have just had faith that the game would be worth it.

 

[Same River New Water]

It's the difference between a "sneak peek demo" and a "tech demo".

 

[Halbyrd]

Perhaps this is slightly off topic, but is anybody else noticing that PC gamers are starting to get the short end of the stick when it comes to these things? Red Faction Guerrilla is only the latest in a long string of games I've seen that are coming out for 360, PS3, "and PC too, we promise!" only to find out that the PC port is months late, inadequate, and there's no demo. Well, the "no demo" part is the only bit I'm certain about for RFG, but it hardly seems fair that the 360 and PS3 get some demo love while the PC languishes. It's especially ironic in this case, given that the original Red Faction was PC only.

 

[Tili]

A demo is a visualisation of an idea, not a game.

Enough said ..

 

[Nailog]

King's Bounty is the last game where the demo sold me. The demo is the entire tutorial plus the first 'map' - you could probably get several hours of play out of it. In fact, there was so much content in the demo that I didn't even finish it - but I got more than enough information about the game to let me know I wanted to play the real one.

I spent around six hours playing that demo. When I finished the demo, I bought the full game right away off Atari's download service.

Now that it's on Steam for even less money, I'll probably buy it again.

 

[Dizzy45]

Im a recent convert to Experience Points and so far have agreed with most of what i have read. Just want to say thanks.

Last demo i played that made me want to but the game? Kane and Lynch. The game itself was a little buggy and frustrating but the demo was really really good, Invlolving you and the team roping into a japanese crime lords skyscraper and smash and grab style stealing back your briefcase. It was such a good demo that i bought it to see if the reviews i read were wrong, they werent, especially due to the pc porting. Anyway id recomment anyone with spare time give the demo a go.

 

[yeah_so_no]

The last demo I played was for FF13, and it seemed pretty good--it had two major cut scenes and a few smaller ones, two sets of characters to play, and a boss battle for the two sets. That said, I'm buying FF13 despite the demo--I hated the battle system in the demo, but I've heard they're fixing the things that drove me nuts with the targeting.

 

[brodie21]

The Force Unleased demo was good, but that was about it for the game.

 

[Sampler]

I whole-heartedly agree with this topic - I was really looking forward to RE5, I own all the other titles, and so eagerly downloaded the demo when it was available on the PSN and instantly didn't want to play it anymore.

I later borrowed it for me xbox off a mate and quite enjoyed it - as it had everything the demo didn't, so that's a lost sale, pure and simple.

 

[Odjin]

The last one: Secret Files 2. The demo sold me to dwell once again into a game of this genre and I didn't repent it ( no serial keys, no cd check, no ass-the-legit-customer shit... just how it should be... and good ontop of it ).

But the observation is correct. It's though a bit more problematic. Some games don't bother to make a demo at all. Your game is not worth it to be bought so this is why you make no demo? Okay, not bought, your problem. But a bad demo is as bad as no demo at all. But I guess this is a gain up for the Indies to fix as they seem to be the only ones left in games development with "ideas" and the will to do something out of the line

 

[velcthulhu]

The last demo that made me want to buy the game? The expansion to the first Age of Empires game.

 

[the_tramp]

Now that I think of it, I think the last demo that made me want the full version was Crysis. I did play the demo of FEAR2, loved it but didn't have the same desire of "Want it NAOH!" I have since played it and thoroughly enjoyed it though.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Odd, I felt exactly the same way about the RE5 demo, Shamus. It just didn't appeal to me. But then, I played the full game at a friend's house and loved it. That isn't a demo that's doing it's job.

Anyway, the last demo that did do it's job for me was Mirror's Edge. It's probably worth mentioning that I actually enjoyed the full game, however.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Last one was the RE 5 demo. And if anything it made we want to play the game less as the gameplay was poor, the situation made no sense, and Chris Redfields arms are the size of watermelons.

AS has been said, Dylan, the demo is bad, but the actual game is great once you get used to it. Or maybe it was only great for me because I was playing alongside Mike for the first playthrough, and he had infinite ammo for a magnum.

 

[Avida]

"You need pacing if you want to immerse someone in a game"

True, but you do not need to immerse someone in a game for it to be fun, and if you have a fun demo thats more than enough already. Yes, story and immersion are nice and all but they should be left to games that do them well.

"Question: What's the last demo you played that really made you want to run out and buy the game?"

Recently; Left 4 Dead, Red Faction: guerilla and InFamous - Two of which i'll likely never buy though unless work managed to hold out this summer. The thing is while i think all these demos/games have some story element that was by no means the hook - the hook was gameplay, fun, and any story elements can bugger off because they are not important here, though if the game proves me otherwise its got itself a fan.

Come to think of it i cant remember a time where story in a demo has hooked me... Okami, nearly, maybe.. erm... Yeah i think im dry. Oooh, Dragon quest, theres one, though i typical J-RPG fashion it had one story section of the demo and one gameplay section, and i think thats perfect the way it is.

Anyway the overarching point is that if its a story-based game then yes a story based demo would be a good idea, but in your example of resident evil the 'story' is only really there for the hardcore fans, while i played it because it is a gameplay based game and i wanted a taster of the gameplay. I know its all over the gaming world right now to blend gameplay and story but in all but the best cases its just two elements combining to create less than the sum of their parts.

Edit: side note, did anyone notice way back when that the DMC4 demo was harder and more fun than the shown sections in the full game?

 

[Najarana]

Stop playing demos years ago. I belive the only game i've bought from after playing a demo was Heroes of might and magic 2

 

[Earthbound]

The last demo I play was for Left 4 Dead. Within a few weeks, I'd bought the game and had it happily sitting on my PC (mind you I played the demo on the Xbox 360). Valve did that demo right. You get all the features of the standard game and half of the first campaign. You see all the zombies and have an epic confrontation at the middle point of No Mercy stage 2 (ironically, the level ends after that). That is how demos should be made.

In other news, the ads on the top and bottom of this webpage have influenced me to try out the Red Faction Guerrilla demo. I've heard that it's good, but had no intention of buying it. I guess I'll see if it has the same effect on me as the aforementioned demo.

 

[RikSharp]

Perhaps this is slightly off topic, but is anybody else noticing that PC gamers are starting to get the short end of the stick when it comes to these things? Red Faction Guerrilla is only the latest in a long string of games I've seen that are coming out for 360, PS3, "and PC too, we promise!" only to find out that the PC port is months late, inadequate, and there's no demo. Well, the "no demo" part is the only bit I'm certain about for RFG, but it hardly seems fair that the 360 and PS3 get some demo love while the PC languishes. It's especially ironic in this case, given that the original Red Faction was PC only.

agree in part, it is harder to get a PC demo than a console demo these days, but Red Faction 1 was on psx as well as PC

>'

the demo i like recently was RF3 but i was interested in that since i first saw it so i suppose it doesn't count.