Singular Thoughts - Effective Game Demos

Something that I used to be a lot more excited and looked forward to until I shifted my attention towards more long lasting games (like World of Warcraft) were game demos. I primarily got my demos from Xbox magazine when their magazines came with a disc full of demos and I was always excited to play them simply because there was no advantage to not playing them especially if the game is at least somewhat interesting. If I remember right, one of my favorite games ever , Metal Arms : Glitch in the System came on a demo that I played, I first heard of it in the magazine before reading it where it was given a reward for being really good but hardly anyone heard of it or played it (including myself) and with that, I decided to give that a try. I remember the demo being excellent, and more importantly it showed that the game itself was pretty good and while it could only present one level, it gave me enough of an incentive to buy the game itself which I didn't regret at all. I ended up playing through the entire game and I loved it, while I don't remember much about playing it, I do remember that it was really fun and I was hoping that they would make a sequel to it sometime, but unfortunately that was years ago and nothing has been heard about the Metal Arms series since then.

In any case, I felt like the Metal Arms demo was what a effective demo should be , it definitely sold the game to me and I was happy to play it, in fact I replayed the demo a few times before that and still enjoyed it. Game demos have improved since then but they still carry the same goal to people : to provide a small taste to the player so that they will want more and end up buying the full game. This fact can be broken up into smaller features that a demo could have that will also increase the likability of the game and even the demo itself. Here's a few demos that I've played and then I also bought the full version of, thanks to the game's demo.

-Time Splinters 2

-Psi-ops The Mind Gate Conspiracy

-The Suffering 2 (which I didn't actually buy but I liked the demo)

-Geometry Wars

-Feeding Frenzy

-Puzzle Quest

-Dead Rising

-Time Spliters : Future Perfect (I think)

-Red Faction : Guerilla

All of which I had fun in the full game, however all of these demos were released at different time periods and demoing has evolved quite a bit since the discs on Xbox magazine. Demos nowdays are primarily (at least for me) downloaded through Xbox Live, Playstation Network, or on the PC, various sites like Steam or Fileplanet. the easy accessibility led to a lot of variety as well and that caused somewhat of a backfire, now looking for demos is almost similar to shopping for a actual game. While you still can download anything you want at no cost, I found myself not wanting to try out most demos because of their description, title, or cover or a number of reasons along the lines where as I would try pretty much everything on the Xbox magazine demo disc. With that said, the advancement of technology is still there, and it has give demos even more power.

A very good cliff hanger ending of a demo I've played although I forget what demo it was at the moment was at the end of the level and the end of level cut scene it transitioned from a good camera pan of the action to a barrel of a gun, leading to a trailer of “buy the full game”(basically). While that might be annoying to some, I thought it was definitely a great transition rather than a black out and then putting the player back onto the start up screen. That same demo also had a problem with that however as it played the exact same trailer when you actually quit the game to go back to the Xbox “home”, I believe that it was skippable however.

Another benefit that demos can have is the inclusion of full game benefits. The main one that comes to most people's minds when it comes to benefits such as those are demo saves that carry onto the full game. It's been a problem for demos for a very long time, and it even persists now that no matter how much fun you've had in the demo, chances are the demo was the first or second level in the game, and when you play the actual game you'll end up repeating it. To that end, a few games have created a way to allow demo saves to carry onto the full game, allowing you to keep all of the progress that you've made without having to rehash any of it in the actual game, this is probably more of a convenience addition rather than a true hindrance but every sprinkle of additions help make demos more appealing to players.

Finally, and while this isn't only including new demos, a very effective way that doesn't require any of the things stated before at all would be to have the demo set in a completely different setting that is unique to the demo that serves the purpose to give people a taste of gameplay mechanics, and if the developer is up to it, even a taste of the game's story by adding in small bits of story that would be part of the main story. I've only played one game “demo” that has done this which is Dead Rising 2 : Case Zero, and it also was priced. However I believe it very much fit all of the criterias for a demo in that it let the player get their hands on the game before it was released setting up for players to buy the game on release, it allowed players to actually play and see pretty much every general game mechanic and even allowed the player a small taste of the workbench system that it had, but it kept many things you would normally be able to create with the work bench in the full game only. Lastly, it had a save system that allowed you to take your character onto the full game, you had a low level limitation of course, but you kept all of your levels up to that point and money that you've obtained. While Case Zero was priced, it still my ideal of a demo maybe even too well to actually be considered a small game especially since it had a price tag, but with that aside, it is probably one of the best game demos I've played in my life.

With all of that said, I believe game demos are still very interesting, and they remain a free (mostly) way to try out a game before you actually buy it, and even with that small minor point in mind, developers strive to make their demos better and better.