A Theatrical Demo, for those who don't know, is a clip reel created by an actor in hopes of getting noticed. When applied to games, the term is a bit ambiguous. In some cases, it can be a Technical Demo; a showing of what the game's engine is capable of or a display of mechanics. It can also refer to a sort of Interactive Trailer, where the player is able to get a feel for the game's interface and setting.

Whisper's demo is more like the latter. It is a 5-10 minute tidbit designed to establish a general feel of the game experience. It has a taste of story and setting and a teasing of combat.

When making a demo, it's important to consider the goal. Many professional studios have done away with them altogether as their sale boosting potential is often largely unrealized. What made them popular in days past (floppy disk era), though, was that the player could get a sampling of what was to come and decide whether or not it was worth looking into. Today, if the game is already advertised and has multiple trailers and what not, it is nearly pointless to demo it. The stuff the player used to expect in a demo has already been delivered. Furthermore, it is difficult to make a demo that is up to par with the game as a whole, so it may hurt sales in the end.

In the amateur scene, however, the demo retains its original purpose. Players tend to have very little idea what to expect as they're dealing with an unproven developer who probably doesn't have any commercial pressure to ensure at least some baseline of quality. The demo establishes, for better or for worse, some semblance of the developer's abilities. Whereas a professional may worry about the throttled nature of a demo making them look bad, an amateur has no reputation to sully, and thus little to lose.

The Demo, however you call it, will be released tomorrow, May 28th. In the meantime, I was asked to talk a bit about what kind of issues I ran into while making it, so I'll answer those questions here.


Q1.) How do you know what to include?

A1.) Start with everything, then pare down whatever the player doesn't interact with meaningfully during the demo. You'll probably end up with just a few systems, but that's alright. The demo needs to be focused; it should highlight a point or two and then end. Remember, time spent developing the demo doesn't necessarily translate to time spent developing the game. Thus, make sure you aren't making the demo better at the expense of the game proper.


Q2.) How long should the demo be?

A2.) Not long. This ties back into keeping your dev time on the actual game. The player knows it's a demo and doesn't expect a long engagement, so give them something to chew on and then get back to work on the main course. Try not to exceed ~5% of the game's length, as a rule of thumb.


Q3.) How do you handle tutorials in a demo?

A3.) Don't. Any tutorial will probably put you over on length. Change whatever needs to be changed to make tutorials a non-issue. On that note, make sure you think long and hard about putting any Game Over situations in there. Find a different way to create challenge for the micro-experience.

This was a rather significant issue with Whisper, and I ended up changing up the combat dynamic because of it. I wanted a challenge present, but I also wanted anyone to be able to just get through it, so I added a secondary objective. In addition, I cut down on the number of choices available so that the player could make reasonable decisions without being overwhelmed by the number available. There're still multiple ways to approach it, but it's a sampling of combat rather than an incongruous chunk.


Q4.) Should a demo be a segment of the main game?

A4.) This isn't a bad idea, but make sure that it works as a demo. Just playing the first level is usually passable, but often you can do better with a dedicated project. The upside to this is that it takes the least amount of time away from the main game.

Note, however, that the goal of level/area 1 in your game doesn't totally overlap with the goal of a demo. Some changes would likely be beneficial. For example, the player probably shouldn't start off at ground zero for the demo. The excitement level needs to be a bit higher.