11/24/2023 0 Comments Superliminal demoThat’s a lovely wrapper and a pretty candle, but I didn’t get much of a taste. A vast majority of demos I play these days flood me with so much exposition and tutorialization that I don’t actually get to experience a game. Modern demos just feel a little too formal and manufactured for my taste. One could say it’s a more personal and intimate dessert than being given a sloppy slice of a larger cake. It is not completely representative of a cake that shares the same batter and composition. By comparison, a plethora of demos these days feel like cupcakes.įor the purpose of this analogy, a cupcake is a dessert intentionally made with a smaller scope and a smaller ratio in mind. The full version of Spyro 2 itself has a hidden demo of Crash Team Racing you unlock with a super secret input at the main menu. The way to get this demo disc was through Pizza Hut, the sauciest of all retail game suppliers. It’s like getting the frosted flower piece of the cake. One of the demo versions for Spyro 2 Ripto’s Rage served you up “Skelo’s Badlands” and “Sunny Beach,” two whole areas without context for you to ram and soar to your heart’s content. With older demos, you never really knew what part of the cake you were going to get, but you knew you were having a party. If buying a video game is like buying a cake then demos are slices of the whole cake. Steams’ Policy That Lets You Refund A Game (Provided That You’ve Played For Less Than Two Hours In Two Weeks.) But something feels off. Given that a demo is a small part of a larger game that you may or may not buy, then one could also argue demos evolved and go by different names now. Demos are still around, more numerous than ever before. The melodramatic in me aggressively realizes that video game demos have never been more prominent. The romantic in me would love to stare out the window, in moody lighting that frames my jawline detracting from the sleep debt I carry in the bags under my eyes, and question what happened to the days of video game demos. The cynic in me says a demo not being representative of its full version is a case for false advertisement worthy of gamer prison, but the politeness in me knows that sometimes plans don’t work out as intended– so not a hanging crime but maybe a few days in the drunk tank are in order. Worst of all, if the demo is different from the finished product the sales will probably be fine, but now you’ve got slighted fans to worry about like in the case of Bioshock Infinite, Halo 2, or Spore. If great games flub the sample platter then sales suffer. If the public is good at picking out quality games from a simple snapshot then mediocre games struggle to sell before they hit their launch window. Unfortunately for marketing departments, video game demos are a lose-lose-lose situation for game sales. But for every developer that makes amazing consumer-friendly demos, there are dozens more that are doing a disservice to their own product or taking advantage of their audience. With that being said, a great game with a bad first impression demo might be its last chance to make a connection, like the Viewtiful Joe demo from 2004 that corrupted my cousin’s memory card and wiped his progress in GTA San Andreas. If you know a game is a trainwreck before you buy it you simply won’t. They give too much power to the customer and create pressing demands during the development stage to always put the studio’s best foot forward. Without sounding too conspiratorial, I imagine that’s partly why demos have been taken off of the marketing pedestal. I’ve got a gold smelling nose like a truffle pig, shuffling through dozens of games at a time discerning between the bad stink and the good stank. I’ve got eyes of steel that can spot out a half-hearted asset drop half a mile away. It’s how I stay only marginally behind the curve in this crazy industry. I’ve probably spent more time playing video game demos than some people have spent on fully fleshed-out games. And due to the lacking presence of demo culture, I think now’s the best time to bring them back.Īdmittedly, I am biased. Maybe they take up too many development resources and diminish design flexibility. Demos have seemingly fallen by the wayside. And as I sat in my wet chair with a half-shaven mustache and conditioner still in my hair, I pondered what happened to the shooting stars of video game culture, their demos. I can’t get enough of the stuff, so when the developers announced a demo for Viewfinder was available I sprinted out of the shower to download it immediately. It’s a perception-based puzzle game, similar to Superliminal. I’ve been waiting for a game called Viewfinder for a while now.
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