As the Switch eShop library continues to grow, so do the number of demos available. And hey, the demos are great!
This convenient way to try before you buy has gotten us hooked on many games we might never have picked up otherwise, and with numerous demos offering the chance to transfer your data from the trial to the full version, playing through the intros feels more and more purposeful instead of ‘ugh’ , I’m going to have to play this all over again in the full version, right?’
A series of demos now on offer have us scratching our heads thinking (yes, that’s a real word) about what it actually does good demo. Playtime is one thing, but what about content? How much should we see of the game and how much should remain a secret? And what about the features? Should everything be available to us with a bulky vertical section, or should a much richer experience be hidden behind a paywall?
If you’ve ever wondered the same thing about a demo, or maybe you’re a game developer looking to start your own demo and happen to be reading this for inspiration, let us give you our personal thoughts on what goes into making a good ‘un (and let us know what you think in the surveys at the bottom of the page). We’ll start with the obvious…
Portable data to save, please
Thanks in no small part to the excellent demos released by Square Enix (Octopath Travelers and Live A Lives of the world), we now live in constant hope that the saved demo data will carry over to the main game, should we decide to buy it. For any demo that lasts around an hour or longer, this is quickly becoming a must-have feature that gets us tapping to download.
No matter how good your game was, how much fun that time was, and how quickly we ran to the ‘buy’ section of the eShop after finishing it, no one wants to do that initial hour right away, especially with how hard is the tutorial they usually are. Time is precious and we want to feel like the past 60 minutes meant something. This is impossible if instead of seeing the corpse of EMMI we have only managed to kill in the Metroid Dread demo, we’re instead taken back to the opening scene of Samus approaching the ZDR as if the life-or-death struggle we somehow survived never happened.
And this is not to throw shade at Dread (as if we ever could); many, many demos are guilty of the same crime. While it’s not that annoying because of the shorter trial periods, surely we can all agree that transferring save data can only be a good thing?
But for how long?
This is interesting, because there is no definite answer. A brilliant demo is a brilliant demo almost regardless of its length. If the game is captivating enough to get us hooked in 10 or 15 minutes, why would the demo be longer? But if the game is based on spending time with a mechanic until you actually solve it at the two/three hour mark, then surely that’s as long as it should take.
Ultimately, the demo must stay until it does the job. What exactly is a ‘job’? Well, to get us to buy the game, of course. But this isn’t just a case of just showing us the best bits before the “give us £60 to find out more” message pops up, oh no. Instead, the goal of the demo is to present the experience, teach us some basic controls, give us a little sense of accomplishment when we get something right, and then saying “money moneyeeee” just when we think we’ve got the hang of it.
But the length of time people need to do this will vary from case to case. A full 15 minutes of the Sonic Frontiers demo barely gives you time to get past the “Press A to jump” message before you’re kicked out, while all ten hours of the Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition demo is about building your understanding of the mechanics game so you can get into the full version as ready as you’ll ever be.
Maybe instead of asking “What’s the right demo length?”, we should be asking “How long should a good demo be?” Not all trials need to have a timer that keeps ticking behind the curtain when the objective tasters are equally filled — you take as long as you need, but it ends when you pass a certain milestone.
We see this regularly in anything from Dragon Quest Treasures to Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and it’s a neat way to let the player blast through the opening chapters in a quick 30 minutes if they want, or relax and explore every nook and cranny and break through a few hours. Haven’t we all collected every coin in a demo level and then felt smug about the idea that we somehow cheated the system by getting more out of a single level trial than the developers intended? Take that multi-million dollar studio!
Presenting the best #content
This leads us nicely to the final aspect of a good demo: the actual ‘content’. We’ve already made it clear that we want a decent amount of playtime, so the tutorial and the first few levels seem long enough. But that doesn’t mean we have to see all. It’s even possible that a non-linear approach might work best. Is the beginning constantly best place to start? It depends on the game, of course. But perhaps Stage 2’s miniboss battle could give curious players a better taste of the experience without overwhelming a non-captive audience with early-game exposition.
Like a good movie trailer, a demo should show you just enough to make you think “yeah, this is for me,” but not too much to keep you coming back for more because you can already see where it’s going. Are we talking about censoring the game in its demo stage to make the whole experience even richer? Could be! Sea Of Stars does just that with how much it actually tells you about the story and it does it incredibly well.
Of course, there’s an unlock incentive to keep us coming back for more — “play the demo to unlock X in the full game!” This is a nice way to get around the demo length issue because it makes the experience worthwhile because you’ve added something to the full game that might not have been there otherwise. We’ve seen this in Pikmin 3 Deluxe’s ”Ultra Spicy” difficulty mode, and even Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s Present Codes among others, and it always gives us a sense of accomplishment for having done nothing more than play the demo. Come on, who can say no to more free stuff?
The fact is that putting together a demo is a difficult balancing act. Too short and you don’t have enough time to engage a player, but too long and that same player might cross the line and feel game over before it’s even started.
However, the one thing we need more than ever is that precious data to save. If you’re still reading, dear game developer, please don’t make us play the demo content again. Above all, even with a free download, it is imperative to respect the player’s time.
Unless your game is so good we’d be happy to play the first hour again. But how many games are there that ok hmm?
So what do you think? Are longer playtimes required or should demos be short and sweet? Or maybe the bigger question is, do you even bother with demos? Fill out the following polls to let us know what you think.
Why not let us know some of your best demo experiences in the comments (we’ve even created a handy guide for inspiration below).
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