All over Twitch, about half the streamers I usually watch playing turn-based strategy games are all suddenly playing the same new game. I watched a few streams, and it looked interesting. Normally, I never buy games when they just come out because I have such a backlog and can wait for a sale, but I figured if everyone (figuratively) is playing it, it must be amazing.

Turns out, they’re giving the full game away for free during their “early access” phase as a “demo”. But it’s the full game, just with only 2 class choices.

I had a blast! And now I’m probably going to buy it on release.

The last time I remember doing this was for Minecraft. I see lots of games doing free weekends on Steam, which is very similar; doesn’t work well for me since I only have a few hours for gaming each week, but I imagine that must be successful for a lot of games, too.

What do you think of that business model? And/or, what do you think of Backpack Battles, if you’ve played it?

  • GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    I do like demos, I’ve bought a few games from them. I bought Factorio years and years ago because of that. I liked the Next Fest on Steam and have wishlisted a few games for when they leave Early Access. I don’t buy ea games (or EA games, lol). The most recent demo game that got me was dotAGE. It’s slightly in the vein of other settler/logistics games but it’s quirk is that you unlock more options for the next game by losing, a la rogue-likes. Also has random events.

    Demos work well for me, because I like games based on their minor details. UI/UX is important to me, so the original Dwarf Fortress didn’t work for me. I also like QOL features a lot, 90% of my mods are based on QOL shortcomings, so if a game is just awful then I’ll avoid it. There were a few demos that I quit within 15 minutes because they were too unpolished. (I’m sure they’ll be fine in time, but this was too early for them.)

  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    0·
    11 months ago

    I think the (re)advent of demos has been an amazing boon for the industry that it forgot. Whether simplified full games or up-to-a-point full releases, it’s great to give things a try before you buy. Demos were huge in the 90s, and then capitalism thought it knew better.

    I, for one, have bought more games this year in part due to the demos, whereas I used to demure to frugality and concern over refund policies.

    • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
      0·
      11 months ago

      I mean … Valve has an extremely reliable 2 hours or 2 weeks policy which is good enough for most games IMO. I’ve rarely needed more than that in terms of a demo to gauge whether I want to keep something or not

      • Telorand@reddthat.com
        1·
        11 months ago

        And that’s great for you, but I have a family, and sometimes I have to pause a game, and that means those two hours can go up quick. Demos are inclusive to people like me.