{"id":138,"date":"2017-09-10T00:35:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-09T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studios.nomoss.co\/blog\/?p=138"},"modified":"2023-12-12T16:18:15","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T05:18:15","slug":"creating-an-accurate-demo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noblesteedgames.com\/blog\/creating-an-accurate-demo\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating an Accurate Demo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hey folks! So, Duped<\/em> is fast approaching release! In fact, we\u2019re only about a month out from the actual, real release of my first commercially available game.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Duped's
Coming Soon on Steam!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Fun times! So \u2014 one of the things that I haven\u2019t really been thinking about that much is Marketing. It\u2019s capitalised there, because that\u2019s how I see it. Marketing. It\u2019s an opaque entity that determines whether this game that I\u2019ve poured so much of my time and soul into will be successful or not. Despite the research into how to do it, I still do see it in part as a final boss to defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s scary. So, I\u2019ve been brainstorming ways to take chunks out of it, piece at a time. The one I\u2019ve been working on for the past week or so is a demo. It\u2019s a pretty obvious tactic, give a chunk of the game out for free, so that players can evaluate it for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"The
The Theseus Demo splash screen<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

So, let\u2019s break this down. Problems, and solutions. Here are the problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. The most offputting thing about Duped <\/em>(in my opinion) is the art. It\u2019s generic, and while it suits the game, it isn\u2019t exceptional.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Duped <\/em>isn\u2019t that long of a game, and giving out part of the content for free means that players who come from the demo get around 1\/5 of the game spoiled for them.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Duped<\/em> doesn\u2019t beat you over the head with it\u2019s themes. It is slow and methodical, so I can\u2019t just bring in content from the full game and expect the demo to give players the full experience.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
    \n
    \"The
    The start of the demo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

    Above you can see the first level of my solution. It\u2019s called Duped: The Theseus Demo<\/em><\/strong>. It\u2019s 9 levels. 3 new levels, and 6 \u201creskins\u201d of levels from the same game. Let\u2019s talk about how I came up with it, and how it solves the problems I mentioned above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The most important thing to me about building this demo was that it was representative of the themes of Duped<\/em>. The main ones, to me, are isolation, identity and forming attachments. While these are subtler in the main game, I wanted the demo to address these head on. So, I built the demo around an old thought experiment called The Ship of Theseus <\/em>(also known as the Grandfather\u2019s Axe<\/em>). If you\u2019re unfamiliar, you can check it out here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So, obviously the themes overlap. Duped<\/em> is all about identity, cloning and replacement, as is the Ship of Theseus<\/em>. So, I decided to base my demo around this thought experiment. I do that old thing of building levels out of text, where the text of the levels is the text of the thought experiment. A bit indie, and a bit generic, but it helps get the themes across and gives The Theseus Demo<\/em> an interesting style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Another
    Another level in the demo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    So, how does this solve the problems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. It doesn\u2019t use most of the art from the main game. The Theseus Demo<\/em> uses the background images, but replaces platforms with text. This text, while not appearing at all in the main game, is stylistically consistent with the simple box art style, so I don\u2019t believe it\u2019s misrepresentative. More on this later.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n
      \n
      \"Comparing
      Comparing the levels<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

      2. It recreates levels. Above you can see a comparison of the same level from the demo, and from the main game. Players don\u2019t recognise levels in the demo as the same levels they play in the full game, and it doesn\u2019t feel like they\u2019re getting shortchanged by playing \u201cthe same\u201d levels in the full game.<\/p>\n\n\n

      \n
      \"Clambering
      Clambering over your dead friends<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

      3. The themes in the demo are a lot more obvious. While this is kind of clunky, I think I\u2019ve hit a pretty good middle ground between hitting you over the head with the themes, and making them as subtle as they are in the full game. As an example, this level (the fifth level from the demo) is all about creating clones. As you play through it, the text describes the actions you\u2019re forced to take, until you reach the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n

      Soon, no original parts remained.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      Even if players don\u2019t read the text, the final sentence (or even the emphasised final word) gives players all they need to know about the themes. You\u2019re replacing yourself, and soon no original parts will remain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"The
      The choice at the end of the demo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      To emphasise this, the final level of the demo forces you to make a choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n

      Which one is the Theseus?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

      You are forced to choose one clone to be the \u201creal\u201d one. It\u2019s essentially a meaningless choice, as neither of the clones you have with you at the moment are the ones you started with, but it does force you to consider the core theme of Duped<\/em>. You\u2019re making clones. You don\u2019t have an individual identity, and if you ever did, you left it behind a few levels ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

      So, that\u2019s The<\/em> Theseus Demo<\/em>. It ends with a quick look at the platforms (with screenshots of the game in motion), and then lets you exit & takes you to the website (where you\u2019ll be able to buy the full game).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      I thought it was a pretty neat way to solve some problems that are faced around demo creation, while still building the actual demo fairly quickly (around 2 solid days of work in total).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Stay tuned, because the Steam page for\u00a0Duped<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is coming soon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Update: Duped is out now!<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      We hope you enjoyed reading this! Have a question or want to chat more about game development? Reach out to us!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Other places you can find us:<\/p>\n\n\n\n