Game Promotion
- Written by sebba
- August 28th, 2007 at 22:52
- 13 comments
- Rant, ramble
I’m sitting here wondering what a good trial version of a game should contain. What elements of a good trial inspire you to “convert”? Is it the generosity of the trial, i.e. the more of the game you get to evaluate the more confident you get about your decision to buy the full version? Perhaps it’s those pure essentials of the game that have to shine through, those core gameplay elements that really define the nature of the game and its unique aspects?
Maybe it’s not about the trial at all. Can pure hype possibly be better than a trial or would you prefer to be able to confirm the hype by playing a trial? Maybe you feel that gameplay videos are sufficient and then again maybe not.
You might wonder why the hell I even bother asking this question. There are two reasons. The first is simply that I will eventually have to produce one of these trials for our game. The second reason is that while I was trying different trials out on XBLA this morning I found myself perplexed by the fact that I couldn’t decide which approach worked for me. Specifically speaking about the different approaches found in recent XBLA titles Space Giraffe and Street Trace: NYC. In Space Giraffe you’re guided through the playable tutorial and when you complete that the trial ends. In Street Trace you get this massively generous trial that has singleplayer and multiplayer modes, all characters, all(?) upgrades, well the works basically. I should probably sleep on it, let the impressions sink in and then decide.
I figured you might have had some great trial experiences at some point in your gaming careers. Therefore I encourage you to share.
13 comments on "Game Promotion"
Henke writes
Personally, speaking strictly Live Arcade (altough my dubious insights may be valid on other venues as well), I really dislike trials that basically takes you through “training mode”, because, quite frankly, training mode is not the game, it’s training mode. It neither should be representative nor a subsitute for the real game, it just feels cheap.
What I like however is timed demos, you’re given the whole game and can play it for a set amount of time. Granted this doesn’t work with certain games, where a more achievement-based trial should be applied, such as letting the player complete a set amount of levels.
My personal favourite trial was the original Worms, where you basically had everything except all the weapons and team customization and you could only play the game on one stage. That might actually have been a little too good, since the game was so addicting in multiplayer that we kept playing that one level over and over again.
Mr AFK writes
I can’t do/say other than to agree with Henke, “training modes” are seldom a fair representation of the game. Me, myself, (and) I’d rather see a short movie clip like in the old days of arcade games since your game de facto is ’slap-an-ass-kind-a-game’ and then do it like “Worms”-style. And one more thing, I believe that Henke does look like Agent Cooper -I’m almost a 100% there must be some kind of relation there. Toodles!
The Mad Hatter writes
I quite enjoyed the trial version of Mount & Blade… and that (together with the cheap price) got me to register.
Basically you got the full game, but couldn’t advance beyond a certain level.
Mr AFK writes
I was NOT amused by M&B….I use to call it mountain bike. Well, actually the horse battles where somewhat fun…but that was all.
The Mad Hatter writes
Yes, but you do have slightly gay tendencies, so it’s excused.
Besides, we’re talking trial versions here, and we almost all agree that “Full game, but limited in time” is a good idea!
Henke writes
The Internet really brings out the best of the Hatter
Mr AFK writes
And about that topic ‘internet bringing out the best of Hatter’ -is Maggie invited?
The Mad Hatter writes
Who the fuck is Maggie!?
Barger writes
I can recall one good trial (or demo) that got me so strung i played it over and over again. It was the first ‘Delta Force’ Demo. One map and you couldn’t change your gear but man was it ever fun.
That huge map (for that era in gaming) made what i think is a great demo, giving you a great feel for the game concept, a lot of ways to complete the demo so a lot of game minutes (or hours and days in my case) but at the same time it didn’t spoil the game so to speak.
Bobby writes
I agree with Barger, the demo for Delta Force was pure awsome. Though after days and days kicking ass in a small gerilla hideout, I was kind of left unsatisfied by the rest of the game. Also, the “limited-time” based demo for Gta 1 was pure gold. I have never spent so much time on a demo before.
You’re not a triple-A production with professional marketing people and so forth, so the whole “creating a hype and ride it into critical mass” is probably very very VERY hard. Trial ftw. And being that your game is a “arena-gore-splatter-fighting-game”.. the old game “One Must Fall 2037″ might be the way you wanna go. You get to control a set character, maybe give him 2-3 weapons to choose from, and then you battle it out in the arena, where you get to see some of the other cool stuff in the game in action. Let them see what cool stuff lies ahead.
“The epic meat axe of doom propelling enemy limbs in all directions is only available in the full retail version, suckers!!”
Hike writes
One aproach I realy liked was the way they did with Half-Life; “Uplink”.
I think that’s a great way to pull of a trail; make a map/mission/whatever speccific for that trail/demo that shows some of the goodies with that game (as well as set’s up the story abit for you).
I know that Uplink didn’t realy tell you that much about the HL-story, but atleast you got the feel for the game… I did atleast.
This however doesn’t work with every type of game. And if you are, as it seems, creating a fighting game; a time/limited trail might be a better way of doing things.
Henke writes
Uplink was fucking spectacular!
Mr AFK writes
no,no,no, Space Giraffe is ‘fucking spectacular’ ;D
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