Does a Demo matter?

You who got Greenlit

How many of you did a tec demo or demo of some kind to create hype for you game? and was it worth it? I guess you send some alpha or beta to reviewers but I mean publicly. Making a demo takes some time and no one I ever talked to have that. In the olden days a demo could sell me a game but hardly no one make demo any more, I guess time is a reason for that?

In my particular case.

I'm now working on a tutorial level for my game and was thinking, why not take this and a couple of levels and make a demo. Thanks to C2 it would not take long to make it playable from a browser and I could post it on the Arcade, Newgrounds and sites like that. It would still take time from actual development and I now ask what kind of numbers would that generate?

I have yet to submit a game for Steam Greenlight, so forgive me if my perspective is not the one you're looking for. However, I've worked on a variety of fan projects through the design process, have researched this a lot, and am preparing to release a game, so I can speak to a bit of experience on the subject.

In general, I tend to think public demos are not necessarily the most strategic.

has a good perspective on the subject. It might interest people to play the game, but may already give them their "fill" of it. In contrast, trailers and screenshots generate interest while giving them a bit of a hunger for actually playing it.

However, I think that private demos are extremely valuable, especially early in development. If you have an idea and early process for a game, private testing in that stage can help redirect the rest of the design if people report issues, give you a general feel for the game's strengths, and also be a good source of motivation. Assembling 3-10 people to test an early version of the game can give great feedback while avoiding potential revenue loss that'd accompany a public demo release.

Since this post is pretty quiet, I guess I was a little too specific. But I know there are many who are considering making a demo and I also know many who got Greenlit didn't make a public demo. That Extra credits show were very convincing. What was it 2/9. That is odds no one betting on no mater the quality of your game. Or, well I'm not the guy that boldly goes against statistics. Nevertheless I'm still torn.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Moontail