A Serious Discussion About Demos

**Cryaotic** · 08-07-2011, 12:54 AM

Do you find demos to be worthwhile in the custom story community?

From my standpoint, I am on a personal 'demo strike' solely because of this one reason: A demo that is released for a custom story that is not responded to with 100% positive comments is more often than not abandoned and the custom story is never completed.

Sure other factors come into play, where the creator simply gets bored, life gets in the way, they lose inspiration etc. But one thing I've noticed is that with the release of a demo, that inspiration is put on the line as soon as someone says something along the lines of "meh" or "OMFG clipping issues".

My problem with demos are that they are simply an unfinished product. Most people resort to releasing demos as their own public beta testing, when a demo should not be a public beta (or sometimes alpha) test - they should be a true representation of what you can do. A demo is a polished experience that is cut short and leaving the player aching for more.

The only demo I've played for Amnesia Custom Stories that has left me with that feeling, that felt so complete and just damn perfect, was Snowed In. It ended abruptly, but it was so climactic and felt just so right that I truly really wanted to see more. With numerous others it just ends - you go through a door and it's over.

Something I've seen used quite well, albeit not perfectly but a good idea, is the chapter idea used in the custom stories such as Abduction and Solid Sacrifice. They feel like they are really a chapter of a story and not just an abrupt ending - something people should begin to look into.

If you wish for your story to be beta tested, bug hunted, or just receive a little early feedback, you can make a thread asking for a beta tester here and there - tossing your WIP of a custom story into the public will give them a bad taste in their mouth of your work and then when you finally finish it (even if it is good) they will still remember how awkward or buggy the initial demo was.

Ending paragraph that has a good punchline and leads into wondering how other people think on the subject. Witty anecdote; complaint about just making this thread while waiting for YouTube to hurry up and process a video. Smiley face.

**Kurton** · 08-07-2011, 01:06 AM

Flood of universal agreement and acquiescence.

**Kyle** · 08-07-2011, 01:48 AM

I'm gonna have to agree with you Cry, demos just simply presents what the modder has worked on the pass time, but they don't always want to continue it because of motivation, etc. So they call it a demo so they can make it look like it's only the beginning of it.

When I played the demo for Amnesia before I got the game, I thought that it would have been the beginning of Amnesia once I bought it. I became disturbed when I become lost playing, giving an extra taste to scariness: When the expected does not happen. I've played a few custom stories that did actually have that, but the rest of them also didn't presentate them too well either. So I could never know which ones will be the good ones without playing them all. I decide to look at comments about it from other people if it doesn't appear good, but sometimes people just want to make the modder happy by saying it's good, so when I try it, it would be a piece of crap. Not like I'm saying they all are, but they usually have at least one thing interesting about them. Smile

When it comes to modding, my greatest motivation is you, Cry. To watch your funny commentary when playing custom stories really motivates me to have you play mine. I've never released one yet, but I may be getting near to one, so I hope you play it when the time comes. Thanks for reading. Tongue

**Mosnye** · 08-07-2011, 03:09 AM

They should either not release a demo until the story is fully done or if they do make sure that they WILL finish it, i have about 20 demos in my custom story folder that dont have a full game to play...