Is this game anything like the demo?

Raggit · 01-07-2010, 08:48 AM

I just tried playing the demo, and I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. When I first heard about this game, I was psyched to play it. Now that I finally tried the demo on Steam, I'm a little turned off... What am I supposed to do in the demo? First I tried to go to the house, and it was over. Then I decided to roam around in the forst for half an hour, and nothing happened... Is there a goal? Something hidden that I could not find?

tacc · 01-07-2010, 09:40 AM

You can't pick up any items in the demo, which is some kind of "goal" in the "game".

Raggit · 01-07-2010, 01:55 PM

But you can pick up the flowers... there are 144 of them.

But what is the point of the demo? is there actually something to do? Or is it just to show off the atmosphere of the game?

TrippleD · 01-16-2010, 05:28 AM

The demo is not like the game.

Raggit · 01-17-2010, 07:30 PM

Ok.... but once again, what is the point of the demo? is there actually something to do? Or is it just to show off the atmosphere of the game?

MichaelSamyn · 01-19-2010, 01:22 AM

The point of the demo is to test if the software runs on your computer and to give you a little impression of the atmosphere in The Path. Only if you have played the full game , can you really understand the Prologue. Yeah, we're weird like that.

Defiant Wolf · 02-18-2010, 08:11 PM

I looked up the demo after seeing some harsh critisism on both this game and The Void in an effort to better understand the article. Afterall, I realize that opinions of a game is very subjective. Some people can't play a game unless it let's them decapitate something every 5 seconds. Others, like myself, can play a slow game as long as it engages me in some way.

But, as you may of surmised, the demo did not engage me. And now, having seen your acknowledgement that it's not a gameplay demo, I understand why. which is a pity, as I'm always willing to give an Indy developer a chance if they can show me they can engage me (Like the game, Osmos recently did), or they can show me they value me as a customer.

What bothers me the most is it's been 6 months. And you have acknowledged for some time now that the demo is probably not adaquate. Why hasn't something been done about that? Do you not feel strongly enough in your vision to entice more people to glimpse it? The fact that you have not improved your demo after acknowledging it's shortcomings tells me you do not. And if you do not care enough for your vision to want to entice others to share in it, then why should I care to invest my time in it?

Please understand that I'm fully aware this game is not for everybody. But there are many like myself who have open enough minds to give it a try if we can be shown it's worth the investment of our money and time to give it a try. And truly, I did catch some glimpses in both your trailors and a bit of the tech demo to have me coming here to ask you to "Show me a little bit more". I'm not the only one. Why hasn't anything been done yet?

MichaelSamyn · 02-23-2010, 01:10 AM

Money.
Money is the only reason.

First of all, The Path is very cheap! If you are not willing to spend 10 Dollars at the odd change of experiencing something truly unique, you probably don't deserve it.

Second, we don't have the money to fund the development of a demo. The Path is our first commercial game. It was made with minimal funding. And developing a demo was not part of the schedule. We simply couldn't afford it. We develop artistic games full time. We don't have other jobs. You can probably imagine how tenuous such a situation is.

MichaelSamyn · 02-23-2010, 01:12 AM

Now, we are working on something to may help even extremely poor people get a glimpse of The Path. Stay tuned!

Defiant Wolf · 02-23-2010, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelSamyn

Money.
Money is the only reason.

First of all, The Path is very cheap! If you are not willing to spend 10 Dollars at the odd change of experiencing something truly unique, you probably don't deserve it.

Second, we don't have the money to fund the development of a demo. The Path is our first commercial game. It was made with minimal funding. And developing a demo was not part of the schedule. We simply couldn't afford it. We develop artistic games full time. We don't have other jobs. You can probably imagine how tenuous such a situation is.

You probably don't mean it as such, but that first paragraph came off as very snobby. What I'm getting from that is "Well, if you don't care enough to spend 10 bucks, to hell with you then". Which tells me you honestly don't care about your vision enough to entice people.

Not enough money to fund a demo? A demo is usually nothing more than a reuse of old resources with maybe a couple other gameplay elements cut and pasted in to give the player a taste of what's in the game. I'm not buying that excuse.

So basically, I'm getting the impression you don't care enough about your vision. Ergo, any "artist" who doesn't care enough about their vision to share it is not an artist, but a fraud.

And you sir, are a fraud. I wish you good day.

MichaelSamyn · 02-28-2010, 11:51 PM

If you prefer to draw your conclusions on your own assumptions rather than on what I said, I'm not sure why we're having a conversation at all.

KaylaKaze · 04-02-2010, 11:38 AM

I think one of the best (and easiest) ways to make an accurate demo of The Path would just make it so that on the character select screen, you can't pick any character but the youngest (I don't remember their names), and the game goes to a "buy now" screen and exits after her ending and "ranking" screen. This way, the demo player gets a good feel of the core of the game, while not really spoiling any of the emotion (at least, IMO, her story was the most straightforward and "Little Red Riding Hood"-like). It shouldn't take your dev team more than an hour to complete the changes.

MichaelSamyn · 04-03-2010, 02:05 AM

Thank you for the suggestion. We had been thinking along those lines.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaylaKaze

It shouldn't take your dev team more than an hour to complete the changes.

You'd be surprised! I'm afraid it takes a lot more time. Don't forget the inevitable bugs that any change creates. And the testing and fixing. That often takes 90% of the development time. And that's just the technical side. After that the demo needs to be compiled, distributed and promoted. It's not something we'd want to to rush.

AngryJens · 04-03-2010, 02:58 AM

I don't understand why people play a Demo for a $10 game. Just buy it.

Anyways, just picked up this game. Other then being incredibly confused, I'm liking it.

TrippleD · 04-04-2010, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaylaKaze

IIt shouldn't take your dev team more than an hour to complete the changes.

I am guessing you never worked on a game?

01-07-2010, 08:48 AM	#1
Raggit Join Date: Nov 2009 Reputation: 4 Posts: 132	Is this game anything like the demo? I just tried playing the demo, and I honestly have no idea what I'm doing. When I first heard about this game, I was psyched to play it. Now that I finally tried the demo on Steam, I'm a little turned off... What am I supposed to do in the demo? First I tried to go to the house, and it was over. Then I decided to roam around in the forst for half an hour, and nothing happened... Is there a goal? Something hidden that I could not find?

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01-07-2010, 09:40 AM	#2
tacc Join Date: Sep 2008 Reputation: 1250 Posts: 3,327	You can't pick up any items in the demo, which is some kind of "goal" in the "game".

01-07-2010, 01:55 PM	#3
Raggit Join Date: Nov 2009 Reputation: 4 Posts: 132	But you can pick up the flowers... there are 144 of them. But what is the point of the demo? is there actually something to do? Or is it just to show off the atmosphere of the game?

01-16-2010, 05:28 AM	#4
TrippleD Volunteer Moderator Join Date: Jan 2005 Reputation: 4002 Posts: 28,066	The demo is not like the game.

01-17-2010, 07:30 PM	#5
Raggit Join Date: Nov 2009 Reputation: 4 Posts: 132	Ok.... but once again, what is the point of the demo? is there actually something to do? Or is it just to show off the atmosphere of the game?

01-19-2010, 01:22 AM	#6
MichaelSamyn Tale of Tales Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 20 Posts: 182	The point of the demo is to test if the software runs on your computer and to give you a little impression of the atmosphere in The Path. Only if you have played the full game , can you really understand the Prologue. Yeah, we're weird like that.

02-18-2010, 08:11 PM	#7
Defiant Wolf Join Date: Mar 2009 Reputation: 127 Posts: 1,036	I looked up the demo after seeing some harsh critisism on both this game and The Void in an effort to better understand the article. Afterall, I realize that opinions of a game is very subjective. Some people can't play a game unless it let's them decapitate something every 5 seconds. Others, like myself, can play a slow game as long as it engages me in some way. But, as you may of surmised, the demo did not engage me. And now, having seen your acknowledgement that it's not a gameplay demo, I understand why. which is a pity, as I'm always willing to give an Indy developer a chance if they can show me they can engage me (Like the game, Osmos recently did), or they can show me they value me as a customer. What bothers me the most is it's been 6 months. And you have acknowledged for some time now that the demo is probably not adaquate. Why hasn't something been done about that? Do you not feel strongly enough in your vision to entice more people to glimpse it? The fact that you have not improved your demo after acknowledging it's shortcomings tells me you do not. And if you do not care enough for your vision to want to entice others to share in it, then why should I care to invest my time in it? Please understand that I'm fully aware this game is not for everybody. But there are many like myself who have open enough minds to give it a try if we can be shown it's worth the investment of our money and time to give it a try. And truly, I did catch some glimpses in both your trailors and a bit of the tech demo to have me coming here to ask you to "Show me a little bit more". I'm not the only one. Why hasn't anything been done yet?

02-23-2010, 01:10 AM	#8
MichaelSamyn Tale of Tales Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 20 Posts: 182	Money. Money is the only reason. First of all, The Path is very cheap! If you are not willing to spend 10 Dollars at the odd change of experiencing something truly unique, you probably don't deserve it. Second, we don't have the money to fund the development of a demo. The Path is our first commercial game. It was made with minimal funding. And developing a demo was not part of the schedule. We simply couldn't afford it. We develop artistic games full time. We don't have other jobs. You can probably imagine how tenuous such a situation is.

02-23-2010, 01:12 AM	#9
MichaelSamyn Tale of Tales Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 20 Posts: 182	Now, we are working on something to may help even extremely poor people get a glimpse of The Path. Stay tuned!

02-28-2010, 11:51 PM	#11
MichaelSamyn Tale of Tales Join Date: Apr 2009 Reputation: 20 Posts: 182	If you prefer to draw your conclusions on your own assumptions rather than on what I said, I'm not sure why we're having a conversation at all.

04-02-2010, 11:38 AM	#12
KaylaKaze Join Date: Dec 2008 Reputation: 20 Posts: 200	I think one of the best (and easiest) ways to make an accurate demo of The Path would just make it so that on the character select screen, you can't pick any character but the youngest (I don't remember their names), and the game goes to a "buy now" screen and exits after her ending and "ranking" screen. This way, the demo player gets a good feel of the core of the game, while not really spoiling any of the emotion (at least, IMO, her story was the most straightforward and "Little Red Riding Hood"-like). It shouldn't take your dev team more than an hour to complete the changes.

04-03-2010, 02:58 AM	#14
AngryJens Join Date: Sep 2008 Reputation: 351 Posts: 3,819	I don't understand why people play a Demo for a $10 game. Just buy it. Anyways, just picked up this game. Other then being incredibly confused, I'm liking it.