We've been talking about the demo we plan to release for a long time, but what should it have in it? If you've been following us for a while now, you'll remember that we WERE going to be releasing a demo last Christmas, but we ended up deciding that we didn't want to give you a half-assed demo, and wanted to put more content into it.
At that point, the demo was going to be just dungeons. But our alpha testers said that they were really craving the overworld, so we - with your blessing - pushed the demo back, with the plans to make the demo be composed of about 3 square miles of overworld filled with procedurally generated towns, dungeons and more for you to explore, with the full version giving you access to the entire of the infinite world.
But we've finally settled on what we want to make the demo... And we hope you like it...
The demo of the game is going to be almost the whole entire game. There will be no limitations on borders or anything like that. You will have the entire infinite world at your disposal. You will start in a random location and be able to play it as normal. However, there will be a couple of concessions to it being a demo.
The first concession is that the number of items you can find will be limited. Not the infinite number that the full game will have. In the demo, you will only have access to about ten million different items... Still a lot, I know, but you'd be surprised how many double ups you'll get in an infinite world with a non-infinite amount of items lol
The second concession is that you will not be able to save your game. Ever. Once you quit, there will be no way to recover your character. In this way, the demo will essentially be a roguelike like Nethack. So you'll load up the demo, create your character, get plonked down into the world at a random point, and go adventuring, unrestricted, until you either die a horrible death or quit the game.
Once you buy the game (for $25) you will be able to save as much and as often as you'd like, and you'll have access to ALLLLL of the procedurally generated content. Infinite items, weapons, armour, spells, etc.
We think that doing the demo this way will be the best way to let people fully grasp the notion of what this game is doing, since many newcomers will still be unfamiliar with the notion of an infinite game...
Speaking of the infinite world, though, one of our lead alpha testers, Hyfrydle32, has been sent an early build of the infinite overworld of the game, and he was kind enough to record a bit of a narrated walkthrough of it. Your best bet, however, is to subscribe to his YouTube channel, as over the next two weeks, the overworld is going to EXPLODE with new content, and he has promised to record new narrated videos for every new build!
Here's the first one. He sounds like he's having so much fun! Which is awesome!
At this point I am of course obligated to remind you to support our IndieGoGo campaign and share the link around like crazy. WE NEED MORE FUNDS! Contributions have slowed a bit lately, and we need that link shared around! Post it everywhere! Click the image below to visit!
And feel free to spread our pitch video, too! We've got a little under 3 weeks left in the campaign, so help us get it happening! Remember that it's a pretty neat way to get in an early pre-order of the game!
And also, as always, don't forget to follow us on the social networks!
I was more a fan of how Mount and Blade handled their demo, you were just restricted up to level 7- that was basically it. You had the entire game there but you couldn't progress past level 7.
Another idea would be to restrict quest content, so that the player can only do the beginner quests, the more highend (and assumed more enjoyable quests) would be the stuff you'd have to pay for.
Saving restrictions can work too and are usually a good idea.
Item restrictions are a good idea also.
I'm looking forward to seeing your demo.
And we look forward to providing it!
I also recall the demo of M&B (game i've played for over 1000 hours i think).
If gaming industry would projcet such demos gaming world would be better... And apart from that i'm nearly unable to play AAA titles, surely indies are better...
So double thumbs up!
Thank you :)
Damn, you guys are on a roll! Keep it up.
A SALAD ROLL!!!
Heehee, thanks! Just wait! Over the next 10 days we're doing a massive animation run to create new assets!
This is how ye do a demo.
Indeed. It'll be worth it for me just to be able to explore all that awesome - and maybe get to meet a certain barmaid and adventurer outside the in-game taverns. ;)
At least no-one seems to mind that there'll only be ten million or so items...
how could you only give us ten million items what an insult of a demo compared to other games that will give you almost 10 or 11 items total *sarcasm end* good work I can't wait to see the demo
We'll push for 11 million ;)
:) so you're happy with our plan?
It's very interesting to see this evolve, can't wait for the demo :)
You'll be seeing LOTS of very interesting stuff over the next several days!