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Game News Steam Next Fest, June 2021: Demos of upcoming RPGs available from June 16th to 22nd

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?

Some people do keep them up and/or put them on Itch later. There's some talk in the industry for years now that demos are bad for business reasons. I don't think this holds up for Indies (because of discoverability reasons) but I don't have enough experience to back this up (did mostly free games for years).

Demos are bad when you're an AAA developer producing overhyped shit that lives and dies off its hype factor but is actually a terrible game.

If people get to try out your game with a demo, they'll realize it's not worth 60 bucks and won't buy it.

Meanwhile some indie dev who's making something with a focus on good gameplay, or a well-written story, can hook players with a demo and make them want more. You play a demo, like it, and decide that getting the full game is worth the 20-30 bucks that indie games cost.

Completely different business model.
 

Dexter

Arcane
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
15,655
Always hated the fact that these demos are time limited. Why not make them available permanently?
The point of the "Game Festivals" is to give people a chance to Preview unreleased/upcoming games, kinda like if they go to a game convention with a booth and get to play it there a year or more before Launch to gain some exposure, but digitally and you have like a week to do so. That they're time-limited is part of the formula, and some of the Previews have a very Early Alpha feel that would give people a bad impression of what a game would be like releasing two years from then. Many of them are far from ready to release with finished systems, gameplay mechanics, assets and story. "Wartales" for instance is labeled Alpha 0.6657. Otherwise it'd be no different from promoting Demos for already released products. You play something to get a short impression, see if it has promise, maybe provide some Feedback for devs on how it can get better and move on.
20210617150936_1shjj2.jpg
 
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Moaning_Clock

SmokeSomeFrogs
Developer
Joined
Feb 7, 2021
Messages
655
Demos are bad when you're an AAA developer producing overhyped shit that lives and dies off its hype factor but is actually a terrible game.

If people get to try out your game with a demo, they'll realize it's not worth 60 bucks and won't buy it.

Meanwhile some indie dev who's making something with a focus on good gameplay, or a well-written story, can hook players with a demo and make them want more. You play a demo, like it, and decide that getting the full game is worth the 20-30 bucks that indie games cost.

Completely different business model.

I agree but it's still "common sense" for many indie devs - I think it's best to use every tool possible for discoverability
 
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
2,509
Location
The Present
Lost Eidolons looks pretty cool. Will definitely try. Wartales also shows much promise. I wish Spire of Sorcery were not a blobber. It's speaking my language otherwise. Sonicudo looks like a student dossier project. Pass.
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,966
Rhuantavan You should really get the demo of CoS as a playable part of these Steam festivals, I think it will offer a good boost to the games visibility and your patreon.
 

Burning Bridges

Enviado de meu SM-G3502T usando Tapatalk
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There's some talk in the industry for years now that demos are bad for business reasons.

Yes, because the games suck and they don't want you to find out before you paid.

I personally bought a number of games that didn't interest me only from playing demos. in this list are Close Combat 2 and Shogun Total War
 

Jaedar

Arcane
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Joined
Aug 5, 2009
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9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
If people get to try out your game with a demo, they'll realize it's not worth 60 bucks and won't buy it.
Yeah, I think this is it. AAA relies very heavily on HYPE to sell games and nothing kills hype like 2 hours of actually playing the game.

I think this applies to some indies too, but it's less common.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
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Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
If people get to try out your game with a demo, they'll realize it's not worth 60 bucks and won't buy it.
Yeah, I think this is it. AAA relies very heavily on HYPE to sell games and nothing kills hype like 2 hours of actually playing the game.

I think this applies to some indies too, but it's less common.

It's also why AAA devs and hipster indies hate Steam reviews and loved the fact that Epic store had no user review support when it launched (I assume it still doesn't have that functionality). If there are no user reviews, your game can't get a "Mixed" or "Negative" rating on the store page!!
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
going through all these games, there are some interesting ones, but holy shit I will be happy if we ever get out of the 'card battler' era, or the 'card fighting' thing...so tried of that shit
 
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,930
sacred fire - doesnt load

rogue lords - first i started thinking - why is there no front and back line? Then i realized that perhaps i expected disciples from this, for whatever reason. Its way too simple to attract my attention

wartales - now this seem cool. kenshi meets homm? wishlisted. My thief got cought stealing in a market, got sent to prison. On my way to check this prison out I got ambushed and died. From my limited time game seemed to offer plenty of thievery, mercantile, combat, exploration

spire of sorcery - i prefer stabbing rogues in my rpgs, not boring spell preparations
yeah I think there is too much magic faggotry in the spire of sorcery, even if it looks sort of cool...I need there to be some balance and not just all wizard and spell shit, otherwise I just get bored for some reason....looks like a lot of dead frog and snake and twig collecting to me.
 

lukaszek

the determinator
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Joined
Jan 15, 2015
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12,621
sacred fire - doesnt load

rogue lords - first i started thinking - why is there no front and back line? Then i realized that perhaps i expected disciples from this, for whatever reason. Its way too simple to attract my attention

wartales - now this seem cool. kenshi meets homm? wishlisted. My thief got cought stealing in a market, got sent to prison. On my way to check this prison out I got ambushed and died. From my limited time game seemed to offer plenty of thievery, mercantile, combat, exploration

spire of sorcery - i prefer stabbing rogues in my rpgs, not boring spell preparations
yeah I think there is too much magic faggotry in the spire of sorcery, even if it looks sort of cool...I need there to be some balance and not just all wizard and spell shit, otherwise I just get bored for some reason....looks like a lot of dead frog and snake and twig collecting to me.
yup, its worse than tibia wizardry of old, when you prepared spells for 1h to spend them over 1min.
In here its like: am i casting yet? no? how about now?
twitcher1 rythm clicking was more fun
 

elverkongen

Learned
Joined
Apr 17, 2020
Messages
148
  • Death Trash
    • Uninstalled after the tutorial told me I can "Press F to puke" at any time. I played Boogerman when I was like 8, and even then shit like that wasn't funny.
  • Lost Eidolons
    • I get the impression this is the sort of game that feeds you story/exposition, then drops you into combat scenarios and... that's it. That's the whole game. Story scene in which you have no control, then dropped onto a battlefield. Either way, looks and plays pretty bad.
  • Mechjammer
    • Holy shit, a game with original visual and gameplay! Plays kind of like a turn-based Diablo. Unfortunately, I don't really like Diablo... Oh well, wishlisted to keep an eye on it.
  • Wartales
    • Reminds me of a mix between Mount and Blade (exciting!), Battle Brothers (also exciting!), and Legends of Eisenwald (not exciting!). Wishlisted but hesitant.
 

HoboForEternity

sunset tequila
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Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
9,175
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Disco Elysium
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Death trash: overall fun game with fresh setting. some quest has nice C&C. my biggest problem is the map is too big and a slog to get trough. need faster walking speed or at least a sprint button. dialogues are barebones not like fallout 1's writing quality, but I appreciate the ideas and the sheer gall of the developer attempting to make the game and it was pretty polished. i got a glimpse of the full game's system like cybernetics and C&C (the quest with fleshkraken can is hinted that it can be solved in a multiple ways, the but second solution is hinted on a location not available in the demo). my attitude is overall wait and see, and I recognize it's not a game for everyone but I see some promise in it

Lost haven: biggest problem is you have limited angle when aiming. like wtf is with that? the system seems fine. feels truly like Xcom with valkyria chronicles aiming. there are some good idea, like shooting from behind cover require you to lean left or right, but the weird thing is you have limited angle depending on which way your character face. i don't see a button to rotate either so if an enemy behind you, you can't shoot him without moving because the angle you can aim is like maybe 90-100 degrees cone drawn from your face. it's weird and annoying.

Spire of Sorcery: boring and obnoxious. it has good idea but the implementations are crap. i like that it revolves around magic, and I saw many utility spells but casting spell is a pain in the ass and traversing through the map is boring. casting spell you need to match runes rotated randomly trough some kind of deck. so if you need a fireball spell, you need 2 fire runes and a force runes. each characters has 3 runes slot that randomly appear. so if you want to cast a fireball you have to wait until 2 fire runes appear between 3 of your characters, and it's god damn tedious. walking on maps is based on hex. you can only move 3 hexes/day. that's it.

Sacred fire: my favorite out of everything I played. CYOA RPG heavy on stats based on mental states, seems like there are tons of variable. you can fear, anger, which can determine your outcome. for example, when I feel rage, the chance of letting an enemy alive is dimished severely. you're just so blinded by rage. you can quell your emotions and think rationally by consuming MP. like mental points or whatever. if you do kill your opponent, which is a member of your people, later you will be confronted and receive the feeling of guilt as penalty as there should be a better way to resolve that situation, on top of impending roman invasion where you need every capable fighter. writing is great, the game looks much better than the backer demo 2 years ago. i feel like this will be a sleeper hit., but I do hope this shit sells tons of copies.

GRIME: souls-like metroidvania which gimmick is you can absorb body part of your enemies by countering their attacks. the control is fine, the gimmick has potential and it has interesting art style.

Road 96: "procedural road trip" where you try to escape a war-torn country. interesting concept, it seems like the people who you meet are randomized within the roster of 9 characters and you interact with them. i think it has nice C&C and story telling potential, but I suspect a lot of codexer won't like this one.

still wanna try out mechajammer, lost eidolons and wartales but dunno. playing demo is tiring.
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,491
wartales - now this seem cool. kenshi meets homm? wishlisted. My thief got cought stealing in a market, got sent to prison. On my way to check this prison out I got ambushed and died. From my limited time game seemed to offer plenty of thievery, mercantile, combat, exploration
Have you tried Battle Brothers? It just comes to mind instantly, was surprised to read kenshi meets homm instead. After playing demo I'd say it feels inferior to BB even if it's too early to judge but with some cool ideas instead like implementing professions including stealing, cleaning your way through handing over prisoners and therefore allowing yourself to commit more crimes, cannibalism, characters having LEGS (crazy, I know) etc.

Death Trash - it looks and sounds awesome but mechanics are quite shallow, I hope that missing stuff in demo like occultism (or it isn't actually missing?) will make up for basic stuff (combat/stealth).

Sacred Fire looks promising, imagine this: men are stronger than women at char creation, hello Arcanum, right? For a minute I thought it's an adult game.
also this
5FD58E8977CA9CC7EE87C820EE8F4776DC507139
But even I, adept of rng a bit confused by amount and affection of it. Will play more.
 
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ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,886
I tried Death Trash first - it was fun but combat was too shallow and too twitchy (you even got a roll away button Witcher style). World is strange and interesting. And inventory system has some novel ideas in vein of PST.
Then I wanted to play Project Haven but it would not start, only ever give me some error message and crash.
Then I played Wartales and I liked it, I had to restart early because I just started exploring randomly and didn't find the bigger village where you can get missions and buy/sell shit so I was out of everything and in the end got owned by wolves. Demo just ends randomly even if it says at start you get access to first area but it does not let you explore that whole first area. Combat and skills feels a lot like Expeditions games.

I am going to try more games today.
 

AndrewCC

Educated
Joined
Oct 25, 2018
Messages
84
Location
RO
Sacred Fire is pretty nice, demo took me a little under an hour, and there's some interesting C&C, I didn't replay it, but it feels like there are ways to get very different outcomes, Morl for sure can end up dead/alive, but I think you can also get your childhood friend killed in that early battle with wrong choices.
Will definitely have to keep an eye out.
I do hope they change the UI, the Win10 "bare, flat bars" aesthetic doesn't really mesh with the story, and there are some parts that can use more clarity.
 

lukaszek

the determinator
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Joined
Jan 15, 2015
Messages
12,621
turns up sacred fire is broken on ultra wide, per developer here is workaround, need to add to launch opts
-screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080

played through demo. I prefer my cyoas not to focus on character emotions 50% of the time
 

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