How I got my demo ready for Steam Next Fest

0:00 Hey!

0:01 It’s Mark So, this week is Steam Next Fest,

0:05 which is an online festival for upcoming games,

0:09 where everyone gets to show off the demo for their next project.

0:13 And my new game– the roguelike spell ’em up Word Play– is in the showcase.

0:19 Now I’m actually really happy with how things

0:21 have gone in the lead-up to Next Fest,

0:23 and I’m confident that the demo will have the best

0:25 possible chance of standing out and getting those all-important wishlists.

0:31 So I wanted to share 7 tips for how to make a demo,

0:35 and how to get the most out of Steam Next Fest.

0:38 Sound good?

0:39 Okay, then let’s start with Tip Number 1–

0:44 Launch your demo before Next Fest begins So,

0:48 there’s nothing in the rules that says your demo

0:51 has to debut at the start of Next Fest.

0:54 So I actually released the demo for Word

0:57 Play about 2 weeks before Next Fest began.

0:59 And that turned out to be a great decision.

1:02 For one thing, it helped the game gain a bunch

1:05 of wishlists– about 25,000 before Next Fest even started.

1:09 But I also got an enormous amount of feedback from players– and could

1:14 use this to improve and fix the demo before the event kicked off.

1:18 So, for instance, in the first version of the demo,

1:22 you could only spell a word up to 10 tiles long.

1:25 But players told me that it felt bad to find

1:28 a word that’s longer– and not be able to play it.

1:31 So, okay, I changed it– and now if you keep

1:35 adding letters then a secret second row of tile holders appears.

1:39 Players also found it annoying to get into the shop screen–

1:43 and not be able to see the letter bag or the letter grid.

1:46 So I added buttons that let you open the bag

1:49 or peek behind the cards to see the game board.

1:52 I also added the ability to break glass tiles after making them,

1:57 and a way to sort the letter grid into alphabetical order.

2:01 Plus– I fixed loads of bugs.

2:04 So, so many bugs.

2:06 So, remember– you only get one chance with Steam Next Fest.

2:11 And if you want to put your best foot forward,

2:14 release your demo in advance in order to find

2:17 and fix the biggest issues before the event goes live.

2:21 Tip Number 2 is to show enough,

2:24 but not too much This is a tricky one to get right,

2:28 and will change for every game.

2:30 But the basic premise is sound.

2:32 So for instance– my demo for Mind Over Magnet was way too short.

2:36 The demo only contained the first world and that clocked

2:40 in at a measly 15 minutes of gameplay.

2:43 Which wasn’t very satisfying,

2:44 didn’t stick around long enough to get people excited,

2:48 and probably didn’t help the game with the Steam algorithm.

2:52 But, on the other hand,

2:54 you’ve probably played a demo that was so good, and so full of content,

2:59 that you got your fill with the freebie

3:01 and never actually bought the full thing.

3:04 So you want to aim for something that will show off why the game is fun,

3:07 and even give players a reason to play multiple times– but you

3:10 also want to leave a lot out for the full release.

3:14 So in Word Play I found a pretty good balance– the demo has about 25 perks,

3:19 which is enough for strategies and synergies and replayability,

3:22 but is a long way off the full game’s 120 perks.

3:27 And it has just one mode,

3:29 whereas the full game will have a bunch of different ways to play.

3:33 You can then test whether your demo is long

3:35 enough by checking the “median time played” stat in Steamworks.

3:39 You should aim for somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes.

3:43 Word Play is bang in the middle with almost exactly 1 hour of median playtime.

3:49 But if you’re not happy with the number you see?

3:52 Well, good job you launched your game before Next Fest

3:56 and can add or remove content before the event kicks off.

4:00 Another good tip is to look at other demos in your game’s genre.

4:04 How much are they giving away?

4:06 Tip Number 3 is to give a great first impression A demo is free.

4:12 Which means that players have invested nothing– and so will

4:16 happily quit out and delete your demo if they are bored,

4:20 frustrated, or generally unimpressed.

4:22 There are a few ways to avoid this.

4:25 Make sure the presentation is solid.

4:27 I waited until Zach had composed some music before launching

4:29 the demo because a completely silent game does not scream high quality.

4:35 In terms of difficulty, I would err on the side of easier rather than harder.

4:40 You generally don’t want players to rage quit your demo in frustration.

4:44 An easy demo is better– especially because

4:47 players know the full game will get harder.

4:50 And you should find ways to give players a good initial experience,

4:54 even if it’s a little constructed.

4:57 So in the demo for Word Play I made sure to include two

5:00 perks that pair really well– an upgrade that lets you make golden tiles,

5:04 and a modifier where if you submit a golden tile,

5:08 the tile to the right becomes golden.

5:10 This creates a silly synergistic strategy of endlessly getting golden tiles,

5:15 which just feels great and will leave players with a strong impression.

5:19 And with only 25 perks in the demo,

5:22 this situation is pretty likely to come up, almost guaranteeing a good time.

5:27 Remember that a demo is not a playtest build.

5:30 It’s not a way to get feedback and bug reports.

5:33 It’s marketing– so do whatever it takes

5:36 to cast your game in the best possible light.

5:40 Tip Number 4 is to tease content that isn’t in the demo So,

5:45 as discussed, you want to leave a lot out for the actual paid release.

5:49 But don’t leave players guessing about how

5:51 much more content there is left to discover.

5:54 So you can do this inside the game itself.

5:57 Like I said– the Word Play demo has only one mode.

6:00 But I made sure to leave in the buttons for all the other modes,

6:03 just with a lock icon and a tag that says “available in the full release.” Also,

6:09 the game has just one type of special tile– the golden tile.

6:14 But from the logo, you can see that there are other types of tile available.

6:18 What does the green tile do?

6:20 The blue tile?

6:21 The red tile with the dot?

6:24 The… bubbly red water tile?

6:26 There’s clearly more to this game!

6:29 But you can also do it outside of the game.

6:31 So before Next Fest began I made a Steam news event for the game

6:35 that simply describes all of the stuff that isn’t in the demo,

6:38 but will be in the full game.

6:40 How there will be more perks, more special tiles,

6:43 more special rounds, more music, more everything.

6:46 That way players can understand what’s to come

6:48 and– fingers crossed– add the game to their wishlist.

6:52 Oh, and you can make that easier by literally putting a button

6:55 in your demo that will take people directly to the Steam store page.

6:59 Tip Number 5 is to send all of your feedback to a single location Okay,

7:05 so when I first launched the Word Play demo… I was getting a lot of feedback.

7:09 Bug reports.

7:10 Feature requests.

7:12 Ideas for modifiers and special rounds.

7:15 Everything you could think of.

7:16 But those reports were distributed across,

7:20 well, replies on Bluesky, Discord DMs, emails,

7:24 the comments on two different YouTube videos,

7:27 and discussions on the game’s Steam forum.

7:30 Which was completely overwhelming.

7:32 I simply could not keep track of it all.

7:34 So– I made a single source for feedback.

7:37 I made a forum on the GMTK Discord server with places to put bugs,

7:42 ideas, and requests.

7:43 And then I funnelled everything into that forum.

7:46 I made a pinned post on the Steam

7:48 forums telling people to go to the Discord server.

7:50 I put pinned comments on the YouTube videos with the same info.

7:54 And I even put a “report an issue” button into the game–

7:58 which loads up a page linking to the Discord server.

8:01 Now I can more easily track these issues and reply to them.

8:05 Though, the most common piece of feedback was not a bug.

8:09 Or a feature request.

8:11 It was simply… why does the game not let me spell WAIFU?

8:16 Or YEET?

8:17 Or RIZZ?

8:18 Yeah, this is one of the perils of making a word game.

8:21 Your dictionary will never catch everything

8:24 that people consider to be a real word.

8:27 So I knew I needed a bespoke solution for this.

8:30 For starters, I added a tutorial that appears the first time you spell

8:34 an invalid word and explains that proper

8:37 nouns like countries and companies aren’t accepted.

8:41 But also– every time you spell an invalid word it will add a button

8:45 to the options panel which lets you petition

8:47 for that word to be included in future updates.

8:50 Click this button and it shoots an event to Unity’s analytics– and I

8:54 can then get a massive spreadsheet of every word that’s been petitioned.

8:58 Then I can go through them one by one and– as the great

9:03 arbiter of words– decide which ones should go in the game.

9:06 The first batch I added included terms like BESTIE,

9:10 BOOLEAN, EMOJI, GAMIFY, NERFING, and WEEABOO.

9:16 I’m really glad I got all of this sorted before Next

9:20 Fest as it has made my life a whole lot easier.

9:24 Tip Number 6 is to block content properly Okay,

9:29 if you’re making a demo for a game,

9:31 sometimes the easiest thing to do is just upload your full

9:35 game build but block access to the stuff outside the demo.

9:39 In my case, I have a checkbox inside Unity for “demo”,

9:43 and if that’s ticked then the game only

9:45 shuffles in the first 25 perks on the stack.

9:48 And it makes sure the buttons for the other modes are made non-interactable.

9:53 Now I knew that there was probably some

9:55 technical way to make this content accessible again…

9:58 but what I didn’t expect was that on the literal

10:00 first day that I dropped the demo,

10:02 someone let me know that they had fiddled with the files,

10:05 unchecked that box, and opened up the rest of the game.

10:09 Oops.

10:10 So, from the next patch onwards I made sure

10:13 that the demo files only contained 25 perks and 1 round,

10:17 meaning that there was no way to restore the rest of the content.

10:20 Now this might sound like a big goof on my part, but it’s actually not uncommon.

10:26 I remember when the Shadow Complex demo

10:28 launched on Xbox Live Arcade and there was

10:31 a relatively simple way to bypass the end

10:33 of the demo and play through the whole game.

10:36 And also, remember when Sega accidentally uploaded

10:39 the full version of Yakuza 6 as a demo?

10:43 Oopsie.

10:43 So– whatever you put in the demo version of your game,

10:46 just assume that someone will figure out a way to access it.

10:50 And so make sure that the demo only contains the content… from the demo.

10:56 And finally, Tip Number 7 is to release your game shortly after

11:00 the release of the demo If someone plays your demo, gets excited,

11:05 and wishlists your game– you should ideally be able to deliver

11:09 them the full experience before they forget about it and lose interest.

11:14 So don’t wait a year for the actual game to come out.

11:17 And that’s why I’m pleased to announce that the full version

11:20 of Word Play will be out on Steam on July 14th,

11:25 2025– with 120 perks, loads of special rounds,

11:29 loads of modes, more music, more features, and more words.

11:34 Thanks for watching, please consider adding the game to your Steam wishlist.

11:38 And I’ll see you soon.