Make online-capable demo

[PhilD]

I've been spending a good amount of time with a window open to the lobby the last week (as I was on holidays), and didn't manage to play that many games - the lobby remains empty most of the time. Now, part of this is due to the fact that I keep European times, but still - we need a larger player base.

How about releasing a demo that's capable of limited online play? The demo is nice, but the AI isn't much of a challenge - I can see potential players thinking the price is a bit high for what they can see. A demo that let them play a few online games (say, limit it to 5 online games before it has to be reinstalled and a new login created, and only give access to the first two races) would give them a better taste of what the game really is like when played against a real opponent, and would make it easier for players to advertise the game to their friends.

[Psitticine]

That's a very good idea, IMO.

[Hiro_Antagonist]

It was originally our intention to do this, but we scaled back this feature once we realized how much work it was going to be.

We expect lobby populations to pick up slowly over time, and should really pick up once we start getting press coverage. (We've had no reviews yet...)

-Hiro_Antagonist

[PhilD]

The problem, IMHO, is that it's hard to really appreciate how good the game is by just trying the demo.

Back when Dominions 2 was released, the demo was a great way to hook in new players. You could play games for up to 40 turns, with 7 out of 15 nations, and could research magic for 4 levels out of 9. That meant whole PBEM games could be played as well as solo games - only, one could not experience the full thing.