Gilded Shadows Demo - discussion and questions

Hey everyone! 

I have been hard at work on the demo for Gilded Shadows and I've been contemplating SOME THINGS. I figured - who better to ask than all our lovely patrons?

So here we go!

Okay, so my initial plan was to release Chapters One and Two of the common route as the official Gilded Shadows demo. 

But I've kind of been having second thoughts about doing it this way. Instead, I'm weighing the possibility of releasing only Chapter One at first. My main reason for this is that Changeling had a really, really long demo. Unnecessarily long, actually. Especially after we released the extension. We had several LPers play the demo and they tended to take 2-3 hours to get through the whole thing.

I've seen games release MUCH shorter demos than that. With Changeling, I felt it was necessary to go that long to fully set up the story for players. But I'm not sure that is as-needed for GS.

In addition, releasing a short demo to start with gives us room to release a couple of expansions down the line, which is always useful for stirring up renewed interest in a project with a long development timeline.

For instance, if we release Chapter One in the next month or so (depending on BG completion), I can release Chapter Two right before (or during) our Kickstarter campaign, potentially helping to renew interest in the project in time for crowdfunding.

Then I can release a partial Chapter Three expansion a few months after the KS is complete to, again, create additional buzz for the project.

And that will still let me use a release of the entire common route as a Patreon goal for hitting the $350 (or maybe $400) mark here on Patreon. 

Essentially, releasing a shorter demo to start with allows me to release additional content bit by bit and continue to create buzz about the project beyond the initial release of the demo! 

Projects with updated content always tend to get more attention and engagement on social media so I feel this could be beneficial for marketing.

The problem is that, while the first chapter of GS is 13,000 words....a lot of that is bound up in branching. Which means it'll feel like a fairly short demo.  On the other hand a demo is really just to show people the potential of a project - you get to see the art, the LIs, the writing style, the game mechanics, etc.

And all of that is doable with a one chapter demo.

The important mechanic of GS is the customisable MC with the locked choices and branching due to personality choices. Those are both already set up and are shown off in Chapter One. So I don't think there is really much drawback of a shorter demo because a longer one is nice, but not totally necessary? Especially not if I'm already planning an expansion to be released just before launching a Kickstarter anyway.

My BIG concern with the demo is that some love interests are not introduced until much later into the story. 

Magnus and Caissa are not going to be introduced until either the end of Chapter Three, or beginning of Chapter Four (I'm not totally sure how the chapter divisions will end up). Lance doesn't actually get introduced unless you are literally on his route. 

This means that no matter how long a demo I release, the only LIs that the player will really get the opportunity to meet are Caleb, Ari, and Jack. (This is why all the profiles are available for the player to read before starting the game).

Chapter One - the player has the option to meet Caleb, Ari, or Jack.

Chapter Two - Ari and Caleb are reintroduced (or introduced for the first time, depending on who the player met in Chapter One./

Chapter Three - Jack is either reintroduced or is introduced for the first time, depending on who the player met in Chapter One.

Chapter....Three/Four?? Probably Four??? - Player potentially meets Magnus, Caissa, or Lance for the first time depending on prior choices. 

The fact that the story is laid out in this way makes me wonder if I should create demo-specific scenarios to introduce Magnus, Caissa, and Lance.

I could, potentially, write out some really brief meetings with Morgan and work them into Chapter Two somehow.  These would be non-canon, and would only appear in the demo. The game itself would follow the real timeline.

I don't know? I don't know if that's a good plan, bad plan...or whatever...

I'm torn on it.

Anyway, at this point, I'm really just rambling. I guess the points of discussion are:

-How do you feel about a shorter (one chapter) demo release with expansions that are released later on?

-How do you feel about a Patreon goal where the reward is the release (to patrons-only) is the full common route once we hit a certain monthly goal?

-How do you feel about not meeting all the LIs in the demo? Should I write in demo-only scenarios for Morgan to meet Magnus, Caissa, and Lance earlier in the story just for the sake of the player getting to see them in one of the demo expansions?

I think that's everything. I'd really love to hear feedback on this one - either here, or on Discord. So please do let us know what you think! Thank you!