BioWare - Demo Moments #1

Dhruin

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QA guy Bruce Venne writes for the BioBlog about the potential difficulties demoing their upcoming games at various events. This first part includes an anecdote, although I doubt it will end up in any "most embarrassing gaffes" lists. The intro:
Demonstrations or demos are an important tool for BioWare to let people know about the games we have in development. It is always a challenge to put a demo together. We have the challenge of creating a ten to fifteen minute slice of the game that showcases all the RPG elements that our fans expect in a great role-playing game, some exiting combat in order to make the demo interesting to watch but framed by the story. The demo has to tell a story since rich-story-telling is a hallmark of any BioWare games. Subsequently there is a lot of stuff in the soup that eventually becomes a game demo. Having all of those game elements colliding into one another can lead to chaos. Our demos tend to be very complicated. Things can go wrong.
More information.
 
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Personally, I prefer demos with content I can find later in the game, too.

I don't like levels, for example, that can be found ONLY in a demo and nowhere else, especially in strategy titles. The worst case is for me if these "special levels" are even hardcoded ... and cannot be imported into the later full game at all ... (Example: The Settlers 5 Demo.)

But maybe I'm just picky ...
 
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