Demo vs Full Game

During a recent check of the game on Steam, I noticed a negative review where the player refunded the game because their graphics card was not working.

This got me to thinking about the game and how to have people test their graphics cards before purchasing or without having to re-purchase the game.

A limited demo version might work for this scenario, one that has the same graphics engine used by the game but with very limited features. For example, a scenario that is station only for creative mode with a very limited set of small components. Ion engines only, no ability to land on a planet, only a single sector, limited set of asteroids that can auto-generate, and a very limited set of PCUs - say 20,000.

Or a second scenario that is planetary-based, again with a limited set of components. For example, atmospheric engines only, small components, no ability to break atmosphere, one world only (Verdure), very limited set of PCUs, etc.

This could allow people to check out the game, test the game with their graphics cards and computer setups to make sure they're compatible, and otherwise see if it is something that they might enjoy. Others with graphics card issues could be encouraged to occasionally test with updated versions of the demo to see if they're working and provide feedback with issues to the devs.

I realize that this is something that would take away from the current schedule, but this also might be the perfect time to consider what could be carved out to make a demo version, including how to have them share the same graphics engine. The Alpha version is working for both Creative and Survival, so having to split the build pipeline into two different versions might be easier to do now versus later down the road. Settings could be hard-coded so the Demo version cannot be modded, for example.

As new features are added, decisions could be made on whether to add them to the main game or the demo or both. For example, if mapping groups to ship controls is added back into the game at a future point, this could be added to the demo and the main game so people demo-ing the game could try out mapping ship controls to groups. The demo may only have 1 set of mappings - perhaps with only the first 5 keys - versus the full 9 keys and 9 tabs available in the main game.

Anyway, just wanted to pass this thought along.