Have a good game? Release a demo.

A couple lessons for anyone interested in becoming an indy developer or going to work for a small shop. If you create a game that you believe in, let other people get a taste of it. Demos are a recipe for success if your game is inherently good.

I am an avid fan of Steam, as many of you already know. Grid Defense: The Awakening was released on December 8 in Valve's store and was dismissed as a tower defense game with pretty graphics. On January 13, they released a demo. Gamerbytes picked it up, since Grid Defense is making it's way to XBLA. I decided to give it a try as well.

My verdict is that the game is going to be a great success for developer Hidden Path Entertainment. It's well polished and the gameplay is excellent. If you are a tower defense fan, you can't go wrong. My favorite feature? A fast forward button for the boring bits of downtime between waves or when finishing off stragglers.

My second example involves an iPhone app called iShoot. Besides having a terrible name, the Scorched Earth/Worms style game debut last October at $4.99 and had no traction in the app store. As described in TouchArcade, the developer, instead of giving up, released a demo version of the game and dropped the game to a more reasonable $2.99. The game has skyrocketed to the #1 chart position in both free and paid applications.

Let's face it, the developer is rich averaging over 10,000 sales a day at 3 dollars a pop. All he did was give people a reason to try out his game.

To summarize, a great game idea with a demo will drive sales. In the case of iShoot, it's a proven success. For Grid Defense, it remains to be seen, though I believe that people are at least talking about it.

I must stress though, the demo itself must be a true representation of the game. Gamers are not stupid, they aren't going to bite on any game where the demo seems set up.