Demo Plugins

I'm not sure if someone had already thought of this, but why not have the capability of demoing plugins. When you commit to a plug-in then you also commit to the limitations of that plugin, which I doubt you could write in a single product description and explain in a single video. I suggest a way to demo plug-ins so that we can see if this particular plugin works for our purposes.

You could then bar developers from building their project if they haven't paid for that particular plug-in. You could prompt them to pay for the total amount of all of your plug-ins before being able to build, like a sort of cart/checkout system. Or at least put a giant watermark in the middle of the screen if they have plugins they haven't paid for yet, but build their game anyway. That way we can test our games post-build or something.

The point is countless times have I run in to the problem of plug-ins having a specific limitation, in both Unreal Engine and Unity, that I was not aware of beforehand, and you're not always going to get a response when you need to know whether or not a particular limitation exists which is the most important factor in deciding whether or not to buy a plug-in. As of now it's a buy and hope for the best and a response from the developer kind of thing, which can be frustrating.

Edit: This goes for assets too.

 

Plugin demos are not that uncommon. For example, back in Unity 4 I tried out a network plugin called uLink which would post console messages about how I still needed to pay for it before releasing the game.

But the Unity Asset Store has become a popular place to get 3rd party plugins and other assets for Unity, and it specifically bans the practice. So you don't see the practice as often as you probably otherwise would. Only "Lite" versions are allowed, where you're allowed to offer a reduced feature set but otherwise offer a fully functional and usable plugin. Restrictions such as preventing your project from building are banned from the store entirely.

https://unity3d.com/asset-store/sell-assets/submission-guidelines

 

If you can't demo a product, the next best thing is to read the documentation. Most of the time it is available without buying the product and a good product will typically have highly detailed descriptions of what everything does.

Some examples:
https://opsive.com/support/documentation/behavior-designer/overview/
https://www.pixelcrushers.com/dialogue_system/manual2x/html/

By reading the manuals before-hand, I was able to tell exactly what I was buying with both of these.

 

Unity does allow demo versions of assets to be hosted on the publisher's website. The Dialogue System, Quest Machine, and Love/Hate all have evaluation versions available for download on https://pixelcrushers.com. They just can't be "sold" (even for free) on the Asset Store itself, although a link in the asset's description is allowed.

Art asset demos could probably be watermarked.

Code assets are more complicated. Many people will not buy code assets that don't include source code. After all, you'll need to maintain it if the publisher goes under, or customize it, or even just dig into the code to see how something's implemented. The eval versions of Pixel Crushers assets ship with precompiled DLLs (all features, but with a watermark) that use a wrapper system so it's seamless to switch to the full-source paid version while retaining all content and references. It's effortless for the customer, but it's more work for the publisher.

In lieu of that, reviewing the documentation as kdgalla recommends is a good approach, as is contacting the publisher directly. They'll usually be happy to answer any questions you have.