Is using a unity player demo in a press release a bad idea?

Hey all,

So am releasing a game soon (called Ferro) and was considering showing it around for a limited time on the web player (for journalists to have a go with pre-launch). I feel giving them a go is the easiest way to get them hooked but I am aware that anyone can get hold of the press releases.

I am worried that once I take the game down, someone will have stolen it or it's assets somehow. Is this a serious problem? Will someone RE the game from the web player and pedal it before it even launches? Because this would be crippling to me.

Is getting it to the press more important than the risk of piracy?

Cheers,

Tom

 

You could always hardcode something into your game that would allow it to only to run on a specific URL / date / remote config file / etc.

 

Since there are assets and files of GTA V on the internet, I would say that you can't stop it anyway..

 

Thanks for the reply. So you think it would be ok to deliver the Web Player game using Dropbox and just kill the Dropbox link when I want it withdrawn from the public?

 

You can easily download the webplayer.

 

It's easy to rip any of the Unity players, I wouldn't worry about it. Once you release it people can share it anyway.

 

Think piracy as free ads, they will not buy anyway

I usually block the game if the game was build in more that 2 weeks. I simple write the date into a Conf prefab during the build.

 

Thanks Guys

 

No. You can't "withdraw" something from public. Once that link has gone live in public once you can't stop other people copying and redistributing it themselves.

Building in copy protection or stop dates or whatever will stop honest people, but if a cracker decides they want to crack it then worthwhile protection is difficult.

I think the more important question is "will giving dishonest people access to my game impact my sales?"

 

You are giving them a demo version right? I mean, demo as in it's only 1 or 2 levels or something; just enough to demonstrate it. I mean, that's it's purpose anyway, only for demonstration.

Even if it got pirated, it wouldn't be the whole game.

 

It's certainly not a terrible idea, but make sure not to just rely on the webplayer to sell the game to the journalists, make sure the screenshots and text you send them gets their interest first - they often won't have time to try out every game they are randomly sent links to. This is especially true about the bigger games journalists, and those are the ones you want writing about your game.

^This too. Give them enough for about 15-20mins of play. If they make it to the end of that then its actually a good thing - it means they enjoyed it enough to keep playing!

 

Thanks for the replies. I was going to give them a full version to be honest. It's an endless game, so giving them a demo or levels is not really viable. I guess that means that out there there will be a web-player version for people to play free. But will that impact the amount of downloads on the app store? I have no idea. But a ripped off discovered game is better then an undiscovered game right?

 

They're risks you have to assess for yourself.

You could still make a demo version, by the way. Cut features, put a time limit on it (long enough to be a challenge, but shorter than the average skilled play session maybe?), whatever - anything that lets you bust out a "But wait! There's MORE!" screen when the game's over.