Let’s get the most important part out up front.

Do not just release a demo just for the sake of releasing one. I have spoken to a lot of indie game developers who want to release a demo on Steam (or anywhere else for that matter) but don’t have a reason to beyond the fact that they want people to see and play their game. Which is valid! A demo can accomplish a lot; it can help you grow your community, it can help you build buzz and momentum, and it can give you that dopamine hit of “Ah, people are playing my game! The game that I made! With my own little hands, presumably!”

But letting impatience or eagerness push a demo out the door without proper prep, planning, or goals can lead to unsatisfying results at best, or shooting yourself in the foot at worst. Your first public demo is a big deal. Like, a REALLY big deal. And it can come back to bite you in the ass if you a) don’t prepare for it, and b) don’t have clear, actionable goals around it. So let’s talk about the things you should keep in mind before you set that demo live, and ensure all that hard work pays off.

Your demo is one of the biggest marketing beats you can have. This is the first time your game is publicly playable. That’s huge! You owe it to yourself and your game to have a plan beyond “push the big green launch button and make a tweet” to ensure it’s as visible as possible, and as big a deal as possible, to drive engagement and wishlists. Here are some (free!) things you can do to make that happen.

• Record and cut a short, clean gameplay video showcasing some of the most polished, engaging bits to put on your store page.
• Reach out to relevant outlets like Alpha Beta Gamer and other indie-friendly sites to ask them to share the news.
• Refresh your store page’s screenshots with ones that show off new material and a variety of content – and ensure your existing materials are up to date!
• Compile a list of appropriate, relevant, and active streamers, press, and YouTubers to send a key to.
• Have a dev log post for your store page ready to go to announce the release and talk a bit about the game’s development and what the future looks like.
• Make sure there’s a way for people who play your demo to remember your game. Push to your game’s wishlists, your mailing list, your website and/or socials. Do not let someone forget about your game after playing it.

Make sure your demo is ready for prime time. And I mean REALLY ready. It can be tempting to rush getting a demo done and out for a lot of the reasons I’ve cited above. However, before you do, ask yourself the following:

• Is this build a good representation of my game’s overall quality and experience?
• Do I have to put in a bunch of caveats about janky behavior or placeholder assets?
• Is this build going to fold like a deck of cards when someone who is not me plays?
• Does this showcase the game’s core concepts and mechanics in a good light?

If you’re at all unsure or hesitant of any of the above, it might be wiser to hold off and spend some more time on polish and development. Nobody expects a demo to be 100% representative of final quality, but too many bugs and rough edges gives a bad impression and can turn people away.

And consider; if you want to pursue a publisher for your game at some point, or apply for a spot in a game showcase or event, and they look up your game and see a lukewarm (or worse) reception to a publicly playable demo, you may be hurting your chances for future opportunities and success.

Playtest your build. More than that. Even more than that. Look, YOU know how to play your game. You know exactly where to go, what to push (and what not to push), how to accomplish things, and so on. Maybe other developers do as well. But I promise you, your average faceless player (or their hardware) will do things to your build you would never conceive of.

You can’t account for everything on your own obviously, but make sure someone (ideally several someones) who aren’t you play your build for you. See if they get stuck. See if the difficulty is too high. See if they encounter weird bugs or crashes. See how it performs on controller vs keyboard, and if one of those doesn’t work, clearly call it out. Set aside more than an afternoon to ensure your demo reflects your time and efforts in the best way possible, and doesn’t implode when a player does something you didn’t expect. You’ll catch some of the biggest things, and make a better impression by having a more stable experience.

Manage expectations, and provide hand rails. One of the most important things to do with your demo is to ensure people who get their hands on it both understand that it is a demo (specifically, a work in progress), and have clear pathways for the actions you want them to take away from your demo, be it reporting bugs or wishlisting your game. You can’t control how someone experiences your demo, but you can get ahead of it by considering the following additions:

• A “This build is a work in progress and not representative of final quality or experience” screen before the game starts with a click to confirm acknowledgement.
• A discrete but visible “(Game Name) Demo Build” with version number tag somewhere along the bottom of the screen.
• A “thanks for playing” screen that makes it clear when the demo is over and returns the player to the main menu.
• A call to action (“wishlist my game on Steam”, “join our discord”, etc) prompt somewhere on the main menu screen.
• A way for players to report bugs in an organized fashion, whether it be through a Google Form or a specific place like a Steam forum or your Discord.

Have a clear, measurable goal for your demo. If you want to release a demo to gain Steam wishlists, grow your Discord community, get game feedback, whatever – set that as your target and put a plan in place to achieve it. Why? So you know where to focus your efforts and preparation.

• If you want feedback, spend some time putting together a Google form with specific questions targeting areas you’re most looking for input on.
• If you want to grow your community, have a Discord ready to go to point people towards, and sweep comments and posts to reply/engage with them.
• If you want to gain Steam wishlists, put a clear call to action for people who play your demo to do so, WITHIN the demo itself, and make regular posts on socials AND your store page reminding people to do so.

These aren’t the only steps you can take to accomplish each item, but the point is to have actions beyond “setting the demo live” and “praying really hard” planned that you will follow through with on a scheduled basis, and then review your numbers after (Steam wishlists, Discord members, subscribers, whatever) to have an idea of what worked and how much.

Look, I didn’t write all this to try to scare you away from publishing a demo. Game demos are wonderful things, and milestones worth celebrating in a game development cycle. They’re huge achievements! But they’re also a lot of work that deserves to be presented in the best light possible to reflect that work and have a good chance of success. Before you push that big green button and release your demo out into the world, spend time making sure you’re really ready, and your efforts will be rewarded.

And hey, if you want a personal consult from someone who has launched a lot of Steam demos for a lot of indie games over the years, feel free to reach out!