Planning on launching your Steam demo? Here’s everything you should check before you hit that release button.

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Accompanying video: https://youtu.be/k9IixsdNP_g

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Game

• [ ] Demos are not playtests, the game doesn’t contain any breaking bugs
• [ ] Demo has a pause menu (pauses the game, access to settings)
• [ ] Bringing up the Steam overlay (Shift + Tab) pauses the game
• [ ] Demo shows the core gameplay loop in the first 3 minutes (don’t make the character wander around first)
• [ ] Demo has a clear ending + CTA
• [ ] Do not highjack the Quit button (don’t open a browser/Steam when the player quits the game)

Onboarding

• [ ] Demo starts with a main menu
• [ ] Demo main menu is animated/dynamic
• [ ] Demo has links to socials/support from the main menu (e.g. Discord, Steam Discussions)
• [ ] Demo does not contain opening cutscenes, cinematics or lore dumps
• [ ] Demo contains some level of tutorial so that the player knows what to do
• [ ] Controls are explicitly displayed, either through prompts or an input diagram
• [ ] Demo doesn’t soft-lock non QWERTY players (e.g. AZERTY/QWERTZ)

Game Feel

• [ ] SFX on button hover + button click
• [ ] Scale on button hover & squish on click