Hey DMs.

About 6 years ago I was DMing pretty regularly. I ran some "long" online campaigns up to 20 sessions, lots of oneshots online and even a semi continuous campaigns (because the people changed) in the community centre irl.

Then small humans happened, and now I'm 38, 3 kids, tired and looking to get back into it.

I created a lot of oneshots/single session quests and even my long campaigns were all homebrew, as I find it easier to remember and have a cohesive story.

I have bought the 2024 player and DM books, read bits online. And even put out a redditpost for players (which got a lot more interest than expected, but that is another problem to solve)

Enough rambling, the question is, what's changed? What are the things I should keep my eye on most? Anything I should focus on to "fix" my oneshots? I can see some of the changes in the boxes etc, but what feels the most, if that makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

Hello Reddit,

I used to DM games pretty regularly 3 years ago - but small humans started to steal my evenings. [38 years old with 3 kids so timing is to fit around that]

Thinking of getting back into it.

Looking to host either a short campaign or some oneshots as a tester. Would be evenings 2030 to 2330, not set on a day but would be weekdays. Online via discord, ideally with camera as I have found it makes conversations flow smoother.

I've hosted online campaigns (longest about 20 sessions), online oneshots, and in person campaigns at the community centre.

I have guessed I'd be 5E 2014, as I've not bought any new books since maybe 2021.

I normally run homebrew campaigns because I like creating the story and it helps me keep the lore in my head.

I normally have restrictions on character types and builds - again because I like to have a cohesive lore story in my head, and too many pieces makes that difficult.

I also aim to keep tables to about 4 players max if I can help it.

Anyway, drop a comment if you'd be interested. Any expirence welcome, with the caveat that I'd probably be teaching you an old system if new.

Steam Next Fest is only two weeks away. This is what I'd be looking for from the audience side, written for developers about to walk into fest week. Take it as one (old) reviewer's perspective.

1. Market before the fest, not on day one

First and foremost, I would be making sure that you're marketing. Now, obviously the meme of leaving marketing till the very last minute is pretty much a cliche at this point, but it's still worth mentioning that getting a good first or second day in Next Fest is key, so that you're across more pages and you make it into any articles or content that's released early. So get out there, start marketing, share loads of clips, share your content, reach out to people you know.

Recently I've been playing a few demos that I've not found directly via socials, but I've seen some of the content on socials, and when I'm browsing through the demos I'm more likely to pick up that game than others. I've had a couple where I've been influenced by the fact I've already seen some of that game's content come through.

2. Use the announcements and events feature for the demo going live

I would be making sure that you use the announcement and events feature for the demo going live, whether it's going live on your main game page or on its own demo page, so that you can show people that it's live and give a little bit of a spiel about what's happening in the demo for Next Fest and the idea of the demo.

3. The bar is playable, bugs OK, broken core not

Make sure it's playable, make sure the core loop's there. It doesn't have to be bug free, but at least have a core loop solid enough that people can play it.

4. Block out patch time during the fest, then announce the patch

Definitely block out some time for rolling out a quick fix, because you may start getting a lot of feedback that's almost game breaking and don't want to lose this chance. You should be ready to do the update to the demo there and then, so I would be very mindful to make sure you've blocked out some time for that.

I know personally I've had a couple of reviews where I'd finished playing, because I normally do most of my play on a game in one or two sessions, and I'd gone to look up the Steam page details for doing the review and saw in the announcements and events that they'd pushed a patch which specifically called out the bug I'd had issues with, which was key to influencing my review.

So definitely make sure you're ready to fix stuff on feedback if it's game breaking, and then make sure you tell everyone that you've fixed it. Make sure it's up on the announcement so people know it's been changed. Just in case they come in and see some old reviews that are from a previous build, make sure they can see that you've listened to feedback and you've changed that.

5. The page and the trailer have to grab in the first couple of seconds

As with a lot of the advice I've given previously, make sure that your page is looking good, make sure that your trailer is good. It's going to be really busy, so people probably have an even shorter attention span, so I would make sure your trailer's grabbing them in the first couple of seconds. I think people are going to be even quicker to scroll past things.

6. Early traction matters for Steam's discovery surfaces

The importance of an early first kind of pickup of people playing it means it gets you on the new and trending, which is going to be quite big, as well as into the suggestion for the different genres you're showing promise in, so you get thrown on those pages a lot more and get more visibility out of it.

7. Strip your Discord back, and use it as a funnel

Be active in the discussions on Steam, and make sure you've also got somewhere you're funnelling people to. Discord's quite a popular one, but I would strongly advise against having a Discord with a thousand channels. I've joined somewhere there's only me and like ten other people, and there's more channels than there are people.

I would give it really stripped back to just a few, maybe announcements, bug reporting, forum, and then just general chat, and just keep it low. Maybe even one for people to share their content, but then people could just do that in the general chat if you really want to. Just to keep it so you've got a way of engaging where people come through, going on to content.

8. Playable and enjoyable inside your genre is not enough

I'll be looking for ones that are interesting, so not only games I think I'll enjoy playing, but in some way have something that's more of a hook to them.

I think that's where we are with a lot of the genres at this point, that making a playable and enjoyable game within the genre is not enough to be interesting enough for people to take notice, you need something slightly unique, whether it's the art, or a slightly tweaked mechanic, or you've iterated on something to sort it out.

9. Treat content creators as a pipeline

Try not to obsessively search, but be searching for new content about your game so you can engage with it. Showing the engagement with it will mean a lot to the people creating the content, so they're likely to do more of it.

I would definitely recommend reaching out to anyone who streams it and seeing if you can get their footage, and if they would let you clip it into different sections for your own social content. Make sure to be clear that you would give credit to them as well, so you'd say the handle or the YouTube channel or wherever it is they want people to be funnelled to, and I think that'd be quite a good reciprocal relationship you can do with people, and then that's your content pipeline half filled for the next few months.

This is key if reactions to your game are a huge thing, especially if yours is multiplayer or one of these kind of new co-op games, because if they've got a stream with both sides of the conversation recorded in it, being really proactive in reaching out and chatting to them about using that for clips could really expand your content pipeline down the way.

If you see anyone doing articles or anything like that around it, just reach out, give them a few good pointers about it, why it's worth looking at, what's slightly unique, what's different about it. Don't just say "we're doing it different", literally highlight what is different about it and what is the interesting hook, why it should make it into some other different articles.

And then going back again on the content side, if you do find someone who's covering it and you like their coverage, maybe it's performed, maybe it hasn't, but you can see a use for it, I would definitely recommend reaching out to see if there's interest to cover it when the full game comes out, because then they've got far more context in what the game is because they've already had a go on the demo.

10. Plan for after the fest, not just during

Be ready after it to capitalise on any momentum you've got. Whether that's continuing to push out a new version of the demo with some new tweaks in it, continuing to charm your newfound community to keep coming back to see what's being changed, or whether it's actually having a release date to push people towards. I think that'll be key.

My own plan for this fest

It's going to be busy. I'll be looking through the lens of a player but also a content creator. My plan is that I like to get an article out for the first three demos I've tried, within about 24 to 48 hours of the fest going.

Make sure to understand the kind of time that does go into creating this content. If you've got your eye on some specific creators, give them enough notice so they can plan it out. I'm quite sporadic with mine, I just pick what I fancy and then deal with the admin afterwards, but I'm sure some people are more proactive with the way they schedule out what content they're going to cover for each fest. So try and get in there early so they know to play yours and they've got space in their timetable for you.

I hope you have a great Next Fest. I hope I find a few games. And I hope you find the audience you are looking for.

*Hopefully posting in the right place, let me know if not, still a bit of a boomer at Reddit :D *

I review Steam demos. Play, Maybe, or Skip. That's the whole system.

I started after looking at a couple of demos that had come to me asking for feedback. I noticed how many were getting pushed out every day, how wide the range of quality was, and how different the dev cycles were behind each one. I started reviewing them. Over 50 now, doing four or five a week.

Out of 51 reviews on the site, three are Skips. That ratio looks generous. It isn't. There's a lot of filtering happening before something makes it into the queue, and most of it happens in the first five seconds. This article is about that. And about everything that happens after.

It's written for developers. Take it as one reviewer's perspective.

1. Getting found on Steam

Some days there are 30 new demos released on Steam. I'm scrolling through them. I'm making decisions fast. I never even get to playing most of them.

The filter, in order: capsule art, the first five seconds of the preview video, tags, description. That's it. If any of those fail, I'm gone. So is most of your audience.

A few specific things I've noticed:

Capsule art that doesn't match the in-game art is immediately off-putting.

Oversaturated genres get skipped unless something is visually distinctive. Bullet heaven games. Generic 80s pixel art. I've played enough of them that I need a reason to pick up another one. If your game fits into a crowded genre, your capsule art and description have to work harder than everyone else's.

The preview video hook is the capsule art of motion. The first five seconds of your autoplay video is the decision point for people who got past the thumbnail. Start with movement, chaos, or something that needs explaining. Don't start with a logo, a menu, or a slow pan.

2. Social media found 20% of my demos.

About 80% of what I review I found by scrolling Steam directly. The other 20% came through social posts. Reddit, X, TikTok.

20% is not the majority. But it's meaningful. One well-timed post, one creator picking it up, one thread in the right place, and a game that would have stayed buried gets eyes. It costs almost nothing to be active on social heading into demo launch. It can meaningfully move your early traction numbers, and in the first few days on Steam, early traction affects which pages you appear on.

The caveat: build the social presence before you launch the demo, not the day of. If your first post about the demo is the one announcing it's live, you're starting from zero at the worst moment. People who already follow the project are the ones who'll move fast and push early numbers.

3. Announce the demo launch. Then announce every update.

Most Steam demo pages don't use the announcements and events section. This is a mistake.

Announce when the demo goes live on your main Steam page.

Then do the same for every patch. Every update. Most demos don't get updated at all, or they update silently. A lot of demos never become full games. Players know this. If your page looks quiet, the assumption is the project is dead. A visible update cadence, even small ones, signals that someone is still working on it.

If you get a viral post on social that you weren't planning for, you want the demo to still be up. You want the page to look alive. You never know when that moment happens. Keep it live.

4. Be ready to actually do something with the people who show up.

A demo is a public appearance. Once you've made one, you've opened a door. If there's nowhere for people to go after they walk through it, the opportunity is largely wasted.

If someone plays your demo and wants to follow the project, where do they go? Discord? Are you on it? X? Do you post there? Is there a community somewhere that's not just a default empty Steam forum?

If your game is still a year from launch, and you have no socials, no Discord, and no way to collect or respond to feedback, you may have launched the demo too early. Not in terms of the game's quality, but in terms of your readiness to work with the audience it brings in. A demo that builds a wishlist and then goes quiet loses most of that momentum before launch.

Be active in Steam discussions. Link to Discord. Pick one and show up in it. I've had reviews change mid-writing because a developer was clearly reading feedback and pushed a patch in response.

5. Participate in every festival you can qualify for. But prepare before, not on the day.

This is not new advice. But it's worth saying: Next Fest and similar events produce real traffic spikes, and an early spike in players can push you onto more discovery pages on Steam. The games that go into a festival with early momentum do better than the games that treat the festival as their first marketing moment.

Use socials in the weeks before to build an audience that's ready to move fast when the festival starts. An early spike from people you've already built a relationship with is more valuable than a slow trickle from cold discovery.

6. Don't ask players to do five things at the end of the demo.

This is a common one. The demo ends and there's a screen that says: wishlist the game, join our Discord, leave us a review, follow us on X, tell your friends.

That's too many asks. Players do not make five decisions at once. They make one, maybe two.

Pick the CTA that matters most to you right now and commit to it. If you need wishlists, make wishlisting easy and obvious and don't bury it in a list. If you need feedback, make that the single ask. The menu screen is also a good place for a low-friction wishlist nudge, not just the end screen.

7. How long the demo should be depends on how long it takes to feel the game.

I've given a Play to a demo that lasted 15 minutes and ended with "thanks for playing, please wishlist." I've also given a Play to a demo I spent over seven hours in before completing.

Both worked because they let me feel the game. That's the benchmark, not the length.

A short demo can work for games with a tight, clear loop that communicates what the experience is fast. A longer demo is usually necessary for games with layered systems, because you need time to get past the learning curve before you can actually appreciate what's there.

The risk with complex games and short demos is that you catch the player before they've clicked. They bounce before the game lands, and they never come back.

Don't worry about spoilers for games that aren't story-driven. If the game is meant to be replayed and mastered, there's nothing to spoil. For story games, an early chapter or prologue works well. The player gets the hook without losing the payoff.

8. Show players what makes the game interesting before they'd unlock it naturally.

A demo doesn't have the time for organic progression. If there's a move, ability, or mechanic in your game that you'd normally expect a player to unlock after a couple of hours, put it in the demo early. Let them try it.

You never know which specific mechanic is going to be the one that clicks for a new player. The thing that sells your game to one person might be something another player never discovers in a demo that follows normal progression order. Speedrun them through the good stuff. The demo's job is to sell the game, not to simulate the full game at normal pace.

9. Introduce mechanics one at a time.

The flip side of showing everything: don't introduce everything at once.

I'm not going to learn four systems from scratch for a demo. If the tutorial asks me to understand and synthesise multiple new things in the first ten minutes, I'll quit before I get to the part where it gets good. Not because I'm not interested. Because the time investment isn't proportional to what I've committed to yet.

The games that work best ease me in. One mechanic that feels good. Then one more. I'm already enjoying myself before I realise there's more depth coming. That's the right order.

If a reviewer who is actively looking for reasons to recommend the game gives up during the tutorial, someone who downloaded it on a whim will definitely quit before that point.

10. Multiplayer demos are hard. Have a plan or don't do them.

PvP demos are almost always a struggle from a review perspective. Empty lobbies don't tell me anything about whether I'd enjoy the game. Having to join a Discord server to find people to play with before I've decided if I like the game is too much friction.

The options that actually work for me: bots that demonstrate the real experience, scheduled play windows that are actively promoted beforehand, or enough players seeded at launch that matchmaking actually functions. A multiplayer demo where you open the game and sit in an empty lobby is worse than no demo at all, because it creates a first impression that's hard to undo.

11. Bugs are fine. A broken core loop is not.

Demos don't need to be finished. I know I'm playing something in development. Some of the games I've rated highly had obvious bugs.

What I can't get past is a bug that breaks the core experience. I gave a Skip to one game not because the concept was bad, but because a bug blocked the main mechanic and I couldn't get far enough into it to experience what the game actually was.

The bar is: can I actually play the thing?

12. Read feedback for the problem, not the proposed solution.

Players are good at identifying what isn't working. They're usually not good at knowing how to fix it.

When feedback arrives, strip out the emotional language first. Some of it will be phrased badly. Look for what the person is actually describing underneath it. What couldn't they do? What felt wrong? Where did they get stuck?

Take the problem. Don't take the solution they suggested. You're the developer. You know the game. They know their experience.

Respond to all positive reviews. For negative ones, only respond where you have something genuinely useful to say or a meaningful change to flag. You don't have to engage with every piece of feedback publicly.

13. Track what content creators made about your demo, not just your wishlist numbers.

Wishlist numbers are the obvious metric. But they're not the only signal.

Look at what content was created around the demo. Shorts, videos, written reviews. How many pieces? How did they perform compared to that creator's normal content? If a creator who normally averages 500 views put your game out and got 2,000, something about your game overperformed for their audience. That's a signal worth noting, even if the absolute number is small.

Engage with that content. A retweet costs nothing. A comment costs nothing. For an independent creator building a channel from scratch, developer acknowledgement does more for the relationship than most developers realise. The ones who notice get reviewed again at full launch.

Who I am

Feedback is only useful if you know who it's coming from.

I'm in the 35-40 bracket. From the UK. Three kids. I've been gaming since I was about 12. I don't have the time I used to, so I'm selective. On evenings where I don't want to think, I go to what I call my brain-rot games. Battlefield 6, League of Legends, WoW Hardcore. Games I already know how to play and can play on autopilot whilst watching my shows.

My audience looks almost identical to me. Across platforms, it runs almost entirely male, almost entirely in the 30-40 range from UK/EU/US. So the feedback you're reading here, and the feedback that comes from reviews and comments on my content, is filtered through that lens. If your game is built for a different demographic, some of this will apply less.

Take it as one data point. A useful one, hopefully, from someone who has played a lot of these and hopefully play a lot more.