Providing a 'demo patch' when purchasing instead of key/full version?

[ManuelFLara]

As I'm just starting I don't want to spend a lot of money in Armadillo or something similar, and I find 'home made' keycode security either easy to crack or hard to develop. The second widely used option is just provide an additional full version download when purchasing.

The thing is, my demo uses the same resources as the full version, so I would not save bandwidth separating both versions, and I'd force the customer to download twice the same thing (8MB).

Would be a bad idea providing the customer with a smaller download (1MB) with a installer that just replaced the demo exe to be the full version one? The only problem I see is maybe people uninstall the demo before purchasing the full game or expects the full game setup to be used independently.

I think the best option is to let the user decide:
Mail sent by Plimus:
"
[...]
If you have the demo installed you only need this 1MB file: URL
Otherwise, you can download the full game in a single file: URL
[...]
"
what do you think?

[Mark Sheeky]

PMI test:

Plus:
-Small download for the full version.

Minus:
-Would the patch be harder to distribute than the full version? Probably easier. Sometimes bigger is better in terms of filesize.
-Might confuse idiot users.
-It would prevent the user from distributing the demo to friends.
-Version updates to the program might get confusing. Another patch? Different patches for full and demo?

Interesting:
-It's a new idea.

I'm having trouble of thinking of other plusses. 8Mb is quite small for the full version so on balance I can't see a reason for a patch.

Mark

[ManuelFLara]

8Mb is quite small for the full version so on balance I can't see a reason for a patch.
Yeah, it's probably not that much. Current average, I'd say.

[Ryan Clark]

Part of the reason you would want to go with a "full version download" as opposed to a registration code would be to discourage piracy, right? Keygens are small programs, and easy for pirates to distribute. If you make your "full version patch" small enough, wouldn't pirates be inclined to simply host it?

[mahlzeit]

-Might confuse idiot users.
I would replace that with: "Will confuse anyone who is not a programmer or power user." Which is probably 90% of your market. The tech support costs (and unhappy customers) aren't worth it.

My take on piracy: Don't worry about it. Don't concoct elaborate schemes. I did that for an application I published some time ago and it has caused me lots of hassle.

Keep it simple: either get Armadillo or something similar, or just use a simple unlock key. You can't beat the pirates anyway, so don't worry about them. Just worry about keeping the honest people honest -- a simple unlock key is sufficient for that.

[oNyx]

Another way would be a small programm which contains the full version exe, when its run it scanns for the demo... if the demo is found the directory is copied, the demo gets removed (optionally - for avoiding confusion) and the exe gets overwritten with the new one. If the demo isn't found the installer downloads the necessary data files.

However, it's unnecessarly complicated and therefore error prone. It needs a internet connection. It still could confuse quite alot of people. And (imo worst of all) it isn't self contained. If I buy a game I want to be able to make a backup. I want to be able to burn it and eventually play it again 5 years later when the company may or may not be gone.

Traffic wise it won't be a big saver since only a small percentage gets around actually buying the game. I think it's true that it would be nicer for the user if he/she is able to play the full game sooner, but does that really make such a big difference that it's worth it? [I certainly don't mind waiting some minutes and I pretty much dislike programs which connect to the net on their own.]