Quoted from cooked71:I know this is an unrealistic idea that will probably ever happen, but what if designers released fully playable virtual versions of their game prior to production? Before you drop a few thousand $ on a pre-order you haven't played or seen, you can play the virtual version.
If the games is good, it would have to help pre-orders. If the game's a turd, well, its still a turd.
Obviously virtual is different than the real thing, but its better than looking at a couple of line drawings/photos/crap video of Gary Stern playing.
Now, can we have a copy of that "flappable flowtest version in digital form" you speak of???
Personally I'd be completely against that, not because Heighway Pinball are going to make poor games and have to hide the fact before release so they get loads of pre-order sales, but because Ive personally found that with for example Pinball Arcade on my iphone Ive played some pins to death and while its not quite 'The same' as the real thing it has certainly dulled my appetite for playing the real thing for some reason, and this includes titles I actually own/have owned!
I will add, just in the interests of transparency that I am one of the investors in Heighway Pinball and have been involved from the start (For my sins!), so selling a load of Aliens / FT etc is something that may benefit me personally (Eventually!).
And the poster kind of 'outed' a few comments up is actually the game designer of Full Throttle (And i believe future titles to be released) and is obviously kind of excited about the whole thing, so go easy please, there are no hidden agenda's here