Planning scenario. This post describes the launch plan and its target numbers — the events and figures below are projections, not completed results.
The EFER Steam demo went live Dec 8. Here is the first-week recap.
The headline
- 18,427 demo downloads
- 38% play-through rate (completed the 2-hour main content)
- 7.2 hours average playtime (including replays + side content)
- 78% positive Steam reviews (412 reviews out of 528)
- 2,180 new wishlists added
By geography
- USA — 32%
- China — 18% (unexpectedly strong)
- Germany — 9%
- UK — 7%
- Russia — 6%
- Other 38 countries — 28%
The Steam review sentiment
- “Best of” — 78% positive. Average review: “Beautiful. Genuinely beautiful. The lore is what sold me.”
- “Mixed” — 14%. Average review: “Solid demo, but the tutorial is too long.”
- “Negative” — 8%. Average review: “Performance issues on Linux.”
What worked
- The trailer — converted 4.2% of impressions to downloads (above Steam average of 2.8%).
- The Discord invite in the post-credits — 22% of demo players joined the Discord.
- The lore book integration — 9% of demo players bought the lore book within 7 days.
What I would change for Q1 2027 full release
- Cut the tutorial from 8 minutes to 4. Multiple reviews mentioned the tutorial pacing.
- Fix the Linux performance. 8% negative reviews is high. Need to ship the Linux build optimized.
- Add a save file system. Players quit mid-demo and could not resume. This is the #1 requested feature.
What this means for Q1 2027 full release
Total wishlists are now 6,170 (Dec 1: 4,827 + Dec 8-15: 2,180 – duplicates). Q1 2027 launch-week conversion at 20% = 1,234 units × $19.99 = $24,667 first-week Steam revenue. The demo-to-full-release conversion funnel is working.
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