Demo curse

The demo curse is a phenomenon within the MegaZeux community which is often cited as a cause of death for many potentially upcoming game releases. Community lore states that if a project has a demo released, then it is far more likely that the project will be cancelled later down the line. The effects seem to be cumulative, in that if multiple demos are released, or if a game is released in "episodic" form, then the game is practically guaranteed to be cancelled for one reason or another.

Some classic examples of the Demo curse include Weirdness, Honor Quest 2, Booshkies, and Zog the Hunter 2; a good counterexample is Bernard the Bard.