Strongly agreed. Not having a demo to try a game before buying it is one of the top reasons people turn to piracy.

Hmmm... I just checked this in the store admin page and to be honest: I don't understand how adding a demo works in Steam. Whatever I try does not yield any results. It would be easiest if I just could link to the IndieDB pages but that does not seem to be the intention of Steam demos o_O

As a player I know that a demo shows up as an independent entry in players' Steam libraries, and has its own Steam auto-updates, probably achievements, etc. so a simple link to a website definitely won't do.

Demo would be nice. Adds potential customers and more importantly new players. I bet many people who check store page don't know about the free version of the game. Would love to see fan base grow a little bit.

Presumably we haven't had one until now because the older non-deluxe releases are still available for free? However, those will continue to become a worse representation of ADOM Deluxe over time as it develops onward, so I second the suggestion for a demo. I'm not sure exactly how well a demo would work for a game in which 50% of the play is the first few levels, especially for the inexperienced - I don't think it'd dissuade people from playing due to the high rate of death but it might be 'enough' ADOM for a lot of people - but to get more people interested it's probably a good idea. Perhaps it could be implemented with some of the race and class choices greyed out, for example, to ensure even new players want to experience the game entire.

If you decide to do a demo with some of the race/class combos grayed out, I would suggest you could limit it to the "suggested" starting race/class combos. So new players will probably have a reasonably tough early-game character to see the game, but also see that there are a lot of options they don't have.

If you want to keep it short, just having the area around Tenriyo (or even more, just having the tutorial cave) could work?

Edit: to clarify, I would suggest you include tutorial cave, Tenriyo, Hole-in-the-Wall, and their quest areas (VD, DD, PC) only. This provides the tutorial, shops, wilderness action, a choice of quests, and a challenge (puppy saving). Since the classic storyline has you finish the odd jobs around Tenriyo before being pointed towards CoC, this is a natural point for a demo to end.