Thank you for the kind words. Personally I wouldn’t do that, seems to risk. Please make sure you have enough funds to survive for as long as possible. I grew up poor and it sucks. I hate that kind of instability. Good luck with your studio! :)
The demo is like a prologue level. Definitely play it. It will not spoil anything, it adds to the experience as you learn some stuff about The Dev (within the game world)
Congrats on that! To just get a game demo to Next Fest is huge! I don’t know how to not feel like salesman, but just try to be sincere and share your success with players. Despite all the rage-bait and negativity on the internet, people genualny like positive stories. That’s what I try to do at least :)