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hechelion189 days ago(+2)

What your client is telling you is NOT correct, in the "Set a different price for this file" mode, if he paid 10 for your game, he will always be able to download files that cost 10 or less.


This mode has its drawbacks. For example, you cannot do discount sales or bundles, because the files do not work normally, it is not enough to have "bought" your project, but it works based on Tier.

For example, if at Christmas you make a discount and you want to sell your game for 5 and someone pays you only 5, they will NOT be able to download the files that normally cost 10.

If tomorrow you decide to release an update with a different price, for example 12, you will have a big problem, because again, people who paid 10 can only download files that cost 10 or less and you cannot simply pay the difference (2), they would have to pay 12 again and surely this is your client's fear.

Unfortunately, many developers have used this method without understanding how it works and this has led to many customers being affected.

The official recommendation is that if you have 2 versions of your game, one free and one paid, you should create 2 pages, one free and one paid, that way you can make offers or change the price without affecting the people who have bought your game.

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redonihunter189 days ago
For example, if at Christmas you make a discount and you want to sell your game for 5 and someone pays you only 5, they will NOT be able to download the files that normally cost 10.

Is that confirmed? I always thought your payment would be divided by the discount to calculate your payment level. What sense is there else, for putting pay what you want games on sale?

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hechelion189 days ago(+2)

The official documentation doesn't say anything, so I can't confirm it. I seem to remember some posts where they talked about the problems with bundles and I seem to remember the same thing happening with sales.

It doesn't make any sense to me to put a free game on sale, but with so many developers, there are always people who will do what no one else expects.

In any case, remember that it is possible to put a preview per file on projects that are paid. For example, you sell the game for 10, but if someone pays 12, they could download the music or an art book, etc.

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redonihunter189 days ago(+1)

That is from the example. But this use case is not something I can imagine happening a lot. But my imagination is limited.

You would have to know before, what bonus items you would want. Sure, there are people buying the deluxe version of a game upfront. And you might use this as an incentive for people to overpay.

But the games I browsed practically never use it this way. And some even have several tiers of bonus content. They are the worst, but only because there is no way of increasing your level.

Itch should overhaul this system. At least with more clarifications at strategic places. While some do not like the term "dlc", this is what it does, this is what it is used for and this is what it should deliver. It does in some special cases, but fails in others.

Oh, and the reason why I assumed the tier is calculated with the discount is the message you can read when going to a purchased page. It remembers your paid price plus the discount. So the information would be there. So it would read for example like this: "Purchased for $4.99 1 year ago (50% off)". But it is just assumptions.

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Eldwood187 days ago(+1)

What?  No, you should only create one project, set the price to the price of the paid version, and click the "This file is a demo and can be downloaded for free" checkbox for the free version of the game.

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redonihunter187 days ago(+1)

If your game is playable from start to finish, it is not a demo version. If you want to convince people to pay for your free game by giving them extras or deluxe game play, this does not make your "public" version a demo version.

The pricing options can be utilized this way, but it is misleading and confusing.

And more interestingly for the publisher, the game will not appear in the free games section and it always has that nasty price tag displayed. Even if you offer your public version as a "demo". 

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hechelion187 days ago(+1)

What you are saying is technically a solution, which has the advantage of creating a single page, but has the major drawback that it is not good marketing.

When someone sees a paid game with a free demo, what they think is that they must pay to play the full game and that for free it will only be an incomplete version and normally much smaller than the final game.

A demo is like a free supermarket sample, just enough for you to feel the taste, but it will not fill you up in any way.

If you want to "eat" you must pay. That is what a paid game with a demo says .

In this other model, a free full game is usually offered, and you have a more advanced version that is paid. Normally, as development progresses, the most recent version becomes paid and the one that was previously paid becomes free.

The demo model does not fit well here and the price per file model is often used more, but the same administrator commented in a post that it is best to separate it into 2 pages.

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