Post by Ovion in To the Palestine Aid Bundle Supporters! comments

To the Palestine Aid Bundle Supporters! » Comments

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The reason I think people have a problem, is you've presented this as a full game, that is being purchased as part of a charity bundle.

The title and the blurb says:

The Hayseed Knight
A fully voice-acted VN about a buck failing to become a knight!

As presented in the bundle, you're gettting the game. A full game. Then you click to download, and it's just the demo.

Then you go to the game page and says "Oh yeah, it's just the demo, go here to buy the actual game. It's fine, this demo was free anyway!"

I'm just not going to bother playing it, but I figured being you don't seem to understand why people would be irritated at the false advertising, I figured I'd leave the comment explaining that.

Now, if it said "The Hayseed Knight Demo" I doubt there'd be any problem.

MaxiMJdev3 years ago(+3)(-2)

Hey Ovion! Thank you for taking the time to kindly explain your thoughts in detail.

As I've pointed out in another comment, this is where The Hayseed Knight started, was exclusive to for 3 years as I worked on every version, and was meant to always be offered in its entirety as a free game. That was the plan until my health started deteriorating fast last year, and I could no longer afford to keep making a free game due to both the economical costs of paying a full team of voice actors and the physical cost of developing the game.

I decided then to make a switch to steam in order to make sure the game could cost its own development so that I could continue making it in the future.

I'm currently not handling versions across two marketplaces because I'm a one person team working full time in other projects just to be able to afford my medical expenses. This IS meant to continue being its main page eventually as the description reads in the very first line of the disclaimer, however:

Just to reiterate, the itch version is a demo! The full game won't be available here for a while

In the meantime, people get over 2 hours of free, high quality content, much like any other free content out there in the Palestine Aid bundle, which I joined simply to support the cause started by devs I trusted, before it blew up and the gesture ended massively out of context.

This devlog was meant to address something different, however: even if this all wasn't the case, people have access to several thousands of games, assets and handbooks for 5$, in support of an urgent humanitarian cause. They're getting a good quality product they don't *have* to go through, same as you chose not to. I don't understand how anyone can zoom in on one project that failed to offer enough in their eyes and claim they're being swindled, somehow, instead of simply moving on.

Hope that cleared that, and that you have a wonderful day

twisteminds3 years ago (1 edit) (+3)(-2)

You did nothing for the charity though. Your addition to the bundle is just free advertising for you as you didn't actually put up anything of value into it. You're backpacking on a charity for the advertising.

Now that you pointed it out, there is a lot of free stuff in it. Thanks for making filtering all the stuff in the BLM and palestine bundles easier

MaxiMJdev3 years ago(+2)(-2)

It sounds like you feel very strongly about both of these causes - we're very much on the same side, there. I can understand the frustration that could come seeing free games in a charity drive, especially one so important, and thinking they add nothing of value. What makes you think that I haven't done anything for the charity, however?

I decided to add my work early on, when the call for games was first released long before it became the huge success it ended up being, because I wanted to increase the amount of voices in the cause and make a statement: I, and anything I create on my own consequently, stand behind Palestine's freedom.

To that end, I made sure to see if demos were allowed in as it's all I have to offer on itch - all I had to offer since 2017 until last December, when I had to make the full game paid in order to afford my own medical bills.

It's been part of the bundle since, even though there's been nothing to gain from keeping it in up other than the constant stream of people who would assume it was done in bad faith. Do you think it would have made any difference to my online presence if I had asked the itch.io staff to remove it after that, other than make my life easier?

I've been on top of developments these last two years, doing everything in my hand to uplift Black Lives Matters and the Palestinian cause. I have bought these bundles as well hoping to be a grain of sand in a mountain and make some change, like everyone else. That's why I added years of my own work to the bundle, to stand strong by my resolution on this matter.

I want your honest, opinion - how would any of us removing our contributions, free or otherwise, improve the bundle for you?

twisteminds3 years ago(+2)(-2)

It wouldn't do anything to the bundle. It's a matter of ethics on the part of developers. Your addition added nothing and cost you nothing. All you're getting is free advertising

MaxiMJdev3 years ago

How am I supposed to achieve that? I don't have any PR team or Community Manager beyond myself as I'm making this game on my own. Replying to every single accusation of bad faith over these last few months takes hours of my own time that I could have spent in developing the game further - in which way is agreeing with the people who insist I did this with bad intent showing ethics on my part?

twisteminds3 years ago (2 edits) (+2)(-2)

Intent really doesn't matter here. What matters is you, and everyone else who did it, profited off of a charity.It's more the site fault really for allowing it in the first place, but that doesn't absolve you, or others, of taking advantage of a charity. That's enough reason for me to ignore any free content in these bundles.

Sorry I was more aggressive than necessary. There are more at fault than just you and I shouldn't have jumped on the first person I saw. Your post at the top of your page caught my attention and was the only reason I found out about this.

MaxiMJdev3 years ago

Thank you for your patience in talking to me, regardless. I still don't really know how to move forward with any of this, but I'm thankful that you helped me gain some insight into how this comes across months after it happened. I'll be seeking advice from game industry seniors on what their thoughts are on how to proceed.

I hope that you have a wonderful day and a wonderful rest of your week

twisteminds3 years ago(+1)(-1)

I think a donation outside of buying the bundle would be nice, but I'm not necessarily the best person to ask about it. I'm just one person and I'm sure you got more than one other interested in your game. I know advertising can be very difficult.

Most charities get into quite a bit of trouble if they just let people do that without some sort of mandatory minimum donation and I found nothing about it on the submission rules. I should have contacted the website with my grievances and not jumped so quickly on someone. It was entirely unfair of me and I really do apologize(am canadian).

I hope you do too.

I_want_to_play_games_too3 years ago(+2)(-5)

That may be true but is no reason to get upset. It's over 1000 games for $5 so to complain about how the dev didn't properly label it as a demo is very entitled, I'm sorry.

Werce3 years ago(+1)(-1)

I saw some kind of comic pack on one of the support bundles once that seemed more like free advertising than a donation.