But with shareware, the incentive is to pay to get the full version.
In the donation system, you give away the full game for free, and the donation is a form of thanks.
I think many people associate shareware with the popularized apogee model where indeed the games were broken up to episodes
the thing is that before that became a common method many shareware games simply asked you to register and had full functionality
(maybe had a message or a counter or some reminder that you are not registered: like in total commander or winrar )
I'm sorry I should have been more clear about this in my post 😔
what I'm confused about though is isn't pay what you want the same as the donation system then?
and isn't holding back features mean just that you have a free demo?
anyway I guess I just don't get it 🤔
It's a bit more complicated because itch.io works with a tier system.
If your game is free without any extras, then yes, pay what you want is exactly the same as a donation and I dare say that the vast majority of people use this form.
So don't feel bad, if a game is free and asks if you want to pay for something, it's actually a donation.
This system also allows you to have a paid game together with the free demo on the same web page.
If you don't pay anything, you can only download the demo.
I've seen a few games that do this, but not many.
It may also happen that the full game (not a demo) is free or costs a minimum price and on top of that price you can add extra content, for example additional animations, extra levels, etc.
This last example is more similar to the DLC model that stores like steam offer.
In summary, pay what you want, it is more powerful than just a donation system and for the same reason it can be more confusing.