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New to game dev and itch.io, few questions

A topic by james5272 created 11 days ago Views: 221 Replies: 8

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1. Someone paid me $10 for the game I have up. My cut to itch.io is set to 10% (I believe this is the default). However it says my payout will be $6.40 of the same currency. Can someone explain the cuts to me so I understand how it arrives at the final payout amount?

2. I am debating releasing a game in early access, and increasing the price as more content is added, but letting people know that I will finish it when I decide it is done. So to always expect the game to only have whatever they got when they paid for it, obviously getting new stuff for free if they paid for a previous version, and maybe not getting all the features they hoped for in the end. If I end early access "early", is there anything negative, aside from upset players (ie. legal repercussions?)

3. How many free keys can I generate before I have to pay for more? I know on bandcamp I am limited to generating 200 free keys then I have to buy more keys to give away.

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hechelion11 days ago (2 edits)

1.- It's more complex. If you search in the forum, there are several posts where it is explained in detail and with examples, but basically you must deduct the transaction fee from the payment operator, the Itch percentage, the tax withholding (if applicable) plus refunds or other expenses if applicable.

The value shown is only an estimate, the real value to be received along with the full details of each transaction is calculated when you request your payment.

2.-As long as you don't commit to anything, you shouldn't have any problems.

Be clear with your buyers, look for some examples of disclaimers from other games that can help you.

Usually players understand that buying a game in early access has its risks, but it's best to make that clear in writing, so that no one can claim that you cheated them and you shouldn't have any problems.

3.- Itch does not charge for generating keys, no matter the amount.

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Evolutionary Games10 days ago

Keep in mind Itch.io does not have a ready market of players willing to snap up every game.

With your early-access scheme, unless you have a strong network or following elsewhere that you can bring over to itch.io - you're unlikely to sell much (if anything at all). This is a reality for many of us developers. Our games just get lost in the ocean of games. Having a partially made game might make it even more difficult for you to get players' attentions (or money).

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redonihunter10 days ago

I am debating releasing a game in early access, and increasing the price as more content is added, but letting people know that I will finish it when I decide it is done. So to always expect the game to only have whatever they got when they paid for it

The bold text in those sentences reads like a contradiction. I do not understand what you are trying to say.

obviously getting new stuff for free if they paid for a previous version, and maybe not getting all the features they hoped for in the end

If you charge for an unfinished game and expect people to pay again for new content, that is not early access.

Early access is paying for a full game and literally getting access to the game files while the game is not finished. It is selling the game for full retail price before it is done. The "early access" is just a nice way of saying that there be bugs and unfinished/missing content.

And a dev on Itch would be wise to not ask for full retail price, but give early supporters a discount for trusting the dev to finish the project.

If I end early access "early", is there anything negative, aside from upset players

There is no such thing as ending "early access" early. You either cancel the project or you finish it. Early access just describes the state of the project. And that is beta, or alpha and often pre-alpha. Or "in development" as it is called on Itch.

If you promise "early access" and do not deliver, for example by uploading "new" content as a separate project, your customers would probably be eglible for a refund and might not be inclined to buy your "new" project. The thing is, it is not "new" content. It is content that was supposed to be in the game in the first place - because it was not finished.

Someone paid me $10 for the game I have up. My cut to itch.io is set to 10% (I believe this is the default). However it says my payout will be $6.40

Taxes. If you sell something you have to pay taxes. And Itch does the exact calculation at the point of payout. Be sure to do your tax interview before you try to request a payout.

And as advice, do not use a minimum price without a demo. No one knows you. Why should they try out your game if they have to pay up front. There is no general refund policy like on Steam within 2 hours of playtime, no questions asked.

Also do not make a one liner devlog/update every few hours. Your game has 12 devlogs and is 6 days old...

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james527210 days ago (3 edits)

The way I would do early access is the way I've seen it with some games I've bought EA with on Steam. Where say you pay $5 and that gets you content x. Then content y comes out but since you already paid $5 you get content y for free. But price for newcomers goes up cuz there's more content (so ie. $7 instead of $5). Though some games (like V Rising) added more content during EA that wasn't included with your base EA price and was extra paid DLC.

I have multiple devlogs already cuz I decided to do a lot more with the game after I released the Prologue. Not gameplay wise but features wise. And would release something to fix an issue asap or add something, then get a report or notice something later and want to fix/add that asap. I mean I could wait 3 days to release larger notes and fixes, but that potentially leaves something broken for 3 days instead of getting it fixed right away. As an example, I added a reflect mechanic to my game, did my testing (it's just me working on the game) and it seemed fine. So released it. Then someone else played it and found reflect in a scenario caused a crash. Do I leave that broken for 3 days just to not have a devlog update so soon even though I have a fix, or release the fix asap so the game is playable?

And thanks for the responses.

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redonihunter10 days ago

The way I would do early access is the way I've seen it with some games I've bought EA with on Steam. Where say you pay $5 and that gets you content x. Then content y comes out but since you already paid $5 you get content y for free. But price for newcomers goes up cuz there's more content (so ie. $7 instead of $5). Though some games (like V Rising) added more content during EA that wasn't included with your base EA price and was extra paid DLC.

But you do not pay for content. You pay for a game. An unfinished game. If you imply game will have content x and y and release y only as a dlc, that is a move that regularly gets backlash and disgruntles players.

Increasing price during development and approxiamting release price is just another way of giving discount. And often the developer/publisher is not sure how much to ask for a game.

I have multiple devlogs already cuz I decided to do a lot more with the game after I released the Prologue. Not gameplay wise but features wise.

Releasing a hotfix to a broken game is one thing. But did you read your last devlog? "- Added a couple lines to credits". 12 devlogs in 6 days is a bit much. Those appear in https://itch.io/devlogs and if you keep up that frequency, you might lose privilege to post such things or get delisted. It can be seen as spamming and trying to game the system is something Itch does not like. I do not know if they ever delisted someone for such a thing, but I also have never seen a game with multiple devlogs a day.

I suggest you look at similar popular games like your's and look at their devlogs. How often and what they log about. It will be the frequency and type of update your target audience will expect.

Oh, and if you know more about what your game will be, maybe flesh out the tags. You can have 11 tags in total. Also look for those on similar games like your's for the same reason: your target audience will look for such games under these tags.

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james527210 days ago

k thanks for the info about devlogs, didn't know it spammed a main channel thought it was just my page. Guess I can do updates frequently but a devlog detailing all updates maybe once a week?

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redonihunter10 days ago

Do whatever you think is appropriate. But maybe have a look around how other people do these things to get a feeling for it. If you update your files every day that is not really a good idea. Theoretically you would test your build before each update to have something relatively stable to release. And not updating each and every change. Do you download every time a game you follow updates? What would you think or do, when the dev would to that every day?

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james527210 days ago (1 edit)

I'd just think they were active. I don't like when devs hold off on updates for a while seemingly only to have the gratification of bigger patch note releases. During launch windows Blizzard will update their games quite frequently, usually daily, sometimes more (ie. push a major fix then do a smaller fix later). If people are using the itch.io app all they have to do to update is click "Update", and it isn't like my updates area multiple gb.

Also to be clear, my game is about half an hour right now, so I didn't mind deciding to add features after the fact. If I do manage to do a full game, at this point it's going to be more maps and balancing, not adding features, so from my perspective less to playtest. But now that stuff is pretty much set for the base (at least I feel that way now) and I'm aware that not all changes apply to existing saves, I'm not going to do the full release until I can tell from my own playtesting and whoever else might want to playtest in their free time feels the game is solid. But even then I might have to do a week of rapid fixes as things pop up, just to get them sorted quickly. If that bothers people they can do what I do with some games, let other people play the first week or two when things are rougher and check the game out when it looks like updates have calmed down.

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