When i initially launched FlowScape i had a few people asking if they would get a free steam key if they bought it here on itch. I naively answered yes not thinking much about it. Now that it is on steam i have reached out to valve and asked what is their policy on steam key distribution. Their reply is below.
"Charging Steam customers $5 more for the same game is unfair to Steam customers and you would be breaking our terms of service"
When i asked about getting a large amount of keys, i was referred a link to their Steam Key guidelines, which states that "under 500 key requests is reasonable, any more would require special approval." Which i doubt i would get as the closest guideline to my situation was giving keys to crowdfunding backers, but clearly this is not what itch users are.
So that leaves me in a bit of predicament as i don't want to raise the price on itch, because if i am on a storefront that charges me less, i want to pass that savings onto the consumer instead of pocketing the difference. I feel like the backlash against devs getting million of dollars from Epic for exclusive distribution rights on their store would play out differently if they priced their game cheaper to take in account the less cut they have to give to Epic. After all, if your local store told you that they found a way to provide their product to you for 20% cheaper but still charge you the same amount, you wouldn't exactly be shouting from the rooftops.
So here is what i'm going to do, from this post onward, i will no longer be offering steam keys with itch purchases so that i dont break any TOS with valve, but still can pass the savings from here onto you. If you bought it before this post, i will honor what i said and you can request a key by mailing me here with a proof of purchase.
Keep in mind that i have 8k itch users, so if all of you want a steam key, i may take a while getting to your email, and i will be getting keys from steam in small batches. If you really want to support development, and i know many of you do by the amount of extra you guys have paid, i would be very grateful if you buy it on steam, as every sale goes back into making this game even better.
The Itch version will continue to get updated and you can even add your itch games to steam if you prefer a single games launcher.
I have some awesome ideas in the pipeline and cant wait to see where FlowScape goes from here. A big thank you to everyone who supported the product from the beginning, and letting me work on something that has given me great pleasure.
You are all Awesome!
