There are two kinds of 100% off promotions developers can run on itch.io:
- Claimable – You can link the project to your account for free, you get an access key and permanently own it. You get all future updates as if you had bought it. You must click the “Claim” button on the project page (or sale page) to do this, adding it to a collection will not give you ownership!
- Download only – The project can be downloaded for free while the promotion is active. You only can access what’s currently there, you can no re-download or get an updates after the promotion is over. There’s a special trick with this kind of promotion: if you pay any amount during the promotion then you get a key as if you were an owner. So if you want to keep access after the promotion, give the developer some money! Since it’s 100% off, it’s “Pay what you want” at that point.
We give these two options to developers so they have the most control over how they offer their work for free. It’s their choice on how to set up the promotion, site admins can no go back and change things or grant you access to a page that was previously on sale.
Hope that explains, sorry for the confusion.
I added them to my library for free, as advertised
Could you tell me more about “as advertised” means? Were you instructed to add it to a collection somewhere on the site?