I've been updating the game for over ten years at this point, adding new content, features, etc. It just isn't viable to release it as one time purchase if I want to keep working on it over very long time periods.
Steam is a cool platform, and I could even release it as subscription on Steam -- but it'd have to cost more there due to the heavy 30% fee valve charges. I don't think people would realize it was cheaper direct from dev than via steam. Also, I'd have to put up with constant review bombing of people having unrealistic expectations -- for steam gamers value is very important, and so most people there have a conception that indie games should cost basically nothing / wait for massive sales. But that's not sustainable which is why you see so many abandoned early access projects on Steam. The majority of steam devs make extremely little, nowhere near enough to live off for what they sell their games for. Mass market games can do very well, but super niche stuff like this isn't going to perform well there. My options for Steam is that I could price the game unsustainably cheap and be out of business in six months, or price it at sustainable prices and not sell anything there and it be a waste of time with a 0% review score. So I like steam, but I view it as no way to succeed there.
I am certainly willing to add steam-inspired features such as achievements, etc though!
It may be nishe but as far as I know the demo was quite a great experience.
You could try to make a separate short game that is on a fixed price, see if it gains better than the subscription based option
Honestly I believe that the subscription based alternative feels very discouraging for a lot of folks, and perhaps the fact of having a permanent alternative would incentivise people to buy the game.
You could probably price the game at 30 to 40 dollars and keep the subscription option as it is.
Do you have an average of how long people stay subscribed? Might give you an idea of how much people pay for the game
It might as well give extra perks to the subscription alternative, let's say the non subscription could be two updates behind or something.
Maybe it can be a trick on the brain as well saying , you can subscribe for 10 dollars, Or get a permanent for 60 dollars
Most might just pick the subscription.
Still it's a shame that the free version won't be getting any upgrades, period
I had the idea of just very, very slowly release a bit of content to the demo, like idk once a year, but you're the Dev after all.
I'm personally discouraged from getting the subscription, so if you ever plan on releasing a non subscription version I would buy it.
It doesn't work though if I plan to continue developing the game over a period of years. I agree, everyone would just buy permanent, and then I'd be out of development funding in six months. I tried one time purchase when the game launched, and it was a disaster. Game almost died back then. I'm not making the same mistake again.
