You can totally disagree. I don't want this to feel unfair or slimy, but the whole point of making this game was to help me pay back my student debt. Making this game is a part-time job that I do after a full day of teaching, and I need to recoup the cost of the hours I've spent making it and the money I used to pay artists to help create it. How would you suggest I proceed? The plan was always to use Itch to test and then to sell on Steam.
Viewing post in 0.4.3 Demo Changes Sound FX comments
Remove any time gate, add what content was pledged before. If that's where you stop it would be saddening but expected and so be it
Many people have a delay between current updates and what is posted to Itch or previews, I talk with another creator who plans to do the same in short order. (Free version 1 month/1 update behind paid latest update, with the expectation that the gap will slowly grow over time - pay to support development, not pay to play)
I don't know how much you have paid them, I wouldn't have said to do a large amount
At the end of the day, you are not a triple A creator. Not yet, not even close.
Maybe you want it to become a real side job, but right now it's not.
Open a donations page if you want for people to electively support the project, *not* by restricting what they can do.
Even then, looking at Patreon again, the game needs to be cheaper then you're planning for it to be.
Community, building positive impression alongside your own talent. Numbers increase by the amount of people wanting to play, not by making the wall to entry higher- don't pull a Nintendo here
Don't expect it to pay back your debt, for now it probably wouldn't be paying back your hours or minimum wage equivalent. If you're doing it, do it because you want to, as a passion project, and I would genuinely hope your development projects blossom into plenty in time