Personally, I think you should charge for everything. I played Confusion as a free version (I think it finished around chapter 5 or 6) and then paid the $12(?) for the full version a month or so ago and played through it in its entirety; well worth the few dollars.
Consequently, have just paid for the pre-order. If people aren't prepared to pay a pitiful $3 to sample the game then they shouldn't get anything for free.
I want to be fair. You could go to Patreon or Subscribestar and make a $3 pledge and get the release on the same day. $20 patrons get it today, $9 patrons get it next week, and then $3 patrons as well as itch.io followers get it on the 1st.
And I probably wouldn’t have a free version at all, except that the paid version will show up on pirate sites almost immediately. If someone isn’t willing to pay for it, then no amount of goading or shaming will help. I felt that it’s best to just get out in front of the situation. 🫤
