You could try contacting Itch and see if there's something you can do or some setting they can change. I don't really know if something can be done just by changing some setting or not.
On the other hand, I would think that removing the demo from the page and moving it to it's own separate demo-only page might work.
I'll be honest and say I don't know for sure because I haven't seen a dev try it. And it is kind of dumb to have to put a demo on a separate page and link to it from the full game page. But I would be curious to know if that makes the full game permanently claimable or not.
I think it would work however, and I'll explain why in two ways. Basically, it appears that what specifically blocks something being permanently claimable is having no minimum price for downloading one or more files. If there are no free files on the page, you can claim the full game permanently during a free sale, in every case I can recall.
The more complicated way of explaining is that "claiming" something on Itch seems to work in tiers. You only get permanent access to the lowest price tier on the game page, when claiming during a free sale.
For example, if there's only one price tier (no free files) claiming gives the full game permanently.
If there's two price tiers (tier 1: free demo or other free files, tier 2: paid game). Then claiming gives temporary download access to tier 2, which only lasts as long as the sale.
If there's two paid tiers (tier 1: full/normal game, tier 2: higher price point to pay for extras or dlc, etc). Then claiming should give permanent ability to download tier 1. Claiming would probably also give temporary access to tier 2 for the duration of the sale too, but that's much more rare so I don't know for sure. I strongly suspect that's how it would work though.
So in short, it's the lowest price tier, and only the lowest price tier which becomes permanently downloadable when claimed. if the lowest tier on the game page is free, there's no permanent access to anything paid because that's a separate tier, which is above the lowest tier.
I hope that made things more clear.
Itch should REALLY have this in their documentation somewhere easy for devs to find. It's unintuitive because it's not like other stores, and most devs and most itch users have no idea that it works like that.
Thanks so much for taking the time to explain all of this, your message was incredibly helpful. Your explanation made everything clear.
To make sure that people can permanently keep the game when they claim it, I’ve removed the demo from the page for the entire duration of the free promo. The demo will be back once the promo is over.
Just to confirm: if the full game is the only file available during the promo, that should solve the problem and make it permanently claimable, right?
Thanks again, I really appreciate your help.
That unfortunately didn’t work as intended. I claimed the game just now, after you made the change. I was able to download from the game page, but my claim page has no files at all with the message “Nothing is available for download yet.”
I suppose removing the demo files didn’t remove the free tier, so that’s what I got, and it’s just empty. I don’t know if that can be removed separately, I wasn’t even aware of this issue until I read this thread.
Also, I’m not a huge fan of platformers, I may try the game later, but I’m a huge fan of passionate devs that love what they make and it’s obvious this is the case here and wanted to say that it shows, even from the game description :)
Thanks for letting me know, and thanks for the kind words!
I’ve just changed the way I’m offering the game during the promo:
I set the base price of the full game to €2.00 and hid the demo version completely.
So right now, every file on the page should be considered part of that €2.00 tier, which should finally fix the issue with empty claims.
Let me know if this work for you.
The full game does show up now for the claimed download button at the top of the game page.
I do suspect that if the demo is put back on the page after the sale ends, then the claimed download will revert to being the demo again (because of how Itch price tiers work). So that's something to keep an eye on just in case.
I'm bookmarking this page to show other devs when they don't understand how free claiming works on Itch. Should make it easier for people to understand in the future.
Thanks a lot for checking and confirming that the full game now shows up correctly.
And yes, good point, I’ll keep an eye on it when the sale ends.
Thanks for bookmarking the page and using it as an example. If it can help other devs understand how free claiming works, that’s awesome.
Really appreciate your help and the heads-up!
I came across something I wasn't expecting. A free sale that has a demo yet somehow claiming gives the full version.
It's on sale for about another day https://coperun.itch.io/pixiffy
I don't know if claiming works there because there's two sets of files (Windows and Mac full versions + demos for both OSes), or what the reason is. From what I've seen on Itch I'm surprised it works.
I'm mentioning it in case you wanted to ask the dev how he set up that page so that claiming gives the full version. Maybe something he did there is the key to not having to do silly stuff like removing the demo during a free sale.
Edit: Hmm. There's a separate download button for each demo on that page, other than the download button for the full versions.
I don't remember if there was a separate download button for the demo of Some Little Adventures or not before the demo was hidden. If there wasn't a separate download button for the SLA demo, maybe that has something to do with it.
Thanks a lot for checking this and for keeping me updated, I really appreciate the time you're putting into investigating this !
I’ll go take a look at that page myself and see how it’s set up.
I’ll definitely reach out to the dev and ask how they did it.
Thanks again for sharing this, it helps a ton !
I was already curious about how the free claiming worked. But seeing how you wanted SLA to be permanently claimable, and were willing to experiment to make sure it can be, was like the last straw. I want to get to the bottom of this now. And I don't mind spending some time working toward that.
It kind of feels like some weird archeology or something, poking around to figure out what works.
I just checked and as I suspected, now that the sale is over and the demo is back on the page, clicking the download button at the top of the page shows the demo instead of the full game.
I also found another free sale that when you claim it gives the full game even though there's a demo on the page: https://fuzzystudios.itch.io/undercroft-warriors
That game page has something in common with the other one which gave the full game when claiming (even though there was a demo). It also has a separate download button just for the demo.
I think that makes it conclusive. The price tiers I mentioned must be per download button. At least there's no other cause I can think of which would make sense.
So it would seem that the workaround to have a demo on the same page as the full game, and yet allow the full game to be permanently claimed for free, is to set it up so the demo itself has a separate download button just for the demo. Then there's only one "price tier" for the full game's download button, so claiming would give the full game forever because only the full game is tied to that button.
So basically, finding a way to have a second download button just for the demo should be a permanent fix. And I think it would work retroactively for anyone who claimed it during the free sale, as long as the demo is moved to a second download button, and the full game is kept as the first download button (because that's the button people used to claim it). I hope that last part made sense.
Hi!
Thank you so much for your support, your donation genuinely made my day !
I’m really sorry about this issue.
To make sure you can access the full game without any problem, here’s a download key:
https://madebyqwerty.itch.io/some-little-adventures/download/L2f7D3W5qEGiBmrqHTq...
When you’ve claimed it, could you please just reply to let me know?
Thanks again! Your support truly motivates me to keep creating.
