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.
Thank you very much for the info!
I looked around a bit and I think I finally found it! It was obviously something very simple: my game was set to “free with a paid file,” and by switching it to “paid with a free file,” the section dedicated to a demo appeared.
I'm still a bit disappointed that I can't leave it as free, because my vision was closer to having a demo version offering all the features of the full game, but with a paid DLC-like option for the two additional levels. I know this will probably have an impact on the stats. But well, the important thing for now is that people who already claimed it can download it properly.
After the end of the promo, I asked one of my friends who had downloaded the game during that promo to check whether he could still re-download it, and it seemed like he could.
But you're telling me that this is not the case for you? That you claimed the game during the promo, and now that it has ended, if you uninstall the game and try to reinstall it, you no longer have access to the full version?
Could you confirm that you claimed it for free during the promo and that you can now download the full version without any issue? I just switched to the "paid with free file" mode.
That fixed it. Hitting download on the top of the page (the download button that shows up after claiming) now lets me download the full version.
I also double checked in the itch client (which I hadn't tested before) and it lets me download the full version there too.
Now I'll know exactly what to tell devs in the future if they mistakenly think they're giving away a game permanently. And they won't have to try multiple things to see what works like you did.
Edit: had you asked your friend if they could still download the full version before or after you added the demo back to the page? If it was before you had added the demo back then that would be why they could still get the full version.
But if they checked after the demo had been re-added, then I have no idea why they would have been able to still download the full version. Afaik if would have been re-adding the demo that made it only let the demo be downloaded again, not the sale ending by itself.
But like I said it's fixed now with that "paid with a free file" setting that you changed.
Thank you again for all your help ! You really went above and beyond to help me figure this out, and I genuinely appreciate the time and effort you put into testing everything!
My friend had actually tested after I had re-added the demo, but that’s fine, it’s definitely better to have everything set up cleanly anyway.
To make things as clear as possiblef for anyone who might run into the same issue, the key is simply to mark the game as paid (check the “this is a paid game” box). Once that’s done, a new checkbox appears in the uploaded files section where you can mark one of the files as a free demo. That’s what fully solves the problem.
Thanks again for your patience and all the help, seriously appreciated!
