I've been thankful for people who played my game and have felt bad whenever someone had their enjoyment ruined by a crash or error. I was wondering about monetisation, did a poll on twitter, and followed what people voted for. Sort of. People actually voted mostly for there to be no free version at all, but I couldn't do that.
Even the price is not based on my subjective evaluation of the game, but merely the average payment received so far.
I knew monetisation would be a divisive thing - that's actually why I did it now instead of at launch. If there was a button I could press that gave free access to everyone playing before v07, I'd do so.
False blindness, well, who knows. That's not what this is about. I know my game isn't perfect. It's a small little project that's spun a bit out of control. I'm happy some people like it, but let's say, its design appeals to 2-3% of people. People have tried to spread it around the web, not just you, and most feedback comes back negative. Such as not liking pixel art. Will I then change the game so it doesn't have pixel art? No, the game has pixel art, that's part of what it is.
I'm not trying to spread the game personally. I want the sort of people who might enjoy the game find it by their own whims. If they've played three maps through with the three factions, they might consider going for the premium version. That's the idea. I really really don't want to force this game down people's throats.
People feeling they've been forced to try a bad game? Ugh, that's a terrible thing. There's a lot of better games than mine around. All I want is to have a playable strategy-rpg with pixel-art, real time battles and a procedurally generated world. Not the best strategy game. Just this small little niche thing.
I don't need money. Mail me and I'll give you a key. Goes for anyone else too, tell me why you want a key, I'll figure something out. Profit goes to the artist, my composer and perhaps a license to export my games to different operating systems, though I doubt it'll make close to enough for that.
HootHootOwn, you've come with a lot of feedback and suggestions, and I'm thankful for that, but I'm getting the feeling you're burning yourself out. If this game brings you more negative emotions than positive... Well, I won't tell you what to do. Just take care of yourself, because I care for your mood.