Bug your parents! :D
In all honesty, it's a-okay to be careful with your finances, no matter how old you are. Here are three things you can do to help out developers in other ways:
- Follow the dev! Whether here or on social media, keep track of what that developer is up to and get hype to play their next game. In our case, our Twitter and Instagram are the go-to pages. Facebook and Youtube also. Our LinkedIn and AngelList pages are a bit more dry but EXTREMELY important when it comes to our future success and fundraising efforts.
- Sign up for their newsletters! A lot of developers have email newsletters, and in our case we sometimes do giveaways, and anyone signed up gets 20% off our stuff at events. http://eepurl.com/6T0PL
- Leave a review! Whether on itch, Steam, GOG, IndieGameStand, or anywhere, let the world know what you think of a game. Let the world know it rocks. Heck, let 'em know if it's buggy. The more reviews a game has, the more customers who find it will know whether or not it's worth playing. If you like a game especially, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LEAVE A REVIEW! Truthfully boosting a game's aggregate score not only helps future customers feel confident about purchasing it, but offsets any troll reviews that may come in as well (and they do happen). Until reviews are weighted by helpfulness, every single one counts equally, and we need your voice to be heard in order for us to be successful.