Yeah, I used to sorta work on my projects as though they were the only thing in my life x3 and that just wasn't healthy at all, haha. I kept making myself ill doing that, spending like 12+ hours a day staring at my screen working away (which my family always thought was insane considering I wasn't being paid for any of it xD) so now I'm changing the way I work on them in general to be much more casual so that I can make more time to do other things instead of working on my project stuff obsessively.
But yeah, I've heard it's really easy for stuff to get buried on Steam if it's not promoted really well, so I feel like I'd struggle a lot in that department with how little I use social media >.< It seems a bit worrying to give them $100 to have my game on there if it's just gonna be buried and unfindable >.< I've heard talk of their algorithms and stuff being heavily reliant on getting people to give good reviews and things if you want your game to be visible, and I really don't like pestering people to review my stuff.
As you say, it doesn't seem particularly beneficial to indie devs who don't expect to make profit from a project. I love itch because you're free to just put your stuff out there without having to spend anything first.
When I do finally get the next update out, I'll also be sure to make it so that there is a demo that can be downloaded for free, while keeping the $2 donation option open to fund development and that will contain all the currently available content :3 I just can't really do that with the version that's out now cos there's not enough content to make a demo when it's so short that it practically is a demo x3
That's really sweet of you to say all that, and I really appreciate the support and encouragement :3 As you say, doing whatever you're comfortable with is the best way to go, especially when it's a hobby project because as soon as you start doing stuff you're not comfortable with, or the work becomes a chore, it's like you've then managed to kill off your hobby, and that's not good x3 Better to try and keep it as fun and stress-free as possible :3
But yeah, I'll plod along at my own weird pace, sometimes it'll speed up when I get tunnel vision and don't do anything else like during jams xD and sometimes it'll slow down like recently when I've been feeling exhausted and not had my heart in it x3 either way, I'll keep going and get there in the end, and once stuff is released, it'll be there for anyone who fancies playing it :3