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itch.io Community » itch.io » Ideas & Feedback

Subscription model to claim builds and access posts

A topic by Ruffleneck created Sep 09, 2022 Views: 1,536 Replies: 29

Viewing posts 1 to 15

Ruffleneck1 year ago(+12)

It would be amazing if Itchio adopted Patreon/OnlyFans style subscription model where only subscribers would get access to content and updates posted by the developers (unless posted as public, of course), and allowed setting tiers which have access to and which type of releases.

Itchio is after all one of the most open game platforms there is, and genuinely cares about their developers as opposed to investor/seed fund driven alternatives, and there are a lot of game creators looking to adopt Patreon style funding outside of Patreon, but currently Patreon is one of the only stable and more or less safe subscription based development platforms, but it is also constantly moving against NSFW content and NSFW creators due to not being independent but investor driven platform. OnlyFans, while offering similar services, only accepts NSFW actors on their service.

Malerouille1 year ago(+3)

It's true it still feels like the safest place for these works.

Dogson201 year ago(+3)

Yes, there needs to be a safe space for developers where work can be safe and secure and be allowed to progress without interruptions of constant goal post moving.

TTIO1 year ago(+3)

Yeah, this would massively improve the overall ecosystem.
As an added bonus, this means that developers that are already using patreon + itch can start supporting diffed builds, reducing the strain on end users as well as itch's servers. This is useful for game developers in general, and not just NSFW developers :)

Team Carnal Instinct1 year ago(+3)

We can offer little beyond Ruffleneck's initial proposition, however it seemed important to add our weight behind such an idea. Currently we primarily use itch.io as little more than a middle-man between Patreon and Steam, but such a subscription system would change our view of the platform in a positive way; from the perspective of developers, the more available platforms the better as the diversity of revenue streams helps to mitigate single-point-risk. From the perspective of itch.io, an entire secondary stream of users who are interested in the subscription model and directly supporting developers.

It would seem to be mutually beneficial.

echo

naelstrof1 year ago(+3)

Oh I love this idea, I would love to replace Patreon in my spheres. I don't care too much about the income, just having a safer and better designed website to post things to subscribers would be awesome. We don't have very many places to go.

fek1 year ago(+3)

I would love to see this! I can also personally attest that I had old supporters who preferred itch.io when I made the jump to a subscription model on patreon. They've voiced pretty clearly that if I could do a subscription model through itch, instead, they'd be returning.

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Leopold Visette1 year ago(+4)

If there's people that have asked for such an option on Itch, like fek has first hand experience with, then I say it's worth considering for the platform.

CodeSynth1 year ago(+4)

Personally I'd love to see this happen. No hate towards Patreon, but they cast a rather wide net when it comes to the services they support. It'd be great to see someone that's dedicated to games take up the subscription support model and refine it into something that works for both gamedevs and players alike. I can't think of anyone better-suited for that task than itch.io!

NightmareOrca1 year ago(+3)

Would appreciate this as well!

huskywolfeh1 year ago(+4)

This would be phenomenal approach to support creators! Currently it's either dontate/free or paywall with a threshold which isn't the best for long-term projects with incremental process and updates over time. Patreon has shut down several NSFW projects, and I think if itch.io offered this could open up additional opportunities for creators!

allaze-eroler119 days ago

i agreed about this concept, i was planning to create one on patreon but this happened and that was the worst timing for me to start with patreon some years ago as they started doing these kind of bullshit...

Ruffleneck119 days ago(+1)

Yup! Would be pretty amazing and pretty critical to get this on Itchio so that we can finally stop relying on Patreon :<

Malerouille119 days ago

Yeah I'm spending less time on Patreon because of this; and more here. Hence my support for this idea :3

wolfybytes119 days ago(+1)

I love this idea. I’d hope itch remains independent and doesn’t get bought or go public. But with the other platforms out there constantly getting in creators’ way, I would trust this one the most.

Ruffleneck119 days ago(+1)

Exactly! If there's a platform I would be willing to bet my next decade on, it's Itchio... just needs to be a full blown alternative to Patreon :<

naelstrof119 days ago

I had to stop patreon payment this month again due to issues with me navigating the fact that adult content must be paid content only. I'm still looking for alternatives!

Ruffleneck119 days ago

Yeah, it's ridiculously limiting!

redonihunter118 days ago

I agree that some kind of subscription donation or outright subscription service would improve the options. I would also like to see a button to add a tipp to Itch, instead of relying on the developer to give a share. Also, it should be fixed that people can increase their payment to access higher reward tiers. Or donate again without buying the game again.

But I would also like to point out that patreon in principle is a pay per content service and not an extended kickstarter to finance a long term project. You cannot finance it with a fixed sum and will get the finished game. It is more suited to literally patronize in the sense of support the works of a content creator.

While Itch is a pay per project service. With lot's of "early access" projects. Subscription for an early access game. Does sound a bit wrong, does it not.

Ruffleneck117 days ago

Not really, vast majority of Patreons *are* subscription based. There used to be an option for "pay per creation" but that's now how Patreon works anymore. You subscribe to a tier, and you get benefits from it ^^

redonihunter117 days ago

I did not mean the actual method of payment schedule. You would support a creator for something that typically would not be sold as a finished project, but support the ongoing creation of content. Webcomics. Youtube videos. Podcasts. Anything that would get posted regularly.

You could do a kickstarter for a game. But you would not do a kickstarter for a single page of a webcomic. Or a single video blog entry.

What is the content provided by making a game? The ongoing content? Of course you can still fund the creator and thus finance the game, but the notion of subscription sounds wrong, unless we are talking about server hosted games. It is a prolonged kickstarter, and the benefit is early access and maybe bonus material.

You subscribe to a service, not to a project. But you can patronize a project.

As a side note, I believe the reasons why most creators are subscription based and not per item is practical reasons in microtransactions and minimum tier. If I look at something like a daily or even biweekly webcomic, you would have 30x minimum tier. But even 8x minimum tier is a hurdle, even with minimum tier being 1 buck.

wolfybytes117 days ago(+1)

I think the most important part of this is adding ways to support a developer. We aren’t machines and while sticking to a content schedule is nice, the way you’ve laid out hard numbers is just not how it works when you’re a creative.

Sometimes people want to support a creator while they’re working on a long-term project regardless of the final result. If the supporter is unhappy with the release cadence they can always unsubscribe and resub later if they want to.

Ruffleneck117 days ago(+1)

Exactly this. This is what Patreon is basically for too. Quite literally the reason Patreon themselves are basically phasing out the per content patronage ^^

There's A LOT of game projects on Patreon, and if you look at the top Patreons, you can find a lot of games towards the top ^^

redonihunter117 days ago

What exactly are you referring to? My opinion why per posting funding is not favored on patreon? That is based on observation and my own spending habits.

My point is, that calling it a subscription when talking about creation of a game, is not quite the right mindset. You subscribe to netflix or your newspaper. But you fund/support/finance/patronize the developer. Sometimes because you want the perks or just because you like the game to be made.

Itch is optimized for projects and their distribution including paying for them - once. Not for continous creator support.

With all the linking they allow to such support platforms, itch would do good to take a share of the cake. There are many that would rather give money to itch, than to patreon. While games do constitute a large portion of patreons, the nerds of wikipedia do not even mention games in their introduction paragraph about patreon.

It is patreaon that takes away those early access customers from itch&co. Itch should take them back to a games orientated platform. Patreon is a bad company with questionable policies. I remember how they unilaterally changed their pricing some years ago, losing many patrons. https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/13/16773142/patreon-service-fee-community-backla... before reality cought up to them and they backtracked. They are not popular because they are good, they are popular, because they are big and have not much competition.

Just look where game creators go: to patreon, a non game optimised platform. They should go to itch, a platform dedicated to support indie game creators. While people whine and complain about tag searching on itch, where is the game search on patreon, like, at all?!

wolfybytes117 days ago(+1)

It sounds like you have your own opinion on what you like. A lot of developers commenting on this thread would like an option for something that is not to your tastes.

redonihunter116 days ago

Maybe reread my posts. Especially my very first sentence.

I wanted to point out, why it is difficult or even unwanted by Itch. My conclusion was, that Itch is project based and patreon is not.

wolfybytes116 days ago

I understand your posts and your point. I just don’t agree.

Ruffleneck114 days ago(+1)

"My conclusion was, that Itch is project based and patreon is not"

Vast majority of game projects on Patreon are project based. There's only few cases where you fund "a dev" ("hi pay us to make games") instead of "a project" ("hi pay us to make this game") ^^

redonihunter114 days ago

The platform is catered to projects.

You can browse for projects on Itch. You can only search for creators on patreon.

You pay for a project and become an owner of your keypage to the project on Itch. On patreon you pay the creator for temporary access to whatever support-tier they have - you will not own a copy of the finished game, even if the final game only costs 10 bucks and you supported it with 400 bucks over the years.

Whatever people use a platform's payment method might not be the intended way. Patreon is very ill fitting to finance projects like games. It is ok to collect regular donations and give some incentives, like giving access to a more recent game version. I have even seen projects that outright suggest to "buy" the game by supporting for a month on patreon - because money collection is hard for small time devs. They use whatever they can.

Oh, and my impression of the devs on patreon with multiple games, was more like, give us money because you like us and also, you will have access to the non-public version of our games. But there is very likely perception bias, because so many devs only have one game in the making.

Anyways, Itch should fill the nieche between kickstarter and patreon. Financing a game project while it is being made, having "early access" for that period, and still getting the completed game in their library. There is no library on patreon where you can download your games.

Malerouille113 days ago(+2)

"Itch should fill the niche between kickstarter and patreon" Absolutely UwU Even more while it's getting possible to get a kind of following here, while they've done lot of progress with the blog posts!

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