Hey there. It is strange that you can even see earlier versions... They should be all hidden except the most recent one. And no, none of them should have any price tag at all (other than donation). Which version were you looking for?
Viewing post in Plot Unfolding Machine for Solo RPG comments
What I see is (1) the Download section with only v4-5, and (2) the Development log with a partial list of previous versions. The Devlog also has a "View all posts" entry that takes me to a page with ALL prior versions. All this is exactly the same whether I am logged into my account or not.
The one difference when I am logged into my account is that I have the grey bar at the top that says "you own this game". That bar has a download button that allows me to download without being asked for $$, and I can see only the 4-5 versions there, as you would expect.
When I look at other games I own via itch, I notice that some of them display a Devlog list and some of them don't, so I assume it's a configuration thing. The items in the Devlog are always available for sale as separate purchases, and never show up as files that can be downloaded because you already own them. (They are sometimes older versions but more often seem to be related content.)
I am not looking for a particular version. I was just going to look through the old versions to see if you had taken out anything that I actually wanted to use, or whether I could safely ignore them. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. This is great stuff and I appreciate your efforts!
Thanks, yes. Not sure about how itch io manages the devlog, but for the simplicity of things, I hide the old versions not to confuse people. As of removals, no big things were removed but indeed lots of renaming and refinement. Most of the changes went in the direction of "evoking" ideas on the player, where older versions were more frontal, for example what now is "Room for hidden things or intentions", before it was "Perception test". I like the newer more because it opens to more different interpretations, where the old one forced the PCs to do something in a specific way.
The most different release of all, was version 3.x, which coincidentally, is the one implemented online, here: https://perchance.org/plot-unfolding-machine
Version 3 did everything quite differently, in a sense that it helped players "build sentences". But it forced you to roll many more times to complete those sentences. Works well if automated, but not so much on paper.