itch.io

Just writing here to give some advice - you probably should add a way to contact you! Is it Instagram/Twitter preferred or you have an email people can use to reach out to you?

Hello! Hope you will have a great time here, enjoy yourself and most importantly have fun! 

If you want to code simple website for free, recommend checking Neocities, they offer free hosting for static websites and as long as you don't need to store a database, you can get to have something pretty cool with even simple basics. Assuming that's what you are looking for.

Mostly asking for curiosity but do you have any pay rates for how much you charge for design/illustration? 

While I don't look for va at the moment (though I will sure keep this post in mind), do you have any voice reel or even a sound sample that could show what are your capabilities? Probably would be very helpful for people trying to reach you out in the future, since they could know what you can present. 

Not sure if forum is the best tool for chatting but hey, why not trying it out. How you stumbled on itch.io?

Currently not looking for VA yet but thought I could give some advice that could help out with gathering more attention to the post. 

First - it's a good idea to leave some way of contact outside itch. People tend to reply after some time and you might not always get or notice a notification. So stuff like email, discord or any other way of contact would definitely help out. 

Second - some sort of voice reel or a sample of your abilities would be a good addition to your post. Each person sounds differently, so it's good to see how it would look in practice. Doesn't have to be long, just something people could listen to, so their decision making would go smoother. 

Thanks for giving a potential read and wish you luck with getting some solid projects! 

No problem! And to respond to your comment - since you mention negotiations, it's hard to start those when there is no starting point per say. When there is a price, even as a suggestion, it's easier to avoid just wasting someone's time in case their budget mismatches completely. In my case, as a programmer that sometimes pays for commissions, I appreciate a lot when I know if I can allow someone's services in advance or not, because otherwise I might just skip it if I can't tell even how expensive they could be in the future. To post an example since I browse posts here - one post in particular offered 200$ for one character. Not whole illustration, just a fully shaded character. I can safely assure that this is beyond my budget but for someone else that might be a perfect price or who knows, maybe it will be for me someday. So when a skilled artist appears with art that is high quality but doesn't speak of their prices, potential client can't predict how high they value themselves and they might come to conclusion that they are simply too expensive and shouldn't bother them. Of course, if you believe you don't have to show prices, that's a decision you are free to make, just trying to look at it from a broader perspective.

Something as an addition - worth linking to your twitter profile into your post. I know you have it linked to itch.io profile, which is already wonderful but sometimes it's good to link it under the post sometimes so people can immediately link a work you did to you, since imgur links can be shared by anyone.

Thanks again for reading and wish you luck in future opportunities!

One advice - you probably should post your pay rates if you are looking for paid work. Helps ensuring a person can afford your services.

Text on the red background, "warning reason", does not actually mentions the reason but only asks to enable two-factor authentication. Considering that isn't a necessity for a standard user, I think the question of limiting one's ability to post until they do so without stating why they need to is a valid concern. 

Got it, thanks for the reply!

One question - do you have any document or an estimate how you price your voice acting work?

Always glad to help, good luck there!

Before author edited the post, title mentioned paid/unpaid so both are on the table depending on the project scope. 

I think a simple demonstration in a post would help you gather more attention, especially when you accept paid work.

Don't like bumping my own topics but since I believe it's important knowledge, will do so. 

Yea, it shows that people could be more educated on the tools they have and yet no one teaches that stuff and that can solve a lot of issues with minors accessing content they shouldn't.

Oh yeah, definitely, the "louder" we are, the more power we have, so glad to hear that you are doing your part. Still would recommend also trying to push some legislation if possible (not everyone has that option but those who do should definitely use it), so that those companies won't be able to do so legally in the future. 

No, the first part was the response to you, the second was just backing up your argument, since the post creator is fine with what itch.io does. 

Parent instead could use freely available parental control systems, they can even be set to block certain links so your child doesn't go somewhere it shouldn't. And hey, there is already more "family friendly" alternative to itch.io that is Gamejolt. 

To be fair, no one really uses NSFW as a term outside porn context, despite it being able to describe much more. Nonetheless, every game has its place and itch.io was open for those. If you didn't like it, instead of cheering devs can't be paid now, you can move to site like Gamejolt which is exclusively anti-nsfw and you can play the games without that content freely, it's also one of the biggest hosts of fnaf fangames. 

This is definitely good move but I am afraid it's only a temporary solution without some law changes, considering that while you can replace payment processor, you will likely still use Visa/Mastercard under the hood and by looking at Steam, those companies can still pressure you to do it their way. Plus you mentioned DLSite which has been exactly hit with the same thing and now a lot of the content is locked to japanese only consumer. 

I would probably replace the whims of lobbyists with something else (possibly more professional) but outside that, this is pretty well formed. Probably good to additionally mention how it both hurts consumer and imposes unfair practices on businesses or how it fits with the scope of DFA. 

While I am not an NSFW creator or even consumer of such games, I have been following this situation for a while so will try to answer your questions.

For the first - from what I have seen, so far there is no specific community that tackles that issue but individuals have been pretty vocal on Bluesky and following the whole situation, though I hope community bands together somewhere to at least help be more informed.

In terms of the second - there have been a few attempts at making a difference. For Americans, there is ACLU petition. There is also change.org petition though I wouldn't have high hopes with that one. For EU folks - Digital Fairness Act looks for feedback, which means the issue of the whole situation could be brought there and the plea to introduce protections into the DFA against payment processors and card companies using their power to make threats of cutting business if not complying with their personal policies.

In terms of the third - at least for now, there are no alternatives that could offer actually selling your NSFW game like on itch. DLSite is strictly Japanese and has been hit with similar stuff to itch and F95Zone that I have seen some people mentioning is just a forum. I guess the closest alternatives would be either already hit Steam or if your game is web based and don't mind posting for free, try your luck at Newgrounds (they allow adult content as long as you tag it, so there is that).

If I will get any additional info in terms of those 3 questions, will be glad to add up more info.

Hey there! I am all in support of doing an initiative but for now wanted to share that Digital Fairness Act looks for feedback. This could be our chance to make them look at the whole practice of payment processors and credit companies forcing businesses to comply with their arbitrary guidelines despite selling legal products and threatening to not let them use their service otherwise. Talked more about it here, in case someone wants to read more about it and what we could tackle.

Hey there!

Recently many of developers and customers on itch.io have been hit by sudden and unfair change of policies forced by payment processors. While many of us could have experienced differently we all can agree that this should not be in their power, especially when a lot of products we got to own didn't break any law.

That's why I am writing this post to bring you all to attention to something pretty important. Recently EU has put Digital Fairness Act into open discussion, when EU citizens and EU-adjacent citizen (that's sadly not UK, sorry British folks) could give feedback and suggest changes to the initiative. It mostly focuses on unfair business practices that manipulate consumer in decision making but we have a spot that we could use to bring into attention the our issue - payment processors and card companies being able to abuse their power and force businesses to essentially cater to their whims, with the threat of cutting them off completely.

One of the points DFA tries to tackle is problems with digital contracts, lack of digital fairness for consumers and also mentions that existing rules do not provide sufficient legal certainty for businesses or authorities. With those points, we could make our case and suggest that recent display of power brings uncertainty and hurts businesses all around the EU and suggest that DFA should incorporate some protections for them against abuse of power from payment processor or credit card companies. It doesn't of course guarantee that they will add that element to the initiative but this could be our chance to make our voices be heard.

So all fancy and dandy but where can you give feedback? Here is the site which allows you to do so.

Now, here are the sources that tell more about the DFA:

On the same site, downloadable PDF - "Call for evidence for an impact assessment" (here are the points I described which we could use to make our case and argue that this would work in scope of the initiative).

https://www.digital-fairness-act.com/ - site of the act that tells about updates and gives the 5 main points (our job should be to influence it to give it a 6th one with feedback)
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/rules-feedback-and-suggestions_e... - rules of writing feedback, pretty helpful for those who are able to send it
If you want to make a feedback and help the cause, please refrain from derogatory language - I know we are all emotional but we need to stay calm, yet persistent, in order to show that we don't agree with how we were all forced to either lose a service that was dear to us or lose a product that we were selling and that was helping with our finances. So if you are living in EU and want to have our voices be heard, please give it a go.

To end this post - good luck to US folks out there who try to do their part. This is of course one of the chances we could change the landscape, so if any new opportunities arise (or someone decides to make EU Initiative themselves), please share it around! The more they know we don't want this, the more power we have.

Quick question that I think would give a bit more clarity for anyone interested in working with you - do have any requirements that would need to be in place in order to consider collaboration? Stuff like game content along with its themes, specific genre preference or whenever you prefer unpaid or paid work (and if the latter, are there any sources where someone could look what rates are you taking).

Provide a deterrent? I am sorry but I cannot agree. Companies will always choose survival over going bankrupt and closing down and that's basically what happens when you can't pay people. Users moving out to other platform will just make that one be next target in the future once it gets big enough, that's buying time more than anything. If payment processors and card companies mandated what can be sold with their services before, next will fall in the line because hosting content isn't a charity. Itch.io saved their asses first like any company would do, because NSFW content ain't the only thing they have to worry about.

Glad that I could be of help and will definitely write this post down in case I need a va. And yea, I can imagine it took a ton of work but it sure paid off, don't see them so well written that often.

Just commenting to give one advice since title does mention unpaid it's probably good to write what requirements project would have to follow in order to consider such option.

Otherwise all I can add that form is very well done and quite transparent and I hope you will have chance to work on even more projects, fantastic voice range there.

Expecting people to move to crypto, one of the most unstable alternatives to a currency, sounds like shotting yourself in a foot.

If they would, people could just put them to court for defamation and they would lose, that's not a good idea for any reasonable individual.

Trust me, I would love better communication as well but we have no idea how it unfolded behind close doors. They are Americian, they might as well got a legal letter and that would limit them greatly in contact (good luck messing with US law). And no one would be stupid enough to hold payment for 20k NSFW games, they are still held liable if they withhold any founds (which means you can sue them) and already informed that they will offer refunds. I am not saying it couldn't gone a different way, what I am saying is that we have no idea if it could even do so, we didn't see any documents or emails they have been sent so we are in this in complete blind, we only know if they wouldn't comply with their policies all devs would go down the drain, not just NSFW ones. They weren't the first to have that issue either. Still get your frustration but I don't want to focus on beating Itch.io over and over when no matter how unprofessional or professional they are, they still had to abide to a decision that wasn't even theirs to make.