I set up an itch.io project for my game at https://meticulousmonster.itch.io/bludgeon-playtest, in order to let a limited number of people participate in playtesting for free. I set this up using a free Reward with a limited number, as documented here.

However, whenever someone tries to claim a copy, they get the following error message: "There was an error generating the download URL, please try again." It seems to work if you make a donation, but not when you try to claim a free copy (which is a little awkward since my page says "Sign Up for Free"). Has anyone else run into this issue? Is there a way to fix it?

I'm hoping to get this resolved within the next week or so, because I'll be showing my game at an expo soon, and I'm hoping to get people signed up for the playtest then. If setting up an itch.io project this way isn't possible right now for some reason, maybe I could try just making the game free to download right now (without a Reward), but then disabling new downloads and purchases at some point in the future?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

So I tested out the option of making the game free to download without a reward, and then disabling new downloads/purchases at some point. But I realized that this option won't work for what I'm trying to do, because people who got the game for free don't "own" the game. So if I disable new downloads/purchases at some point, people who have downloaded the game for free will no longer have access to it.

I think instead, I'm just going to make my Itch.io page Restricted, and generate bulk keys to distribute to people. This will work well for giving out keys at physical events, as I can just print them out and distribute them. However, I'm still trying to figure out a good way of distributing a limited number of keys to people online who want to sign up for the playtest. Does anyone happen to know of a good way of doing this, without running into the issue of sending multiple people the same key?