I am creating a 4-tier "Pay per Play" option for corporate clients. Each tier has a bracket of how many Keys can be purchased depending on the size of the department, team etc.
What isn't clear in the Download Keys section of itch is whether the price I set for the Key Group is for the WHOLE group (e.g. $100.00 for 100 keys = $100.00) or is it PER key in that group (e.g. $100.00 EACH for100 keys = $10,000) .
Help is appreciated.
I don't quite understand what you're trying to do. I mean, I understand what you're suggesting, but I don't understand how you want to integrate it into Itch.
In Itch, a purchase gives that buyer access to a single key. If you use the external keys dashboard, it's assumed that a buyer can only claim one key from the stock.
I'm not an expert on keys, but what you're suggesting doesn't sound like it could be implemented with Itch's existing tools, as they aren't designed to work that way.
EDIT: A clarification: Creating keys per bundle generates a group of keys that you can manually distribute on another platform, for example, to integrate your Itch sales into a bundle outside of Itch.
This option does not work for selling groups of keys when someone buy your project.
EDIT2:
I reread and think you're referring to the "Unlock price" option.
What that field does is indicate which Tier will have that group of keys, but that only works if your project uses per-file pricing.
Example:
Your project costs $5 and has three files.
The main file does NOT have a per-file price. So anyone who purchases your project will have access to the main file.
The second file has a per-file price of $8.
It's not enough to purchase your project; to download this file, people must have paid $8 or more at the time of purchase.
The third file has a per-file price of $12.
You generate a group of keys and set the value of 10 to "unlock price."
Anyone who claims your project using one of those keys will be equivalent to purchasing your project for $10. That is, they will be able to access the second file (tier $8), but not the third (tier $12), because the value of the key is equivalent to $10.
Hi Hechelion,
I appreciate the help. I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to do what I'm hoping to do. I currently sell table top versions of my board game to corporations and employers to use for team meetings, trainings, etc. The digital version has been used since COVID but only when I have the teams on Zoom and then give them the URL and temporary PW to the game so I can run the workshop. I wanted to start selling access to the digital version and have companies decide how many employees would get to play. So I was setting up options for 36, 144, 360 and 960) These are all divisible by 6 since it's up to six players per game. My thinking was they would buy it through a Base44 set up I'd host on my web site similar to the way people use my shopping cart for the table top version. When an allotment of keys (Key Group) let's say for 144 was sold, I'd replenish it with another 144 Key Group to be available for the next purchase.
If this isn't doable on itch, do you know of or have experience with other platforms that work, like Steam?
Thanks much.
I don't know what base44 is, but from what you're describing, neither Itch nor Steam will help you.
Itch and Steam are game stores where the user buys a game. When they buy a game, they have unlimited access to that game's files (they can download and play it as many times as they want).
What you need to implement is a Usage-Based Pricing system, and no well-known digital game store will offer that, because it's simply not the way digital games are sold. You could even violate those stores' TOS, since the buyer is expected to be able to use the game as many times as they want.
You also can't sell unique keys from these sites; Steam doesn't allow it, and while you can sell many types of files on Itch, there's no tool that allows you to deliver a unique file to each buyer. (EDIT: One correction, in Itch you can associate unique external keys, but you have no way to separate them by price/number of uses and it is only one key per account.)
To implement a Usage-Based Pricing system, you must do it entirely on your own on the server side. You need the key you sell to function as a user account with an associated counter. In the digital version of your game, upon startup, it should request the key and authenticate against your server, where you deduct a usage and send the application a signal indicating whether the key still has usage or if it's all been used.
How do you implement this? It's something that has nothing to do with Itch, but I think the term you should look for is "Licensing Controls."
If I were to develop what you have in mind, I would start by Googling something like:
"How do I implement a Licensing Controls with a counter?"
the price I set for the Key Group
What's a key group price?
Customers on Itch are people buying for their account. You do not buy keys in bulk, that you can redistribute. And bought projects are in the library of the customer. You cannot revoke the license to the project. Read the tos about this Publishers hereby grant ... to Users, a non-exclusive, perpetual license to access the content ... Users shall retain a license to this content even after the content is removed from the Service.
A pay per play business model is not viable on Itch. Itch is a classical pay per project store with some extras and some shortcomings. If you need drm, that will be a hassle to implement. But even if you do, the only thing you can verify, is if an account has purchased the project, and maybe how much was paid.
I think you might refer to this https://itch.io/docs/creators/download-keys#download-keys-and-urls/bulk-keys
If you generate a key, you can set a price that this key would unlock. Since you generate the key, it has no price. But Itch needs to know the unlock price, in case there are individually priced files. The key itself will unlock all regular files on that project. But you can have files that are locked, unless someone overpaid. As explained by hechelion.
Hi Redonihunter,
I appreciate the help. The following is the same response I sent to hechelion since you might have insight on the same thing.
I'm a little concerned that I won't be able to do what I'm hoping to do. I currently sell table top versions of my board game to corporations and employers to use for team meetings, trainings, etc. The digital version has been used since COVID but only when I have the teams on Zoom and then give them the URL and temporary PW to the game so I can run the workshop. I wanted to start selling access to the digital version and have companies decide how many employees would get to play. So I was setting up options for 36, 144, 360 and 960) These are all divisible by 6 since it's up to six players per game. My thinking was they would buy it through a Base44 set up I'd host on my web site similar to the way people use my shopping cart for the table top version. When an allotment of keys (Key Group) let's say for 144 was sold, I'd replenish it with another 144 Key Group to be available for the next purchase.
If this isn't doable on itch, do you know of, or have experience with, other platforms that work, like Steam?
Thanks much.
I wanted to start selling access to the digital version
I am not sure what you are trying to sell. A downloadable file or access to a website or access to a server process running on your site.
I am currently assuming you have a host that runs that digital version and a buyer would be able to connect to that server and distribute invitation links to employes, so they can all connect on that website and no installation of games or Steam clients or accounts on gaming platforms needed.
If that is so, just sell the licence key on your website - in any configuration you need. You do not need Steam or Itch for that. And maybe upgrade your server to https someday.
