Chapter 10 weekly status report (4)

I think it would be best to just up the price for the game on Patreon, Steam is such a wide market and I would love to see you have success there. The game is worth at least $20 as is and I plan to buy it and review on steam at any price point.

What I've seen other games do is to split up into 'seasons' which allows them to price each season individually as it's a completed product. I don't know how they get around how Patrons access the older seasons though Another is to have slightly different content in the Steam vs Patreon version (although this tends to be the removal of err... spicier content lol) so you can justify selling it at full price, as that version is only available on Steam itself. Others have mentioned this, but everyone regardless of tier having access to the game after spending a lifetime amount of say 20-30 euros could allow you to charge that as the full price for the Steam version. It's definitely worth talking to other creators who have got their games onto Steam, and publishers who are happy to promote R34 games too (TinyHat Studios comes to mind) to see how they navigate Steam's rulings :D

Hey Eva, did you consider itch.io? I see a lot similar games there, and as German, I can tell, that we won't see ORS on Steam (or GOG)!

I know of one dev who decided to exclusively distribute through Steam, including his betas. But he would distribute steam keys for the game to patrons at a certain level, and beta keys at another. That way all distribution is through Steam but he still gets to approximate the tier system he used before. The keys did have to be manually distributed tho, which is its own overhead, and I don't know how accounting for keys works on the back end, or from Valve's perspective. He had one of his discord moderator friends do the actual key distribution tho. The value to being a patron was a value added proposition of high rez art, early access, and voting privileges.

Im here as a 5$ member, here to show support for the artist. This game could be downloaded for free on many places but i pay here out of respect. ORS could easily be sold on Steam for 20-25$. Theres alot of rubbish “simular” games there for around that price. As mentioned above i’d reccomend selling chapters/part. 1-3, 4-7, 8-11 or so on for 12.99$ per part.

Aren't we paying more by contibuting $5 per month over 12+ months to the development of the game as opposed to a one time fee with Steam? They should be able to do the math...

You could have a special steam version which includes an extra picture or two or maybe some sketches “the making of” ORS. Alternatively, offer a “deluxe” edition with one of your more expensive tiers that includes the soundtrack as a separate item. Don’t offer the soundtrack as a separate item for any other tiers. At least $20 seems like a fair price considering your current tier structure.

Speaking as a 5€ tier member, I'm always grateful to get the game for such a good value. I'm supporting several other channels at this point, and my finances are spread a little thin, so I can't really afford to up my monthly contribution, but I know that I would be willing to spend 10 or 12 Euro on a final version of the game, and continue supporting the channel at this level. I've receive nine chapters and a remaster on this level, and I can't think of a better way to thank you for the generosity than by buying the game at a higher price on Steam. I'm not sure how the rules actually read, but you might be able to keep the first nine chapters available for the 5€ group and make the full game available for us through the site once the price drops on Steam. For now I'm willing to buy the game on Steam, and pricing it at 5€ would seriously undervalue the work you've done so far. A Steam release will expose it to a much wider audience, and you deserve to get a good value from that.

What about cutting the game so far in smaller parts? Selling the first three chapters for 4€, the next for 4 and the last also? This way, you would get 12€ for the whole game so far, have a low entrance cost for interested players and be below the 5€-tier with accordingly selling less than the 5€-tier. Just my thoughts, I am no Steam expert.

Make it so that if you have te be a supporting patreon for a minimum of x months before you get the full game thatway you can set the price to whatever you like

Would listing it at the price of $13 work? match the "friends with benefits" tier, steam buyers could get early access to the alpha as well as all future builds, or let steam be an in between tier between friends with benefits and wingman, this could allow you to loophole into steam, i've seen it before. Just a thought! Good luck with the chapter, looking forward to it.

Yeah, 5€ is def undervaluing the sheer scale of the ORS product. Def don't undersell yourself and your works at this mature stage of your brand - you deserve to be compensated for the work you've put into all your works. I like the 5€ tier as it's a way to show my support for your art. I don't see it as buying a product from you. But since Steam purchases are product purchases, those should def be priced higher.