#like a pwyw maybe?? idk

[cerealandchoccymilk]

going insane over this. Whoa What

[nadianova]

how much $ did u get from sales from malmaid & other VNs on itch/steam? i wanna upload my VNs on itch/steam but 1. idk how much i wanna price it (like... yeah its free but for the pwyw slot for itch) & 2. (for steam) idk if the 100$ steam price for Uploading is worth it/if ppl will like/buy it (am insecure/nervy #girl :'3) .. i luvv ur work n i love seeing ur works it Makes me v happy thank you!!!!

disclaimer everything here is my opinion and perspective from me in this current moment of my life so just take everything with a grain of salt and preferably look for others perspectives to compare to. ultimately its something everyone kinda have to figure out on their own and do what works for them..

but that being said theresa lot of things to say here so ill just start with like... every dev i see says that if you're gonna sell your game put it on steam. i keep hearing numbers throw around like 90% of sells come from steam and 10% from itch io for devs that sell (commercial projects) on both. you still need following etc to promote the wishlists since that is what boosts your game after the initial release on steam or something like that?

if you have a free game put it on itch io. its free just do it might as well. being shy and insecure about what you make is fine but keep in mind that people arent after some perfect flawless projects and making those is impossible

just make what you can and share it, the right people just need to find them

still itchio is nice that its free but the userbase is also 50% people on their mobile searching for strictly free android games to jerk off or horror game with red background because popular streamer #453425 played it. the site culture is different from steamw which some people treat as if games don't count as real unless they're on steam.

from my perspective paying $100 to put a game on steam is 'cheap'. even if you just consider it an ad fee for however much traffic steam algorithm blesses you with, its kind of a good deal if you think about the unhinged amounts you'd have to pay on twitter or facebook or whatever the hell people use to actually promote the game to same amount of eyes.. if you're doing free games its less of a incentive but if you're trying to do business and make money for rent 100(and whatever fees steam and taxes will eat from your earnings) is a very low price of doing business. i see people complain about steam cuts and steam fees but as someone who used to be an online sexworker there was literally popular sites AND STILL ARE that take like 50% cut directly so steam isn't bad when compared to that (also steam gives you the 100 back after you make 1000, which i reasonable believe i could reach if i put a paid game on steam)

also did you know you can set itch ios marketplace cut to 0% if you want with no repercussions. you can do that if you want. do it.

i think if you have rent to pay you should get into the habit of asking for something. artists love supporting other artists and outside of that the people who have money will gladly support someone whose work they like. there's really no concrete numbers to give for pricing projects. just ask anything. tho know that asking for 1 dollar is pretty much the same as asking for like 5 tho. if people are ready to pay they generally don't care if its in that range so i think everyone's happy if its 5 when payment processors get to swipe a smaller percentage of the fees from the transaction

maybe something like just ask for something nad once you make more projects keep rising it. its better to have an empty patreon with 0 subscribers than no patreon at all. my games used to be 0€ to download and 6.66€ pay what you want and people kept paying that. then i raised the suggestion to 15€ just to try it out and i was surprised to see the amount of donations didn't go down. bonus artbooks are a good incentive. its nice to share something special for those who want to donate and its nice for them to get something out of it since a huge portion of these people might have just given that same donation money expecting nothin in return

its taken a few months but malmaid has now made like 800 dollars on itch io which is like wow holy shit but it kinda stops being as exciting when i think about how it took me 6 months to make it and that would be like one month of rent. still ultimately the fact that its a free game and everyone just decided to donate anyway is kinda absurd and it makes me infinitely grateful

i do know that if i had priced it with a set price the amount would be a lot more (this is even more evident from my 4€ comic projects that i keep putting on sale constantly for even cheaper are still by far the most earning projects I've ever put on itchio) id argue people are more likely to take a project seriously and engage with it if it cost money. free games you can just dl and forget about it if you want.. but having a price next to the download button makes things seem more legitimate because money has worth

i also get pay-per-project patreon money. tho patreon hates that mode and will be deleting in like a year or so instead of having stupid monthly payments. idk what ill do then i might delete patreon at that point will see

but on the matter of if these numbers really are a useful metric to share is debatable. hopeless junction made like $1000(ignoring the vncup 2 award) since i released it year ago and this and malmaid are two of my most popular games like that. i think i made 300-400 during the first few release months back then. I've been posting stuff on itch io for FREE for a decade soon and its an accumulation of all my visibility from over the years. itch io also favorites nsfw games with their tag traffic so its an environment that works for me

if i had started asking for money and packaging my things in a more commercial form i would be making a lot more with it i think and the people who followed me would already be accustomed to that. its just that for now ive valued people being able to play my things for free and my situation has allowed for it

everyone hates marketing but ultimately its about making the thing you made look good and be seen by others. a nice custom theme on an itch io page is more likely to get someone to stay than a game with blank profile no screenshots.

its important to make the thing you made look presentable and that's just finding your own voice by looking at how others do these things

the coolest story in the world isnt gonna sell if it doesn't have a nice cover if nobody knows that story exists.. but if people like the story they're more likely to stick around for future stuff and spread the word.. i think that matters more than what amount of money is being asked for a game as there are popular cheap games just as there are popular expensive games

idk. if theres more specific questsions ask again its a very broad thing

[sniffanimal]

i have $13 in my bank acct until potentially after the 30th (idk if payday will bump up given the holiday or not) so uh here's a little ebegging

if you'd like to commission me, especially since a) I have room for big holiday gift pieces and b) I won't be open as frequently next year bc I'm going back to college in January, feel free to DM me!

I'm also tentatively opening up pwyw graphic design work, especially things like visual schedules, reminder/communication cards, posters, social media posts, and planner pages (no logo/vector work at this time!). I have honestly like 0 examples of my work, so it's pay what you want. my first degree is in graphic design so maybe I should use it.

[windywallflower]

Its a very late post into pride month here (we've been exercising sleep-month jk... we've been kinda scrambling to get back on top of everything after May. Idk what it is but every year is the same).

But HEY! If you don't know who we are yet, we're Tas & Winter and we run a small minipub called Windy & Wallflower where we write a bunch of fun stories featuring gaggles of queer characters.

Note: on our shop ALL of our PDFs are 5$ no matter if its comics, prose, zines, what have you (some of our older stuff is free/pwyw).

But here's a VERY quick run down of our series/titles!

AUGUSTINE - is our newest webcomic! A series we lovingly dub as our junkpunk meets greek mythology, borderlands meets hercules, mad max meets... uhhh uhhh t-troy?? ENOUGH COMPARISONS. You've got a found family of freaks who get into trouble pissing off local landlords in a crusty pit of desert lovingly called the Crater. Maybe the group relies on their leader a bit too much, maybe she DOESNT know what she's doing. Maaaaybe we'll find out what happens ... when she ... [spoilerspoilerpsoiler] (You CAN buy the PDF on our shop, the physical copy of Volume 1 OR you can also catch up and read it FOR FREE online!) (.....yes its coming back v soon we're almost done rebuilding the buffer i promise)

MYTH RETOLD - Is prose! Retelling Greek myths but with a queer twist. There are 3 in the series so far: Iphigenia (sapphic babes, Iphigenia gets to KISS Artemis? mmm~), Medusa (maybe she meets a transmasc Perseus... maybe its just bi af and Medusa DOES get a happy en-- wait spoilers--) & Atalanta (what can i say, im a sucker for sapphics... Atalanta x Dyktinna) with loose plans to make ... even More. (You can also get all of these as PDFs or as physical copies... im a sucker for the physical since I went pretty hard with the foil ANd spot gloss--)

PAINT THE TOWN RED - is our other major ongoing comic of the queer persuasion (are we... starting to notice a pattern--). This one with a main cast consisting of Vampires, Werewolves.... ... and other mysterious babes. Story opens up with a werewolf shelter, but what happens when a vampire shows up one night?? Hmmm. Looks like things are a lot messier in Merlot than we thought~ This one releases in volumes first so you can grab them all on our shop OR you can test it out for yourself and see if its your thing by reading the first 2 volumes for FREE online~!)

PRISM KNIGHTS - A series of short stories (loosely based on fairytales) in the POV of queer knights! Each story is a 'different shade of queer'. You will be hearing a LOT about these two in the next month because we're funding the paperback print of the omnibus so here are the highlights:

Coquelicot: Evil lesbian knights.

Bronze: A nonbinary, ace knight caught in a time loop.

Lamplight: A haunted trans knight learns to love the beast within.

Juniper: A tragic gay knight meets his blacksmith boyfriend.

Sapphire: A polyship between a dragon, a knight and a royal.

Velvet: A sad bisexual knight overcoming grief.

You can snag ALL of the PDFs on our shop though a lot of the physical copies are out of stock because, as mentioned, we're hosting a campaign to reprint soon. You can follow along to be notified the second we launch! (We'll need a LOT of help pushing this one since... um... it IS a reprint).

THAT'S my schpeel. I know we try our best to offer our stories free/as cheap as we can possibly make them to keep them accessible so if you CAN afford to spend a bit this pride consider checking out our shop! You'd be doing us a real solid.

We have a TON of really cool stories in the works all of them extremely queer so any little bit goes a long way, boosting, sharing, buying, telling your libraries about us.... hinthint, everything helps!!

[harzeke]

Countdown to Fresh TV sending Wyatt a cease and desist for selling Total Trauma fan books for over $60 each!

listen i'm all for making fan-merchandise (obviously) but this feeeeelsss......... very illegal! especially considering fresh TV can get very particular about what fans do!

like idc if wyatt wanted to print total trauma or release the pdfs for these things in a pwyw fashion on like itch.io or somethin so people can get them printed individually, that probably wouldnt be an issue. or idk. maybe have them produced in the same way people do things like zines.

but using specifically a website for indie book publishing and printing, especially one that has forms for reporting copyright infringement? feels like you may not have picked the right avenue or you just want fresh tv to C&D you really bad

[edns]

What if I made a solo zine of sorts... Maybe a free/pwyw one for starters and digital only... Idk if anyone would be interested though. If you are, please let me know in the ask box or replies!! What kind of art would you like to see?

[saltminerising]

same anon that asked how to make money, ive been considering opening a pwyw commission shop (starting at maybe 100g/kt idk i dont want it to be too expensive) where i draw peoples dragons. maybe just like headshots bc i dont want to get too burnt out? the thing is i have no fucking idea how to draw most fr breeds especially the more complicated genes. anywhere i can get help for that? like good tutorials or tips or anything

[coiled-dragon]

Alright I mentioned it vaguely in passing earlier, but I do think I wanna take a shot at making my own personal Zine. Most likely something free or pwyw digital but I do wanna see if I could manage a physical version for myself lmfao...

The theme im thinking of is, essentially, the Eroticism of being Consumed. A focus on Cannibalism and Vampirism... Poems, vignettes, a few illustrations maybe. I just dont know how I wanna go about it. Where to start..

But if this sounds cool to you guys, lemme know idk

[crooked-city]

Bluh I'm thinking of doing some of my digital collage work like this for people's dragons

But I don't know if people would be willing to pay dragon cash for them, or if people would even consider that Ethical since I'm working with Found Assets (which I get from sources thst are public domain/creative commons/free to use/things I find in old books and magazines [I do credit when I use pre-existing art items that aren't straight up free-to-use, I will straight up tell you that fox was by Walter A. Weber originally])

Idk would people want to swap me treasure or gems or items for these? I'd probably just do PWYW if I did ask for payment

I think I'd ask for vibes/aesthetics/items you might want included etc. for the dragon I'm working with, if you'd want scan lines or color aberration (like you see in the fox and Spearwa) and such

Idk I might do these for free occasionally too, they're actually a lot of work tho so I'd only do it that when I'm really high energy

I like doing these, I used to have a lot of examples but I lost a lot due to some Computer Disasters, I'm amazed the first one in this set survived those

I feel like this could be a hit for people with vaporwave/synthwave dragons and IDK.... Maybe if you have dragons inspired by Analog Horror?

[hychlorions]

i was thinking when i'm done writing down the pattern for the asry plushies i could maybe release it as a pwyw pattern...? but like. i have 0 experience making patterns so idk if i'd need testers for that to make sure it's understandable to other people. do i really NEED to look for testers when i'm going to use the pattern to make four near-identical plushie bases

[legy]

random game roundup 3

A Hell of a Journey - PWYW

what if it was the divine comedy but virgil was just an absolute piece of shit. he had no fucking idea what was going on. you have to go through hell to get to purgatory and this idiot is no help at all

this is a short & sweet twine game. the illustrations carry it. it's pretty cute and took me under 5 minutes to read

Samorost 2 - $4.99

hey i said this was random game roundup not random itch game roundup. i just have 3000 itch games

amanita design is literally like the all-timer for 00s indie devs. ive known of their point-and-clicks for basically the entire time ive been conscious. i think ive only played samorost 1 and machinarium before now.

its hard to beat the level of vibes-based gaming samorost operates on. this is what gnome tumblr is all about

apparently in 2020 this got a remaster that let the game support modern resolutions using AI upscaling on old assets, and to its credit it ran awesome for a game this old. it didnt fuss at all about tabbing out or using a second monitor while playing. however i think the upscaled assets look pretty shit? lol. like the art direction in this game is extremely strong but the raster images definitely were not meant to be seen bigger than 1024x768 and it makes the characters who scaled up much better stick out suuuper bad.

music completely rips ass tho. hell yeah brother

i actually went ahead and finished this at an entire half an hour playtime. big fan of samorost 2

T.A.R.S - $1.99

included in: Bundle for Ukraine

first thing i got struck by with this game is that it is extremely good looking for the price tag and my lowered standards. there is also a lot of voice acting which is pretty amateur but a lot of heart went into it. i could not find an option to subtitle the dialogue which kinda sucked

T.A.R.S is a third person shooter with a focus on difficulty via being killed in one hit and having very limited resources. you're fighting werewolves or something. i didn't play long enough to see them do more than just chase after me in a straight line so idk if the enemy AI is interesting

one of the big downsides of T.A.R.S is that the game is dark as fuck. shot like a modern hollywood film. like that one episode of game of thrones. i cant play this on my high refresh rate monitor because the sun is up right now and the ambient light in my room is too much and i cant see anything. also the game emphasizes wearing headphones and focusing on hearing the enemies before you see them but the sound design is um. not great. i kept getting snuck up on because the guys dont make any noises until theyre two inches away

i don't think i gave this a good enough chance but i'm not a horror fan nor am i a shooter fan so it's really not for caelums. maybe you'll like it tho

Panic Factory - $1.50

included in: Bundle for Ukraine

panic factory is a puzzler pretending to be a shooter. you are an eco-activist that has been trapped in a torture dungeon by a corporate CEO and need to figure your way out. with a shotgun. and whatever ammo you can scrounge up

the voice acting in this is very hammy and the pixel art is appealing to look at so the presentation is pretty solid. i found this difficult to spend a lot of time in because again i don't like shooters and i found that the reaction times this game expects out of you in the first level to a be a bit extreme. also required arrow keys to move :thumbsdown:

Weird Grief - PWYW

im so fucking sorry for how hard i laughed

i honestly really liked this. weird grief is a twine about the immediate aftermath and slow recovery after the death of a loved one. and you are poly. and furry. it has explicit sex scenes so watch out for that. but this is worth reading imo

[snepfeathers]

appending a mini to-do list to this for the hell of it:

finish coloring the flat color taur comm

finish coloring and shading the shaded taur comm

finish coloring and shading the Nyx sequence that's been on a backburner for over a month

finish lining a piece I sketched with Nyx/Juniper

keyhole sweater ask (might be combined with aforementioned Nyx/Juniper piece. or maybe not idk I like drawing Nyx breasting boobily this can get its own sketch at least)

answer some other asks too

idk man other obligations are gonna pop up before I make it this far down the list but a cat can dream right?

anyway just to make a quick note about the pwyw sketch options I mentioned: those aren't my only commissions available! if you'd like something else, feel free to ask me about it! you can see my price sheet here, or check out my ko-fi for other pwyw options too!

hiiiii I'm itching to do some sketches as warmups/cooldowns between the couple of comms I'm working on right now... so if you'd like a pretty quick sketch for a pretty small price, check out my pay-what-you-want options on ko-fi!

[haxxydraws]

Considering opening character/angel/beast/etc design commissions via ko-fi, something like "send me a few emotes or keywords and I'll make something based on it" ex: an "angel based on 😉🔥🐉" or "a silent hill monster based on agoraphobia" or "a knight based on unicorns and bloody tears," etc

I'm not set on pricing yet, but they'd def be cheaper than my normal comms because a lot of it would be left up to my artistic interpretation + the like (maybe around $15? or a pwyw setup where the level of detail depends on the payment?)

Idk, this post is a bit of an interest check, so please give it a like or reply (or send an ask!) if you have any thoughts on it <3

[scourgefrontiers]

so my first impression of zines from the internet was "artbooks created by multiple people working together" which i learned later was Not the case for actual zines, thats just. a collab artbook lol

recently another way i looked at zines was "another way for me to make some extra income" which was great at the time, until i realized that zines could be about literally anything and then i got overwhelmed by the possibilities

now after a bit more research ive learned that zines are unique forms of expression that can be about anything but especially help give underrepresented voices a chance to share their stories, all while being easily accessible. so i kinda feel bad for immediately jumping at them in hopes of making a quick buck (its not like i dont need to make money but still, i think i missed the point of zines in favor of the money aspect)

so now i wanna make zines still but like. idk if i should really sell them. maybe i can make them pwyw so theyre technically free but the donation option is there

[jazzghost-fr]

idk I made a small pwyw art shop on fr! Minimum price is 150kt/g since that seemed like a good starting point? Only three slots open right now!

So if you like my art feel free to check it out maybe?

Shop will be in the reblogs!