Hey lads!

Just letting you know that my game has finally been accepted on Steam, and you can add it to your wishlist!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2532340/Unaware_in_The_City/

Being honest and as transparent as possible, I'm totally clueless about how to navigate this process. When I planned for a Steam release, I didn't anticipate UiTC2, which complicates things even further.

Basically, I'm selling the game on itch.io for $20, and the fees there aren't too bad. Now on Steam... well, Steam charges a lot more than any other platform I use. I'm going to go with regional pricing because the wage gap between countries like the USA, Poland, or Turkey is significant. The problem is, after all the fees, taxes, and everything else, selling the game on Steam for $20 would net me less than $1 in some countries, lol. Yeah, I know, even $1 is better than nothing, but it would open the gates to piracy and other issues. I plan to support this project for years without any DLCs or microtransactions, so selling my game on Steam doesn't seem worth it. However, I'm doing it because many people asked, and I'm really curious about the experience of releasing anything on Steam (it's my personal milestone).

There's a reason why Patreon developers rarely release their games on itch.io or Steam while still developing them—the monetization process is totally different. On Patreon, I have a monthly income, and I release at least one update per month so you get something in return for supporting me. On Steam, I get a burst of money upon release and during sales, but in-between, it's just pocket money, which needs to be enough to finish development or push for microtransactions and DLCs. Seeing that after a year on itch.io I haven't sold 500 copies, I'm pretty sure my game won't go viral on Steam either. It makes sense to finish development first, give all my supporters free Steam keys, and then try to sell it to new people.

So what should I do about it? Should I increase the base price to $30 to make up for the fees and issues? I already feel bad charging $20 on itch.io despite working on it full-time and hiring more people now, and I doubt many would buy it for that much anyway. Another option is excluding the poorest countries from buying it at a lower price, but that feels even worse, as I've been hit by such policies living in Poland. Maybe something in-between, like $25 with slightly higher regional pricing? Or should I just let people buy it at $20 and a few bucks in some countries? I have no clue! But I'm aware that you would like to buy the game as cheaply as possible, while I need to sustain enough monthly income to keep working.

But I knew all this going into the Steam release, right? So what's the new problem? The problem is announcing UiTC2 before releasing UiTC1 on Steam. If I release UiTC1 in early access, charge money for it, and then move to UiTC2 a few months later, it could lead to massive backlash (people still complain about Unaware of the World being abandoned, giving me a bad name, even though I made it clear that work continues in Unaware in The City). Should I release UiTC1 and update it to UiTC2 later? People might complain that the game changed completely, and outdated info and screenshots could confuse and harm my reputation and sales (I've already had a few people get mad about UiTC2 instead of continuing on UiTC1). Should I skip UiTC1 and just release UiTC2 when it's ready? This was my main idea, but everything is set up and ready, I've wasted a lot of time on it, paid registration fees, and promised it would come out on Steam, so it feels wasteful not to do anything.

So my current plan is: UiTC1 will hit Steam with the release of v37 (late July?), and it will be a public release, thus the Basic version, and the Extended version will not be for sale. I'll try to make up my mind before then.

The Steam release will follow the same pattern as on itch.io - free Basic and paid Extended versions, while beta releases will remain exclusive to Patreon/SubscribeStar. Yes, it is also tagged as Early Access on Steam.

Cheers!