How does it work with posting paid games here?

[cutepen]

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but does it make sense to post my game here if it's a paid itch/Steam game? I've noticed that game listings always provide the game for direct download.

I'm not even asking from the point of "preventing piracy" (especially since I have a DRM free version on itch.io), but rather from the "I'm not allowed to distribute it for free if I also sell it on Steam" standpoint.

Do I need to be able to provide free builds to have a game listed somwhow?

 

[Meaning Less]

Some devs do it just to promote their games more broadly.

You can probably create a game request thread with a link to your game, then an uploader will probably check and turn that thread into a game thread if everything is correct.

 

[justpassingbyreally]

Create an alt account and post download links with it while pretending to be a generous user.

At the same time, add a disclaimer to your thread that you disapprove of sharing the paid versions here because your paying fans would feel cheated but what the site staff does with your thread (adding download links provided by a 3rd party) is out of your control and you chose to interact with the community here despite that.

Edit: It's not necessary to share the paid version here yourself (but a nice thing to do from the point of view of pirate userbase). I don't remember which one, but one game thread even had crackers bickering in a friendly manner with the developer about some change that made the cracking of the Patreon version more difficult for them. And at least a few developers seem to avoid having their Patreon/Steam builds leaked, only providing public demos or older public builds.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Depends on the dev if they choose to pop here "officially" or not.
But the games one way or another, sooner or later, end up being leaked here anyway.
So, may as well make your own thread and take control of it and it's updates for the extra advertisement, if nothing else.

 

[Ambir]

Don't know about steam, but I'd say the general wisdom is that if people want to pirate your game, they'll do it anyway, so might as well take control of your thread. I remember being worried about one of my game I was selling... Until I looked it up on google and had like 20 websites with download links to it... It is eye opening.

 

[Hagatagar]

If it's not you who provide the downloads, then someone else will. This IS a pirate forum after all.

Moreover, even with the ownership of your own game thread, you won't have full control over what happens there. You arem't allowed to prevent leaked or pirated downloads and if you try to delete them, you'll lose the ownership.

I don't know how Steam or other retail platforms handle this, but to be on the safe side you should let others handle the uploads or like justpassingbyreally wrote. No need to get kicked out of Steam for that.


By the way, am I the only one who occasionally gets the impression that quite a few people don't seem to know that this is a piracy forum.

 

[cutepen]

Depends on the dev if they choose to pop here "officially" or not.
But the games one way or another, sooner or later, end up being leaked here anyway.
So, may as well make your own thread and take control of it and it's updates for the extra advertisement, if nothing else.

That was kind of my initial motivation, I've already had some of my prior games pirated, so I thought being here at least lets me talk to the people who play the game.

When you say "make your own thread", what kind of thread do you have in mind? I know there's "game requests" and "uploader", but neither of those are really "hey I made this game"?

 

[MissFortune]

That was kind of my initial motivation, I've already had some of my prior games pirated, so I thought being here at least lets me talk to the people who play the game.

When you say "make your own thread", what kind of thread do you have in mind? I know there's "game requests" and "uploader", but neither of those are really "hey I made this game"?

redknight00 explained it here, in the context you're looking for. You basically post here with this template (scroll down the OP just a bit and you'll find it.)

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

When you say "make your own thread", what kind of thread do you have in mind? I know there's "game requests" and "uploader", but neither of those are really "hey I made this game"?

You can probably just request your own game and in the thread mention that it's your game and you'd like to be given control of the thread when the thread gonna be moved to the "game" section, you can probably find all the rules and format you need to abide by explained in the "game request" section, pretty sure one of the stickies there explains everything.
I wouldn't bother with the creation of another account and stuff like what justpassing suggested. Just do it like normal.

EDIT: Or i guess MissFortune up there beat me to it and given you links too. Good luck.