Contending Against Steam
Like many people, I have a Steam account and do a huge percentage of my video game shopping on Steam. It's convenient to have your collection available from multiple devices, and the games are very often heavily discounted compared to buying the same thing elsewhere. I prefer my Switch, but there's no denying price sensitivity especially in this economy.
If you're a developer, simply put, you kinda have to be on Steam because that's where everyone is. Some people will even call you selfish if you decide not to release your game on Steam (you get a lot of very amusing emails if you do creative works on the net). Some people equate presence on Steam with quality, but this is simply not true because anyone can get their game jam project on the platform if they are willing to shell out $100.
I run a doujin game circle, which is a fancy way to call four friends making small stuff in their bedrooms. My personal stuff are usually free, but since this is not just one person's labor we decided to release our games for a small amount of money. We never intend to make profit, mostly as long as they self-sustain we're happy. Our preferred platform is itch.io, but itch's presence is so small in this vast ocean. Indie developers love itch. Small bedroom creators love itch. I find that itch players tend to be kinder and nicer.
All of us have been involved with indie games before and worked in the industry in various capacity, so we're pretty familiar with the scene. We just never bothered to sell our stuff before (we did work on several commercial studio titles that did well on Steam). This time we sort of made enough to register for a Steam page, so we did. For something launched without fanfare or any attempt at marketing, we did well! In the sense that we made our $100 back (as I said, we weren't looking to make profit). Or so we thought. I did technical works for other projects, so this was my first time navigating the labyrinthine Steamworks Partner site.
Steam would only pay you if you reach a minimum of $100 payout. Our little game finally made $143 (after tax) after we got featured on a festival. I was relieved because that would be enough to cover another small game and give us a little budget to do some other stuff. However, I have read the data completely wrong and only realized it after Steam sent us the usual "no payment because you have not reached $100 in the previous month". Digging out the reports, the amount we would have received is still sitting at $96. Welp. The number $143 shown in the dashboard is before Steam takes their cut. And before withholding. If your country doesn't have favorable treaty with the US, you'll probably cry harder.
It's honestly my own mistake. Some of you might be laughing at my folly. And I might too, in the following days. Currently I'm just really sad. VN devving is just a hobby for me, all of us have day jobs, so we're not relying on the money to eat. The cut Steam took could feed the four of us for almost a week (joy of living in a developing country with weak currency). I can't imagine how it would feel to do this full time. You'll have to sell so many copies to get to livable amount, and the country we're living in is already among the lowest in living cost (The ones around us make their living from Patreon and Ko-Fi in addition to game sales or have garnered audience from way way way way way back).
We're already accepted to a festival in November for our next game, but I'm seriously thinking there might not be much value for us in putting our games on Steam anymore given our goal (just make stuff). Putting them on itch.io doesn't give us any kind of pressure to make anything back, we can just move onto another project.
I'm still reeling over this mistake and it feels like something I should have discovered months before. I should have realized that the number shown on the dashboard felt way too close to the gross value and Steam wouldn't take so little. Feeling bad breaking the news to my friends too. The post title comes off a bit strongly and I feel sorry if you feel clickbaited. Honestly, it's not like I know what to feel about this. Steam is a commercial space, so of course it's not a good fit when we don't try a more commercial angle. I've seen reactions all across the spectrum. That Steam can take however many they want, since without it small devs would probably not get anything at all? This is why I wish its competitors are more well-known.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, itch.io is not exactly sustainable either by allowing creators to set 0% revenue share to the site. Making it mandatory 5% would probably give it the funds to keep lights on while still being friendly enough to people selling their games. I mainly make free stuff. I don't want itch.io to just randomly fold, which it always feels prone to.
I'm getting off on a tangent. If you read this far and perhaps want to check out some of the things I do, here's my personal itch account and here's my circle's account?