A look to the past and to the present (a new great bundle)

Looking back to the past

Money money?

I know I won't "earn my life" with my itchio projects but I consider it's important to receive a symbolic income. On No Witches Just Superheroes (NWJS), this symbolic income was better than my other projects and I know why (spoiler: bundles!). Let's take a look at the short journey of this game:

[Note: money here is before any tax]

• 2021, june – This solo journaling roleplaying game was first published in june, 2021, as part of the 4th issue of the InDie Zine (indie-zine.itch.io). I'm sorry I can't remember how much I earned thanks to this zine but according to my small notebook in which I note my freelance incomes, it seems to be 28$ (including all stuff I did for this issue of the zine: this game, help on layout, drawings of a few creatures for another game). Note: each issue of this zine is priced 4$ and all incomes from the first months are shared between all participants.
• 2021, jul. – When we take part to the InDie Zine, we agree on waiting for 3 months before releasing our games elsewhere. But Marx and the zine-team are pretty kind. They were OK if I released a translated version of my game way before the end of this period. Therefore I was able to translate it into French to submit it to the Following the Leads Jam, because NWJS is based on this cool journaling system. I added 666 666 free community copies on this French version: 21 were claimed over months. And 2 people paid the 2$ asked price over months.
• 2021, nov. – Three months were passed since the InDie Zine release. Because I wanted to submit NWJS to Ind of the Year big bundle and I know this game has an unusual theme (and I'm pretty happy of this one) : I decided to publish on itchio a slightly modified version of NWJS. As I want people to support the zine, I didn't add community copies on this game; 3 people paid the asked price and 1 person kindly tipped +5$ (total income 13$).
• 2022, jan. – As NWJS was in the "40$+" section of the Ind of the Year bundle, I didn't receive as much money as most of people in this bundle, but I'm still pretty glad of what I get: we were 51 creators in the bundle, it raised 1779$, I received approx. 47$.
• 2022, april – As I want to be on Drivethru too, I published it there. One person bought it but apparently I just received 65% of the sale. 1$30. Uh.
• 2022, may-june – When I saw a few months ago the announce for the Queer Games Bundle, I thought NWJS could be great to include. Because you can play the way you want and easily add a queer touch with questions about gender and social roles (yeah, being a non-male person at the time of the witch hunt, you see the point). I'm glad to see hosts offering a Pay-What-You-Can option for this bundle! And what a buzz around this bundle! It aleady raised 54k$! We're 400+ creators involved so I guess I'll receive approx. 100$. We'll see.

I'm glad to already have received almost 100$ for this short game (before taxes). That's of course lot less money than if I had worked at minimum wage for the time I spent on this game, but I'm truly happy to see that so many people are willing to support indie authors through bundles. Thanks to you!

Ratings

From Novembre til December 2021, the English version received 8 five-stars ratings. With a kind word from Solo RPG Voyager (who published they playthrough on their blog). The French version received 2 five-stars rating.

Views and collections

Since its release, English version received 513 Views and was added to 49 collections. That sounds a correct number: more than non-bundled games but way way less than huge-bundled games. It seems great and I guess it can help people find my game, more than if it was in zero collection or if it was in one of the 4-huge itchio bundles.

Since its release, French version received 196 views and has been added to 15 collections (including the 2 I keep updated about all solo games and French solo games). Sounds OK to me for a short French solo game without any fanbase nor "ad".

Queer Games Bundle

a direct action that you can take right now to support queer people in a life changing way and in exchange you get over 500 amazing, heartfelt, fun, and radical games [and zines etc.]

This bundle is a way to help queer people: you pay the price of ONE triple-A game to receive more than 500 indie projects (TTRPGs, video games, zines, comics…) from 413 queer creators. The bunde price is 60$ for all this content, but there's also a PWYC (base price 10$) option bundle if you can't afford the 60$. Yeah, great deal, cool projects, cool people!

These last months were pretty bad and sad to me, therefore I'm so excited to see the support received by this Queer Games Bundle. Thanks to people who have already supported this bundle. Thanks to you who bought NWJS. Thanks to you who have played to NWJS. Thanks to you if you support indie creators in any way (money, rating or sharing etc.)! Once again: your support means a lot!

This bundle will be available until July the 5th!

Link to this bundle: itch.io/b/1404/queer-games-bundle-2022

Link to the pay-what-you-can option: itch.io/b/1405/queer-games-bundle-2022-pay-what-you-can-edition

Thanks

Thanks to you if buy the bundle or speak about it! You can support this bundle by spreading the word and sharing it on social media. On Twitter, you can follow and mention @QueerGameBundle

Thanks to anyone buying, reading, playing, reviewing, rating or supporting in other way indie creators!