Hi everyone!
Progress on 0.8.0 is starting to wrap up but I wanted to address something that's been brought up by the community and something that has been bothering us for some time.
Earlier, when we announced the Steam release for the game it was stated that when the Early Access goes live on Steam (sometime after the October Next Fest) that Itch.io would no longer be receiving updates.
It was brought to our attention that many users can't use Steam to purchase a game like Project T.H.R.U.S.T. or prefer not to use Steam for other reasons. That's a valid concern and one we'd like to work to address.
As a result, the updated plan is as follows:
Once the Steam Early Access release goes live, the game will also be available to purchase on itch.io, matching the same version available on Steam. This version will be updated along the same schedule as Steam, remaining one version behind the test version which is available to Testers (and higher tiers) on Patreon.
The price will be the same as what is on Steam + $1 USD (not including discounts/sales). The reason being: Steam gets very upset if Steam is not the "primary" platform for your game releases, and this includes pricing/discounts/etc. so it will be a bit more expensive on itch.io but it also means no Steam account or anything like that is necessary.
As well, this is made possible because at the time we first started posting the game on itch.io there were restrictions for selling adult titles. Those restrictions have been eased, meaning we can now sell the game direct on itch.io.
We think this is a viable solution to the issue of players not wanting or being able to use Steam to get the game, and we hope this works for those players.
Anyway, keep an eye out for details on 0.8.0 sometime soon.
Thanks for reading!