Traditional release tiers (Patreon)

I've noticed a lot of my fellow game devs use a different release cycle from me. They tend to have patreon-only releases to give people early access. Then, after a certain time has passed, that patreon-only release is made public. So the reward to the pledges is they get early access.

My current style is different. Everyone gets early access to the online version, but only $5+ pledges get the downloadable version. The benefit of a public, downloadable version is:

• Some people have slow internet connections and can only play offline. That's a demographic of people who may love my game but would never get to try it.
• Some people only want to play a downloadable version. They won't even try an online version. That's another demographic of people who may love my game but would never try it.
• Some sites only allow or expect a downloadable version. The game can't be shared on those sites which limits/prevents its reach.
• The current system encourages pirating. Rather than fight against it (a battle I can't win and a battle I shouldn't fight), I'd work with it to turn it into a form of marketing.

Really it comes down to this: I think my game will reach more people if I have public, downloadable releases. The more people I reach, the more successful the game will be. The more successful the game, the better I can make it. e.g., I can feed all that income back into more art.

So my proposal is this: $5 pledges will still get the downloadable game as soon as it's released. But whenever I make a new release, I'll make the previous release available for public download. To put it another way, $5 pledges will still get early access to the downloadable version. But now, the public will get download access to old versions.

Please reach out to me if you have any concerns. I'm not going to implement any change this month.