Hey there!

I’ve decided to switch Pierrot à la Mode to Free to Play, and I wanted to talk about why that is in case anybody is curious.

Originally, my research told me that free games / demos on Steam don’t translate well to paid sales further down the line, and as this game is essentially a prequel to Gas Station Story (which will be a paid product), I figured it should at least have a small price tag so people aren’t surprised when GSS releases. I also was hoping to gather some funds that would aid me in completing GSS, as I need to commission more music for the final release, as well as pay for things like code signing so I can distribute the Windows app outside of Steam.

However, I’ve noticed that there are a disproportionate amount of wishlists to purchases (not to mention itch.io, which has had 0 sales), even when the game goes on sale to 50% off. I think I may have screwed up my evaluation of how much this 15-20 minute game was worth. I was hoping the $1.99 price tag would allow the game to still be accessible to interested parties, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Which is fair! There are hundreds of games out there that are cheaper or free and offer dozens of hours of replayability, versus the 20-30 minutes you might get out of Pierrot à la Mode (x3 endings). And even in comparison to Gas Station Story, which runs about 4-6 hours per playthrough (x26 endings), that $1.99 for a half hour doesn’t match with what I’m expecting to price Gas Station Story at.

So! I’ve decided to switch Pierrot à la Mode to Free to Play, so that more people can have access to this short story and, hopefully, raise more awareness for Gas Station Story as well. As of right now, after roughly half a year of being live, I haven’t even sold enough copies to even cover the cost of listing the game on Steam, so I’m releasing it into the FtP realm to be enjoyed by whomever stumbles upon it. Alongside this, I’ll be archiving the 1.0 version into the ether (my hard drive) as 1.1 will be the new web player version.

Thanks for reading, and if you’re one of the [redacted] people that bought PalM before this switch, shoot me an email or hit me up @issumatek on instagram to chat! I would be happy to offer a refund to anybody that feels slighted by this switch. One way or the other, I’ll update this page later this year (much later…) with a final lookback and potentially some new content.

A quick plug here because I gotta - the Kickstarter campaign for Gas Station Story will be launching in one month! Give it a pre-save at the link here, or if you’re reading this after February 25nd, give it a pledge if you can! I would really appreciate your support if you’re able to give it - some of the costs associated with officially launching the beast that is Gas Station Story are a little too high for me right now!

Love,
Enzi