You mention that your overheads setting up a company for the specific purpose of hosting the games and selling them are the driver for the price. That does seem a tad overkill.
I guess that depends - having run a successful audio software business I'm familiar with publishing software and content online, and its often wise in any business venture to have some useful kind of separation of concerns (and / or liabilities) which a separate entity such as a company can provide. But aside from that, there are also administrative issues, for example I don't currently code-sign the Windows binaries, but increasingly this is becoming a requirement - not just to reassure users about the provenance of the software - but even for Windows to permit it to be installed or even downloaded.
Having been through that process before, my experience has been that its is easier to obtain the necessary permissions and certificates as a company than an individual (that in itself can be a significant overhead depending upon the level of certification required). While my aims are fairly modest, a company also provides a more flexible option to explore other possibilities in future, if the software alone is not self-financing. I think its important to realise that there are sales, as far as I know people are happy with the product and I am more than willing to help address any issues if not. - But, the principle problem for any small business is
visibility. (Prior to this thread
) I was seeing only minimal views on itch and very low traffic despite spending most of my time posting on forums, subreddits, facebook groups etc etc - it began to feel like shouting in the wilderness at times.
It still may be the case that there just aren't sufficient numbers - its a niche activity, and it generally holds true (in my experience) that a 2 - 5% conversion rate is normal for just about anything (and would seem to be backed up by the figures available). And if at every point where a decision is required to continue down the road to a purchase lets say 95 - 98% of people drop out, then you need
a lot of traffic in order to achieve even a few sales or downloads.
That's actually one of the other reasons why I provide not just the tzx and tap files, but audio files, and standalone applications - it might seem redundant, you can use your own emulator etc, or a retro gaming linux distro or whatever, but that can be just another layer of "I can't be bothered" - with these games you can load them onto your vintage computer if you want the full experience, you can start them up on your PC and play exactly the same games with minimal hassle if you don't, or you can use an emulator if you have a preferred setup (my personal favourite is Spectaculator on Windows but there are other options)
