Back to philosophy, but the uncomfortable part this time: the part studios usually keep behind closed doors.
One whole side of making games never shows up in the feature list: the constant wrestling between what we want and what's actually possible right now, with our size and our means. Every small studio lives inside that tension. We're no exception.
So let's actually talk about money. We're researching pricing seriously: the market, comparable games, what a game like ours should reasonably cost. This isn't a promise, it's an intention stated out loud so you can hold us to it. We want as many people playing our games as possible, and we never want someone to land on our Steam page, think "I'd like to play this," and close the tab because it's too expensive. We'll try hard to keep pricing fair, and if the scale has to tip, we'd rather it tip toward you than toward us.
The honest other side: of course we'd like to make a comfortable living from this. Of course we dream about the day it's our only job. We're not above wanting that. But we don't want to get there by pushing the price up until our lives are comfortable. Our comfort isn't your problem to fund.
Here's the part that makes this possible at all: right now we're not working with a publisher. We're publishing ourselves. That's a risk. A publisher brings money, marketing, safety, and also someone else's spreadsheet in the room, someone else deciding the price, the ship date, which features "make the most money." Self-publishing means we get to price the game the way we believe is right, without outside pressure on that decision. It's the freedom we're paying for with the risk, and we think it's worth it.
No promises about the future, promises are cheap and nobody knows what the world looks like at release. But an intention, stated in public, by name. When our first Steam page goes live, come back to this post and check the number against these words. We intend for them to match.