In short, I just have made the regional price in the Ukrainian store almost as low as Steam allows me.
Previously, I intended to make the game free in Ukraine. However, it seems there are some technical difficulties for Steam. I am also not able to manually give out free game keys to every Ukrainian player in the world. Thus, I am taking the second-best option which is to make the price of the game as low as possible in the local store. That is from 79₴ to 20₴. A permanent -75% to Ukrainian people.
I am not a hero as they are. I am just trying to do what I can to help.
Even if I have to be the only game developer in China that publically supports Ukraine, so be it.
This is the good part of being an indie game developer, I can do whatever I think is right and nobody can hold me back. No government, no sales number, no mobs, no trolls can affect my decision-making.
This is NEOLITHIC. This is my game.
And,
I will stand with Ukraine to the end of this war.Have you seen the terrible scenes in Bucha? Hundreds of civilians were murdered.
The horror of such a massacre can match Katyn in 1940, Nanking in 1937, and the Holocaust.
Those people died just because they live there, in their homes, in their land. Nobody deserves such fate in the 21st century on this earth.
It shall be quite clear now that it is not just a war against the Ukrainian people. It is a war against all humanity. The tyrant that turned his minions into monsters must be removed. Otherwise, there will only be more tragedies.
Do people really so afraid of WW3 and Putin's nukes so much that want to see such tragedies repeat over and over again? Do police officers trained to stay back instead of engaging when criminals are slaughtering innocent people just because they have big guns?
Do we want to allow a tyrant to stay in power and let this problem unsolved for our future generations to suffer?
Do we want it written in the history book of the future that the entire world just sits back and watches brave Ukrainian heroes slowly dying because everyone else is just lucky enough that they did live in Bucha?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.Can you imagine a world where Germany is still ruled by Hitler today?
If not, why can we tolerate a Russia ruled by Putin?
Ukrainian people seek freedom and independence so they approached NATO.
That's the very reason that Putin started this invasion.
However, NATO, having the best armies in the world, refuses to help Ukraine in a direct confrontation against the biggest threat to all humanity in this world right now just because Ukraine is not a part of NATO yet?
Is what a human being will do when an escaped slave, chased by her old slave master comes to your door asking for help? Will you just decide to shut your door and leave her outside even when you are much better equipped than the thugs come to fetch her?
Is Captain America dead in ice?
Is Batman too old to fight?
Where are all the good people when the world needs them to directly intervene?
Maybe we are truly living in a dark time while many do not even realize it. Democracy all over the world is having one defeat after another in the past years.
So, with respect, but, I think most people who live in the free world nowadays are just too spoiled.
From leaders to common folks, they are just lucky to be born in a safe democratic country, have a happy life, take everything for granted, caring little about other human beings who struggles against evil on the frontline.
Please, prove me wrong and go there to save the world.