Almost 10 years later, indie dev accidentally makes their 10-player co-op platformer free on Steam: "I forgot that once you switch from paid to free, I can never go back"

Pico Park: Classic Edition's indie developer has put an end to 10 years of monetizing the game by accidentally making the well-liked platformer free... for everyone... permanently. Whoops?

In a blog post titled 'Pico Park: Classic Edition is permanently free!', developer Tecopark reveals that the move wasn't a celebratory gesture or anything as joyous as the title might suggest. Instead, the game's free because of a brain hiccup.

"I was planning to switch to a paid plan after updating the online support," the developer states, but I forgot that once you switch from paid to free, I can never go back to paid!"

Still, since one source of revenue's been cut off, the developer instead tried to make lemonade out of lemon skins and direct people's attention to something they can pay for: "If you enjoy playing this free version, be sure to try the series (PICO PARK , PICO PARK 2) too."

And that's definitely a worthy use of your time. The Pico Park series is a lovely co-op platformer featuring a rainbow of cute cats that need to climb on top of each other or create feline pyramids to clear levels, and the newly free one supports up to 10 players.

The Classic Edition enjoys 'Mostly Positive' reviews based on over 1,800 total player reactions, although recent reviews have a slightly higher 'Very Positive' rating, likely because people are more inclined to be generous with their feedback when they haven't spent money on something. 2021's Pico Park is still top of the pack, though, with 9,200 user reviews that also average a 'Very Positive' rating - it's not quite free but it's for sure a good use of £4/$5.

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