Sales, we all have a mixed relationship with them don't we? I mean, most of the games in my various libraries were bought on sale, but man do they suck up what little income I have. But not everyone is seeing them as an overall positive force in the gaming world.

Jason Rohrer - the indie dev responsible for Sleep is Death, Inside a Star-filled Sky, and the upcoming The Castle Doctrine - has written a couple of blog posts about his experiences with Steam Sales, why he feels like they're a bad option for both developers and gamers, and what he plans to do with his upcoming game. He does raise some good points, particularly those concerning the way sales and decreasing prices can screw over players who bought the game early - it is true that being unaware of what you're missing has a different psychological impact than having what you missed thrown right in your face - and that using a different model (the model Mojang used for Minecraft) permits complete openness about your pricing.

In that spirit, Jason has announced that The Castle Doctrine, which is being released on Steam at the end of the month, will be available through his website at the current Alpha price of $8 till release, from there, the price will rise to $12 for the first week of release, before completely settling on the full price of $16 - at which it will remain till the end of time.