Organizing a Game Testing event. Can I ask a small entrance fee?
I'm organising a Game Testing event for a couple of games I'm working on.
Since I'm recently out of a main job, I'm looking into becoming a self-publishing independent designer which means I need to look for monetary income (which I'm honestly pretty bad at).
I managed to get a "for you for free" rent of a separate room in a gaming café to host the event, but now I find myself wondering if it would be ethical or not to ask a participant fee (in line with the gaming fee the café would ask to play games from their library).
Since the gaming fee would not be asked for playing my games, participants wouldn't be charged double, just paying the fee to me directly instead of to the café.
Reasons to ask the fee:
- I need the money to put into further development of the games tested.
Reasons not to ask the fee:
- I should be grateful for people wanting to spend their time testing my games.
What's your opinion on this?
EDIT: Thanks for all the replies and clear general consensus! I knew it didn't feel right so definitely won't be charging fees, but since the idea was reached out to me, I felt like I had to ask. There's a very big drive (from my parents and some others with an "interest" in my career) to get income before actual sales, but these replies make it clear to me that there is no ethical way to possibly achieve that. Income will have to come from sales at the end of the line, no other/earler way. 😇