itch.io

If it is not indexed quickly, there is a queue with rather unpredictable waiting time. It can be days or weeks. It can also become "overlooked" or not indexed intentionally. Since no information is given, an observed "maximum" seems to be around 30 days. After that you might want to appeal or complain.

And should it be about a mature game, you have to be logged in and have mature content enabled to search and find it. (The game in question here is not marked as mature, but some of these indexing threads are about this issue).

Also the search features are being changed currently. So it might be, that you do not find your game, because it is not in the ~60 results that come up with your search term. Full titles work best for search, but some titles conist only of generic words. You can check the tag combinations of your game, if it is indexed. Like so https://itch.io/games/tag-3d/tag-atmospheric/tag-creepy/tag-dark/tag-first-perso...

If they are spammy, you can remove the account as such by reporting it to support. I have yet to encounter this spam tactics. And itch gets abused right and left, but not with this one, as far as I know. Maybe it is rare? Or you meant something else with spammy.

Following a user is somewhat strange, and some people mistake itch for a social media site. But you do actually have a public collection and post frequently. An odd follower here and there is not uncommon.

This question most often does not even arise. It would only be valid in the cases where there is the possibility of choice. And if you remove the games that are only webplayable, because the engine offered an html5 export, it is even less.

It is two different approaches and traditions. Web games "historically" were hosted on content aggregators. Often specifically created for that purpose. Most of those were flash games. They were made to attract people to play that game on a site.

Downloadable games are a continuation of the games that were distributed on discs. People are used to having "a copy" of a game. Even if it now is fully digital distribution.

The term casual might apply here. It is lack of "commitment". Downloading something is a bit of effort, while playing a browser game is basically just opening a webpage.

You can add online features in the mix to make this more complicated.

But in the end, it just heavily depends on the game. You would rather play "Bejeweled" as a browser game or a mobile app and you would rather play "Doom",  "Super Mario" and "Minecraft" as a downloadable game.

And to answer the question, it does also depend on the game. Do I believe that the advertised game is sufficiently playable in a browser? Would I want to play this game without being on my browser? It go either way. 

It does help when you can only partially remember the name

That feature existed before. It was improved. But it still is title matching. It now matches url and creator display names too. Short description was matched before, but as far as I observed, if it could fill the results with title matches, those usually had more relevance.

The number of results seems capped more than before. It was something like x = exact title matches + 60 or less. It seems now to be x = 60 or less with exact title matches no longer leading the results, nor being mandatory included.

Also, the relevance ordering seems kinda strange.

If you type neighbor, it will show you the game "That's not my Neighbor" in suggestions starting with "ne" already. But the search

https://itch.io/search?q=neighbor 

does not even have that game in the results (currently). And "neighbor" is the only real noun in that title.

The game will show up for "that's", and even for "that". But it currently does not show up for "thats". So much for the typo correction. It does show up for "thats not my", but since the game also does show up for "not my", that does not tell us anything.

--

The query results have changed since. The game shows now with "ne" or more, as a search term. It will also show up for "thats". 

That the search will match 60 results to "ne" is curious. While this is not a good term to search with, one would expect to match a lot more than 60 titles. But those everyday short words are not good titles. Like fps for example. Those are better used as tags, not as title fragments. You do not search with "fps" to find "banana fps".

In my opinion it depends all on what the search is supposed to do and to make it understood to the people using that feature - without need to consult a message board. I have different expectations from a box called "Title Search" in contrast to "Tag Search", "Keyword Search" or just "Search". Or expectations about a box that does not even tell it is a free write in box and disguises as a drop down list.

Finding those threads? I remember those, but as so much it might not be a definitve answer in those threads. Itch does not like to explain the inner workings and is opposed to search term optimisation and similar things.

So if you make a "devlog" with a "major update", just for the sake of it, without having new major content, it might not get approved. But that was the gist of it. Make a blog that is labelled a major update, and you might appear on recent again.

I would hope you can appear there without a blog post, since it would give a somewhat unfair advantage to people who blog a lot over the people that really update their content without making a buzz about it.

And if someone regularly deletes a page and re-creates it to appear in recent, itch staff might notice and might ban that account or remove publishing privileges or delist the author. That deletion-to-update thing should not be done for other reasons, but some people do it out of ignorance, and some really to try to game the system. https://itch.io/t/3693485/do-not-update-your-games-by-deleting-them-and-uploadin...

It is a matter of perspective, but you can have a paid downloadable for a web game - or a web playable version of a paid downloadable. On the same page.

From what was hinted in community, the alogrithm boosts new games for an unknown time frame in the popularity ranking. I do not know of any hints that they do this for old games or cycle through old games to boost them again. But the intention in those hints seemed to be, to push all the games a little bit. So, maybe. Also, old games can appear in recent again, after a "major update". And if that is really only after a devlog, they should change this. Games get a little boost by the devlog alone, since it is yet another location that has a recent system and links to the game.

So your original post is about a hypothetical situation, is it?

On itch this question does not arise and I am wondering how you even got the impression it was possible, as you might have noticed.

The platform hosts the files and deals with access to your project after a purchase. That is what leafo was referring to. You would have to implement drm on top of the restriction that only a paying customer can access your paid content.

And your first language does not change by moving ;-) Native language is another word for it. It is a statement about the past. Not a statement about which langauge you know best or speak daily.

Ok, English is not my first language, so maybe I need a translator. 

Can you please explain this:

Do you think is better to set a product for unlimited download after purchasing or set a limited number of time they can download it?

Actually I use to set "unlimited"

Where do you see an option for "unlimited" or "limited" downloads? Where do you "set" unlimited?

Because to my understanding of English, by saying "I use to set unlimited" you did in fact claim to be able to do so.

You do not understand. Maybe use a different translator.

You claimed to be able to limit the time frame something can be downloaded after purchase.

Do you think is better to set a product for unlimited download after purchasing or set a limited number of time they can download it?

Actually I use to set "unlimited"

Three people, including the site admin, told you, this should not be possible. So what are you talking about? Do you read a translated version of the itch user interface? What option in the project makes you think you can limit the downloads after purchase?

You might have noticed the recent complaints , when itch was unavailable there. There are not that many indie gaming platforms. Itch will get indexed very fast on the major search engines.

Something even bad actors exploit by hosting impostor games on itch or making blog posts with links to malware. They know that itch will show up in search results.

So, it is not random. If people search for indie games about the topic you make, you might get hits from search engines world wide.

Well done.

Might want to update now the help text inside the search box. "Search for games or creators".

And maybe consider a clarification at some places, that this box will not search tags. There are many threads in community where this is not understood: that there is a second search box that is a write in box with non fixed tags you can enter and filter with, in addition to the suggested tags. It also has misleadingly a help text, that reads: "Select a tag". I remember a heated discussion where someone did not understand that  (View all tags) is simply an untrue statement, if taken literall. It is all "suggested" tags. Not all tags. It is not an exhaustive list. It was months after first using itch that I realized that one can actually write in that drop down box, and not just as a quick select for the entries of that box. As a counterexample, the tags on Steam are exhaustive.

In other words, the search for example with "banana" will give different results than the tag browse page of "banana".

The search box results imply that it will deliver tags, if you happen to search for a suggested tag. Like "horror". It will spell out for you several horror tags. But if you search for banana, it will not notify you, that there is in fact a banana tag used by about 200 projects. Searching for banana will give the usual roundabout 60 projects and people make threads about not understanding, that search results are cut off, or complain why their game is not in the results. A simple note at bottom of search result might deal with that. (Reminding that those results are mostly literal title search and that there is an unlimited tag browsing available as well, and that results were cut off. Especially single word searches might have been an attempt to browse/search for a tag. Or a keyword - something neither search nor tag browsing can achieve, but some people might expect from a box called search.)

Community announcements are all good and well, but the vast majority just does not read here.

If you’re looking to browse by category, we recommend using our browse pages and filtering by tag.

Something like this I would imagine at top or bottom of the search results. Along with the info, that these results were capped and that full titles might be required to find what is searched.

--

Oh, and try using a zoom level greater than 100% or a less than wide screen. The filter_label will flow over. I am surprised you did not use the same drop down box as seen on the browse page, to switch between games and assets.

when translating with Bing, your instructions were clearer

Ouch.

But as a pragmatic adivce, one can open up two translation pages. Write the text, translate it, and translate it back. If it sounds weird, the original might not have been as clear to begin with. If it translates understandable back, this should indicate, that the translator page understood the meaning, since the meaning was preserved through two translations.

Since itch has a worldwide audience, this is an interesting question. And what is considered sensitive is subject to a lot of subjectivity and local bias.

The tricky part is, to know, if you have to check that box. Especially for simple nudity. Or in the continuum between a jump scare and gore horror to set the line between made for adults only and being ok for "kids".

So I would check four things.

1. Is my target audience 13+ or 18+?

2. Will facebook mums get outraged, if their 13yo kids play your game?

3. Are similar popular games on itch marked as sensitive or not?

4. Would a streamer get in trouble for broadcasting gameplay of your game on the major platforms?

Especially 3. should give a good answer, since most stuff here is "correctly" marked.

This is not youtube or steam. The platform does not really push any games. And the recommendation feature is ... underdeveloped.

So a definitive maybe would be the answer. Your game could be pushed a little by being in some of those featured list, but it mostly is a feedback loop with outside promotion that makes games popular, so they rise in popular ranking and appear higher up in tag ranking when people browse for games.

So it can happen, but most things just get drowned by all the other things.

Basically it is a chicken and egg sitution. You need to be known to be known. Itch's stance is, to not rely on internal promotion. So any answer you might get here, will heavily depend on the outside promotion that is done.

But it sure would be an interesting read, if someone can give data on this.

I’m not sure what you referring to. 

I am referring to this very thread here, with the "obviously" you did not quote.

There are options that read like this. Obviously. I think op might talk about the option to sell a limited amount of a thing.

Also, the complaints about confusing features were not about those features as such, as I explained in the last paragraph. They were examples for a general issue that seems to occur frequently: users do not grasp what some features on this site do. (Or else, why does this thread exist in the first place?) There are many, many threads in community that show this issue at the core. Maybe it has to do with the world wide audience. Maybe it is just quirks of itch. I could give more examples, but those quirks do get troublesome if it is about payment options. I assume that for everyone not understanding a certain feature and posting about it, there are many more that have the same issue, but do not speak up.

You have more insight about the support inquiries. If people ask "stupid" questions about a feature/pricing option/etc, it means, that the site might explain it better. Like those limited downloads. And, it is speculations that those rewards were meant, since there is something limited about it. I believe there is a language/translation issue somewhere.

But however it happened, it looks to me, that op did read/understand something on itch to mean, that there is an option to have limited downloads. 

It was not advice. Everyone here is wondering what you even talk about. Because there is no configuration option on itch to limit downloads of a purchsed item for the buyer.

Actually I use to set "unlimited"

Where? What? How? 

Hoping that people would search your keyword title by accident is not a good strategy. That is what tags are for. Also, with your wording of "find the games with one word or tags", you apparantly do not know that there are two search boxes. The search box does not search by tags and tags are exhaustive results, if the games are not blocked by other reasons. Like being an adult game or not being indexed at all. The search by title results are not exhaustive. It is limited to about 60 results + exact title matches or something similar.

Itch could communicate this better. Making it more clear that the search is title search and on the results page, that this is not showing all results.

Where do you read this number? Did you previously have the app and games installed?

itch.io does not offer the option to limit the number of times a file can be downloaded

There are options that read like this. Obviously. I think op might talk about the option to sell a limited amount of a thing. Rewards or whatever. Also there is talk somewhere about limiting the keys one can give away. But even after asking for clarification, op did not really clear things up and seems to still think there is a thing that can be limited.

Pricing options on itch are confusing sometimes. And please fix already that you can increase your "payment level". So called individually prices files are a broken concept as it is now. You cannot buy something priced for 10 and later increase your level to 15 to get the bonus item at 15.

It gets worse for bundles and individual tiers and discounts. Also bundles very often do not communicate clearly, that there actually is no bundle discount whatsoever. There sometimes is, but often there is none. I picked the first bundle on sale and it says: "Each item 50% off! or buy everything for $116.85! Regularly $233.85". Half of 233.85 is 116.925, so I guess there is rounding errors with those 15 items ( 15 half cents would be the difference from .85 to .92) and since every item in that bundle is individually at 50% discount right now, there is no bundle discount. Which is not clearly communicated. The wording even implies, that there is a bonus for buying the bundle. "or buy everything for x".

Semantically I take issue with the "or". It indicates an alternative with different options/outcome. But it is the exact same thing for the buyer. Buying every item in that bundle for half price is the same as buying the whole bundle. That a single transaction is better for all parties involved is a given. But if you had a shopping basket, that would not be such a clear advantage. 

Anyways, pricing options are plentyfull and the developers know just as much or as little as the gamers about them, as this thread here demonstrates. Misunderstandings should be minimized by clear non ambigous wording. Some developers do not even understand, that they can update their projects without deleting the project. 

Games installed via the Itch.io app typically store their saves in a directory within the app's data folder.

English is not very precise here. Which app do you talk about?

Because, well, the itch app and the installed games do not care either way. Itch is not Steam. The app only downloads the stuff for you, there is no "install" in most cases. It is unzip and run. It does not matter if the app does this, or if you do this with your browser. 

Especially with renpy games. All renpy games I know, are "portable". They do not care, where the executeable is. They will save their save game in two locations. That user folder in appdata and the game folder as a backup.

// ==UserScript==
// @name         itch genre filter
// @namespace    nonamespace
// @version      1
// @description  itch genre filter tampermonkey
// @author       https://redonihunter.itch.io/
// @match        *://itch.io/*
// @run-at       document-end
// @grant        GM_setValue
// @grant        GM_getValue
// @grant        GM_listValues
// @grant        GM_deleteValue
// ==/UserScript==
// setup: copy into tampermonkey, edit configs, save
// usage: click the buttons on browse pages genre to change appearance of genres
(function () {
    if (!document.querySelector('.game_cell')) { return; }
    // configuration start
    const genre_filter_style = '{opacity:0.05}'; // '{display:none}' '{opacity:0.05}'
    const button_color_x = 'Tomato';
    const button_color_o = 'BlanchedAlmond';
    // configuration end
    const genre_filter = document.head.appendChild(document.createElement('style'));
    genre_filter.innerText = '.gfs' + genre_filter_style;
    hook_buttons();
    const observer = new MutationObserver((mutationsList, observer) => {
        const temp = [];
        for (var i = 0, ii = mutationsList.length; i < ii; i++) {
            mutationsList[i].addedNodes.forEach((node) => {
                if (node?.classList?.contains('game_cell')) { temp.push(node); }
            });
        }
        if (temp?.length) { update_cell_styles(temp); }
    });
    observer.observe(document, { childList: true, subtree: true });
    update_cell_styles(document.getElementsByClassName('game_cell'));
    function do_not_ignore_here() {
        if (document.URL == 'https://itch.io/library/recommendations') { return false; }
        return (/^https\:\/\/.+\.itch\.io\/$/.test(document.URL) || document.URL.startsWith('https://itch.io/profile/') ||
            document.URL.startsWith('https://itch.io/my-collections') || document.URL.startsWith('https://itch.io/c/') ||
            document.URL.startsWith('https://itch.io/my-purchases') || document.URL.startsWith('https://itch.io/library') ||
            document.URL.startsWith('https://itch.io/my-feed'))
    }
    function update_cell_styles(cell_list) {
        if (do_not_ignore_here()) return;
        const ugly_string = GM_getValue('ugly_string', '');
        var genre;
        for (var i = 0, ii = cell_list.length; i < ii; i++) {
            genre = cell_list[i]?.querySelector("div.game_cell_data > div.game_genre")?.innerText;
            if (genre && ugly_string.includes(genre)) {
                cell_list[i].classList.add('gfs');
            } else {
                cell_list[i].classList.remove('gfs');
            }
        }
    }
    function hook_buttons() {
        const ul = document.querySelector('ul > li > a[href="/games/genre-action"')?.parentElement?.parentElement;
        if (!ul || document.getElementById('rfbid')) return;
        const reset_filter_button = document.createElement('button'); reset_filter_button.innerText = 'Reset Genre Filter';
        reset_filter_button.id = 'rfbid';
        ul.appendChild(reset_filter_button);
        reset_filter_button.addEventListener('click', () => {
            for (const li of ul.childNodes) {
                const btn = li.querySelector('.gfbxobtn');
                if (btn) {
                    btn.innerText = 'O';
                    btn.style.backgroundColor = button_color_o;
                }
            }
            GM_setValue('ugly_string', '');
            reset_filter_button.style.backgroundColor = button_color_o;
            update_cell_styles(document.getElementsByClassName('game_cell'));
        });
        const ugly_string = GM_getValue('ugly_string', '');
        reset_filter_button.style.backgroundColor = ugly_string ? button_color_x : button_color_o;
        for (const li of ul.childNodes) {
            const genre = li.querySelector('a')?.innerText;
            if (genre) {
                const btn = document.createElement('button'); btn.innerText = ugly_string.includes(genre) ? 'X' : 'O';
                btn.style.backgroundColor = ugly_string.includes(genre) ? button_color_x : button_color_o;
                btn.classList.add('gfbxobtn');
                li.appendChild(btn);
                btn.addEventListener('click', () => {
                    var us = GM_getValue('ugly_string', '');
                    if (us.includes(genre)) {
                        us = us.replace(genre, '')
                        btn.innerText = 'O';
                        btn.style.backgroundColor = button_color_o;
                    } else {
                        us += genre;
                        btn.innerText = 'X';
                        btn.style.backgroundColor = button_color_x;
                    }
                    reset_filter_button.style.backgroundColor = us ? button_color_x : button_color_o;
                    GM_setValue('ugly_string', us);
                    update_cell_styles(document.getElementsByClassName('game_cell'));
                });
            }
        }
    }
})();

"simple" ;-)

Well, it is trivial to modify the page on client side. Based on the information the client has. The main genre is displayed, so yeah, that one could be filtered. Will not work for secondary genres (genres selected as a tag).

You can put your code in a bookmarklet, instead of using the console. Unfortunately the genre is not selectable by css, otherwise you could use a user style addon, as you could do to filter developers or items.

I made a tampermonkey script, if you want to test it. It is the whole other reply, for easy copy pasting. I made a similar one for filtering items and even have an unpublished extension, but quite a lack of interest, despite there being so many threads about filtering.

--

Oh, and that tampermonkey script sticks and it will filter out genres on search pages, but there is no button on a search page to deactivate it. You need to go to a browse page to remove the filtering. Hence the differently colored button. If you use display:none as a style, you will not even notice that the filter is on in endless scroll mode.

There is possibility to set a limited timeframe to download? This is not how digital stores are supposed to work. Not, if they call it selling and purchase. You sure that option does what you think it does?

If you select a tag in browse you will see at bottom left some public collections. Chances are, that people put similar games on a collection.

So find any of the games you like and look what tags are commonly used. The suggested tag box is not exhaustive. On the other hand, just because a tag exists on other sites, does not mean, that people will use it here. So go on game pages of games and click the links in the more information box.

Things like body shape are seldom tagged. Activities more often. So there is a eating and stuffing tag used. There is no slim tag, but some people use fat as a tag.

Your project is not indexed. That is all there is to it.

From what I understand about the process, new published and some updated projects go through an automated black box that says one of three things.

1. index

2. no index and manual review needed

3. no index

If you land in 2, either by random or things like payment issues or certain activities that might trigger manual review, there is a waiting time, that can be anything between hours and several weeks. And after manual review you could also have been sorted into 3 intentional, as is described here. I do not know if projects can land in 3 automatically, but I suspect it could happen, or at least, staff can "overlook" your project. Whatever that means. At least that is what the nice mod always says. If that were the real thing that happened, that would mean, that their internal task system is unreliable. But the mod is not staff, and it probably is just a phrase.

Haaha. Not that your reply is wrong in any way, but I happen to have looked at that particular comment section a while ago ;-)

You can hit load next several times and still be only three days deep... someone might have posted the same problem though. But most likely op will be directed to:

https://nachogames.itch.io/thats-not-my-neighbor/devlog/708650/read-if-you-have-...

This sounds like something that is not usually done in the indie sector. It is common in the "non-indie" sector. But usually it is the whole game studio that gets bought and sold.

Buying a single game from a still existing studio? Are there examples? Professional ones. I have seen hobbyists to try sell their source code for a couple bucks. And I would guess there are unfinished games that changed studios. Or more often, as was said, publishers.

There is nothing inherently ethical or unethical about all this. But in the low budget indie sector, there is the issue of trust and the problem of marketing. If you are a successful indie developer, selling out can cost you or the project fans. If you are an unsuccessful indie developer, why would anyone buy your unsuccessful project? The buyer would have to market it and maybe finish it. And here might be the point where you want to establish yourself, if I read your intentions correctly. Buying such unfinished gems, polishing them and marketing them. Which sounds like a hard thing to do, and offering "only" publishing services sounds a lot easier in comparison.

Also, in the indie sector you have to be especially careful about the legal baggage of things you aquire. Amateur single developers might not have been overly knowledgeable in the legality of the assets licenses they use. Stuff like using non-commerical items and such, for example.

It is the locale code for languages as used by internet browsers. United Kingdom is en-GB, if you want to distinguish from en-US.

My opinion on the matter.

1. What would you imagine they could do? Beyond calling tech support.

2. They do host their own website. But if you have more traffic than a very small company, "hosting" yourself would equate to having a cloud service. Next you ask, if they can't have their own power plants, instead of dealing with the power companies.

And yes, bigger companies actually do just create their own cloud - and promptly rent it out to others. Find out, what aws stands for. And with solar roofing and such, many companies do create partially their own power, but I am not aware, if a company created their own power company.

3. Steam and Google have a lot more redundancy and backup systems. 

https://itch.io/games/lang-en

https://itch.io/games/lang-es-419

There is. But I do not know, if there is a button for it. Anything in the more information box that links to url beginning with itch.io/games is a search filter for browse.

You can use "site:itch.io keyword" on most search engines ;-)

The search box is just not a keyword search box and it seems that many people do not understand this at first. Also, it is not clear at first sight, that you can write in the tag box and are not limited to the suggested tags there.

For those suggested tags, the search box does give those tags as results, just not the titles that have those tags directly. You have to click the "strategy" tag shown to you, after searching for strategy.

The title of that project has 8 search term tokens. Yes, even the "-" is a search token. Typing the "name" of your game is not enough. You need to use all of the title.

(Your game could still have been deindexed for a while though.)

I literally wrote  "search results will typically have all of the full title matches and fill up with about 60 partial matches"

I might have used other wording for the fill up, it is just an observation that you will often have around 60 matches.  I guess those are the searches where there are few exact title matches and many partial ones. Try searching for tetris. Or try searching for something unpopular like chronometer and count the results.

But search is being overhauled right now. But if you really do search strategy, it will show you the tag strategy, where all games are to be found that have tagged strategy and are indexed.

There is css issues when zoomed or when the browser windows is slightly less wide. . Similar css issues, as when you have a sale, that moves the feed button under the search box. Or when on your own profile, the feedback button is not visible.

I do not see where you can search or find creators. On the plus side, it does seem to search the display name, or rather games from accounts that match the search query by display name, where you previously had to use the exact profile name. On the downside, this will make impersonation and search engine optimisation by name change to something famous more effective.

I do not know if that is related to the itch app search, and I do not really use the app, so I am not sure how much of this is new or always was so, but when I tried to used it now to see if the css issue is there too, since the display area there is less wide, search there seems broken to me and it shows me a login button, even though I am logged in by app.

To rephrase: I log in with the app, I click explore, it shows me the url itch.io with popular tags on right side, instead of left side. And there is a log-in and register button. The footer is cut off by css with the popular tag section that is on the right side. I do not find the feed button. 

There is a search button on the left side, but it does not search. It only suggests and when I write the suggestion, like "poem" just now, and press enter, it does not show search results for "poem" it just opens the first game in that suggestion box.

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Oh, the separation by assets and games and such works. Maybe consider using the same drop down box design as seen on https://itch.io/games to select those subcategories to save on horizontal space.

What makes you think your project is unlisted?

Search does show you tags. But not all tags, only the ones that are in the suggestion box. Try searching for fps.

Bottom line is, why should people search for your game's name. Also that name is not a name, but a generic description like those:

d&d rpg

mushroom platformer

See?

And both of the words in your game's title are also used as tags. And tag search is not cut off. It will show you all 10000 games that have fps as a tag.

Well said.

I would not exactly call it a developer's site, but the ones that do post in community are more often than not. The ones posting on games, it is the other way round. The vast majority does not post comments anywhere.

But not many people read community, at all. It is a tiny fraction of the users. Just look at the view numbers of threads. And those seem not unique views. It seldeom reaches 3 or 4 digits. There are accounts that have 20k followers and more.

Gaining viewers and followers is extra hard, if you try to do that by existing on itch. It is a trickle. Have a game people would want to play, and chances are, the traffic from google will be higher than from internal links of browse pages. And of course, from all those streamers and youtubers that might play your game and send traffic over.

The recommendation feature on itch is quite underdeveloped. Like, really. Let me phrase it like this: Some people are not even aware of that feature, just as some people are not aware that you can search for tags on Steam. There, the situation is the opposite. The recommendation features are overwhelming. You do not even feel the need to tag search for new stuff.

The consequence, as I see it, is this general lack of internal promotion. Oh, there is a little bit, some boost here and there, but I see people here complain in comments about missing features in tag search all the time, and not about missing features in game recommendations. This tells me, that people use itch fundamentally different than steam. And there might be a feedback loop on both sites for this behaviour. The algorithm on steam rewards itself for recommending games that the player does play. The algorithm on itch is so hidden that people use the browse features by tags.

Are you referring to this?

https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines#avoid-obtrusive-advertisements-...

That is quality guidelines. Not tos. If people complain about your game, it might get removed from index, if staff agrees.

In other words, obtrusive ads are not forbidden. What is forbidden, is "adware".  And from context it can be assumed that they talk about the malicious kind of adware and not the technical definition of games that get revenue by showing ads, like so many mobile apps do.