So it really is just random checks even if there was no issue previously? I guess it's fine if its really needed for platform safety, but I would be lying if I said it wasn't concerning because there's no indication or notice at all to the developer
Also can you clarify about the thing I asked above, about is most recent sorted by time indexed or the published date? I am not clear about that, thank you for helping me
But that is unfair, I did everything according to the guidelines that was set by the platform for this game and my previous ones
You're saying when my game gets indexed, it will go down along with the previous days/weeks/months's games without being given a chance to be at the top of most recent, to have that sliver of exposure, is what I'm understanding
The brief spike in most recent that you mentioned, has so far been a saving grace to push my previous games into "new and popular" through several thousands of impressions at the very least, when social media posts get no traction, it is no small thing that we can neglect for newer developers like myself
I'm not blaming you, I thank you for bringing this information to me, but I have to say this is a very depressing exposition to be given, I just wish I had understood that earlier as it has made me distraught because I was excited to release a new game
Sorry for venting, is there a way I can get my game to have that sliver of "top of most recent" once it's indexed? Perhaps I can delete the old page once any review is complete to determine nothing is wrong with it, and make an identical one? Any solution you can help me with, I would appreciate it
No, deleting and recreating your game page would get you back to square one. You can try to make a devlog post marked as a Major Release or Update, and if staff approves it, that should place your game back at the top of new releases. But mostly, as explained in many places, you shouldn't rely on indexing for traffic. That's a courtesy to players trying to find a specific game. It's not a marketing tool. In fact directing organic traffic at your game pages is the best and fastest way to ensure they're 1) indexed sooner and 2) ranked better. Hope this helps.
We should not ignore the context, that the draw towards this platform for new game developers is that it gives us a fighting chance and a glimmer of hope to start from scratch specifically through the Most Recent page that we have discussed
I personally could not have kept my motivation to make games going if it wasn't for the Most Recent page that has helped with impressions. Even if it's at the top for a few hours, it pushes my games into New And Popular at least, and I feel comfort knowing that, this platform does give me a fair chance, even from scratch, if I try to make good content for players
If it is the case that we are not guaranteed a fair shot at exposure due to the lateness of being indexed, it should be clearly and aggressively communicated upon developers who just registered and/or creating a new project page
Maybe this has been very clearly communicated and I'm just oblivious, or I have completely misread this platform and its purpose/behavior. These are also possibilities, but I cannot shake the feeling that other new developers must have thought the same as I did, because we see the Most Recent and we make the correlation of a fair shot given to all
I would be less sad if I had known earlier and braced my expectations, it felt like a betrayal of the trust that I had in expecting consistent behavior from the platform. But I know that's not what it is, I'm just explaining where I'm coming from and why I have such a strong reaction to it, I understand the position of this platform now, thank you for enlightening me
As for the devlog workaround you mentioned, I can make a blank one when it is indexed and mark it as a major release? Perhaps I should leave a note inside, explaining that it was indexed late and I'm making this for that purpose? And this does have a clear possibility the staff will approve it?
Your games seem to be good for that particular nieche, so you should be visible to fans of the genre by picking out appropriate tags. Since you do horror games, you might want to select the tags very carefully, as there are so many horror games with generic tags. Or else all you will get is a spike while you accidentally are visible somewhere - like with a major update devlog in a few months. And if you do short one shots, maybe there is a game jam where your games fit in. In my opinion you need to build an audience for these type of games, as I assume you do not have recurring players for the games. In other words, people play it for 5 minutes and move on. Might be completely wrong of course.
As for the tags, these here tell me not really much beyond: it's a horror game.
Survival, Action, 3D, Atmospheric, Creepy, First-Person, Horror, Psychological Horror, Retro, Short, Singleplayer
Survival, Action, 3D, Atmospheric, Creepy, Dark, First-Person, Godot, Horror, Indie, Short, Singleplayer
Survival, 3D, Atmospheric, Creepy, Dark, First-Person, Horror, Indie, Psychological Horror, Short
Those are three different games, are they not? I could not tell by the tags. You can ditch the Indie tag and the Singleplayer tag. They do not carry information on Itch. You can tag things like bigfoot or other things that are related to the games that would distinguish them from similar games.
The tags do help slightly, but in my personal experience, the number one top contributing driver of visits is from being at the top of most recent due to the impressions and visits, and then the visits from most recent would push it into new and popular
Other people might have different results depending on genre/theme or simply different luck or unexplained algorithm behavior, I believe it is not deterministic, I am explaining this has been what worked for two of my games in the past and what I am familiar with, and my capacity is to learn from my experience
Your oldest game is from less than a year ago, and from your posts it sounds like you expected itch.io to promote it for you. That's not how the site is intended to work at all. You should probably double-check your tags and post more in the community so that people know you exist. (I don't mean as in release announcements; I mean simply talking to people. It's a community.) The boost from being at the top of Most Recent is short lived at the best of times, in my experience around a day; a popular post on social media might last you for two or three days. You need to build long-term popularity, and that takes work, both on itch.io and elsewhere.
P.S. My personal recommendation is to make a personal website and/or blog somewhere. There are free hosting options.
No I don't expect itch.io to promote my oldest game, as I've mentioned, so far from my experience, being at the top of most recent is what would propel the games (if we at least put some actual effort into the game, page, and poster) into New And Popular
And perhaps if it is very good, it will do well on that new tab and go to the next tab, and as the "most recent" name implies, this is only for new games, and only one chance for a game, if it falls off, it falls off, and I do not expect itch.io to promote it for me
But on the other hand, I also did not expect that the one chance at discoverability through the most recent page could be taken out of the developers hand, which for established and known developers may not be a problem, but would certainly have an impact on newer developers who expected a fair shot for their projects
And again, it might also be that we're not supposed to depend on itch.io at all, no matter how small, even to give a fair shot to us in the Most Recent tab as I've described, this is what I am learning from our discussion. If this is the case and official stance of the platform, it should be very clearly and aggressively communicated to new developers, since most new developers including myself, would expect the platform to behave consistently and not take away the one helping hand the platform gives us at discover ability
And I have to reiterate, my expectations are not to have the platform consistently promote my old games, or on the other hand have the platform completely provide zero help at all by taking the fair chance at discoverability through the Most Recent page.
No, we must not view it from these extremes, we must take the middle ground and look at it realistically for what it is, that is, the platform indeed is not intended or expected to land a helping hand at discoverability in the long term, but it does give you a fair shot for your game by being at the Most Recent tab to be noticed by players through impressions, and if it is of good quality, it will be propelled into the other tabs which, how far it is propelled, is depending on how good of qualities it has. That's why I said by taking away the chance of the project to be at the top of Most Recent, is unfair, especially for newer developers
I don't know if what I'm saying here resonates with other people or not, or it's only for my genre/theme, or maybe even it's only for me personally, but that is the fair assessment that I can give based on my experience and observations so far, and also the reason why I've said and what I said about taking away Most Recent exposure would be unfair
