Thanks for the clarification and advice!
I’ve already uploaded a free 7K digital art as a freebie. But its clearly labeled as "Free poster" so hopefully that won't confuse the algo into thinking its a playable file? its also marked as "image" from the upload type dropdown menu. We definitely don't want itch to think the demo is released yet, as that would ruin our actual demo launch visibility. We do want people to download out art and even print it out if they want - its 7k file super detailed file so hopefully at least one person will enjoy it.
Your point about devs needing to to do self promotion: Do you mean inside itch or outside? Outside itch, we are promoting the game on around 10+ platforms already over the last 40 days (Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Bluesky, Linkedin, Discord, Pinterest, DeviantArt, IndieDB ). and now we are expanding our promotional efforts to Itch - hence our published game page and free digital art. However, since this conversation is happening here on Itch, I’d prefer to keep the discussion focused on strategies and insights specific to the Itch platform itself.
One quick follow-up question: does a game page with no downloadable or playable files show up at all in Itch’s “Most Recent” or search results? Or is having a download required before any visibility happens? and if so, do digital artwork downloads count? or only playable builds/demos?
Appreciate the insight and your time! Looking forward to figuring out to use itch to promote our game ahead of our August demo launch
Thanks again!