Post by redonihunter in Will a Free Wallpaper Unlock "Most Recent" Indexing Before My Demo Launch?

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No one is gonna search your game by name. Not a new game from an unknown developer. Itch will not promote your game (rare exceptions apply). Indexed or not. And your own promotion will include a direct link to the page. This link does not care, if the game in question is indexed or not, or if it contains a playable demo.

If you publish anything on Itch, it goes through a black box. The internals are secret. But it will have one of several results. There might be a delay, and a game can be put into that black box again, if you make an update.

1. Project gets "indexed". A few minutes after publishing it will appear when browsing on the browse pages with tags. It will also appear in ordering by date on the "newest" page. Also called "recent". If you publish and get indexed right away, of course you are on top of recent, because, well, your game is the most recent game.

2. Project gets on a pile of games for Itch staff to look at. As I said, specifics are secret, and maybe even 1 are quickly eyeballed by Staff. I do not know, I do not care, the result is what matter. Either you are indexed within minutes or it takes time. That time can be days, weeks, or over a month. Your game will not be put on top of recent by indexing date, but by publishing date. So if you have to wait 3 weeks, the game will be sorted among the 3 weeks old games.

Do not count on a boost in visibility by being on top of recent. It is pointless and if you release on Steam and have a webpage and whatnot, it will not matter anyway. Your goal is to be on new&popular and popular. The boost of recent is a few minutes of exposure.

3. Project gets quarantined. Same as 2. Staff has to check things and you have to wait.

4. Actually a result of 2 and said to be rare: the project will get intentionally not indexed or deindexed after previously being indexed. Failing to meet quality guidelines might be the reason for that.

5. Same as 4, but by automatic. Hard to tell if that happens or not.

Now. Publishing a devlog of the major update kind can get you on top of recent again. But those are staff approved. And staff will not approve most of those. As a rule of thumb, maybe 1 in 5 and every 2-3 months. If you publish and do a major update a month later, you are actually still on top of recent... just not on page 1.

Again with the exposure, being on Itch is passive. It will not do much. Especially if you have nothing to show. https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines#avoid-only-uploading-keys-or-li...

Itch is not an advertisment platform. They expect you to sell the game here, not upload merely a demo version or a wallpaper. You do can include a steam key with the purchase. https://itch.io/games/steam-key

Does a game page with no downloads or playable files get added to “Most Recent”

A game gets indexed if it gets indexed. Sounds stupid and trivial, but that is what happens. And the recent sorting is simply a sorting by publishing date. Nothing more, nothing less. But some games will have gotten a timestamp bump by a major update.

Publishing date is not the same as on Steam. There is no such thing on Itch. Oh, you can make a page and set a release date, if you wish. Maybe to fulfill some publishing contracts or whatever. It will be displayed in the information box, and files and payments will be unavailable till then. But the publishing date is the date you hit the publish button or whatever it is called. Does not matter if your project is a prototype or a final game.

Will uploading a non-playable file (like a free wallpaper) satisfy the indexing requirement?

https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines#do-not-use-unrelated-tags-or-cl...

Why is this a question? You did not upload a game. If it gets indexed, meh. Who cares. But technically you violate guidelines by publishing a wallpaper as a game. It is not a game. You can use a future release date, if you wish.

Does a game need to be indexed in order to show up in “Most Recent”?

Most recent is literally a list of all indexed games.

https://itch.io/games is the same list as https://itch.io/games/newest The only difference is the way it is sorted. Newest (called recent) is by date. Games is sorted by popularity. You want to be high on the popular lists. Like this one https://itch.io/games/tag-real-time-strategy

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Hypermad147 days ago

Hi, thanks again for your detailed response! there’s a lot of useful insight in what you shared.

That said, I want to clarify a few key points and questions, since some things are still unclear:

1. "Most Recent" & Indexing
From what I understand now, a game only appears in the "Most Recent" list after it's indexed, and indexing seems to depend on a number of factors. Just to confirm - if we upload a free, downloadable file (e.g. a wallpaper), does that technically qualify as “having files” for the purposes of being indexed?

2. Searchability
We’re hoping to appear in searches for tags like "WW1" or "RTS" - but again, it seems we’d need to be indexed first to even show up there. Please confirm if that’s correct.

3. Devlogs
Is posting devlogs before being indexed a waste of time? If devlogs don’t show up anywhere before the game is indexed, we’ll hold off until then. please clarify if devlogs show up int he "devlogs" section even for non-indexed games.

4. Free Art Download Legitimacy
You mentioned that offering a poster might break Itch's rules. If you can point me to a specific rule stating that, I’d appreciate it. If not, I’d prefer not to be told we’re breaking rules unless that’s verifiable - especially since many devs release OSTs and wallpapers on their pages.

And just to clarify: we’re not relying on Itch for all our visibility - we’re pushing across 10+ platforms - but we still want to do our due diligence to understand how Itch works and use its systems properly.

Lastly, no hard feelings, but I do wan to say that suggesting we “have nothing to show” didn’t quite feel accurate or constructive - we’ve launched the page with original high-quality content and art, and we’re just trying to be thorough. If I misread your tone, then I apologize - just trying to maintain mutual respect.

We're not being "fussy" - we're trying to learn the mechanics so we can optimize our Itch approach to uphold the Hypermad standard of excellence across all domains: strategy, art, design, programming, music, and beyond. All good if some parts are secret - that's how it should be. But I wanna learn as much as we can about the platform.

Thanks again to for taking the time to respond - this discussion has helped me refine our next steps ahead of the August demo.

For now my plan is - lay off of itch for a few days - and check back - once our game page is indexed, we will start posting development blogs, as it seems that posting blogs before being indexed will cause them to never really see the light of day.

And we have already posted out itch page on our socials to drive some traffic here.

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redonihunter147 days ago

The list https://itch.io/games/newest is a different sorting of the list https://itch.io/games and this is literally a list of all indexed games. Saying it is on the list and saying it is indexed are equivalent.

You will find projects that are indexed and have no files. It is not a strict process. Technically you violate https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines , so anything can happen. Itch will not tell you. They will also not tell you, if you are still on the waiting pile or if your project was processed and deemed to be non index-worthy.

Only indexed games can be searched. Search is by literal title. Search with exact title or partial title of SHELLSTORM: THE GREAT WAR will find your game. Though, searching with "war" probably would not find it. Results are capped at about 60 results and that's a common word. Searching your developer name Hypermad would also find the game.

You can filter down the https://itch.io/games list by selecting tags and other things. That's not a search. That is just displaying the indexed game list with filters. It is still sorted by popularity.

Devlogs appear in the https://itch.io/feed and in https://itch.io/devlogs . I do not know if all will appear in the devlogs section or the feed. But they will appear to your followers in feed. I assume that devlogs attached to an unindexed game will not appear in the devlog section, nor the global feed - it would defeat the purpose of not being indexed. But, this type of promotion is moot. Your own website will have more traffic than an unattached blog posting (those exist too. Please read other threads how those work and better yet, just browse that section and see for yourself what is there). Promotion within Itch is very limited and mostly non effective. You can make a post here https://itch.io/board/10022/release-announcements if you like. But look at how many people read such posts.

I linked you two relevant sections of the quality guidelines for why offering a wallpaper in the game section is against guidelines. Just read the headlines of the paragraphs. "Avoid only uploading keys or links to other stores" "Do not use unrelated tags or classifications to promote your game". You did not even upload a game! Also, the very first paragraph of the guidelines: "Avoid publishing your page before it’s ready".

You mentioned that offering a poster might break Itch's rules.

Offering a poster is not against rules. Calling that poster a game is. As the mod told you. "I wouldn’t recommend having a file that’s not the game, as the algorithm might think your game is finished an available to users, even though it’s not, which might be poor user experience."

Having nothing to show means, that you have no game to show. Itch is a download store. There is no game to download. Nothing to play. You are merely creating a game page without a game, that would link to your homepage. This is not the intended usage of Itch. And if they enforce their guidelines, that page would not be eglible for indexing. They probalby would not enforce it, since your release is in the future and you just did not use the tools to have a future release date.

Itch has a negative stance against "optimising". They want things to be "natural". You can read that undertone in some threads here. So just publish your demo and tell people, if and when your game will be available here on Itch, and if they will get a Steam key with their purchase here. Uploading "in development" versions of games is the usual way. And for those, the development logs make sense.

And my initial post was to warn you against orchestrating a minutely planned release. It might not work, since you can't guarantee being indexed at that date. You also might get temporarily de-indexed by updating. But then again, being indexed will not matter for your promotion, since as I said, people will not type the title of your game into the search box. They will follow the direct link you promoted. But if all that is here, is a demo, why should they even visit Itch for your game, instead of Steam. Maybe I misunderstood what you plan to do.

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Hypermad142 days ago

Hi there,

Sorry for the late response - we’ve been very busy getting the free demo prepared for August.

You're saying that it's sort of against the rules to release downloadable art and music before the official demo launch. I still haven’t found anything specific in the docs that addresses this issue. Our general strategy is to drop art and soundtrack content ahead of the game to build anticipation and brand solidarity. But if it’s frowned upon on itch, I’d love to know? It seems more like an unwritten rule than a written one, correct? Because your excerpts didn’t say anything \about releasing downloadable art and soundtracks before the game/demo launch.

Anyway, I’ve removed the free art download option for now to try to stay within the customs - even if those customs aren’t backed by any written rules.

Having a negative stance against “optimizing” defeats the purpose of having relying on rules. I don't agree with that practice. Something should either be clearly allowed or clearly not - that would remove the need to experiment and test boundaries altogether. Of course, as professionals, it’s our job to understand the rules and work within them to promote our game across every platform on the internet. When the rules are fuzzy, it makes it harder to take the platform as seriously.

Thanks again for your guidance on how to use itch!

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redonihunter142 days ago

I was talking about search engine optimisation tactics. Doing things you would not normally do, just to appease an algorithm and appear more popular, more interesting, more relevant.

If you set your release date in the future, I see no problem.

But the way you uploaded your game, you presented the wallpaper as the game. That is technially a miscategorisation. Just like the mod told you. I just used different words. "I wouldn’t recommend having a file that’s not the game, as the algorithm might think your game is finished an available to users, even though it’s not, which might be poor user experience."

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Hypermad141 days ago

So then how would someone upload a downloadable soundtrack or artwork before launching a demo?

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redonihunter141 days ago

Just launch the demo. What is keeping you? Do you even intend to release the game on Itch? You can upload an in-development version on Itch and even charge for it. Plus upload a demo version on top. That's early access at other places.

You think more people will visit your demo page, if you do not release it? Or even remember your page later, if they find it now and there is nothing to play? You will see interest of that kind by the number of collections your page is in, and by how many followers you have.

That's just my opinion. You do whatever you think best for your marketing. I am not a marketing expert, just a user. A community moderator already told you, that uploading a file that is not a game and calling it a game can lead to bad user experience.

From my viewpoint you are unknown. You have zero released games. Drumming up a release of ... a demo, not even of a game, is not a thing anyone is waiting for. And if I were to see a demo and could not get access to the full version, I would be disappointed. In your case, there is even one further step of abstraction, as I could not even play the demo, because you only published bonus material. As I said: no one is waiting for a release of your games, because you are practically unknown and the people that do find you, cannot play any samples of your work.

Also, you might want to tell potential customers your plans for releasing the actual game. Will it come to Itch, will it be on Steam, will you give a Steam key with the Itch purchase and so on. https://itch.io/games/steam-key

So then how would someone upload a downloadable soundtrack or artwork before launching a demo?

Launching a demo. Just "launch" the thing already. Better yet, launch the early access version of your game, complete with option to buy it. You did read the docs, did you not? https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines#avoid-only-uploading-keys-or-li...

And if you sell a game here, you can easily set a release date and have your project to attach files to and demo files, an early access price, devlogs and whatnot. I initially assumed you are under obligation from Steam to have global release date and not release early on other platforms. But this game is not even on Steam wishlist. So I have no clue why you wait to release your unfinished project. Unfinished projects is common on Itch. There is even protoypes that collect money. https://itch.io/games/top-sellers/prototypes and of course https://itch.io/games/top-sellers/in-development

In metadata of yor project:

Release date — In your local time zone

Leave this blank unless you have a separate release date from when your published your page. Changing this date will not affect how your game is displayed on our popularity and new-releases pages.

If you set this date in the future then we'll restrict purchases until the release date has passed.

There are many options to release files on Itch. But what will users expect. You can release the soundtrack of your game as an extra project. https://itch.io/soundtracks Will that garner interest in your game? I have serious doubts. You have nothing that can be played. Any interest you garner will lead to a wall and with the short attention span of people you will waste that attention if you cannot give them anything to try.

Itch is welcoming to projects that are still in development, you might want to embrace that.

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