itch.io

I personally like to go into the screenshot feed to pick out some games to play, so the traffic from just looking good is non-zero.  Buuuut the *vast* majority of the traffic I've gotten has been in response to me posting a review on someone else's game. For every three reviews I post, I usually get 2 reciprocal reviews back without any overt "rate 4 rate" call to action. OP and a few others have also put in a ton of sweat equity to make sure they're in pretty much every thread.  Lots of eyes and links back to their game.

On the other side, I've played a number of games this jam that are good-to-great with very few reviews.  In my opinion, there isn't anything wrong with the visuals or gameplay.  It seems to just boil down to the dev posting limited reviews on other games and not really jumping into any threads.  Visibility is a huge problem and so some active effort is required to get your "Submitted <your game here>" link in front of eyes.

Wow, I am flattered to hear that And the truth is.......I have no idea how I've made it up in the Top10 ten let alone the 5, While i do believe you are partially true that i di market my game pretty well, the game itself isn't very fun in my own opinion, and i personally wouldn't want to play it if it was a Commercial game (even if my game was free) And so i think it does mainly stem from marketing and advertising you game to fellow devs, I myself am really new to game dev and if I've learned anything (so far that is) its that You need to be patient, Market the game well and Connect with the community, and aside that you also have to come up with a relatively fun idea that is original or is a spin on an existing Game. I still have a lot to learn,( I am just a kid XD) if anything you already know everything and more regarding game dev and i just think you have to explore and try different approaches until you find one that fits you, your marketing and your Game styles. If i had to give my opinion my previous game "T-Minus Time was much better and while it was less polished and had simpler gameplay and not that many mechanics it was more unique and if inculcated properly it could turn into a better game. Despite being a Good Concept it was my second ever game and First jam submission and it only ended up getting 11 Ratings despite my marketing efforts. Still it was a good start and it was good to see that some people did like my game. Secondly, No body is going to play your game if you don't market your game properly and connect with the community (like my first jam game). I've been researching some popular games and how they reached their path to success and one notably surprising example is Hollowed Night, Today while hollow tonight has millions upon millions of players and the recent spinoff is is famous enough to crash all of steam and other platforms in a day, They main Protagonist is actually from one of Team Cherry's earlier games called Hungry Night and It was too a Jam Game that they made. Now the game didn't get much attention as they didn't market it that well as they were pretty demotivated at the time, And worst of all the few people who di try and Rate their game Hated it believe it or not and it got pretty low scores. But the devs Knew they were onto something and they can turn the game around and they did, and they ended up making the greatest videogame known in the world. Sorry that this message is very long but i figured i should spill the beans on everything I've figured out so far, I hope it helps and that Your game (which in my opinion has a lot of Locked potential) and your game dev journey reaches beyond your expectations :D