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Game is not indexed yet

A topic by Saru created 1 day ago Views: 74 Replies: 6
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(1 edit)

Hello.

First of all, I have read both the documentation about getting indexed and the unofficial FAQ.

I published my first game two days ago, and I have made sure that it meets all the requirements several times, along with quality criteria. However, it has not been indexed yet. I know the guides say it can take from a couple of hours to days or weeks, but I've been waiting while seeing dozens of games which barely meet the criteria (some of them don't even meet the basics, i.e. no cover) published after mine get indexed immediately.

It is a free game, so the "First time selling" does not apply, and there are no payment checks to be made. This made me wonder if the following could be an issue:

Originally, I selected the default option "0 or donate", so I went to the Publisher settings in my account and selected a Payout mode. After this, I do not wish to proceed with the Tax Information interview for now, since I am not going to be releasing paid games for the moment. This means that the process is not finished:


It should not be a problem, since the game is now configured as "No payments", but I wonder if I might have been placed in a queue as a vendor and not approved because of this. If so, I would like to know how to fix this without completing the tax interview for now.

After a day, I contacted support about not being indexed. I know getting and answer might take a couple of days, but this is the ticket: 342147.

And this is the link to the game: https://saructrl.itch.io/iroban

Thank you for reading.

and the unofficial FAQ

I dare say, you should do so again. Like the parts that indicate, that waiting time of over a month is not unusual. You published 2 days ago.

And if you skimmed other indexing threads, you might have noticed, that you will not get an answer from staff for an issue like that.

Itch should update that official doc already. It creates too many unmet expectations, which result in unnecessary support requests.

Yes, I've seen some people that haven't been indexed after weeks or months, but apparently it only applies to some games (the affected games appear to be random, I don't see clear reasons for games to be indexed in 2 hours vs 1 month). Usually, the answer to these people is either "Please wait" or "I'll let the admins know about your case".

However, my question about the tax interview being a possible problem remains. It makes me worry about my account not meeting some criteria to get a game indexed, even if I waited the required time (getting the "Awaiting moderator approval" when trying to comment also makes me worry about this, although I'm aware many people get this issue and I know it does not belong here. If needed, I'll make a topic about that after waiting).

It is intentionally kept secret why games get into the waiting queue.

And this support message board is not for cases like your's, since it is not a staff support board, but a user talk board. It is not even a support case to begin with. It is just how Itch works - slow. The docs do not reflect this, unfortunately. They are from a time when they did not have games by the millions.

They came up with this ticket forwarding anyway. But would you fast track a game that waited for 2 days, while other games waited for 2 months, if you were admin? Would you bother the admin with this, if you were the mod who could notify the admin?

I do not like this squeaky wheel gets the grease method. It feels unfair. It should be reserved for the cases where there seems to be something wrong with the system, like the requests being misplaced in the wrong category or other clerical problems. Unfortunately, waiting for serveral weeks for indexing is not a sign of something being wrong.

Ah, I think I get what you mean now. I didn't tell apart staff and moderators, sorry about that. Thank you for your time.

Moderator(+1)

I've let our admins know about your ticket, but redonihunter is right: the FAQ says to wait at least one day, preferably several. You've waited two days. That's really not a lot.

I'll keep waiting, thank you for your help!