I get updates in my email from following people, I'm not really sure what will happen if you just download something and don't follow the author. Probably nothing?
You can send an email to everyone who downloaded your game through the dashboard. Just go to the project and click on "Interact"
Viewing post in How Does Itch handle new versions of games?
I did see that option and wondered how it works, on one of my projects with a few dozen downloads I get the message:
There aren't any buyers or owners eligible to receive an email.
when I look on the Interact page. Maybe this only becomes an option if someone buys it, and doesn't count for free downloads? Or like you said maybe they have to follow me?
Looks like a promising way to update users when a new version is available, for sure. I'll just need to figure out how it works.
Thanks for the insight.