Post by Mae Finch in Established seller, new game not indexed, not NSFW, no response from support - what else can I do? - itch.io

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Mae Finch3 days ago

Thank you for passing it along. I'd second that the documentation should be updated to give devs an accurate expectation of how indexing works here.

I am obviously promoting my game as hard as I can in other channels, but for very small devs like myself, indexing has a significant impact on my traffic and my ability to grow, due to both being included on category pages and coming up in search. With the way the internet is set up these days, plenty of people are going to search for a game by name after seeing a post or stream or demo about it instead of clicking through to someone's bio for a direct link or scanning a QR code, and then give up when it isn't a result. I've seen plenty of people find my other games via direct name search in itch or on google. I'm being very clear that you can only find my game by direct link in all my communications, but people often don't fully read captions and descriptions.

I'd also love clarification on what the "threshold" is for an established seller since the documentation implies it's just someone who has had a game published and indexed with no issues before. But I've gotten multiple comments saying that you have to have a significant following, charge money, have an account older than 1 year, and/or list executable instead of browser-based games. I enjoy putting out small free games that are playable in browser but if that's somehow hurting my ability to get indexed I'd like to know.

I understand this is a problem of volume that can't really be avoided, but there's a lack of transparency and miscommunication of expectations from itch that could be addressed and would solve a lot of headaches for all parties involved. I'd also hazard that given the randomness of the games that are flagged for review, itch's algorithm could likely be improved. I've seen and read through a lot of the other posts from unindexed and de-indexed devs over the last few days and all that really tells me is that this is a pretty big liability for devs on this platform. I think myself and everyone else stuck in this boat is pretty rightfully upset that the games we put a lot of time and passion into can be hidden at the whims of a completely unknown algorithm even after we've done our due diligence in following all of itch's public quality guidelines. And I'd like to think we can advocate for ourselves a bit here and ask for a better system.

redonihunter3 days ago

Since Itch does not talk about such things, do not expect an answer from support or an admin. The community message board moderator is not the kind of moderator the faq talks about.

If there is a threshold, it probably is the checkmark icon you see on some accounts. See the top page of https://itch.io/games/top-rated . But you will notice that there are games with many thousand ratings, that still do not have that verified account sign. Itch just does not verify all that many accounts. And frankly, they cannot afford to protect even those accounts from the mechanisms that puts some new games and updated games on the waiting list. After all, there are reasons when the system wants staff to have a look. Itch does intentionally not tell what those reasons are, but they obviously exist.

And to clarify, I am pretty sure the faq only talks about the situation when a game gets put on the list, because it is a first time paid game. There are plenty other reasons why a new game or an updated game might end up on that waiting list. The problems only arise, since indexing takes weeks and not days - if you have to wait.

That waiting list is not first in first out. Games with more traffic are supposed to have higher priority. But think about it. Your game is not the only one on that list with a similar traffic, and there are bound to be a lot of games with more traffic.

My opinion, based on some threads I read, is that Itch's opinion about indexing is, that it is a bonus and not essential. After all, a page is fully functional, with or without indexing and if you do promotion, you are promoting a direct link to the game or at least your account and do not say, hey target audience, head to Itch and search my new game by name.

Also, search does not even work on the Itch app. So there is that.