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Based on votes it seems that the thumbnail art style has a lot to do with plays. The more vibrant and retro the thumbnail, the more plays. 

I also have experience of this with the 10 self published games on itch so I think that's why your game is lagging in plays Garry. Your pixel art is very good but it's not reflected in the thumbnail so players don't know to expect it without clicking first.

You might be right, but how would you know for sure? Maybe two identical games, one with crude bit-mapped cover art and one with polished cover art and see which one gets the most hits.

That's a really good idea - I think thumbnail is a huge part. It's honestly, really honestly, why I put the pixel image of the main character on it, instead of just the title. Anime-style girls catch the eye for a lot of folk, even with a very low pixel count!


But this is why I do jams - to learn!