itch.io

Perhaps your laptop doesn't have enough space left.

Have you tried using itch.io's app instead of downloading games directly?

I was only using the keyboard. But even with a mouse I don't last much longer. As mentioned, it's probably best played with a controller. Games that I normally play use either keyboard or mouse - never both together, so I didn't think to use both.

1. For parts the game was playing itself, because matches were coming in.  Perhaps find a way to ensure that doesn't happen.

2. Some match 3 games will match all the matching blocks, you're only matching in straight lines. That's okay, but I would say so in the instructions, so people know it's a feature not a bug. (Maybe it is there, I didn't look for that type of info.)

3. Maybe over time you can add some special blocks that you unlock by matching next to them, to give the game more strategy.

Very relaxing - zen-like game. I like your sounds - they are soothing. I had fun unlocking the different types of fish. 

Don't worry about it - that's how we all learnt at some point.

I don't know what to press to fight back - so I just have to outrun the enemies until they overpower me - which takes a few seconds. I saw there were some controls - I'm using arrow keys and Q E - but Q and E do nothing. 

It's probably something obvious like try to stay alive - which I keep failing to do :-)

I don't know what you're missing. But here is what you should do:

1. Post a link to your game on itch.io (most important).
2. Post a screenshot, video, or both.
3. Tell us a bit about your game (in text).
4. Only post about it once.

Something you should fix is that your game shows Difficulty Easy by default, but when you start a new game, it defaults to Difficulty Hard. You have to select a different difficulty, and then select Easy to get Easy mode. Once if figured that out - and how to move the pieces (because that's not in your instructions), the game worked well. 

The correct link to your developer page.

It looks good, but the pictures are dark on a black background. They tend to disappear. I'd suggest you play around with placing borders around the images (your game icons) so they stand out more from the black background. Alternatively, try lighter background colours to contrast with your dark images.

The information you have there is sufficient. If you have your own website, you could add that.

At this point it seems you only have two projects / games, so how you sort them is immaterial.

From starting over, it took me about 48 minute to complete the game. It was a fun challenge. Thank you! 

Interesting twist on the memory game. The time limit does make it challenging.

 I only passed level 5 by constantly restarting the game. 

Yes, if you want to be a game dev, then the experience of doing a store listing and completing a game is valuable - regardless of whether anyone plays it much. 

Thank you for the solution. I deleted my post so you can delete yours so we don't give the answer away.

The game will probably take longer than you said because a few levels are tricky and take time and a few tries to work out. 

The example in question, when you explain it, it's so obvious but I was just thinking about it differently. 

That's what makes the game so much fun. It would be boring if the answer was obvious every time.

I love logic games, and this one is really fun for me. Great game!

Fun game. Very imaginative. Nice progression of difficulty between the modes. I found Challenging mode lived up to its name :-).

It's a novel concept. I had fun playing a few levels. It took me a while to figure out how the ghost aspect and scoring worked. I look forward to the rest of the levels.

Really cute game. The game actually becomes a lot more fun after you unlock the final character because of the pace of the game - but then there are no more characters!

If you play the game full screen, nothing else is shown.

There's a small square in the corner of your game, when you hover your mouse over it, it shows Enter fullscreen. Clicking that takes the banners away. 

Payment Fee = + - 3.99 (payment processor charges)

Tax Clearance Fee (once off) = 3.00 (last time I checked)

Payout Fee = + - 2.84 (payment processor charges)

You should be able to withdraw about $74.17

You can just request a payout. Itch.io will adjust the balance before paying it out (i.e. fixing up the tax withholding). 

Once you receive a payout there is a detailed calculation under Payouts showing how the payout amount was calculated.

It may depend on the developer. Those that collect the money directly typically only use PayPal. 

 I tried buying an asset before using a prepaid credit card (received digitally from the USA). Itch.io wouldn't accept it because it couldn't validate my zip code - it insisted on a 5-digit number. I had entered a 4-digit number from my real address when registering the card (South Africa only has a 4-digit postal code). In the end I couldn't buy anything at Itch.io using the card. 

It's clever. I would suggest though that you change the way you check the words so that duplicate letters can be placed in any position. (If there's an E on the top row and one on the bottom row, I would like to place any E on the top row, not look for the E you specifically allocated to the top row.)

Typically, indie games save to your local device only. These game saves are small though; they probably aren't causing your space issues. Getting an external hard drive might be a good solution for you.

To save games online, we must pay for a server to host the game saves, pay for a login system that is secure (can't be hacked), then code the game saves for the server (probably using PHP).  You also need a secure system to reset a password. Every time you switch devices you'd have to login to that account and download your latest data. Because it saves online, you can never play offline - so it's constantly using data. 

I had personally investigated that process of saving progress online, and it only becomes viable - time and money wise - if you have thousands of players. None of my games have more than a handful of players.

For short web games, which is what I mostly play on Itch.io, stories aren't really necessary.

For longer games, they're often story driven and the story is an integral part of the game.

I agree with hechelion. Give players the option to skip the story.  Those that enjoy stories can read it, those that don't enjoy stories can skip it.

Thing I find annoying - which are personal preferences:

•  Spoken narrative that I can't mute - I will mute the game in those cases.  Because it interferes with my background music. (I turn off game music 100% of the time and listen to my own music.)
• Typewriter text - one letter or word at a time. It's NEVER at the right speed for everyone and more often than not too slow. Let me read at my own speed.

In theory, it sounds like it could be a fun challenge, but logistically, how would the game characters interact with each other? 

For example, let's say, I'm the mayor and raise taxes. Now the baker, fisher, and lumberjack must increase their prices, or reduce their production costs, but they don't have autonomy. I must now go and be each character and adjust all the prices. This now affects what the teacher can afford. That means I have to increase the teacher's salary, but then I might have to raise taxes again to do so...  In the meantime, are people going to leave before I've had a chance to "play them" or are you going to pause all interactions to give the player a chance to make the rounds? And what else must the player do to keep the city going? 

Yes, your icon does look like people.  

My suggestion: Chat to people in a dev log not on your game page.

Use your game page to explain the game and what the player must do - is it first person, do they just randomly click things? Do characters talk to them. What can a player look forward to?

Make a video of the actual game play.  Thirty seconds of a 2-hour game is not going to give anything away.   

Feedback on your game video:

You make the mistake on your video of showing the intro, and game name first. People don't care about that - they want to see the game being played - and that only starts 11 seconds in. My impression was that the game looked like fun, but the game elements were too big and too bright for me (which is a personal preference). 

If you read reviews on young people's games - they like bright lights, flashy things and screen movements. If you read reviews on casual games sites - those players (who are often retired) hate bright lights, fast movement and flashy displays and don't ever shake the screen! I also avoid games with those features because they hurt my eyes and give me vertigo.

I'd suggest you:  

• Upload a browser version (even a demo) so people can try it without having to download it.
• Port the game to mobile and publish it on a major app store. It appears to be the type of game people would play on their mobile devices rather than PC. 
• If you port the game to mobile, you can also submit it to Unity to help with marketing and advice.  

Now that you've explained it, I can see the pattern. I enjoy falling block games, and the three blocks adds a level of challenge.  I only lasted to about a score of 220 which took a few minutes. 

There haven't been any bundles by itch.io that were advertised in the forums for a while (as far as I know). I think they do sometimes collate bundles using Discord. 

When itch.io starts a bundle, an admin or moderator starts a thread, and people can submit their games in the thread.

Itch.io chooses the games from those submitted. The last time they included criteria of what they were looking for - such as games with the most or highest ratings and reviews. 

It seemed somewhat erratic - sometimes it would clear the entire colour-matched block, other times it would ignore the same colours on the side and only clear the 3 blocks in the middle.  

I prefer to use the arrow keys, not A and D (so I can play with my right hand).

It gave the impression that there was a large playing field, but the game play only happened in a small section of the screen which was initially confusing to me.  

Fantastic update - especially the slight speed up. The animated smileys offer a new level of fun and challenge! 

You don't need an app. You simply download the game's .apk file onto your android tablet. Double-click it, and if your tablet can support the game, it will install it.

There are two settings you need that can be found in Settings > Security and privacy (the exact name depends on your phone): 

1. Advanced: Install unknown apps. This setting lets you select the sources from which you can install apps. If you download the app to My Files (or similar) you can give your phone permission to install apps from there. Most phones, the first time you try to install it, will alert you that the source doesn't have permission and open the page from where you can set permission or ask you if you want to set the permission.
2. Google Play and Protect (optional). If the app is not registered with Google Play Store, this feature might flag it as harmful. 

It's better now. It is a fun challenge. I haven't gotten past 30 yet - but will keep trying :-).

It's a fun concept, but it's too fast. For example, the first time I timed out before I could even finish reading the instruction that was on screen. When you start shuffling the colours, it times out before I can even find the colour.

Fun logic game. Well done.

Lacks some instructions - but looks like a fun game.

Cute game!

I have a bunch of them on my page: https://evolutionarygames.itch.io/.  Most of them were designed for mobile devices (more fun playing touchscreen).

But I also have a collection that doesn't include my own games here: https://itch.io/c/1429021/fun-browser-games.   

Thanks. I didn't notice that - worked great when I followed the rules :-)

Also, with the bombs - I expected they would clear part of the board, not they would end the game. Perhaps show a cross over them or some indication that one must avoid them.