itch.io

Hi, I'm an indie dev with a demo that we plan to release on both Steam and itchio ( and I've ended up calling it this, because adding the dot often results in social media sites treating it as link but... I digress...).

The key point for devs being reluctant to release here is 3) DRM and piracy concerns. Saying that people will find a way to do this is correct. The big difference is the ease in which they do this. With itchio- you buy a game, you get the files and then you only need the technical ability necessary to press 'ctrl' and 'c' at the same time- or even 'right click' and 'copy', if that's too difficult.

We also had a game we charged like £3 for. Made it free in a sale. Within the day it got uploaded to pirate sites.

Itchio has been very good to us, and fantastic for indie games in general, so I wouldn't want to abandon it even if we had a hit but, this is the best answer I can give to your question. Also, I don't hate Steam either. I get your ethical concerns but, at least as a non-shareholder company, it's avoided a lot of the enshitification that's rampant in the games industry at the moment. Can you imagine if, say, Microsoft took it over, and what fresh hell that would bring ?

Yes. I've found some really great translators on there. Sorry to hear about your experience- not everything will work out and hopefully it was just a one off :)

No idea about this, sorry. As we have a new game coming out, we might just make this permafree anyway :)

You don't need to, Do what works best for you. But sometimes it helps to avoid tunnel vision. Sometimes I can't think of the answer to a crossword no matter how hard I try but, as soon as I stop thinking about it the answer comes to me. It could be a similar thing.

No- Unity.

It depends on the game.

If narrative's an important aspect then character progression becomes a big issue. It doesn't have to be your own character either. Following the stories of different NPCs can be a big reward if done well (first game I'm thinking of is Majora's Mask).

Skill progression is always good but, again, it has to be done well. If you level up just to fight a bunch of enemies who are more powerful, nothing really changes. Done badly, this can make the game worse. My example is another Zelda game- Tears of the Kingdom- which I loved but, the way I levelled up, meant each simple fight seemed to be taking forever (my defence increased, so did the monsters', but the weapons I was using, like bombs and fire didn't).

I think it's important to keep the player's interest, and keep offering them something new, and character progression is just one of many ways to do this- the levels can change, new mechanics can be added, new graphics, sound tracks, characters, twists the player didn't expect, subverting existing mechanics, etc. etc.

I wouldn't have thought that either but, you live and learn.

The survey is about time played, though, which could be very different from sales. I'll check out new games but often won't spend too long on them if it's a short indie adventure, or it turns out I don't really enjoy it whereas, with an old game I'm familiar with like Civ IV, I'll happily spend 10 hours on a single campaign. 

Also, multiplayer games that people sink a lot of time into can take a while to get established. I know Fortnite's not on Steam, but that was a 2017 game, and is still massively popular all this time later. Steam has games like Team Fortress which probably still have large communities.

It's a surprising figure but shouldn't be setting off any alarm bells IMO.

You could try the Help Wanted forum. Or maybe go on Newgrounds and search. That has a lot of composers.

I just found this website and have no idea how legitimate it is (although it is right about our wishlists).

https://usevania.com/game/Five_Day_Detective

Because I'm very nosey, I'm interested to see how everybody else's games are doing- can you beat our dizzying heights of 9,700th?!

Finally, because this is itchio and not Steam, here's the game demo on this site. Feel free to drop your own:

https://krunchyfriedgames.itch.io/five-day-detective

This is currently free and contains all our games! Five Day Detective won't be free when it's finished though.

Bit buggy- dying without respawn as someone mentioned below, and keys not working one time (except fire) but had fun with it!

If you're up for a humorous point and click style game (although it uses a controller/ keys), you might enjoy Five Day Detective!

The demo is about 30 mins to an hour long, depending on how quickly you solve the puzzles...

Please let me know if you have any questions- and good luck with your channels!

Wish you the best! Are you on Bluesky? That's the only social media we use at the moment, I'd be happy to give you a shoutout but don't expect too much- we are terrible at social media and have the same struggles you do ;)

As people have said before, there are so many, it's very difficult. I think, rather than worry about mass markets like Facebook, you might be better off finding and individually contacting people who you think will have a special interest in your game. 

You're Indonesian, right? Maybe start with the local approach and contact Indonesian Youtubers, Twitch streamers, bloggers etc. who have an interest in indie games. Even if they don't have huge viewing figures, they will have an immediate interest in you as a developer, and making contacts is always good, and can lead to bigger things.

I think people can worry too much about their portfolios and websites, and keeping it simple is usually a good idea.

Often people who commision artists (and I've done this myself), will be looking at a lot of profiles and asking themselves these questions:

Is your art a good fit for the game?

What are your costs?

Are you pleasant and reliable to work with?

How do I contact you?

And, of course, if the website ian't purely for commissions but also for a way for people to know more about you, or even as a diary function, then you could incorporate a blog section or something.

I've checked your posts on the Help Wanted forum and, yes, you do have a big task ahead as you basically need a whole studio!

Obviously you'll have to devote a lot of your time to recruitment. I don't know how much you're doing already but maybe finding the right person and asking them individually is one idea. Checking out game jams, for instance, is a good way to find people who want to get into game dev more seriously, 

You might also need to reduce the scope of your project and work with you've got or can realistically get (for instance, can the game designer do the level design and UI too? Do you really need so many artists? Can you get the audio you want from open source assets?.

Anyway, good luck and hope you get the game you want!

The best thing to do- I find- is to google games of the level of indieness you want and see where they appear. For instance, if you search Dragonsweeper (which is a simple but very addictive browser game released on Newgrounds), you'll get sites like Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Kotaku, daily.dev and Thinky Games. 

There are many, if you dig around. One of the problems is that websites that review indie games can be very much like indie games themselves in that they're usually small, specialist, hard to find and- because they exist 'for the love', they often come and go very quickly. 

Often the best place to go to is websites specific to a genre or region. Our upcoming adventure game, for instance, has had coverage in Adventure Game Hotspot, przygodomania.pl and Quest Time (a Russian site). Also, there are individual reviewers  such as FutureCopLGF who posts videos of the best Newgrounds games each month, there are microbloggers, forums, small collectives who enjoy playing indie games with friends,  sites that enjoy indie games and do something different to promote them (like your own website! Thank you for covering Five Day Detective by the way ;) ), there are podcasts like Save Your Game with Pushing Up Roses, or the Adventure Games Podcast, there are thousands of individual Twitch streamers and Youtubers.

Essentially, there's a tonne of great indie stuff out there and the scene's alive and well, but it often takes some finding. I'd love for websites like itchio to do more to help give a platform for people who cover their games- maybe a specific forum? As this helps us all :)

Search people who Twitch stream / Youtube similar games to yours. Email them.

Sounds simple, but this is the best advice you'll get.

Is it not loading at all? What browser are you using? I've just tried Firefox and Edge, and it's working fine in those.

If it's a problem within the game, go to Settings -> New Game -> ✓ to reset. It might be that there's a clash between the version you were playing before and this one.

Definitely. I think the main reason is that there are some very popular streamers who specialise in indie horror, so these games get a lot of traffic, and attract people who love horror games to itchio.

Thanks for playing! Yes, sorry, we've added an extra hint as one puzzle was driving everyone crazy, but we haven't updated the translated versions with this just yet!

Welcome in!

Strong narrative and creative puzzles? We have those! :D

https://krunchyfriedgames.itch.io/five-day-detective

Just checked and the downloads are working fine on my laptop (Windows 10). What device/ operating system are you using for this? I've noticed you've made this comment on other games too.

Woo- thanks!

Cheers- that really helps us!

Thanks :) Good luck with part 2!

Good topic! First game: Witches and Bandits and Swords (Oh My)- 2017. It was developed from a choose-your-own-adventure ebook I wrote for Kindle:

Latest Game: Five Day Detective, a point a click adventure. Kept the same core team of Coder Mike and I, but have now commissioned artists and translators.

Alas, I have no smartphone!

This looks like it could be very cool but after the first dialogue scene, the game got stuck on a loading screen for me.

Esto parece que podría ser muy bueno, pero después de la primera escena de diálogo, el juego se quedó atascado en una pantalla de carga para mí.

Puedo hablar español usando DeepL translation- ¿es eso lo suficientemente cerca? XD

Saludos desde Inglaterra de todos modos. Me alegro de ver a alguien de Cuba aquí.

Thanks for playing!

I really enjoyed playing- it looks fantastic and controls really well, so great work!

A few things that could do with improving:

First time round, I fell off the map and kept falling. It would be good to have the escape button as a way to return to the menu.

My controller didn't work (it's a Logitech which counts as an Xbox controller),

Would be good if I could reduce the graphics settings (apologies if you can and I just missed this).

If the game is played on keys or controller, I think you should be able to navigate the menu this way too (and if you release the game on Steam, this is something they're quite strict about).

This is obviously a very ambitious game, so I definitely appreciate all effort, but maybe needs some polish and playtesting :)

Would be happy for any feedback on our point and click style adventure, Five Day Detective :)

Available for download and browser.

Thanks for your video- enjoyed that. Good to see your technique developing!

It's an interesting idea. I think it works with Rented Nightmare because it kind of complements the atmosphere without being all about the streamer, but it might depend on the game.

If you fancy trying it with our new adventure Five Day Detective, I won't complain XD

Well, you're a lot richer than us! And that's a lot of colours too. We don't get nearly so many different referral sites.

So, two years have passed- not quite a weekly update, but nm.

And we've just released a fourth game- a point and click style adventure called Five Day Detective. Go play it, it's good XD
Anyway, our stats are now:

Views 103k

Downloads 10.1k

Browser Plays: 22.4k

Revenue $23.99 (we can afford an extra coffee to share since last time!)

Also, we're on 299 followers so... once again, who wants to be 300???

Thanks for playing! And that's quite an incredible British accent ;) Congrats on solving the puzzles too- good perseverance. Also, we still have 'cowboy coffee' over here. I haven't heard that phrase before, but I'm definitely going to start using it!

She now has a point and click adventure podcast.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/save-your-game/id1729089915