itch.io

https://projectrootproxy.itch.io/1998-decoupling-the-racket-returns

1998 DECOUPLING • The Racket Returns is a narrative text adventure game set in the future and the past. There are multiple narrative paths that lead to a gory death, and only two that lead to survival.

I don't make or play the affected types of games, but, now is the time for Itch and Steam to embrace crypto payments for those who do. With the issue being due to payment processor demands, it isn't even a legal gray area to do so, as it is with online gambling sites that are open to the US, due to it being illegal for banks to process transactions for them. So, crypto payments for Itch and Steam would be logistically easier to implement, and if the gray area gambling sites can do it, Steam can. But, maybe not Itch. Because Itch forces devs to beg for searchability and payouts publicly in the forums.

I see the "Please purchase on Steam" message on your game, directing potential buyers to the game on Steam. I also searched by name on Itch, "Another Realm" is not found. Then I search on Steam, and "Another Realm" pops up immediately, as the top result. I see you published it on Itch on Jan 27, 2021, and then on Steam on Sep 27, 2024. And looking at everything, the game looks really nice. Knowing how Steam has a very specific way of submitting games (lots of dropdowns, check boxes, etc, and indicators reminding people to fill everything out completely), I don't see why your game isn't even indexed on Itch. Let alone in payout limbo.

I see no reason to believe there is anything wrong with your game or anything. If there is ever a resolution to your situation, I think a lot of people would love to hear what, if anything, Itch's explanation was.

Also, I looked up Itch's alleged investors (using a 3rd party tracker), but when I go to those companies websites, they don't mention any investments in itch. I couldn't find anything by search either. Does Itch have investors at all? Although I don't see why tech companies need investors at all, once they get going for some years, it seems like all the tech companies perpetually have institutional investors, and I couldn't verify any for Itch.

I'm sorry for the situation you have to deal with. This site is so rigged it's a wonder if this site is some kind of social science experiment.

I wonder who the moderators here are allowed to forward your thread to if you had posted your support ticket id? The same people ignoring your support ticket in the first place? I can't see a reason to include the ticket if that's the case, honestly. 

Hi, I'm curious if Itch can release a statistic on the percentage of games over whatever time frame Itch is comfortable disclosing that have had their info completely and correctly [2] filled out by the submitter, and which are also indefinitely [1] "queued for human review". Also, is there a queue after that where games are nearly guaranteed to sit without indexing indefinitely [1] ?

Also, do Itch systems ding games that were not made with an engine? If a game is a web game, and is nothing but self made web assembly (via usually Rust or C++, sometimes Assembly Script, but I can't imagine anyone using it because it has zero dom/web apis) and js, does the algo say "eeewwwwww grooosss, that's unprofitable, it shall not be searchable"?

TLDR stuff which everyone should ignore probably:

[1]: For over a week, or however you want to define indefinitely such that a reasonable person would say "that definition of indefinitely makes sense", so, for games that are still not searchable after a month from submission, which have all their info filled out and pics submitted completely and correctly.

[2]: We all know that other online market makers, like Google (though, Google may be a bad comparison to Itch, because Google thinks they own the very logistics of human survival, considering some of their ancillary activities, historically, and recently. So I imagine most people will grant Itch quite a bit more leniency than Google), use this term completely subjectively, with little discernable pattern (unless you capture the "ephemeral" data in your browser, and compare it to others who are doing the same). So other than "that game has nsfw and was not marked as such", there isn't much likelihood of "incorrectly" being a real factor here.

Thanks!

This game looks and plays great!

I liked it! The game play is tight, and the style is very nice. On the options panel, the only way the volume slider would work was if I dragged it just barely below the slider. Dragging on the slider, or clicking on the rectangular bar did nothing. Tested in Firefox and Chromium based browsers.

This is great, the hand on the mouse moving in unison is nice and creepy :)

The style and gameplay are really creative!