I've sent half a dozen emails to support and never any response.

Does anyone know what's going on?

Also when or if the game does finally show up, is it at least listed as a new release or are they shunted down to having been released (months?) before?

Also when or if the game does finally show up, is it at least listed as a new release or are they shunted down to having been released (months?) before?

The game should appear as a new release once it’s approved. I’m not sure if the release date changes to that of when it was approved, but it will appear on the New Releases category as expected.

I'm assuming you mean Space Invaders. If you just added a minimum price and/or dowloadable files, that would explain why it hasn't been indexed OR reviewed yet. Please keep in mind that support is busy, and might decide not to answer questions answered in the FAQ.

Either way, the game page was made a while ago, so I gave it a bump this time. Hope this helps.

Thank you both for your quick responses. 

No Time To Play, I don't know what "give it a bump means" but whatever you did, wow suddenly it is findable on this site. 

However, https://itch.io/games/newest shows the game having been released 9 days ago, which of course it was.

"If you just added a minimum price and/or dowloadable files, that would explain why it hasn't been indexed OR reviewed yet."

No, files and prices were in place immediately. In fact nothing I've found on this site explains what just happened. 

I've read the FAQ  https://itch.io/docs/creators/getting-indexed as I'd specified in my emails to support and can confirm that this game is not my first, in fact my fourth on this platform.. 

Going through its points:

Titles that are a single letter or a single common English word are examples potentially bad project names.

Doesn't apply.

• Your project must be published by selecting the Public option mentioned above.

Yep

• You haven’t limited access to the page via the Public access settings. If you select either “Disable new downloads & purchases” or “Unlisted in search & browse” then you are opting out of being eligible for indexing.

Yep

• You have a cover image uploaded on your page

Yep

• Your project is available for purchase, download, or is playable in the browser. Empty or placeholder pages will not be indexed. (Although, if you create devlog entries then those will be indexed if the page is public)

Yep

Additionally, please review our Quality Guidelines for specific rules about how you should and shouldn’t use your itch.io page. 

Yep

If you feel like you may have been affected please contact us through our support page.

Yep did that too.

There are also some scenarios where your page must be viewed by a moderator before it can be indexed. The most common case is for new sellers: If you've just created an account and you're selling your first project, then your published page is placed in a queue for review. 

Nope I'm not a new seller.

Established sellers with no history of issues will skip this review step and will be indexed immediately.

Apparently not.

If you have any questions or need to be expedited then please contact us through our support page.

But I did that half a dozen times but there was no response at all.