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How do major updates or launch posts get reveiwed?

A topic by DarkStone Digital created Oct 10, 2020 Views: 1,211 Replies: 12

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I recently was able to put the full version of my game on itch (I couldn’t previously as it was too large but they expanded my storage space)

This is a rather big deal for me and my project to be able to sell on Itch again as it’s basically a launch here. So I followed the rules about making a post and flagging it as a major update or release. But it’s been about 6 days now and I don’t see my game in any of the “new” sections or anything like that. I also haven’t received any kind of feedback on if my post wasn’t approved as a major update or launch.

I would really like to have game pages that exists during development and have dev updates and all that, but if I am not even certain that my game will be shown in the new sections when I launch, what’s the point? At this point, I feel it’s better to not have a game page until the day I launch to ensure it is in the new sections.

Am I misunderstanding how this system works or is this an issues others have encountered?

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Afloof.devModerator3 years ago(+2)

Is this your first paid project? If that’s the case it might take some time for the game to be reviewed before it is indexed and shown in the New section. Even if it’s not paid, it might be worth waiting a few days.

I also haven’t received any kind of feedback on if my post wasn’t approved as a major update or launch.

The general idea is that you publish your project, and at some point it will be indexed and shown on the site. Your game’s page is still public, so that shouldn’t interfere with any marketing plans.

I would really like to have game pages that exists during development and have dev updates and all that, but if I am not even certain that my game will be shown in the new sections when I launch, what’s the point?

A game is always refreshed in the New section when a “Major Update” devlog appears. I would imagine this is not instant, so it might be worth waiting a few days.

My advice would be to wait at least 4-5 business days before deciding something has gone wrong.

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DarkStone Digital3 years ago(+1)

I have multiple projects on here. A few have had pages that have existed for a while and I have had the same issue of them not being indexed into new categories after a major post. As I stated in my original post, its been about 6 days. I understand this is the weekend now but this isnt the first time.

The major update section states that it must be reviewed by itch. This implies some kind of human process.

I havent gotten any official reply on how this actually works. This is obviously an issue as it sucks to see my new game just lost under everything else after taking the time to have a long-standing page and post dev updates, etc.

I wouldn’t mind if this was the first time or if the process was a bit more transparent.

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Afloof.devModerator3 years ago(+1)

This is obviously an issue as it sucks to see my new game just lost under everything else after taking the time to have a long-standing page and post dev updates, etc.

I’m not sure what you mean by that, could you elaborate? Your game will get a bump in the “New” section once reviewed, no matter how much time that takes.

This shouldn’t cause any problem, unless someone plans to make “Major Update”s weekly, which sounds very wrong (at least to me).

I wouldn’t mind if this was the first time or if the process was a bit more transparent.

I agree to that, it does sound like it would be better for devs if the process was more transparent. However I can’t help but notice other marketplaces having a somewhat similar process. Maybe there’s a reason behind this decision that we are not exposed to.

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DarkStone Digital3 years ago(+1)

The issue is a game launch and trying to synchronize exposure across platforms and your various channels. If you have a date that you tell folks you’re launching your game, then you make a major update when the game is available to time with your launch and they take “some amount of time”. Your launch in terms of exposure is staggered.

That may not sound like much on a single itch game level but if you tell everyone everywhere your game is launching and someone heads to itch from word of mouth and has to dig for it on launch day, thats not ideal.

The issue is the nebulous time frame and no feedback on if your post is actually accepted after the curator process.

If they said “this takes 5 to 7 days” you can plan for that. If you get an email saying its rejected, you can plan for that too. But I’ve had 2 projects now where I’ve made major update posts and have never seen them in any new category at any point days or weeks later.

Transparency is the issue if no one has any answers as seems to be the case. Just perceptions of how it might work. I guess I can make suggestions on the itch discord for some level of information on this.

Its hard to buy in to being involved on the community side of dev blogs here if I’m potentially keeping my game from exposure by doing it instead of just making a page at launch.

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Outsider Artisan3 years ago(+2)

Looks like the last major update to get approved was 14 days ago.

Didn’t get anywhere on the Discord. I’m bumping this, because it does indeed seem like major updates are not being reviewed for some reason.

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DarkStone Digital3 years ago(+1)

I havent personally experienced a major update of mine accomplishing anything sadly. It seems like they take a long time and not many get approved. I have a suggestion thread I made too in the feedback part of the forum. Doesn’t seem like itch staff reply to much though honestly.

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Outsider Artisan3 years ago (2 edits) (+1)

It didn’t carry me to the top of the most recent pages or anything, but it did give me a pretty big boost. This was 9-3 or so. It only took a few hours, maybe less, to get approved. I’ve been trying to reach out to staff as well. No luck yet. On the discord I was told this:

And that was the only response. I’ll try to email the staff in a few days, but I doubt I’ll have better luck.

At any rate, I’ll post here if I do hear anything.

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DarkStone Digital3 years ago(+1)

I hope it goes better for you and we can figure this out. I’ve emailed the staff multiple times, reached out on twitter, posted here, posted in Discord, and posted a suggestion thread. I don’t know how many people work their support staff but this visibility and itch’s ability to reply to their developers is important for itch to grow.

I’d just like transparency on turn around for review, if a review accepted or rejected a post, and indexing time estimate.

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Just4FunStudios3 years ago

I'm glad you posted this. I'm new to itch and I've just released a game. I thought I had been very thorough about checking all the launch boxes but my game hasn't appeared in the new releases. I was growing frustrated trying to figure out what I've done wrong, looks like it's just a case of bad timing.

Thanks - John

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Outsider Artisan3 years ago (1 edit)

I’m bumping this. All I want is confirmation the system works, because this update was probably more substantial than the one I made last month that got approved. But whatever, people are arbitrary, I get it. I probably can’t count on my updates to get a bump.

What’s irritating is that if you go to devlogs, filter for major updates, and sort by most recent, it seems like something is wrong. If the major update system is indeed working, then someone should probably at least go fix that page because it’s definitely broken.

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DarkStone Digital3 years ago(+1)

I’m actually kind of surprised at this point at the lack of response. There’s no doubt they are busy over at Itch but I’ve tried every single method I know of to try and get in touch with someone about this just to know how it works.

I’d hope it’s not a huge task to provide some transparency to the system. This lack of update approval makes it very un-enticing to have any kind of long standing page with itch. Without approvals of major updates or launches; your best bet is to just make a new page for your game to let the automated system add it to the new section. That kills any long term loyalty to your page, brand, and ultimately itch.

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Outsider Artisan3 years ago

Yeah I’m honestly a little frustrated. I feel like if the system were completely broken more people would be talking about it, so I assume that our games both just happened to get arbitrarily rejected, which, whatever, it’s fine. People are making that decisions and people aren’t perfect.

I guess the fact that major updates on the devlog page are totally messed up is just an unrelated bug. I really can’t imagine there’s a massive issue in this system and we’re the only ones to care.

It is troubling that this topic and all other attempts to reach out have been totally ignored. It’s irritating too that this system is so lacking in transparency that it isn’t even clear it works. I can’t imagine a worse way to do this.

The fact that two updates of very similar size, with basically the exact same release notes, can get completely different results is also disturbing, as it means whatever rules the human reviewers are using are loose enough to be unreliable.

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