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Game pages that value team efforts

A topic by Humane Tiger created Jul 25, 2021 Views: 326 Replies: 1
Viewing posts 1 to 2
(6 edits) (+4)

In my opinion, there is a problem with pages for games that were created by a team of 2 or more people - caused by the fact that itch.io as a platform is following a single-ownership policy. That means, only one person of a team can be the owner of the game and the games page - and is standing out in every aspect on the game page and everywhere else (Follow [user], View all by [user], only one game entry on that users profile page).

This strongly suggests that there is one single person in lead, doing most of the job, earning all the credits, and all others in that team merely doing some more or less minor contribution (No follow links for them, no view all by [...] for them, no game entry on their profile pages).

At least in the context of Game Jams this "picture" is far from any reality and plain unfair - when a game is developed by a team, every member counts equally. Period. I assume that itch.io as a platform started with single-developer games in mind, and shaped everything around this picture. What I don't understand is, why they haven't taken action when this strong and remaining trend of team-developed games showed up. As it is now, the platform looks like it doesn't value team efforts at all. There are some little extensions: an admin feature and names of "contributors" mentioned inconsistently and inadequately on random places.

I can imagine that a team of game creators would expect the following changes when it comes to a fair presentation of their work:

  • A username-free game page URL, e.g. https://[game-name][incremental-number].itch.io/ instead of https://[user-name].itch.io/game-name
  • A coequal game entry on all team members profile pages - pointing to the username-free game page URL
  • On the game page a "View all creators" link- listing links to the profile pages of all team members - instead of a single "View all by [user-name]" link
  • A batch (on top of the games thumbnail, on the game page itself) indicating that this game is the result of a team effort

I think these changes would truly value the idea of team-based game development.

I would like to hear your opinion, critics and ideas on that.    

(+3)

Very valid observation on a glaring issue when working in teams on itch. Given that many people, including myself, are part of a growing community that enjoy using itch for game jam entries and just working in teams in general, it's surprising that this remains an issue.

While you can indeed embed your game as a widget on your own profile after it's published, add people as contributors/admin to the project, or publish the game under a shared account on itch, these merely bandaid the problem at hand. 

I like your list of suggestions to improve consistency around credit and better transparency of teamwork on itch. Hopefully, this is given its due value and consideration by the platform, as it's definitely a feature that the community sorely lacks at the moment.