Let it flood my library, I don't care. I just want to easily look at everything I got, instead of going down a narrow list.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to give an update since we’ve done 3 quite large bundles at this point and there may be lingering information in old posts that is out date.
I’ve thought a lot on the matter and I fully understand the requests being made, but where we are currently at is:
There are various technical and usability issues that can come up in our system when you have a library that is multiple order of magnitudes larger than the standard library size. It greatly impacts how the the app and site work, adding substantial complexity. If we add this feature directly then it means why have to support it directly, which goes against our future plans for how we want our library to work. The solution we’re going forward with is treating bundles as a separate page within your library, then you can then add things to your main library as you see fit when you want to interact with them. That will enable us to provide the best experience to the widest range of users. Keep in mind, the Ukraine and Racial Justice bundles brought in over 1 million paying customers who now have access to a massive amount of games. These are the biggest bundles ever done. We have to make a wide range of considerations for these bundles.
Thanks for understanding
Ah, I can see that the "You own this game" banner shows up on the website for games that was in the bundle, that's great!
However, it seems like there's a bug in the itch.io PC client, apparently the banner isn't triggered there for some reason even though I'm logged in. Could you look into this? (I'm on version 25.5.1 of the client.) Here's a screenshot for comparison, with the website on top and the PC client on bottom:
Also, as a followup request, can the itch.io PC client also have a simple button to show my bundles either in the Library tab or as its own Tab?
Right now it's not even possible to find the bundle in the PC client unless I go to:
It's almost a tiny "escape room" puzzle just to get to the bundles. :)
Thanks for the report. We’ll get a quick fix out for the missing banner. Some more work needs to be done on better app integration which may take some time.
Edit: The on-site banner now appears when inside the app. We still have some work to do to synchronize the bottom bar of the app UI though. Until then use the banner at the top of the page and after clicking it the app will recognize that you can download the game.
Still no banner and the games that you got through the bundle still only give the "buy now" option at the bottom, so the only way to install stuff is to wade back through to the bad-to-browse bundle list. I want to see what a thing is before downloading it, but this forces me to go back and forth between pages in this client.
If you visit a game page that you’ve obtained through any bundle, you will now always see a button on the top of the page to access the game’s files
I certainly appreciate this change! It seems to also have the added benefit of making browser only games claimable now (previously it was impossible to claim them because they didn't have a download button).
making browser only games claimable now
I would say this is probably a bug. There is no reason to “claim” a browser based game, it has no effect since all browser games are publicly available at this time. If the developer provides downloadable content at a later time then it will follow the same flow as every other downloadable game. Doing this ahead of time is unnecessary and confusing since the “download key” page would be empty. Why do you consider this a benefit?
I use Playnite to organise my games and keep track of the ones I own, and the itchio extension will only import games from itchio if either a) i've claimed them, or b) they're installed through the itchio app. So it's either claim the browser only game, or install the browser only game, both of which sound equally "unnecessary and confusing". :P
With all respect, I think you should either stop offering large bundles, or improve your backend server so it can handle large libraries.
When I order a game from any other gaming site, the game appears in my library. If I have a large library, this makes it easier to install games on-the-fly. In contrast, when I buy a bundle from Itch, I essentially have to visit a library within a library, just to see it in my library. I hope you can see how user unfriendly this is. I wouldn't be complaining if this was a temporary measure, or part of a larger roadmap- even if it was years in the future, or an indefinite "to-do". But outright saying you will not be adding this is pretty frustrating.
I've just started getting into Itch, and I thought buying this bundle- as well as supporting Ukraine- would bolster my library and encourage me to buy from and support more indie devs. But this is something that will be a real sticking point against me buying any bundles in the future. I like to know exactly what I own and have it searchable from a single place, not stuck between multiple purchase pages.
I appreciate having been able to support events in Ukraine in this way, but it has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
Hear hear.
I love itch as a platform, I really, really do. But with the lack of filtering/sorting options (I'm aware that it's being worked on, but I think it should have been done a long time ago), the barebones app client, the game library and collections' lack of features, it's all really unfriendly.
On top of that, you can only view your purchases on the website, not games specifically, so you would have to sift through each one in order to find a game instead of a game asset or tool. So I'd have to use the app, which like the website, is stuck in a listed order instead of a grid, which is just plain inconvenient.
A personal gripe as well is the inability to claim games that are free, like you can on other platforms. I have a lot of games in my collection that will likely stay in a collection instead of my library until I get space to install them. It's just a preference thing though, I don't expect anyone else to share it.
I don't want to stop using itch, but as we speak I am putting every single one of my games in my library into collections based on their genre because 1) there is no genre/tag filter, and 2) you can't add multiple games in a collection at a time. It's just really exhausting right now.
A personal gripe as well is the inability to claim games that are free, like you can on other platforms. I have a lot of games in my collection that will likely stay in a collection instead of my library until I get space to install them. It’s just a preference thing though, I don’t expect anyone else to share it.
Free games that are claimable is something developers must host as a promotion for if they wish to offer that. By default, a game being free does not mean you permanently own it to allow developers the ability to update what they’re offering.
I found it. Carry on!
Is there any way you could add a page (either within the "My Library" page, or from the username dropdown menu) that populates with the unique links to our bundle purchases?
I'm new to itch.io, I lose things (like emails) constantly, and I wasn't even sure that I'd bought my first bundle from here or from some other site. The fact that I couldn't find reference to my first bundle anywhere on the website seemed to confirm this ("oh, nothing in my account or library, ok.") But thankfully I typed the right search term and found the email with my link.
I appreciate the recover purchases option, but I think a "see my bundles" page would be more user friendly without the system-breaking overload of dumping everything in the Library. (Edit: Actually not even the individual secret links, just the basic linkwould be best because you can search and filter, and that would be easier to implement anyway.)
Thanks for your time and all your work to make this happen!
Please just add an add all button, that's what everyone wants. It will be easier for everyone and will not leave people annoyed and unsure if they truly own their game. I expected to receive these games once I purchased them. Not to be forced to add them individually in order to access them. I thought this was a good charity bundle but after explaining what happened to my friends they refuse to purchase it. An add all button would fix everything, please Mr.Admin that's the best option for future sales and your current customers.
I think what they're worried about is people buying, say, https://urocyongames.itch.io/neuraquarium (and I think people should!), then buying the Mega Bundle For Whatever and not being able to find Neuraquarium in their library because it's behind a thousand other things, 99% of which they will never download and aren't really interested in.
The 1% they do will vary according to users' tastes, of course, but I would be very surprised the share of purchasers who download more than a hundred things in a thousand item bundle is more than 10%. (And most of those won't actually play / use what they did do an archive download of.)
On the one hand, your site, your rules and the bundles have been amazingly good.
On the other, it was really annoying that I can go to the page of something I have got in one of the big bundles but not yet downloaded and not be informed in any way that I already have it before I pay more money to have it.. again.
I have done this several times. In at least one case - https://sparsegamedev.itch.io/spring-falls - I don't mind so much: they got nothing and it's a really, really good puzzle game. But that's not always the case.
So yes, I get that you don't want to automatically add a thousand things to my 'purchased' list, but not warning users in any way that they're re-purchasing stuff just looked greedy and I'm glad that's no longer the case.
On the other, it was really annoying that I can go to the page of something I have got in one of the big bundles but not yet downloaded and not be informed in any way that I already have it before I pay more money to have it.. again.
If you look the top of the page there should be a button to access the game. It looks something like this:
If you don’t see that, then you aren’t logged into the account that is associated with the purchase, or you haven’t linked the purchase to your account yet. Please return to the purchase receipt page you recieved in your email to ensure that the purchase is linked to your account.
With one of the last huge bundles someone wrote a script to import all the items in. It's possible it could be tweaked for this bundle.
https://medium.com/@stadja/auto-claim-your-itch-io-mega-bundle-games-c425f6a9c1aa
I had to modify the script, but it finally worked.
This is the script that worked for me:
// is there a game to claim ? if yes, claim it
if ($('[value="claim"]') && $('[value="claim"]')[0]) {
$('[value="claim"]')[0].click();
// have I claimed a game ? If yes, go back
} else if (!window.location.toString().includes("/bundle/download")) {
$('.nav_btn')[1].click();
// no game to claim, no game claimed, change page
} else {
$('.next_page')[0].click()
}
In the line 7 of the original script, you can see that the script tells the browser to go back to the list page after adding a game:
window.history.back();
This made my browser go back to the start page, so I modified it to click the button to go to the list page:
$('.nav_btn')[1].click();
I hope this helps.
Oooh!
The original [ window.history.back() ] version worked for me, whereas the [ $('.nav_btn')[1].click(); ] suggestion went back to page one of the bundle each time. It would then grind back to the right page and continue, but it was adding serious runtime and consequent CPU usage.
It is currently doing the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality for me. It got stuck at one point - some publisher removed three games from here and the script can't cope with the resulting error pages. Fortunately, they were all on the same one of the fifty nine pages of items, so it was easy to do the remainder on that page manually then resume the script on the next page.. and I see it's just finished.
Thanks to you and, of course, the author of the original script.
Itch really should do this automatically with a single button click, of course, but hey ho...
I agree!
I dislike the way that itch forces all buyers to add (large) bundle items individually.
As a buyer, I should be the one who decides if I want to "flood my library with purchased games".
I had this same problem with the bundle for Racial Equality awhile back, and the way staff was so dismissive of even considering the " add all" option was why I've never spent any more money here since then.
Staff, if folks can write userscripts to claim all items then surely one of your coders could make this an option for your customers!
I second that; we should be the ones to decide for ourselves if we wish to "flood [our] library with purchased games".
I use Playnite to organise all of my games from multiple services, including itchio. It allows me to easily keep track of which games I own, which one's i've played, etc. It's difficult to do that adequately when itchio makes it so difficult to even claim the games in the first place.
Staff, if folks can write userscripts to claim all items then surely one of your coders could make this an option for your customers!
Whether or not it’s easy to write a script to click the button is besides the point. We have to consider the technical and user experience implications if we were to provide this as functionality. We weighed the options and it is not something we are going to provide. You’re welcome to run a script on your account at your own risk. I left a longer post up at the top of this thread explaining in more detail.
is it a case of that the game isn't considered 'bought' until its in someones library? is there some kind of dodgy thing going on here by itch.io?
thanks for pointing out the script though. very useful. I want to use the app to manage and install my games a'la steam. I don't want to wade through 34 long ass pages
is it a case of that the game isn’t considered ‘bought’ until its in someones library? is there some kind of dodgy thing going on here by itch.io?
The purchase and its contents are considered ‘bought’ as soon as your payment is confirmed. In order to optimize the most common case and provide a unified user experience we keep the games you receive in large bundles separate so you can pick an choose what you want to access as you see fit. You’re welcome to run a script on your account at your own risk, we won’t stop you, but we will not be providing this functionality ourselves. I put a more detailed post at the top of this thread. I hope this explains.
"There are various technical and usability issues that come up in our system when you have a library that is multiple order of magnitudes larger than the standard library size. It greatly impacts how the the app and site work, adding substantial complexity."
Ahhh - now that makes sense, thank you for the explanation. I think the current approach is a good compromise, though filter options on the bundle page would be a neat addition.
I cant get the script to work for me. Have tried in both Chrome and Edge. Its a pain adding all manually especially when i closed the browser and the games no longer appear in the same order. So frustrating not being able to claim all. Probably wont bother with another bundle because of this. Its impossible to see what I own.
Bought Assets, whatever they may be, MUST become available to play/install on the user library.
Hiding the assets somewhere almost impossible to find is an extremely questionable practice.
Making the user select one at a time from a huge list is a blatant disrespect for the users time and effort.
The year is 2020, cars drive themselves, rockets land themselves, and a gaming platform can't present some images on a browser/app?
Honestly, what is your excuse other that it going against your profit?
The problem is not a database one, and not a processor scalability one as both are infinitely scalable on any flavours of aws...
So, please be so kind to fix your bug, respect our time, and provide the service you proposed, to deliver ALL the games we bought.
Thank you.
To be honest, I was quite upset when I found out that the games are hidden. But after sitting on it for a longer time, I don't think itch.io deserves all this hate their getting here. Sure, it's weird. Sure, I think it is a wrong business decision. People think itch.io should potentially rewrite their backend/frontend/app to suite this specific case. Implement paged/delayed loading, eventual consistency or whatever else this would require that they might not have. Sure, all of this is doable and has been dome millions of times. But all of this requires a budget, people allocated to it, potentially expensive new hires to bring in the required experience...
So I do think, that itch is missing out on a good traction magnet - people will be turned off from their client/service. But I don't think customers raging here understand how those decisions are made in software projects. Hell, it might not even be on the table for itch to achieve that due to budget.
And as a developer, I can write my own integration to GOG Galaxy that would just sidestep the itch.io client and integrate the library in some way. Same should apply to Playnite.
Yeah, this is pretty dumb. If they're not going to implement a way for users to add games they've bought to their library like any modern launcher should do in 2022, then people are going to use scripts to do so which will probably hammer their servers even harder.
Just the fact that they're not automatically added when you buy it under your account doesn't make sense. And what is a "standard" library size anyways? They can't sell bundles with literally hundreds of games and then say our library sizes aren't "normal" when they're the ones that facilitated it in the first place!
Have you seen what they do if you complain about getting spam related to things you add to your library, and try to blame on using a script like this?
https://itch.io/t/1856548/how-do-i-turn-off-email-notifications-for-games-i-have...
Fact is, script or not, if you add things you buy to your library, expect to get spam that you have to disable one at a time. And you can only do so via the first spam you get for each item. You can't disable all these emails in one go; there's no setting on the site to do so. You have to click an unsubscribe link from each individual email.
Script has nothing to do with it. Simply having the items in your library will do it. It's not stopping them from blaming the script, though!
I made my own version of a bundle claimer, you'll need Tampermonkey. Tested in Firefox.
Download it here (click on the Raw button and install the userscript), then head over to the bundle page and you'll see a Claim all button. It will automatically go through all items and click on each Download link, it does it for all pages and informs you when it's done. There's a configurable wait time before following any links (see the WAIT_FOR_MS constant).
For Linux users there is a little Go app here that works:
https://github.com/tyndyll/itch-claim
I've taken a look at the source and nothing looks sketchy.
If you trust the pre-compiled binaries, you can download them here:
https://github.com/tyndyll/itch-claim/releases/tag/v1.0
There are macOS and Windows binaries too.
To build from source, you need git and go installed, then:
$ git clone https://github.com/tyndyll/itch-claim $ cd itch-claim $ go build . $ ./itch-claim --username <your-username> --password <your-password> --url <your-unique-bundle-url>
It appears to add one game every 5 seconds. This doesn't seem like an unreasonable load to put on the itch.io servers.