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Welcome to refinery

A topic by leafo created May 13, 2016 Views: 6,454 Replies: 44
Viewing posts 1 to 25
Admin (2 edits) (+13)

Hey all,

We've just launched our brand new tool set: refinery. We've written a ton of information about it, so instead of a long post I'll link to everything:

Post your questions and comments here!

Thanks

(+5)

thx guys, long live the refinery!

(+1)

This sounds like a great feature, can't wait to get stuck in since one of my games is going alpha pretty shortly!

<3

At first, i had soo many questions.. but i think i have it now; after reading all the links!
and the update to the Developer Dashboard is soo welcomed! :D

~cheers!

Is there a way to connect Exclusive Content to uploads or keys?

Admin

At the moment there's no way to give an exclusive content tier to a download key, is that something you'd like to do? If so send an email here with more information support@itch.io and I can help get it set up.

Not at the moment, but it's something we've got in mind for the near future. Kind of like the Pay $X Minimum for This feature, but tied to refinery tiers.

Deleted 8 years ago
Admin

It's possible to query the quantities of the exclusive content through the API, but in general it's another buy button on your project's page. There is no API integration necessary. Did you have something in mind for an API call?

(+3)

So how do we use this now? Or is it already integrated with the old system?

Admin(+2)

it's all integrated with the existing system, you don't have to join any programs or anything like that. You can find all the new functionality in your project editor.

Cool! Thanks!

(1 edit) (+1)

So is any game we put on itch.io through the refinery? I just recently put a game up in prototype status so was just wondering.

Admin(+3)

refinery is a set of tools that lets you release your game in a way that you have control over. It's not really a program. You don't enter or leave it. You can use whatever functionality we've released under the refinery umbrella that works for you.

I am also a little confused, I clicked the get started button but there isnt really information that i could find on what we need to do?

Admin

refinery adds a bunch of independent tools that you can pick and choose. Is there something in particular you're trying to accomplish?

I undertand, makes sense now thank you :)

I really want to create a separate version of one of my games that will have a different main character. I want the game to be given to those with a key. How can I go about doing that?

"itch.io refinery is a customizable toolset made for developers to distribute their unfinished games, build a real community and gain useful feedback." All right, that sounds good. "We think early access is broken"...Wow, what? Did you just insult all the great games I've bought and enjoyed on Steam Early Access? Is it really that important to position yourselves as jerks?


Admin(+1)

We're not insulting a games. There are plenty of awesome games that have gone through early access, and there are plenty of great developers making really cool things. That doesn't automatically mean that how early access works is good for a games development lifecycle. I wrote more about the problem that many developers face here: https://itch.io/docs/creators/refinery#why_refiner...

Wow, that sounds like an awesome feature. Thanks for all the developers here at itch.io :D

(+1)

This seems like it will be an awesome toolset to use. Let us "refine" our games with refinery.

Hey guys! We just showed Super Combat Jr 2 at Combo Breaker! It was pretty cool to do a public showing for videogame folks instead of at local festivals (which is also cool in another way).

We initially went into the tournament posting on twitter and forums we're on about 50 free keys we had to give to everyone. We gave away something like 20 or so keys to the game.

Initially we wanted to release the keys only to the current build; full access to the final finished game would be reserved for actual buyers. Later on we actually decided that anyone who supports us this early can just have copies of the game, but for future events I think that would be a cool way to promote the game.

Anyways, it would be cool to be able to release tiered keys for the game. I know I can just make another game on itch and have it exist as its own thing with its own limited keysets, and I think that's what we're going to do in the future, but it would be cool to have a tiny ecosystem for all the versions of CJr floating out there.

Admin(+1)

If you generate download keys in bulk using the download key groups feature then we can disable an entire group's access. This should work for the use case you're describing. In the future we'll likely add the ability for a developer to disable them all themselves, but for now you'll need to contact support about it.

(+1)

We are all about this at coffeebeansgame. We just recently got greenlit on Steam and totally agree that the current early access model doesn't work at all. Looking forward to using this as our first release platform for our beta through dev.

(+1)

I read about it, but I might have overlooked some instructions. How do I post my game in Refinery?

(+1)

I'm looking to do the whole 'only X number of buyers for early testing' thing. I'd like to see an example page if possible, if someone (or itch) has one setup? I'm unsure if I've set things up properly.

It just seems confusing right now as I have a 'Purchase/Buy Now' button for $XX, then under it, 'Exclusive Content' and another pay $XX button. I'd think it'd be much cleaner if there was just the one buy now button, which explained that there is only a limited quantity.

I think the Exclusive Reward thing itself is a little odd (in respect to offering limited keys). It doesn't really explain what people are getting. They aren't getting a reward for buying the game, they're getting the game itself, albeit one that's limited in quantity.

If possible, I'd have no 'Purchase'/buy button first, but only something like:

Limited Release First Access

Buy Now ($XX) Only N remaining.

Admin

Thanks for the feedback. If you require a reward to be purchased, then clicking the top buy button will put the person through the same purchase flow as if they had clicked the lowest available tier.

Hello!

This might be a bit of a silly question and perhaps I've just glossed over something while reading the documentation but is there any way to allow users to download a specific "revision" of a file or is it limited to just the most recent release? Obviously most people will probably want the most recent version but it'd be nice to have those older builds just in case something breaks but also for archival purposes.

Thanks for any insight! -Jennifer

Refinery looked like the perfect toolset for doing our closed beta for Joggernauts! Thank you for providing such an amazing toolset for free!!!

Admin(+1)

Looks interesting, tell us when you're doing an open beta and we'll share the game.

That would be fantastic, thank you!

I want to know how can I post a game on the refinery? I have edited my game page on the dashboard but I don't seem to find the option to put the game on the refinery program.

Hey, so i've search the admin interface high and low for 'refinery' and can't see any references to it at all.

Does anyone have any pointers? Thanks! Jim 

(1 edit)

Like everyone else here, we're a bit confused as to how we can use it.

We have a game in the works and would like to use itch.io to do a soft launch. Find enthusiasts who can help us with the polishing of the last 10%. I've been going all over the refinery landing page and I can't find any way to use it, add games to it. Is this still an active project?

Admin

Refinery is a set of tools that anyone is free to use. There's no program you have to join or any approval necessary. If you're using any of the things listed here then you're using refinery! https://itch.io/docs/creators/refinery

Tell me if you have any more questions.

I'm looking to host my very early builds of my current project on itch.io and want to set up a sign up sheet (probably through googleforms which would likely include a light NDA of some sort) as a way for folks who are interested to receive their keys. The plan would be to have a page on itch that provides information regarding the game, hosts dev logs, host community boards, and provides a link to the sign up form. Ideally only those who have signed up (or have a key) would be able to download the game and view/post in the community boards, but the game page and dev logs would be public.

However, reading through the documentation I'm not 100% certain on how to do that. Seems like I may have to make two game pages. One that is public and one that is restricted. 

Thanks!

Hello, I have followed the youtube tutorials. Butler is working correctly and connect, however, I keep getting that the system cannot find the file specified. The path is copy and pasted directly from the properties of the file. I've been trying for a week now and keep getting this error. Any ideas on what is causing it?

Admin (1 edit)

Make sure you wrap your paths in quotes when passing them in as command line arguments. It’s necessary when there’s a space in the path. Hope that helps

getting closer, here is my path butler push "C:\Program Files\Butler\TheMMIDemo icevayne-games/the-mmi-demo:win-64", it is the correct user and game id, so I'm at a loss. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Admin

It’s kinda hard to tell what you ran from you pasted, but I think you’re mistakenly passing the src and target as a single argument. They are two separate arguments, which means two sets of quotes. (generally, though, quotes are not required for the target because targets will not contain spaces or any other characters that need to be quoted)

If you can share the entire command you’re running along with the error message I can probably point you in the right direction. Thanks


If I only put the "" around the path, it says it cannot locate it, it can only locate it when I enclose the entire command line in quotes. But is looks like it can't find the target page on itch. Thanks for your help with this.
Admin (1 edit)

If I only put the “” around the path, it says it cannot locate it,

Then you’re providing the wrong path. Double check to make sure it’s a valid directory. If you want to reply with that command you’re running I can take a look to see if I spot anything wrong.

it can only locate it when I enclose the entire command line in quotes

It’s not finding it, it’s showing you a completely different error message

Here is the file and the path in the command line. I've tried pretty much tried everything but have had no success.

Admin (1 edit)

I think the issue is that you don’t have a regular .zip file, but a special Windows folder called a Compressed Folder. From the properties panel in the screenshot I see that there’s no .zip file extension on it, which makes me believe it’s something else.

Butler is designed to work on compressed directories, so if you’re at a loss at what to do, try extracting the folder to a regular folder, and tell butler to work with that.

Thank you. I had the file extensions on my windows hidden so that was the issue Thanks again.