Hello everyone,
We are encountering a persistent issue with our games on itch.io. This is the second time it's happened, and unfortunately, the problem still remains unresolved.
I would greatly appreciate any advice or insights on what might be causing this issue and how to fix it once and for all.
I've heard rumors of Godot-made games being treated like a malware. What can be done about this? Do you sign your game in any way?
Thank you for your assistance.
Your main exe triggers a "Trojan.Heur!". And the app does a lot of strange things in sandbox. There may be a reason why godot games trigger so often. That game engine seems to have issues.
But since you have no quarantine message, your not being indexed has nothing to do with that. No one will tell you why, because information on how to get indexed for sure would be abused. There is real malware uploaded daily.
Thank you for your prompt response.
While it's unfortunate that we're still facing indexing issues despite not triggering any quarantine messages, we understand the challenges involved in maintaining platform security.
So, we see your point but still it's frustrating to see other games being indexed promptly while we're encountering difficulties with ours.
We'll continue investigating and reaching out for support to ensure our games are properly indexed.
Judging by other threads and other observations, there is currently is a waiting time. Itch is a free service and you get what you pay for. So if your game was put into a queue for inspection, there is basically nothing you can do, but wait and bring it to attention in a few weeks. There were times when waiting time was around 30 days.
The stance of itch is, that you should not depend on itch to promote your game. Being discovered by accident on itch browsing is a trickle of nothingness. Many, many games have zero ratings, developer have almost no followers and so on - despite being indexed for many months.
I think you would do good to promote your youtube channel in the meantime.
I'll soon start to post a screen of all the guideline lies and first time games published in 10 seconds...even without a proper page or description... There are a lot of people that make legit game and not get indexed. The thing "its your first game so you have to wait! is a LIE!. Sending a ticket to the support mean nothing, they answer you like 2 weeks later and they dont even know what is your problem. The thing "indexing get 2hours to 2weeks" mean thats no rules for getting indexed, so when a member of the itch staff find the will to do his job there's a chance that he see your (nonindexed) game. While, again, there's a lot of first time game published and indexed instantly.
DONT BELIEVE ITCH RULES, there isnt enough staff to apply the rules...
And please dont tell me "there's a milion games to review", Only way to get attention of the staff is to post a complain in the forum.
Itch has grown and infos are outdated. They obviously have some system that puts new stuff on a queue to be reviewed and other stuff directly to index.
There is speculation that certain actions will always trigger an inspection or put you back into queue.
And we should mind this: we do not know all the items that do not appear on index, since we do not see them. We do not see all the crap that does rightfully get cought and dealt with by staff. Think about this: there are about a million projects on itch. But they have a counter for projects that is over 2.5 million. This means, that over half again the current projects were either deleted or rejected - automatically or by staff or by the developer.
https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines
There is inprecise, even contradictory information on that page regarding indexing. But it also is only a guideline, so maybe take it with a grain of salt.
"And please dont tell me "there's a milion games to review"
"Think about this: there are about a million projects on itch. But they have a counter for projects that is over 2.5 million."
Anyway...
Im saying there's no rules in the process of getting indexed without the staff care. Its totally random and non-equal, some games goes to the index some not.
Are you also suggesting that Itch has grown but still got no will to update infos and guideline? where's the growth? just the number of projects? Guidelines and rules are there for what?
I think its better to have a transparent and precise communication with your community, instead of missleading information and lack of services.
You misread my argument. I was telling that there are 1.5 million projects not on the index. You say that there are projects indexed immediatly. And this is so. But you cannot know how many projects are not, for the simple fact, that you do not see them.
And of course it is equal for all games. They all go through the exact same process. But you do not know what this process entails, you only see the outcome and claim that, because the outcome is not the same, the process must be different, random or whatever.
As for growth, this is in projects published per time frame.
2019 (69,857 results)
2020 (126,693 results)
2021 (165,128 results)
2022 (176,758 results)
2023 (196,977 results)
And this is only the remaining projects, that are still indexed.
From observation I can tell, that the process mentioned above does has some automatic screening with unknown parameters that flag stuff for manual inspection. Who knows, maybe it even does have random aspects like controls on an airport.
Next time please make your own topic to complain instead of hijacking someone else's.
Edit: to answer your complaint, games in the review queue are prioritized by various factors. People with a history of releasing games without issues may be fast-tracked, while others require more checks. Otherwise people in the forum (even moderators) can only speculate about the reasons for a delay. And a lot of people ask for help before even reading the rules, or waiting a little bit.
Yeah, most of those threads are annoying. But the amount of those threads might indicate a systematic problem. Maybe it can be lessened with a tactical placed disclaimer shown to new publications. The forum is all good and well, but judging by the view counters, practically no one reads here - not even the people posting here for help, as you can attest manyfold ;-)
Guidelines are not rules.
Certain factors are more likely to get the game into the review pile, that doesn't mean that if you meet factor A then it will pass B.
Maybe you can point out my mistake, but I don't remember reading anywhere where Itch says that a game is indexed instantly if it meets the proposed guideline.
The actual process has never been explained by the staff, we can only speculate based on what was observed.
As you say, there are games of very low quality that are indexed and others that clearly have work done by the developer and that are not indexed and we really don't know the exact reason.
By the way, you ask that they not tell you that there are thousands of games on Itch, but at the same time you say that there is a lack of staff. Don't you see the relationship?
If there is only one person reviewing and 10 games are uploaded one day, that person can review all 10.
If 10,000 games are uploaded tomorrow, that same person cannot review them all.
How do you solve the problem?
Possibly an algorithm that rates certain risk values, it is possible that this algorithm includes random factors, something very common in QA processes.
Furthermore, it has been said many times, do not depend on being indexed as a means of advertising.
Thank you all for sharing your perspectives on this matter. It's clear that there are frustrations with the current system, as seen on other posts on this forum, and I appreciate the opportunity to discuss it openly.
While it's evident that there are differing viewpoints on the issue, I want to reiterate that my intention in raising this concern was not to ignite conflict but rather to seek clarity and improve the platform for all developers.
Moreover, it's important to clarify that this isn't solely about game visibility, as the games in question serve more as "tutorial levels" and are offered for free. Our aim is to ensure that we're prepared for any eventual big releases.
Moving forward, I hope we can continue this dialogue constructively and work towards solutions that benefit everyone involved.
Thank you again for your time.
