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Selling an HTML game with Android compatibility?

A topic by elyneknight created Aug 15, 2024 Views: 123 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 2

Hi! I've been working on this project for a decade and it's almost ready! It works well hosted outside itch, and also embedded on itch, on PC and Android. 

But here's the problem. I can't embed it on itch and ask for payments (other than donations). 

I can sell it as a downloadable zip file, which is fine for displaying on PCs. But displaying downloaded html on Android is weirdly difficult for the user. 

To get around that, I can make it an app. But my game has some adult-oriented text which means I can't host it in the Android app store, which means users would need to be comfortable installing a foreign apk. 

Instead, I could host it externally and sell keys on itch, but that's against itch's policies.

I could provide a downloadable zip file for PC users that also provides a key for Android users. But this seems like a weird and clunky solution to what I imagine must be a common problem. 

There has to be a better way, right? What am I missing? What do other people do?

(+1)

People who buy Android games on Itch usually understand that they need to download and install the app outside of the Google store, so I don't see that as a problem.

What Itch cares about is that its users get what they paid for. If you offer an Android game and give them an app, you would be complying.

Playing in HTML without installing the app (using a key) would be optional, as long as you are clear, I don't think it would be a problem.

Thanks! That makes sense, I was just hoping there would be a neater solution I hadn't thought of. I'm a bit surprised because this seems to make unnecessary work for both the developer and the player, which is bad for Itch ultimately as well. But presumably they have their reasons.