What do you think a wishlist is? Itch has general purpose lists called collections.
I did not understand the negated grammar about indexing and publishing. What are you talking about? Accesibility of a page has nothing to do with it's indexing status and building an audience with nothing to show or link to is gonna be difficult.
If your published projects are not indexed, read here https://itch.io/t/4120453/game-quarantined-search-or-indexing-problem-read-this
Game screenshots have disappeared from Google, even though they were available before. Also, games cannot be found through the itch.io search.
Additionally, the developer’s page cannot be found through itch.io search, even though it is indexed on Google.
(No need to be rude, you can just share links or provide information.)
I have troubles understanding you.
It mostly refers to adding unreleased games to a list
That's not what a wishlist is.
A wishlist is a list you put things on that you wish to buy later or keep watch on, like getting informed when it is on sale. It has nothing to do with the availability of items. Itch collections are wishlists. You can even configure your settings for Itch to send you a mail, if something goes on sale on a collection.
What you might mean is how developers urge their fans to "wishlist" their unpublished games, so Steam will agree to publish them as early access if enough people did this. This concept does not apply on Itch at all. You publish if you press the publish button. There is no barrier, no early access phase, no official release date. After you press the publish button on Itch, your project is available by direct link for download and for buying, if you sell it.
Having the game indexed or not has no bearing on this. If your project is not indexed yet or was indexed and suddenly is not, read the link I posted above.
Now, since you can wishlist unpublished games on Steam, it kinda makes sense to wishlist something that is unpublished, since you also will get info when it is finally released. On Itch, if you want to get notification for a not published thing, you need to follow the developer with the follow button. An already published project you could just put on a collection. But there is no event, when the developer turns the status from prototype to in development to released. Unless you follow the developer and that developer makes a blog post about it.
For indexing, developer's pages cannot be found through Itch search at all. This was changed some time ago, it previously was possible. Now you will only find indexed games by a developer if you search a developer.
Oh, and your two projects have no files. Itch is not designed to host empty projects. Make blog post, if you want to do that. Not a project page. Empty project pages will probably not be indexed. Itch is designed for hosting files and it does not require the project to be finished, but you should have something to show. https://itch.io/docs/creators/quality-guidelines#avoid-publishing-your-page-befo...
This includes having all images, files, and classifications added as needed.
Itch, unlike Steam, has a self-publishing model and is designed with a "pay what you want" approach.
This means you can publish your project with almost no restrictions. You can publish games, programs, books, comics, music, etc.
You can publish only for Linux, or only for Android, or an HTML game.
Unless you commit something illegal or try to upload malware or a virus, Itch won't prevent you from publishing your project. However, Itch doesn't index all projects; that is, it doesn't add all published projects to its internal search engine; it has a certain minimum level.
The big problem is that Itch doesn't have the resources to manually review all games. It has an algorithm that, based on certain criteria (which the staff has never revealed), allows it to be indexed or placed in a queue for manual review by a human.
Since Itch doesn't have a large staff, that manual list can take a few hours, days, or even weeks, and I've read about many games that have been left in limbo for months.
So, "published" is something you control. Your page is public, it can be visited, your product can be downloaded/purchased, etc.
"Indexed" means Itch adds your project to its internal search engine if it has previously been accepted by the algorithm, or if not, if it has been manually approved by the staff.
Let me clarify, only projects can be indexed, not developers. If you search by a developer's name, Itch shows you that developer's indexed projects, not their profile.
If the developer does NOT have any indexed projects, then the system will not show you anything.
Why not a wishlist?
The "pay what you want" model is the most used on Itch. In that model, it doesn't make sense to have a wishlist, since the majority of games published and consumed are free or pay what you want (1,200,000) vs. paid (32,000). Instead, Itch only implements a collection system, where each user is free to group the projects that catch their attention in any way they wish. If someone wants, they can create their "wishlist" collection, but Itch doesn't offer that as a ready-made option, because Itch isn't focused on paid products, as Steam or GOG are.
