Hi everyone,

I’m new to Itch and just released my very first game. I was wondering if other developers could share their own experiences: how long did it take before your first game started getting noticed? Did you see views and downloads fairly quickly, or was it more of a slow process that built up over weeks or months?

I’m also curious about something else: what are some effective ways you found to attract more downloads early on? Did you rely mainly on the Itch community, devlogs, or outside platforms like YouTube/Twitter/TikTok?

Lastly, since I’m still learning, I’d really appreciate if anyone could take a look at my game page and let me know if the presentation (screenshots, trailer, description) feels strong enough, or if there’s something I could improve to make it more appealing.

For context, my game is a ghillie sniper shooter, and it’s the first time I’ve put something like this out there. Here’s the link if you’d like to check it out: [Operation Ghost Sniper]

Thanks so much to anyone willing to share their journey or give me feedback—it’ll help me a lot in setting realistic expectations and figuring out what to improve going forward.

I published 11 games and I had indexing issues with 3 of 'em. Initially they were indexed, but a modification in the page has removed 'em. Once I complained of it in the forum (or Reddit, I don't remember) and tried to modify the page again; the games were indexed again. I'm not sure if modifying the page could cause an indexing, but you could try. Itch.io staff should watch every single non-indexed game and approve it manually, but I don't think they have the time to do that at the moment, because of the new NSFW policy.

I have your same problem and if my last game will remain deindexed for a week, I will try to modify the page again.