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"Hidden Downloads"

A topic by Jeroen P. Broks created Jan 25, 2020 Views: 1,532 Replies: 5
Viewing posts 1 to 5

When it comes to hidden downloads on itch.io, I got a question. I am currently in the middle of a big project, and since it's a one-man show (in other words all the active development lies in my hands alone), and alpha testers being welcome, I wonder about the hidden downloads. Are they completely undownloadable (except by myself) or is there a way in which I can authorize potential alpha testers to download the game anyway while the general audience cannot see the game, yet? And in the latter case, I'd like to know a quick way how? 

For me the answer to this question is only a bit important in if I can open up the page it's now, and start uploading or not (and if not possible I'm afraid alpha testers will then have to go to Game Jolt where the alpha version is being updated on daily basis in secret without anyone unauthorized seeing it, but I came here to broaden my horizon). ;)

(1 edit)

I have never heard of Game Jolt before, but dude, if you pay me 1 USD each time you mention it, I could buy a bunch of stuff on itch.

EDIT:

Wait, do I contradict myself?

Moderator

You can hand your testers download keys. By making it so they must claim the game, you can even prevent them from sharing the keys. It's not ideal, but might serve your purpose?

@Halloween Astronaut Be nice. :P

@No Time To Play
Thanks, that helps me... For now ;)

@Halloween Astronaut
Very nice you say that, considering that every time itch.io is mention on Game Jolt... If I got one buck for that I'd have more money that there is in the entire world... Actually 1 Japanese Yen would already do that, so let's not mention my GJ mentions here, shall we?

Admin (1 edit) (+1)

You can use a Restricted page mode to have a private page with private files that are only accessible to people you create access keys for. Or, if you want your page to be public with limited access to downloads, you can can set your project page to Public, and check “Disable new downloads and purchases.” You can then generate download keys to give people explicit access to the files.

Example:

Generally, I would opt to have the public so you can let people who don’t have access to the game still learn about the project and follow it for when it’s.

There currently is no good way to have a hybrid, some files available others not approach. You can kinda make it happen using Demo files. This is something we’d like to address in the future.

Hope that helps!

Yeah, that certainly helps me to get my understanding a bit better...
I guess I will have to play with this a bit when my mind is more clear (It's close to 1am in my timezone now so I guess, that explains why my mind is not entirely clear now). I guess disabling new downloads and purchases will at least keep stuff hidden, and I guess once the beta/stable releases come I just need to uncheck that and start uploading over the closed alpha versions...

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