I’m interested to know what people think of itch.io in the context of other stores. I’m currently selling The Deep Paths primarily on Steam. I also have the product available via Humble Store and IndieGala Store.
I’ve been looking at itch.io and considering selling there too. I’m not too familiar with the store though. On first glance, it seems like much more of a free-for-all of both low quality, mid quality, and (somewhat) high quality titles. It’s not entirely clear what kind of DEVELOPER they’re trying to attract. Is it more a platform for exposing and/or selling experimental hobby/indie games, or do “serious” games also have a place there?
Does anyone have any experience with this? i.e. you’re selling your games on stores like Steam, and also on itch.io? Is it a good idea? Does it potentially harm the game’s reputation? Are you seeing good sales via itch.io? Should the game be priced at the exact same level that you price your Steam product?
itch.io does have some nice features where you can embed the store link right into your own website. It does make a useful alternative for people that refuse to use steam, while at the same time not requiring you to code your own store front and handle credit card details.
In terms of traffic I’m not really sure it will add much value. itch.io doesn’t generate very much organic traffic on its own. You will need to drag every visitor there yourself. And if you are doing that then why not send them to Steam?
Their main audience seems to be ‘not steam’. So it catches the games that don’t make it past green light, the games that are NSFW, and the devs and players that object to Steam for reasons.
Probably if you’re doing it to get customers who “refuse to use Steam”? The Humble Store offers something similar, where instead of a link you embed a script that allows you to sell directly from your site with them handling all of the payment and such.
I haven’t used either myself, though, so can’t give any commentary on their effectiveness.
I guess in terms of down-sides, I can’t think of too many. I like that itch.io let’s you set the revenue share (as long as it’s at least 10%). It means I could sell the game slightly cheaper on there, and also include a Steam key, and that might actually drive some Steam users to purchase via itch.io, as well as hopefully picking up those weird folks who are anti-steam… though I think a lot of them end up at GOG?
I’m really tempted to try it and see what happens. Just concerned about potential disadvantages that haven’t occurred to me yet. I’ll wait a little longer and see if anyone else has thoughts. Otherwise, might be an interesting experiment I guess.
you should maybe drum up a community on steam and get exposure and stuff, do that first, flirt with sales and so on… if you’re not having a success on the biggest market, it is unlikely to win on a tiny market.
The game is doing fine on Steam, and I have about 5500 Wishlist entries that I’m hoping to convert at least a decent percentage of during the Christmas sale.
I guess I’m looking more for those areas like the guys mentioned where “Anti-Steam” gamers might shop. Maybe that market isn’t so big anymore though. I know back in the day, Steam wasn’t seen as very indie-friendly and such, so a lot of the more… hip… gamers shopped around elsewhere. These days though, I think Steam could arguably be the MOST indie-friendly place, so maybe it’s not so much of an issue anymore.
This could be worth a look, it’s a service called Bigger Boat run by indie-oriented publisher Surprise Attack. The idea is that they take a game that’s already got some traction on Steam and sell it on your behalf on a variety of other shopfronts. You get to concentrate on Steam without losing out on the other markets.
I’ve gone ahead and started uploading some of my older stuff onto itch.io anyway. It’s a pretty cool site. I like their publisher interface - nice and easy to get things submitted.
I haven’t used itch yet put I really like the look of it. It seems as if they put more thought into their decisions than Valve and are generally more developer friendly.
The only experience I have with itch.io is people who use it for distributing free prototypes and smaller free games. Or people like Daniel Linssen who use it as his website more or less: https://managore.itch.io/
You can’t do that on Steam. He makes every game’s page look completely stylized and themed according to the game it conveys, it’s really slick. All his games with the exception of 1 or 2 are free (pay what you want) though, so I doubt it brings in the dough.
If I ever made a commercial game I would intend to supply steady updates for for a while and for that reason I would never put it on itch.io if I also had it on Steam. Seems like it would be a hassle to ensure the game is updated both places. And no idea how you handle support/refunds/technical issues through itch.io, it’s probably entirely manual and up to the developer.
That sounds about right. I usually use itch.io to find some cool game thats posted on the frontpage.You probably want to have your own traffic on the site somehow and have a cool animated gif
Strangely enough, our little game is on the first page at html5 section of itchi.io - @SteveJ I found out about itchi.io from you in this thread so a big thanks from me and our team
I’ve used itch I like it though I use the pay what you want and have never seen a dime. This isn’t a complaint the game was simple and designed with the Tobii EyeX controller and made it free with the hopes of some kind off feedback.
[Edit]
Amos Wenger contacted me at github and explained me that this is the result of me specifying it has adult content - thanks for the clarification
Old post:
I have noticed that when I browse itchio html5 section I can see Baa in the 6th row at html5 games.
I am the only one who can.
Baa is not visible anymore in the html5 section or any other search section for anyone else - or for me when I browse in incognito mode.
This is surprising, given the fact that we have not been contacted by itchio stuff about violating any rules - it seems that they just shut us down without notice.
Since the thread continues to be active I thought I’d link to one of their more recent blog posts which discusses the process they use to curate recommendation lists. Basically, for anyone who can’t be bothered to click the link, the games are hand-picked by their staff for every recommendation list except the “Recommended For You” list which is handled by a script.
I actually found they have a setting that lets you turn them all off. Pretty neat.