Hello,
Thanks for the feedback, I think that's a good point. We should redo how we handle setting the date for that page. But, I also think that's it's important not to have a lot of expectation for the recently added page for any significant traffic. We get hundreds of a games a day, so the amount of exposure you would get from there would be pretty minimal since you're likely to get pushed down pretty fast. We send out an email when you first release your game with some tips:
- Post your game in the release announcements board - you can control what's written about your game here to get people interested, also this page will let your game stick towards the top if you get more attention on the post. We also review all posts here, and this is where we generally find people to feature.
- Share your game on your social accounts, twitter facebook etc. For the first week your game is live, it's global ranking on the site is easily influenced by traffic, so you're more likely to show up on top games or sellers if you can generate some attention around your page. Take advantage of any audience you've built to promote your project page. Send them directly to your itch.io page. If you have your own landing page with an itch.io embed then it will not get that boost.
Hope that helps