Post by leafo in Give me an option to add all Ukraine bundle items to my library! - itch.io

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leafoPinned ReplyAdmin2 years ago (12 edits) (+7)

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give an update since we’ve done 3 quite large bundles at this point and there may be lingering information in old posts that is out date.

I’ve thought a lot on the matter and I fully understand the requests being made, but where we are currently at is:

We will not be adding an “add all” button
We won’t stop you from running scripts, but know that your use-case is against what we intended so you assume full responsibility of any side effects both now and with any future functionality we roll out
If you visit a game page that you’ve obtained through any bundle, you will now always see a button on the top of the page to access the game’s files. It will take you directly to the downloads in your browser, and add it directly to your library for the app.
We will improve the filtering options. At the moment, the best way I can recommend to browse and filter games in the bundle on site is through the bundle’s main page, eg. https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine

There are various technical and usability issues that can come up in our system when you have a library that is multiple order of magnitudes larger than the standard library size. It greatly impacts how the the app and site work, adding substantial complexity. If we add this feature directly then it means why have to support it directly, which goes against our future plans for how we want our library to work. The solution we’re going forward with is treating bundles as a separate page within your library, then you can then add things to your main library as you see fit when you want to interact with them. That will enable us to provide the best experience to the widest range of users. Keep in mind, the Ukraine and Racial Justice bundles brought in over 1 million paying customers who now have access to a massive amount of games. These are the biggest bundles ever done. We have to make a wide range of considerations for these bundles.

Thanks for understanding

Mythril2 years ago (1 edit) (+5)

Ah, I can see that the "You own this game" banner shows up on the website for games that was in the bundle, that's great!

However, it seems like there's a bug in the itch.io PC client, apparently the banner isn't triggered there for some reason even though I'm logged in. Could you look into this? (I'm on version 25.5.1 of the client.) Here's a screenshot for comparison, with the website on top and the PC client on bottom:

Also, as a followup request, can the itch.io PC client also have a simple button to show my bundles either in the Library tab or as its own Tab?

Right now it's not even possible to find the bundle in the PC client unless I go to:

Explore
Arrow menu
My library
View All/My Purchases
Bundles

It's almost a tiny "escape room" puzzle just to get to the bundles. :)

leafoAdmin2 years ago (1 edit) (+5)

Thanks for the report. We’ll get a quick fix out for the missing banner. Some more work needs to be done on better app integration which may take some time.

Edit: The on-site banner now appears when inside the app. We still have some work to do to synchronize the bottom bar of the app UI though. Until then use the banner at the top of the page and after clicking it the app will recognize that you can download the game.

AzoreanEve2 years ago(+1)

Still no banner and the games that you got through the bundle still only give the "buy now" option at the bottom, so the only way to install stuff is to wade back through to the bad-to-browse bundle list. I want to see what a thing is before downloading it, but this forces me to go back and forth between pages in this client.

leafoAdmin2 years ago(+2)

The banner that is part of the game’s page is now there. Any app UI updates will come out at a later time as we have some other stuff in the pipeline for the app that needs to be completed first.

NatSpectrum2 years ago(+1)

If you visit a game page that you’ve obtained through any bundle, you will now always see a button on the top of the page to access the game’s files

I certainly appreciate this change! It seems to also have the added benefit of making browser only games claimable now (previously it was impossible to claim them because they didn't have a download button).

leafoAdmin2 years ago (3 edits)

making browser only games claimable now

I would say this is probably a bug. There is no reason to “claim” a browser based game, it has no effect since all browser games are publicly available at this time. If the developer provides downloadable content at a later time then it will follow the same flow as every other downloadable game. Doing this ahead of time is unnecessary and confusing since the “download key” page would be empty. Why do you consider this a benefit?

NatSpectrum2 years ago(+4)

I use Playnite to organise my games and keep track of the ones I own, and the itchio extension will only import games from itchio if either a) i've claimed them, or b) they're installed through the itchio app. So it's either claim the browser only game, or install the browser only game, both of which sound equally "unnecessary and confusing". :P

Dark2 years ago(+33)

With all respect, I think you should either stop offering large bundles, or improve your backend server so it can handle large libraries.

When I order a game from any other gaming site, the game appears in my library. If I have a large library, this makes it easier to install games on-the-fly. In contrast, when I buy a bundle from Itch, I essentially have to visit a library within a library, just to see it in my library. I hope you can see how user unfriendly this is. I wouldn't be complaining if this was a temporary measure, or part of a larger roadmap- even if it was years in the future, or an indefinite "to-do". But outright saying you will not be adding this is pretty frustrating.

I've just started getting into Itch, and I thought buying this bundle- as well as supporting Ukraine- would bolster my library and encourage me to buy from and support more indie devs. But this is something that will be a real sticking point against me buying any bundles in the future. I like to know exactly what I own and have it searchable from a single place, not stuck between multiple purchase pages.

I appreciate having been able to support events in Ukraine in this way, but it has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

leafymeadow2 years ago(+10)

Hear hear.

I love itch as a platform, I really, really do. But with the lack of filtering/sorting options (I'm aware that it's being worked on, but I think it should have been done a long time ago), the barebones app client, the game library and collections' lack of features, it's all really unfriendly.

On top of that, you can only view your purchases on the website, not games specifically, so you would have to sift through each one in order to find a game instead of a game asset or tool. So I'd have to use the app, which like the website, is stuck in a listed order instead of a grid, which is just plain inconvenient.

A personal gripe as well is the inability to claim games that are free, like you can on other platforms. I have a lot of games in my collection that will likely stay in a collection instead of my library until I get space to install them. It's just a preference thing though, I don't expect anyone else to share it.

I don't want to stop using itch, but as we speak I am putting every single one of my games in my library into collections based on their genre because 1) there is no genre/tag filter, and 2) you can't add multiple games in a collection at a time. It's just really exhausting right now.

leafoAdmin2 years ago (1 edit) (+1)

A personal gripe as well is the inability to claim games that are free, like you can on other platforms. I have a lot of games in my collection that will likely stay in a collection instead of my library until I get space to install them. It’s just a preference thing though, I don’t expect anyone else to share it.

Free games that are claimable is something developers must host as a promotion for if they wish to offer that. By default, a game being free does not mean you permanently own it to allow developers the ability to update what they’re offering.

mepfaff2 years ago (2 edits)

I found it. Carry on!

~~Is there any way you could add a page (either within the "My Library" page, or from the username dropdown menu) that populates with the unique links to our bundle purchases?~~

I'm new to itch.io, I lose things (like emails) constantly, and I wasn't even sure that I'd bought my first bundle from here or from some other site. The fact that I couldn't find reference to my first bundle anywhere on the website seemed to confirm this ("oh, nothing in my account or library, ok.") But thankfully I typed the right search term and found the email with my link.

I appreciate the recover purchases option, but I think a "see my bundles" page would be more user friendly without the system-breaking overload of dumping everything in the Library. (Edit: Actually not even the individual secret links, just the basic linkwould be best because you can search and filter, and that would be easier to implement anyway.)

~~Thanks for your time and all your work to make this happen!~~

Lyraedan2 years ago (1 edit) (+8)

Lol I forgot I had over 1000 games on here because my library only displayed 2 games and locating bundles on the client isn't really

intuitive. Its kinda like buying a game on steam and having it not added to you're library until you download it once.

MrNaw2 years ago(+8)

Please just add an add all button, that's what everyone wants. It will be easier for everyone and will not leave people annoyed and unsure if they truly own their game. I expected to receive these games once I purchased them. Not to be forced to add them individually in order to access them. I thought this was a good charity bundle but after explaining what happened to my friends they refuse to purchase it. An add all button would fix everything, please Mr.Admin that's the best option for future sales and your current customers.

delve2 years ago(+1)

I'm trying to understand, what kind of issues might adding all the games in the bundle cause? What kind of "side-effects" could be caused by simply adding the games that I purchased to my library?

lvngbth2 years ago(+1)

I think what they're worried about is people buying, say, https://urocyongames.itch.io/neuraquarium (and I think people should!), then buying the Mega Bundle For Whatever and not being able to find Neuraquarium in their library because it's behind a thousand other things, 99% of which they will never download and aren't really interested in.

The 1% they do will vary according to users' tastes, of course, but I would be very surprised the share of purchasers who download more than a hundred things in a thousand item bundle is more than 10%. (And most of those won't actually play / use what they did do an archive download of.)

NatSpectrum2 years ago(+2)

Personally, if there's a game that I really like and want to play, I stick it in a collection (such as a private 'Favourites' collection) so I have an easier time finding it.

lvngbth2 years ago (1 edit) (+2)

On the one hand, your site, your rules and the bundles have been amazingly good.

On the other, it was really annoying that I can go to the page of something I have got in one of the big bundles but not yet downloaded and not be informed in any way that I already have it before I pay more money to have it.. again.

I have done this several times. In at least one case - https://sparsegamedev.itch.io/spring-falls - I don't mind so much: they got nothing and it's a really, really good puzzle game. But that's not always the case.

So yes, I get that you don't want to automatically add a thousand things to my 'purchased' list, but not warning users in any way that they're re-purchasing stuff just looked greedy and I'm glad that's no longer the case.

leafoAdmin2 years ago (1 edit)

On the other, it was really annoying that I can go to the page of something I have got in one of the big bundles but not yet downloaded and not be informed in any way that I already have it before I pay more money to have it.. again.

If you look the top of the page there should be a button to access the game. It looks something like this:

Example of game owernship banner from bundle

If you don’t see that, then you aren’t logged into the account that is associated with the purchase, or you haven’t linked the purchase to your account yet. Please return to the purchase receipt page you recieved in your email to ensure that the purchase is linked to your account.

lvngbth2 years ago(+2)

It does now - thanks - but it really isn't that long ago that it didn't.

Within the past year, I think I've ended up rebuying at least three things I had already bought in one of the big bundles because at that point. it didn't.

https://itch.io/post/4239457/view-in-topic