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(+1)

I don’t know what the numbers are, but itch.io is a million miles better than gamejolt in my opinion. It feels like such a nicer place. It’s cleaner and easier to navigate and more scope for customisation.

I’ve had great success on itch.io, not so much financially but then again there’s very little money to be made these days in indie games unless you pull FNAF out your bum! That said $700 over my lifetime here is not to be sniffed at. 

I’d like to see a bit of love given to the assets side of the site; I’m not sure how and it’s always going to have lower numbers but it tends to feel a little neglected, that might just be me though. 

I’d like there to be itch-vouchers so I could give $10 to a friend that could redeemed on any games they want to play or donate to. That would encourage at least knowledge of the platform. 

Do you think itch.io could set up a kickstarter type thing specifically for indie games? I know it’s a big ask but Kickstarter is saturated and indie devs just get lost; simelarly with patreon. It feels like if you didn’t join 5 years ago you missed the boat. I’d happily try my hardest to release stuff if there was a $1 subscription per sub. Again, this might not work given the numbers compared to patreon but I’m just thinking out loud. 

If the owners/founders of itch.io could tell us what would really help them out or what they are in need of I’d gladly do my best. It’s the best games platform online! 

Admin(+3)

Thanks for the feedback.

What you mentioned about assets is correct: it's currently neglected. Assets are our second biggest content type after games though, so it's something we want to build out some more. If you have any feature requests for assets I'd love to hear them.

Creating a crowdfunding site is complicated. There is a lot of liability involved, and you need to get special permission from payment providers. I think the existing crowdfunding sites do a good enough job right now, and I would rather have itch.io integrate with them instead of trying to compete.

As for what I can recommend our users to do to help out: I think a straight forward way to get more people involved (other than creating cool games), is to create content around game development and games. This could include writing tutorials on your devlogs, or creating interesting topics in our community. I think that in addition to being a platform for games, itch.io could also make a great resources for game developers, whether they're experience or not.

That’s a great idea. I often have stuff to share but don’t really know where to do it. I’ll get my writers hat on. 

@Dan Sanderson as well: I love the idea of itch vouchers, would make for great gifts for other indie friends and would be a good use to turn & burn the small amounts of money that my free games make.

I would also love to see a bit more love towards assets, as I get a large amount of assets from itch now. 2 quick things I can think of are bringing tags to a forefront when searching and categorizing the "New From Those You Follow" section on the homepage.

When I search, it would be nice to filter results by tag the same way I can in Browse (maybe you can already do this and I'm just missing it somehow?), and on the front page I appreciate seeing new games from people I follow as well, but I would like a section or a toggle to just see game assets instead of new games. That's a very developer-specific ask though.

Ah, I didn't realize how old the thread was until the discussion about it in the newest replies. Apologies!