Isn't the itch app a chromium browser?
Also, how does the itch app monitor the games? Does it monitor the games? What if you start the game without first starting the itch app? I did not use this app for long, but this set up is quite clearly nothing like the steam environment. It offered me nothing my browser can't do better. Updating games is only nice on paper - for the plethora of indie titles it does not work out quite like that, since you need no updates for games you play once or twice.
So there are games that are different in behaviour, when downloaded from the website compared to being installed by the itch app?
This ... does not sound quite right. There is a mission statement somehwere, that the itch app is considered optional, and this would make that statement void. Is your app communicating with the itch app, when running, or how does this work? Or is this about html5 games? What am I missing?
I am just asking this dumbly, because I never encountered such a game here. Those type of user authentication are typically not needed for most indie games. If it is for some online services, ok, but otherwise it is just drm. Most games here are offline ready to go unzip and play drm free games.
I'm talking about a desktop application, but the real answer is that I'm actually talking about DRM. You may like it or not, I realize, but that's another story... I have no difficulty believing in your words, but I've also noticed that many publishers only leave a demo here, and then sell the full game only on Steam... Could it be a coincidence?
That has nothing to do with drm. Steam is an ocean, itch is a puddle. Everyone with a game eglibly to be sold on Steam will try to do so. There is just so much more potential players. Most people do not even know itch exists. If you look at some popular and upcoming games on itch, they have like 100x the reviews on steam than they have followers on itch.
Also, drm is useless in general and especially in the indie sector. You will hurt your legit players more than you might gain by implementing it. Think about it. Will you sell a single unit more, because it was protected? Protection does not sell. Period. No one, literally no one, buys a game because it is drm protected. But there are people, especially in the indie gaming community, that will not buy your game specifically because of some drm. This happens on Steam as well. Certain drm technolgies are hated and people avoid those.
And to put injury to insult, if a game is popular and not some kind of online account game, the drm will be disabled anyways for illict distribution.
Think very hard, if account verification will be a benefit for your players. There are cases where this is true. Like cloud saving or multiplayer interaction and such. The "drm" is only a side effect.
But enough of my ranting ;-)
I shall reply to the other part in a separate posting...
I also was talking about the desktop application. That is a chromium browser that handles updates and installation and has some helper apps in the background, like that butler. In theory. It does not work properly for all games.
There is a faq about the app, that says this https://itch.io/docs/app/faq#will-the-app-replace-the-website
We want the app to compliment the website, not replace it.
So if there where mechanics to make the app mandatory for a game, this would be strange.
After cross reading this again, https://itch.io/docs/api/overview , there might actually be the option to have an app that will not work properly without the itch launcher. The use case they imply is for online games and account verification to your game servers.
I just never encountered a game here with mandatory itch app usage. That is why I am curious.
Unless there is full integration ready to use for such a feature, I advise against reinventing the wheel. I assume you are single dev, so you should concentrate on your strengths and this should be in game development, not necessarily administrative tool creation. You also lose all the players that cannot or will not install the itch app.
