You might consider https://www.dlsite.com/pro/ , not sure what hoops you'd need to jump through as a non-japanese dev but it seems like you'd have fewer issues there, alternatively there is https://www.kaguragames.com/ but they tend to want you to split the ao parts of the game off into a patch so they can market the game on Steam then have the Steam players apply a patch to uncensor the game.
dcrockerjr
Recent community posts
Colds try to be benign, for humans that means nice thick mucus that is easy to cough up, for bats that hang upside down thin watery mucus that drains easily is best, thin watery mucus in a human is hard to get out if you are upright or on your back, resting on your side and alternating sides is best and lets each lung drain.
https://www.xopt1.com/blog/postural-drainage-techniques-home/
the itch owner made it where if you buy a bundle the games are not automatically added ever since the palestine bundle came out, so buyer beware because it's a pain in the butt to manually add games from a large bundle, can cause accidental rebuying, and with some bundles some of the games can't be attached to your account manually.
wish they would go back to the old way where you actually got what you paid for automatically and with no possibility of errors.
https://itch.io/t/1433828/the-new-palestine-bundle-bundle-page-issues
https://itch.io/t/1980517/bundle-brought-me-to-itch-need-to-add-all-to-library
the itch dev got rid of auto adding bundles because a few token people didn't want the games they bought in their library during the palestine bundle
https://itch.io/t/1433828/the-new-palestine-bundle-bundle-page-issues
That's new, there have been some really infamous examples of devs burning customers, [ex. Faulty Apprentice NSFW (separate project from the still existing one which used to be the vanilla version)].
Glad they are at least trying to talk devs out of pulling that now, though the last I saw (which i'll admit was a while back) the itch dev tos was worded such that they specifically allow devs to delete everything even with customers.
https://itch.io/my-collections has terrible coding, that coding is not going to get better if the solution is to only have 3 or 4 games.
my prefered way to search for a game in my itch library right now is to simply hit the main page and search then click on the you own it banner to download. also chrome/tabs outliner can be used to create a sort of favorites list, then there is always ITAD.
the itch.io dev tos doesn't require a dev to provide anything, it also allows a dev to delete purchased games. so reporting a dev will do no good. having the product flagged as owned and in your library (even if there isn't actually a download) is still itch's responsibility though.
and "tossed in the trash" is completely accurate,
it's not simply the nice banner saying you bought it, which also helps prevent accidental rebuying,
the key thing is leafo didn't hide the games, he removed them. yes there is a bundle page where theoretically you could click download at some point in the future if the store page still exist but it is not a true tied to your account DL link. so if a dev deletes a store page which is very common then you will never be able to claim the game. this is very important because only a handful of bad devs will delete the actual download once you've purchased, just the store page. and if it is banner up top claimed then even if the store page is deleted you can get a support email that will take you to the download, but the bundle page is based on the store pages, no store page, no download, even if a download exist for that game. this is why it is important for the product to actually be in your library as opposed to having the itch.io equivalent of an unclaimed steam key
as far as searching for something in your library it is easiest to search the store then use the owned banner at top, or use a 3rd party game library tracker like isthereanydeal.
https://itch.io/t/1001232/developer-red-flags-game-red-flags
the problem with that is not every game on the bundle page link we were emailed has a download button, so there is no way to actually get all of the games in the bundle into your library, in other words a lot of games will never have that nice "you bought this" bar at the top even though they claimed to participate in the bundle.
and since leafo disabled the transaction occurring like it should those games will never actually be in our libraries
granted there are some crazies like aldenfen who like buying stuff then tossing it in the trash, but most collectors want everything they buy to be in their library
some bundles are set up to autohide games (really just not flag them as purchased) until a download button is pressed for each individual game, a "never autohide games" setting would prevent autohide from occurring so the purchases occur normally like they should adding all purchased products to one's library
could you send out a seperate email link that activates everything, even going through all the download buttons doesen't work because some games only have a "play in browser" button or worse neither a "download" or a "play in browser" (vaporware situation) which is a problem because there is no way to get those games tagged as owned in case later they release a download.
ex. https://asatiir.itch.io/roses-will-rise
https://adamebell.itch.io/reliance-revolution-and-contradiction
https://marionettecz.itch.io/space-escape-obstacles
https://leartoler.itch.io/migracciones
and on the "play in browser" ones i know some of you may be thinking "well just play in browser then", but keep in mind they included themselves in the bundle and the PiB part could be done without buying the bundle, so having dibs on future download files being attached is a fair and reasonable position.
There's Trap Quest but it's mostly text and has a different focus. You might want to look at TFGames.Site for more exposure, several itch.io devs have their games linked there, just remember since your game is commercial you will need to label the game as such and instead of a download link you will want to put a link to your itch.io page for the game https://fungaldragon.itch.io/cattle-castle
down side of TFGs is the tagging system isn't very good, it doesn't have setting tags like space or medieval, and it doesn't have specific fetish tags, just more general categories
extremely simple: dev makes store page, dev sells game, dev deletes everything = red flag
dev makes store page, dev sells game, dev deletes all downloads, dev uploads nothing in a reasonable time ex. 5 days = red flag that can be removed by restoring downloads
dev makes store page selecting "comes with steam key option", steam store page with "upcoming" status linked, game released on steam, 2 weeks pass, no keys have been added to itch.io key dispenser for valid purchases = red flag that can be removed by adding the keys sold
all the variables already exist for the store to work such as sales tracking, whether the DL page exists, whether the DL page is empty, etc.
a good example of it being actively exploited is:
https://itch.io/b/636/the-big-lewd-spooky-bundle
19.99 tier
https://holodexxx.itch.io/holodexxx-home
which was moved to:
don't hold your breath about subscribe star getting paypal, paypal is against adult stuff, dlsite works around this by letting you buy tokens with paypal then using the tokens to buy games, the two subscription sites could do something similar but they would have to overhaul their sites and put in a token system
not only is that not how steam handles removed games there is even a removed game collector club over there
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/RemGC
google and apple however i can't speak for
by most common and trade laws itch would not only have the right but a compelled requirement to distribute to customers who had purchased, however you appear to be right only because a badly worded agreement waived rights itch and customers should implicitly have:
https://itch.io/docs/legal/terms
has the very poorly done "If you choose to remove your content from the Service, this license shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove your content from the Service."
where the standard language for something like this would be:
"
- To the Company, a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable, perpetual license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the content in connection with the Service, including without limitation for promoting, redistributing in any and all media formats. If you choose to remove your content from the Service, this license shall terminate with respect to promotion and new sales; however the Company and Users who purchased the content shall retain a license to this content even after the content is removed from the Service for the purpose of fulfilling previously sold copies.
"
note i am not a lawyer, so you would need a real one to fine tune it
"What’s more, I think a developer is legally able to remove their project from a site that hosts/sells it at pretty much any point. I wouldn’t expect that itch has any legal ground to just reupload previously uploaded content without the consent of the developer/publisher."
removing the store page and preventing future sales is one thing, stealing back an item after it has been sold is quite something else (for example removing a download or download page only accessible to purchasers)
" I wouldn’t expect that itch has any legal ground to just reupload previously uploaded content without the consent of the developer/publisher."
they have every legal ground to provide something that was purchased
re: steam keys section:
keep in mind this is about steam keys that were part of the purchase or part of a purchase agreement to be delivered at a later time
this is not about begging for things one didn't buy
on point one and three the problem is a dev can delete the download file and download page and itch doesn't seem to keep a backup to roll back to, not talking about them removing just the store page for a project they wish to abandon. it breaks the "and have offline access to it forever" thing you mentioned, yes i have done the recovery of purchase download links through email and several projects deleted the DL page, more simply don't have the DL file(s) anymore.
on the steam key thing that is why i specifically mentioned it only applying when it was included in the purchase, most easily where they checked the right box so the store page and dl page note the purchase includes a steam key; this is easiest to check since the dl page will have "your purchase includes a steam key" but there won't be any keys for the box to dispense
possibly also where the dev specifically promises keys to be included with a purchase or above a certain purchase amount though i would expect less enforcement of that with how easily a dev can delete the store page and thereby the easiest documentation of such a promise
on why, partially principal since it was part of a purchase, partially because some devs stop updating the itch version after getting on to steam, partially because it is insurance if the dev deletes the project on itch or if itch ever goes the way of desura (lost a lot when they went down)
on language that's why i chose the term "red flag" which is appropriate even in situations where they've tried but failed to complete a project, the word scammer is appropriate in cases such as where they delete a download, delete other files included at higher tiers, or don't follow through with explicitly sold keys.
All of the scenarios i mentioned are where users would have no option to get what they paid for, at least seemingly, it would be useful if the
"This project is not available for download
This game is not published and can no longer be downloaded."
page had a simple one button report thing to simplify and automate itch checking if they have a roll back, or if a dev emptying a dl page without putting a new file in a reasonable amount of time would trigger a potential problem flag, on the steam keys the easiest way would be if the steam key box had a button that would open a box where you could put a steam store page link so support could quickly verify there was a steam release without follow through. non-automated support should be a last resort
"keep a local copy..." lots of problems with that, not updated, need a huge server farm, and people would spend all their time trying to manually update and organize a collection without ever playing anything, back when i used to fill hd with stuff like that and make database sheets of which pc gamer disc had which patch for which game, etc. sounds simple, becomes insane
at the top of each game page and dev page there should be a red flag section:
-if a purchasable game has no download
-if a game has released on steam but the dev never followed through on providing steam keys in cases where steam keys were part of a game purchase
-if a dev has deleted the download page for a game they have sold so customers can no longer download it
i would like to think this would make devs more honest, but will settle for protecting people from being scammed
edit: the steam version has more dlc available so better to buy there
https://dinmoney.itch.io/faultyapprentice only has dlc 1-3 [edit: a version sold years ago was supposed to eventually come with a steam key but never did, from devs response this may have been an accidental release where they clicked the wrong box ie. "comes with steam key"] [edit: dev claims censorship is toggleable in this version]
edit:the download page still has the key claim box but there are no keys for it to dispense
"Claim Steam key
Your payment comes with a Steam key!
There are no keys available at this time, try again later"
https://dinmoney.itch.io/faultynsfw is where they originally sold the uncensored version on itch
edit: after posting the dev deleted the nsfw page and the associated download page so anyone who bought only through that page is SOL
btw made my purchases before game was released on steam
is there any difference between the v1.5 version here and the v1.5 at:https://extrafantasygames.itch.io/miss-agathas-palace ?
sometimes a dev changes the title of a game, there can be good reasons for this like making sure there isn't confusion with a similarly named title or to emphasize something about the game but other times it can have dubious purposes like downgrading a game they've sold to a demo and moving the actual game to patron.
having a name history would lessen confusion and help with shaming those who use renaming for the wrong reasons into doing the right thing.
something sort of like how on steam profiles there is a arrow next to the username that if you click shows all the previous usernames the person has used only here it would be next to the game titles
sometimes even if they post an update there may be no feed notification, for example:
https://indivi.itch.io/elfjail/devlog/70826/elf-jail-r21
where neither the actual file update nor the dev's update post triggered there being something about it in my feed