So I just bought two Ukraine bundles, one for myself and one for my niece. I have started to go through the bundle and I'm taking my time to pick out the stuff I really want to try out. However out of the four games I've tested so far, two of them, Gun Metal Arcadia Zero and Gun Rounds, are being flagged as viruses by Panda Antivirus as well as Microsoft Defender. 

I get the first warning when I install the games, which is not too alarming, as Windows can be a bit finicky with software it doesn't properly recognize. However Panda Antivirus completely shuts down any attempt to start the games and claims it has neutralized something called W32/Exploit.gen. What is going on here? While I realize Itch.io is really only a portal for others to sell their works on, you at least have to check if the stuff that is being sold contains viruses, right? I really hesitate to download and install anything else as who know what they might contain.

Yes, we do in fact run virus checks on the server side, but those are far from perfect, and there are lots of games. Please report those you found so our admins can take a look. Thank you.

In my experience, if a virus checker claims to find a virus, it's usually a false positive - and conversely, if there is a real virus, a virus checker usually won't find it.  Virus detection is difficult.

I guess there should be a disclaimer warning about potential viruses by this site and anyone connected with any money or payment for these games.

Reports have been filed, and I've also tried to contact the authors of each game. Hopefully this can be resolved.