I want to share my HTLM5/Javascript game. It's not finished and I definitely don't want it made public, but a number of people in Discord and GroupMe have expressed interest in playing it. I just want a way so that people (who do NOT have their own itch.io accounts) can play it. Reading https://itch.io/docs/creators/access-control, it seems to imply that I can create a shareable link to share with people (not using download keys), but either I'm missing something or that page doesn't actually say how to create such a link. How can I accomplish this?

This might be close to what you're looking for?

https://itch.io/docs/creators/refinery

Too often we've seen developers adopt an early access program as a way of collecting playtesting feedback and starting a source of revenue. There are a few problems with this approach:

• Your game is publicly available — You've launched something you know isn’t perfect, and not everyone who plays it will be understanding. You may be swamped with negative feedback and bad reviews that may damage the future success of the game.
• You've officially launched your game — The day you launch your game is one of the most important days in your game’s lifespan: it’s typically when you'll have the most people watching, talking, and buying. Very rarely do we see games leaving early access getting attention comparable to their initial launch.

(this might be another option you could look at but I think it requires the user to have an account)
https://itch.io/docs/creators/exclusive-content#how-you-can-use-rewards/giving-a...

Simply by keeping your game page as a draft, you get a secret URL you can share with anyone. You'll find it in the top toolbar when looking at the preview.

Although draft mode works for HTML5 games, it will not work for downloadable games. I recommend using Restricted mode, then setting a password on the page. When people view the page they'll be prompted to enter the password. You can prefill the password in the URL by adding ?password=MYPASSWORD to the url of your page! Reply to me if you have any questions