Now at first this might be a silly question but let's think about it a little, On itch/steam or any other distributing platform as a small team or indie developer how can they get more attention and vibe to them with limited capability's and budget and not able to perform in game fest(games com/summer game fest)or afford ads what are other stuff that Developers can do Take me as an example what can i do to get more visibility?
Thanks
1- playing other games and sharing feedback it's a good think to help other and show them what they need to do but those are the Developers and my target audience should be the Gamers not developers.
2-Already making devlogs and updating my games.
3-i have no experience in editing itch pages.
4-working on it.
5-never tried them i feel stressful when thinking about them.
thanks appreciated.
playing other games and sharing feedback it's a good think to help other and show them what they need to do but those are the Developers and my target audience should be the Gamers not developers.
Well, this is primarily a developer's website. To reach a larger gamer audience you'll want to be posting elsewhere too, and having your games available on at least one of the big stores (google play, steam, etc). There is a population of non-developers here, it just isn't that big of a group. And a lot of them are really coming because they are enthusiasts, either of indie games in general, or of a specific niche within the indie sector. (People who come here specifically for visual novels are unlikely to be interested in your WWII shooter)
Already making devlogs and updating my games.
I know, but the one devlog I looked at was really just an advertisement. Normally you would just write about the update, what was added, things that were fixed, and your general thoughts. Some people get really into this and gain followers through writing about the dev process... I don't particularly like doing this but hey, it works for others.
i have no experience in editing itch pages.
There's a very simple built-in editor, just view one of your pages and click on "edit theme". You can change the fonts, backgrounds, add in=line images... a little work here goes a long way toward getting people interested in your work
Well said.
I would not exactly call it a developer's site, but the ones that do post in community are more often than not. The ones posting on games, it is the other way round. The vast majority does not post comments anywhere.
But not many people read community, at all. It is a tiny fraction of the users. Just look at the view numbers of threads. And those seem not unique views. It seldeom reaches 3 or 4 digits. There are accounts that have 20k followers and more.
Gaining viewers and followers is extra hard, if you try to do that by existing on itch. It is a trickle. Have a game people would want to play, and chances are, the traffic from google will be higher than from internal links of browse pages. And of course, from all those streamers and youtubers that might play your game and send traffic over.
The recommendation feature on itch is quite underdeveloped. Like, really. Let me phrase it like this: Some people are not even aware of that feature, just as some people are not aware that you can search for tags on Steam. There, the situation is the opposite. The recommendation features are overwhelming. You do not even feel the need to tag search for new stuff.
The consequence, as I see it, is this general lack of internal promotion. Oh, there is a little bit, some boost here and there, but I see people here complain in comments about missing features in tag search all the time, and not about missing features in game recommendations. This tells me, that people use itch fundamentally different than steam. And there might be a feedback loop on both sites for this behaviour. The algorithm on steam rewards itself for recommending games that the player does play. The algorithm on itch is so hidden that people use the browse features by tags.
Build following. Engage with Audience. Treat it like. Business. Setup a business plan of goals you wish to achieve. Post in forums to promote. Get links out there to promote consist website traffic and the rest will take care of itself. Eventually if you pull enough of the page will 'work for itself' and you won't need to grind as much.
