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Will "In Development" game get visibility boost when it enters "Released" phase?

A topic by Alienplay created Aug 15, 2024 Views: 349 Replies: 16

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Alienplay177 days ago (1 edit)

If I publish a game page as "In Development", just to gather followers and post devlogs, ie. to be able to promote my game more easily. Will my game still get a visibility boost when I switch to "Released"?

As I understand, games usually get pushed more by the algorithm when they are released (New and Popular, Recently Released tab) so I'd like to know if this happens only when my game gets into a "Released" or "Prototype" phase, only when my page gets initially published, or whenever it goes to a next phase (ie. all of the previously mentioned)?

leafoPinned ReplyAdmin176 days ago (3 edits) (+1)

Changing the release status classification of your project page does not give any sort of visibility boost, that field is simply a filter for those who want to limit the kinds of pages they are browsing based on completion status. If you’re interested in finding a way to boost your reach in response to an update, then we recommend publishing a “Major update” devlog with substantial update information included. Devlogs may be used to boost the freshness date of your project, which can influence how it appears on our popularity sorting algorithm.

Alienplay175 days ago

Thanks a lot of that info! Will keep that in mind.

Salbei177 days ago(+1)

From what I understand you only get that boost into 'Recent' the first time your game gets published and indexed. The FAQ is a bit vague on the whole process, though. For example I am pretty sure I once got one point in my publishing e-mail stating that pages in prototype/without downloads will not get added into the search results. Which makes sense, but it leaves the question if it still counted as published then or not. So the same could go for some other selectable types or circumstances.

I guess one way of seeing is that if you would know it too exactly it may be abused? And seeing as itch.io clearly states that you should not rely on the recent tab too much anyway to gather a following, I guess it is debatable if such things should be updated into the faq eventually or not.

hechelion177 days ago(+1)

Unless I misunderstood several staff posts, you get the same boost when you do a major update (you have to mark it as a major update)

Salbei177 days ago

Yes, I remember it as well now. In that sense it would not sound unlikely that one may get a boost when the project gets out of 'In development'.

runevision176 days ago

It's much worse. If the page is created long before the game is indexed (for example if downloads are disabled prior to release, which prevents indexing), the game will never get any boost at all.

The reason is that the game will only appear on the Most Recent page once it's indexed (i.e. available for download etc.) but the Most Recent page is not sorted by index time, it's sorted by page creation time. So if e.g. you release the game one month after creating the page for it, then once the game is released, the game will appear on the Most Recent page for the first time, but way down on the page together with games released (or having their page created) one month ago.

See my post here for more info:
https://itch.io/t/4011432/games-released-well-after-page-creation-never-get-on-m...

redonihunter176 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

You will be "on top" of most recent for like 5 minutes. If that is the only marketing and promotion you do and is the only source of any views, your project has bigger problems.

Do a major update development blog when you "release" after development. This can get you on most recent again. No guarantee. And do not spam those devlogs, in a attempt to get on recent again and again. No one is gonna believe a "major" update 6 times a month and it is said to be staff approved if a devlog gets you on recent again.

runevision176 days ago(+1)

You will be "on top" of most recent for like 5 minutes. If that is the only marketing and promotion you do and is the only source of any views, your project has bigger problems.

Who said anything about that? There can be plenty of other promotion outside of Itch, but that's not what this thread is about. It's about how the Recent page works and how visibility boosts in Itch do or don't work, so that's what we're discussing here.

Do a major update development blog when you "release" after development. This can get you on most recent again. No guarantee. It is said to be staff approved if a devlog gets you on recent again.

Good to know.

redonihunter176 days ago(+1)

There are many threads about this, and many people act like being on page 1 of recent is the only promotion they will ever get.

And that might even be true. But there are just so many games. Being 5 minutes on top of recent is rather literally meant.

The stance of Itch repeated in many threads is not to rely about "promotion" by being on Itch. Be it being on the index or be it being on any list.

So, "officially" there are no boosts to be expected. They did admit to give a little boost in so called popularity ranking for new games. But they did not disclose what new means or how much of a boost or how long. They do not tell how popularity is calculated. And being among the popular games in your subset of tags is more important, imho. Dive down a few tags and you only have like 500 games, instead of 1000000.

https://itch.io/games/tag-exploration/tag-open-world only has 700 and you have a few tags left. You could use female protagonist.

https://itch.io/games/genre-platformer/tag-exploration/tag-open-world has 70 games. Your new game is on page 1 (of 2).

Alienplay176 days ago

I don't agree with the notion that it doesn't matter because of limited effectiveness but I get what you're saying and thanks a lot of the tips.

I haven't published any larger project on Itch in a while so it's good to get as many insights as possible in advance.

redonihunter176 days ago(+1)

Oh, it does matter. It can give a boost. People select the day of the week for this. But so does everyone else and their dog. So it matters a lot less than people think. And then comes the bad rng that decides to not index a game in time for such a release and people are sour.

Itch is a self publishing site. The only promotion people should rely upon is the promotion ouside of Itch. (I paraphrased the stance of Itch here, but pragmatically, that's what it boils down to.)

runevision176 days ago(+1)

Those tips are helpful, but also kind of off-topic for the subject discussed here. They don't change the fact that:

It makes no sense for a "Most Recent" list where entries can jump from not yet being on the list at all to being way down the list, without ever having been at the top. For a "most recent" list, the top entry should be the one that most recently appeared in the list. Anything else doesn't make sense and only points to a mis-match in the metrics used for inclusion and for sorting.

redonihunter176 days ago

The topic is a question, to which the answer is not officially stated, but most likely: No, there is no visibilty boost by changing release status.

What makes sense or not for a list called "recent" and that is internally called "newest" is a matter of opinion, of which ours do not count. What is the time stamp that would make a game "newer" than another? Your "newest" might qualify for a time stamp as early as 2005.

It is even debateable what is meant with recent. Recently updated? Recently published? Recently changed release status? The last one is the source of this topic. A valid question of course, since it is not clear what is meant with recent, as Itch is a self publishing site. Games here have no release date the same way games on Steam have it, where they clear reviews or whatnot.

What it is, is a list ordered by publishing date or last approved major update. So it is a recently updated/published list. Or short, recent. Most recent actually.

Alienplay176 days ago

I mean game dev scene is competitive and if you're trying to make a game seriously you need to take ever avenue that you get. Of course this won't be my only marketing channel. Just a central place where people can track how the project is going.

Thanks for devlog tip! I'll check it out.

Alienplay176 days ago

"... pages in prototype/without downloads will not get added into the search results"
- Good to know. Thanks about that info!

"I guess one way of seeing is that if you would know it too exactly it may be abused? "
- Not sure if it would because Steam also has uncovered a lot about their algorithm and I guess it could be misused bit it's still very limited. Like games that are of very low quality will not get very many players even if they stay in "Popular" tab for weeks (at least that's my theory). You still need some substance to attract and retain players, good thumbnail, reasonably well crafted page to let the players know that you took effort into making this.

redonihunter177 days ago

Itch is self publishing. Take a guess.

My guess is, it does not change a thing. It is just an attribute that can be searched. And since there is no official early access, so there is also nothing happening when you change in development to released.

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