Developers are free to change how they distribute their work at any time, which can mean changing the visibility status of the page or replacing the files with new or different ones. Generally, established pages are very rarely taken down, but there are a wide range of use cases for developers on Itch.io that can influence whether or not the developer may substantially change the page.
As an example, in many cases, people use their itch.io page as a portfolio and they can decide at any time to change the contents of their portfolio.
If you want to use someone’s work for your classroom setting and require permanent access to a particular version of a page, I recommend contacting the developer and getting permission to repurpose their work.
Hope that helps
Compared to a platform where only professionals publish their games, it happens very often in absolute numbers. I have personally seen it lots of times for lots of reasons.
It is too easy to create a project - and remove it. The circumstancial data is not telling why or what kind of projects. There are roughly 1 million projects on Itch. The unique counter is roughly at 3 million. So roughly 2 million projects were removed or never published. This would include things like unpublished drafts, updates by reuploading, removed scams, delisted items, and whatever other reason. It also does not tell if this was done by the developer or by Itch.
Removal of an established game is rather rare. Removal rate should be a bit higher than on Steam. There are some high profile cases known. One is currently happening.
For a use case like your's, and depending on how freely available those free games are, practically all games on Itch are without drm. So ensuring availablitily for the duration of an assignment should not be a problem. But that the same game or the same version of a game will be available in a few years is uncertain.
That last point might be more important to your case. Games change and this goes doubly for Itch, as you will find a lot of unfinished things and things in development here.
You might even contact the developer and ask for permission to use a frozen copy in school assignments.
Having a large number of unpublished pages does not warrant a “Very Often” response for how often pages are “removed”. Please adjust your post, sine I consider this spreading misinformation.
I understand your desire to help in the public community, and you put effort into your responses, but often your conclusions are a stretch in the negative direction for the perception of the platform in way that is not constructive to the person who is asking the question. Other people’s threads are not the place to express any biases or grievances you may personally have against the platform.
Thanks
I clarified the phrasing. But I did not change my opinion. It is happening very often. It is only very rare for established games. As I did point out in my original post, with practically the same qualifier you used. "Removal of an established game is rather rare." So I am rather agitated about your accusation of spreading "misinformation".
I agree in hindsight that "very often" is the wrong type of answer to a question of "how common". It is more suited to a question about absolute numbers, and "how common" can be understood to ask for a percentage or chance.
Having a large number of unpublished pages does not warrant a “Very Often” response for how often pages are “removed”.
No, it does not, It would be a fallacy, because unpublished pages are not the same as removed pages. And while English is not my native language, I am quite sure, that this is not what I argued. I do try to avoid fallacies.
Other people’s threads are not the place to express any biases or grievances you may personally have against the platform
You accuse me of having grievance against Itch and also of misusing a thread to express that grievance. This ... gives me grievance.
Where you see grievances and or biases into my post, I do wonder. I really do.
I shall summarize and translate my post into pseudo language. The way I see it. I am sorry that you saw it different :'-(
(High absolute number, as answer to topic question)(Data uncertain)(Observeable factual data about how much projects there are compared to how much we can still see is 3:1)(Incomplete list of explanations)(Also no knowlege who made a project invisible or why)
(Context shift from all projects to established games. Claim that it is rare, but higher as on Steam)(High profile example)
(Shift to use case of OP. Practical short term solution)(Pointing out a different problem OP might not have thought of)
(Elaboration on that different problem)
(Suggestion to contact developer)
