
Itch.io – Marketplace for Indie Games - galfarragem
https://itch.io/
======
60654
Itch is very cool. Their tools are dev friendly, even the download client got
released as open source
([https://github.com/itchio](https://github.com/itchio)).

And on the publishing side, they allow anyone to publish on the site, for
free, no hoops to jump through. And if it's a paid app, they charge much less
than Steam / iTunes / etc. Too bad they're not as popular with players.

But I'm idly curious why Itch popped up now, since it's been around for years.

~~~
Zhyl
As a gamer, I haven't really dived into Itch even though I see it recommended
all the time. This is despite being a Linux gamer, a fan of indie games, a
supporter of open source and a believer in multiple marketplaces (although I
feel like we need better aggregators and agnostic sync/update tools).

I think the problem may be that I have absolutely no idea where to start. With
Steam I started with games that came with Steam that I wanted anyway (Portal,
Left 4 Dead). With Humble I started with Overgrowth and their original
bundles. GOG was a great place to get games that I had already played or
wanted to play and now is a good place to get DLC free stuff.

So with Itch I think what is missing is a 'killer app'. Not a 'killer feature'
(it has plenty of those), but more a draw that will give me enough drive and
interest to overcome the initial cognitive energy barrier to entry.

Taking recommendations!

~~~
meditate
I don't have any personal recommendations, but next time you are looking at
purchasing an indie game, you might consider checking if it's available on
Itch first. That's how I got into it anyway. The developers I've talked to
prefer that I buy on there as well because they take much less of a cut than
others stores.

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nindalf
I'd love to support this service. They do everything right - they take 0% of
the game and give the entire amount to the devs. In contrast Steam takes 25%
(earlier 30%). The tools itch offers to devs to package/upload their game are
considered to be best-in-class in the industry and they're all open source
[0]. There's an excellent article that talks about the difficulties in
creating a competitor to Steam, and the kicker is "the service you're thinking
of already exists - it's called itch.io" [1].

And yet when I think of an indie game I want to buy, it's not there. Just
today I saw an excellent review [2] for a game called Hollow Knight. I
couldn't find it on itch, ended up buying it on Steam instead. FWIW, the game
is also available on gog.com, the Humble store and all consoles, so it's not
like the devs haven't taken the effort to make their game accessible.

[0] - [https://github.com/itchio](https://github.com/itchio)

[1] - [https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-
with-...](https://www.fortressofdoors.com/so-you-want-to-compete-with-steam/)

[2] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksexEs7FKf4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksexEs7FKf4)

~~~
kowdermeister
> they take 0% of the game

Not exactly, they charge 10% or allow you to setup your own merchant gateways.

[https://itch.io/docs/creators/payments](https://itch.io/docs/creators/payments)

That 10% is well worth it for having them deal with the tax/VAT madness.

~~~
seba_dos1
Well, not exactly too. They charge 10% by default, but allow you to set any
percentage (including 0%) regardless of the chosen payment mode. The only fees
still left are the payment processor ones.

Personally I have set 30%, because they deserve it.

------
philsnow
This year's 7-day roguelike challenge had all the entrants put their games on
itch.io [0]. In the episode of Roguelike Radio [1] that covered the 7drl, they
lauded itch for requiring a working download, since entrants are allowed to
use any platform at all (some write in c with raw escape codes written to the
terminal, some write PICO-8 games, etc), and in years pay the hardest part of
judging has been getting some of the games to run at all.

It turns out people who like making roguelikes in a 7 day sprint don't tend to
prioritize little things like making sure their work can actually be played.

[0] [https://itch.io/jam/7drl-challenge-2018](https://itch.io/jam/7drl-
challenge-2018) [1] [http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2012/03/episode-26-how-to-
make...](http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2012/03/episode-26-how-to-
make-7drl.html?m=1)

~~~
jere
This year's 7DRL starts in just over a month, on March 2! :)
[https://itch.io/jam/7drl-challenge-2019](https://itch.io/jam/7drl-
challenge-2019)

I can highly recommend the challenge. It's a great community, it's got an
organized judging phase, and roguelikes are one of the easiest genres to get
into, especially for programmers. You can do all systems and no graphics if
you want.

Also, I think you meant to link to this episode (the one you linked came out
the year before itch launched)
[http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2018/05/episode-145-7drls-2018...](http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2018/05/episode-145-7drls-2018.html)

I was on this one and we talked about itch quite a bit. My submission last
year also ranked #1 and I bet HN might find it interesting as it's got a
hacking theme: [https://itch.io/jam/7drl-
challenge-2018/rate/232187](https://itch.io/jam/7drl-
challenge-2018/rate/232187)

~~~
philsnow
Argh, thank you for those corrections. I had just listened to the RR episode,
did a quick search for it, and copied the link for the first result assuming
it was the right one.

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wishinghand
They also publish PDFs for table top games, which I think is cool, since the
other big player in that space, DriveThruRPG, has a slow interface for both
users and authors of role playing games.

------
indigochill
I was trying to explain Itch to a colleague recently and settled for "You know
Bandcamp? It's that, for games." Two super-friendly platforms for independent
creators.

On the other hand, I don't use either of them as a customer. Bandcamp because
I prefer the way Spotify helps me discover music based on my listening
history, and Itch because it feels like a bit too much visually when I'm
browsing games there as opposed to Steam/GoG.

~~~
KaoruAoiShiho
Just had a look and it feels very "designed by engineers". Clearly the idea
was to put as much content on the landing page as possible instead of thinking
about what they want people to see.

------
randylubin
They also have the most dev friendly fees I've seen. You're only obligated to
pay credit card fees, beyond that is a voluntary percent of sales you can give
to Itch (set at 10% by default.

------
mysterydip
True or not, itch has always been categorized in my head as "the place you put
your game if you can't get on steam/GOG", like having your website hosted on
geocities instead of your own domain.

I don't know what could be done to change that stigma, maybe a "killer app" as
someone else in the comments said, because as has been pointed out, everything
else about the platform seems favorable.

~~~
suby
I think that's a common perception of the site, but the barrier to entry on
Steam nowadays is a 100 dollar fee. Nowadays if you want your game on Steam,
you can get it on Steam.

~~~
mysterydip
Agreed, and I think Steam's perception is eroding but still there. If a AAA
dev released on itch, I think it would get instant elevation in status. But
the way things are going, they're opening their own stores instead.

------
wildpeaks
Shoutout to Leaf and Amos for building such a great community for indies and
continuously adding more features to itch.io:
[https://twitter.com/moonscript](https://twitter.com/moonscript) &
[https://twitter.com/fasterthanlime](https://twitter.com/fasterthanlime)

------
amyjess
Interestingly enough, I first heard of Itch not because of the games they
publish but because they've become quite popular in the transgender community
as a platform for publishing light novels with transgender themes.

------
PostOnce
check the HTML5 stuff for games you can play right now (most are free):

[https://itch.io/games/html5](https://itch.io/games/html5)

------
failrate
Itch is great. Their search by tags system is broken, but everything else is
wonderful.

Full disclosure: I publish on itch. Https://failrate.itch.io

~~~
leafo
how is it broken? (I do know our search results page isn't ideal, but if you
search a tag there's a link that takes yo to that relevant page)

~~~
failrate
Well, in recent memory, I tried searching by tag, and it straight up didn't
find a known result with that tag.

To be completely fair, I will regress the bug and see if it is still present.
If so, I will submit a bug report.

~~~
failrate
Could not reproduce. It was maybe user error.

------
neilsense
If only solving bullying was so easy...
[https://ibb.co/q5Cy94Y](https://ibb.co/q5Cy94Y)

------
TheRoccoB
Itch is awesome, been up for years!

I run a semi-competitor called [https://simmer.io](https://simmer.io). My
focus is:

-WebGL Games (only, no downloads) -Youtube style presentation (and embedding) -Being the easiest place to upload a game, no rigamarole. Drag your webgl build onto the page and call it a day.

We have about 2500 games and developers signed up. It's currently mostly a
place to show off your work, but working on more monetization options right
now.

Feel free to reach out if you have any feedback or ideas for the site.
rocco@simmer.io

