itch.io traffic

Started by Pfaber11, September 06, 2019, 11:45:29

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Derron

If all presentations were honest I think almost all packaged products would stay in the supermarkets :)


@ the games you like
Think of what you like in there ... and try to imagine what others might like even more. So what to improve, what to "easen" what to "harden" etc.
Would people like a maze generator? A multiplayer challenge? Collectibles? Powerups? ...
There is a lot you could do in a "part 2" sequel to your game.

Next to presentation you should always try to improve your "coding life". So improve your workflows etc.
And most important: have fun - do it mostly for you or people you like (eg. your son) as these persons are the only one who most likely play it. No guarantee for others in the world.


bye
Ron

Pfaber11

Yes I think I'm going to make a start on the awesome maze game 2 in the next few days . I hate starting new projects but as soon as I do I can't stop . I'll work from when I get up until four in the morning sometimes . I really wish I could earn a living out of what I do but that alludes me for the time being . Got some good ideas for the maze 2 . One thing though if they go into my media files they in effect have a map of them all but I've played it while looking at them and I didn't manage to complete it . They don't show where the orbs are though. For me writing computer games is a hobby but to make a bit of money out of it would be nice even if it was just to cover costs like computers and software although most of the stuff I use is available for free. I mean AGK studio is 78 quid  . I know it's not that much but it would be nice to cover such costs . I'm not bothering with it until it's got vulkan working on Android as well as pc and all the bugs are ironed out . Would really like to give Google play store a go in the not so distant future too. They gotta sort out the Android 64 bit problem  first . They said it would be sorted in the next week but we'll see. I think I've done ok so far been at this since January 2018 and am starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere . My programming experience prior to this was one small simple game on the BBC model B computer and I wrote another one in 1992 on the Atari ste using STOS but came to the conclusion it wasn't fast enough to make anything of any commercial use . So I haven't had a great deal of experience but did have enough to know what I was getting into . These days it doesn't matter too much what you program in it's all pretty fast . Even good old AGK2 . In fact I would say for writing games maybe not with panda 3d but with pygame doing 2d stuff AGK2 has the edge . Anyway I'm off you all have an excellent evening .
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Derron



In the url on top I am giving replies too - maybe this keeps the thread there "more interesting" or so.


bye
Ron

Pfaber11

#33
Well it looks as if today is going to be another awesome day. yesterday went better than I could of ever expected. Gonna make a start on my new game today. start the wheels rolling . Gonna make this one with twelve mazes and food to collect that will earn points and increase time left . Yes I see you have been messaging them Ron . It will be interesting to see how long the feeding frenzy goes on for looks like Saturdays are really good Sunday is off to a really great start too. At the end of this sale I'll be putting all my prices up and leaving them that way for a couple of weeks . Hoping this may create some interest in my work . Maybe  not but what have I got to lose .
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
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Derron

You could loose something: as income of your games might be classified as commercial ... so depending on the country of where you live you might be required to pay taxes for it - or at least request to be under a certain limit and therefor are not required to pay taxes (which itch.io then wants to know during payout).
For games commercial behaviour is of interest too: as then competitors can more easily sue so: so avoid any copyright infringement (title trademarks, assets). Do not want to put you off there, so excuse that little excourse.


bye
Ron

Pfaber11

Yes you are right Derron I have looked into this and this is of a concern although I would have to sell quite a few to start paying tax as I'm on a low income . I would declare it anyway to stay within the law . Since I started I've had one sale and that was by someone on SyntaxBomb . I got $1 for wingfighters  . He said if I set it all up and did a trailer he would buy a copy and he did.
The $1 is still in my itch.io account and I thought I would leave it there like some sort of trophy.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Pfaber11

#36
You Know the reason I haven't done any title screens is my art is really poor . If I could spend a week on a really awesome title screen I would but I am really lacking in that department . I like the way of doing it with screen shots anyway and there's not many doing it this way so is more exclusive . I've just checked and I've had more downloads today than I had yesterday and it's still very early . Updated my website a bit and tidied up a few bits . The way I see it is my website is my business card for potential customers and I think I've made a good job of it . Takes ages to get on google and bing but got there in the end . I initially had 3 web sites but have whittled them down to one . The other ones just wouldn't show up in search engines although they were verified and site maps submitted . The one I was left with is searchable on all the search engines although it did take about 5 months to accomplish this. worth it in the end and my patience paid off .
I just put my avatar up it's the first model I made with a texture . Kind of symbolic and  totally original.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Xerra

Itch.io isn't great for just throwing stuff on and leaving it to fend for itself. I've had a page there which has all four of my released games in the last 18 months. Here's the traffic I've had from not pushing anything beyond the first week after a release due to them all being games from Syntax bomb competitions.

The oldest game has the most traffic of all of them by quite a margin and I suspect it's because it's a remake of an old game and I spent a bit of time making comments on you tube video's of the original game being played. I didn't do this for Rockman or Damnation Alley - which are also remakes. Bah, Humbug! was a completely new game so I had nothing to compare it with to try that kind of trick.

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Latest game - https://xerra.itch.io/Gridrunner
Blog: http://xerra.co.uk
Itch.IO: https://xerra.itch.io/

Pfaber11

You know from what I've experienced myself this is not that bad . It is hard to get views and downloads on itch.io . If you don't want to charge for them I suggest you give them a value say $4 each and then put them in a sale with 100% off . You will probably get more traffic in a week than you have in the past 18 months . I'll show you what I've accomplished in the last 4 days and you can judge for yourself. Just give me 5 minutes to do a screen shot .
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Pfaber11

These are my figures for the last 4 days after having a 100% off sale on itch.io
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Steve Elliott

I always associate Steam with people wanting to sell their games, and itch as a place for people without webspace to post their software on a free server...But maybe that's me being cynical.
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Pfaber11

#41
xerra I would really suggest you try this if you were not charging for your games anyway you have nothing to lose . I found that raising the price to a 90 % off sale killed the frenzy stone dead . If you want people to play your games this will work.
yes steve I think you're right the only person gaining in the site owner but I can't see how there making either . Do you see what I put up 2500 views yesterday and 2000 so far today. only 21 downloads though but compared to what I was getting it's awesome.
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Pfaber11

#42
And your apps and games are probably better than mine so you might do better than me . where do you publish steve?
Is it any better on google play I've had Android for it must be 8 years or so and I've only spent about 2 quid on there as most of the stuff is free . If you want an graphic equalizer you have a choice of about a hundred and you are bound to get a perfectly good one for free. Programmers are getting skanked by the system . We are having trouble giving our work away these days.
I use libra office just as good as ms office and it's compatible and free. where's it gonna end. I did see someone on youtube though saying that there's never been a better time to start producing games .
HP 15s i3 1.2 upto 3.4 ghz 128 gb ssd 16 gb ram 15.6 inch screen. Windows 11 home edition .  2Tb external hard drive dedicated to Linux Mint .
  PureBasic 6 and AppGameKit studio
ASUS Vivo book 15 16gb ram 256gb storage  cpu upto 4.1 ghz

Derron

I also got 7 new "followers" - so maybe they get informed when I upload something new? So building up a "base" there might have benefits.


The reddit comments told me that most people want to "claim" a game, a free game on itch.io cannot get "claimed". So any of these "claim" most probably won't lead to a downloaded _and_ played game.


bye
Ron

Steve Elliott

#44
A better developer than me (Stevie G) has said he thinks itch is a place for people who want everything for free.

What I would say is, it's a great starting point.  Sorry for my cynical head tonight lol I admire your drive, and wishing you all the best.  You're at least finishing projects, where as I have so many unfinished projects.  Maybe Steam is something to aim for, but Itch is definitely the way to hone your skills and figure out what sells.
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb