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Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

itch.io

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Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#51

Post by binarycrusader »

alanfalcon wrote: post #50
binarycrusader wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam has Greenlight now, so you don't have to be "vetted" by Valve anymore. There are many other services already though that provide similar functionality, such as indie game stand, desura, etc. that have none of the restrictions you've mentioned as being a reason to not use Steam. So again, what makes this service compelling?

Greenlight is still a vetting process, just with a different mechanism. Suggesting that anyone can just get their game on Steam is flat out wrong. Really well made and polished games (see: Midnight Mansion from ActionSoft) fail to get noticed through either process all the time. I have nothing to do with this service but I find it definitely compelling. Indie Game Stand only features one new game every four days (so…

Those are things that might be compelling to the content creators, but I'm not seeing much that's compelling to consumers. (And I'm not convinced that there isn't already another similar service that also addresses those concerns.)

As the others pointed out, most of us don't want yet another game distribution service -- we already have a few.

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#53

Post by alanfalcon »

binarycrusader wrote: post #51
alanfalcon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Greenlight is still a vetting process, just with a different mechanism. Suggesting that anyone can just get their game on Steam is flat out wrong. Really well made and polished games (see: Midnight Mansion from ActionSoft) fail to get noticed through either process all the time. I have nothing to do with this service but I find it definitely compelling. Indie Game Stand only features one new game every four days (so…

Those are things that might be compelling to the content creators, but I'm not seeing much that's compelling to consumers. (And I'm not convinced that there isn't already another similar service that also addresses those concerns.) As the others pointed out, most of us don't want yet another game distribution service -- we already have a few.

From a consumer point of view it isn't a game distribution service (at least I don't think so.) I make a game and I tell some friends about it or post about it on my blog and link to a page where they can find out more info and "buy" it (or grab it free if they prefer.) From the consumer point of view it might as well be a page on my own website, they don't care. When I bought FTL I went to the FTL web page and paid them $10 and got the game. I didn't need to join any communities or discover the game through a community or anything. This seems similar to that. (FTL offers redemption of the game on Steam as well, but that doesn't matter to me.)

[ As an aside, FTL is apparently on sale for $5 for the next couple days. I recommend this game to anyone and everyone who ever enjoyed an episode of Star Trek or Firefly.

FTL: http://www.ftlgame.com

Day[9] Plays FTL: http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-s-day-off-p1-ftl-faster-than-lig... (how I discovered the game)

/aside ]

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#55

Post by JoshTriplett »

leafo wrote: post #5
richardv wrote: post #3

How did you do the recording for the demo of the product? You got my upvote just for that.

I used this cool project: https://github.com/rprichard/x11-canvas-screencast It definitely deserves some stars. It's based off of https://github.com/sublimehq/anim_encoder

Handy!

Consider adding some kind of video-like control on the page to restart the screencast; I opened the tab in the background, and by the time I saw it it had already gone halfway through the screencast. I eneded up refreshing the page to see it from the beginning.

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#56

Post by tlarkworthy »

Why no directory? I uploaded a game to this when it was advertised on gamedev.net Only subsequently did I realised this site does no marketing, or even a directory on the front page. So you take 10% just to filehost and not even put up a link? 10% for 1 type of payment processing is not all that competitive without some game discovery. I could just put my game on my own random webpage for much the same effect. (http://t_larkworthy.itch.io/runesketch) OK my game is a free to play so I have no idea how you are supposed to charge me. You can gladly have 10% of subsequent revenue for any conversion originating at itch.io but there is not gonna be any unless you actually market the games on your site

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#57

Post by shurcooL »

This is pretty cool.

It might just reduce the friction enough for me to post my unfinished 2D Counter-Strike -like game that I worked on for 5+ years, that otherwise the world would likely never see (I have a lot more important things to complete before I can afford to get back to working on it).

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#58

Post by trbs »

binarycrusader wrote: post #39
hbien wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about Desura/GOG, but Steam has a vetting process. If you're not a game developer with a following, or if your first game doesn't meet their standards, you can't get onto their marketplace. You're also required to use their SDK and integrate some functionality into your game. Looks like with itch.io you can just upload your binaries. Also DRM. Some (small percentage of?) players would love to play games with…

Steam has Greenlight now, so you don't have to be "vetted" by Valve anymore. There are many other services already though that provide similar functionality, such as indie game stand, desura, etc. that have none of the restrictions you've mentioned as being a reason to not use Steam. So again, what makes this service compelling?

I attended a talk given by Gabe Newell at my university back in January, and in it he mentioned that he wasn't satisfied with it and they might phase it out. So Greenlight may not always be there.

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#59

Post by basicallydan »

I really like this. I do want to see a directory though.

Just a little detail I really like the way you show how much money will go to each party involved in the sale:

http://itch.io/about/faq#someone-buys-my-game-for-10-how-muc...

I know it's just a sum, but I like the way you formatted it :)

Re: Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

#60

Post by Mahn »

spoiledtechie wrote: post #54

Love the idea. But I would consider one thing. Changing your domain name. It doesn't ring and the .io will be confusing..

It's not that bad. It's short, a real word and memorable. I've never seen a product with an .io domain catch on and become mainstream though, but I guess that's not really relevant.
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