Very often good projects go unnoticed. Those are books, movies, games, etc. that really deserved better. People put in dozens or hundreds of hours on them to make it special... And, at the last moment, they get tripped up by marketing. They put the game up, some people play and love it, but overall it isn't doing as well as it deserved.

That, to me, is a catastrophe, one which I am intimately aware of because most of my personal projects fell squarely on that ditch.

That said, "marketing" on Itch.io is an extremely simple affair — at least compared to the likes of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram marketing. Actually, Itch is a great platform and when it has some nifty algorithms to make sure our games are shown to the people who would enjoy them. All you need to do is feed the algorithm the right data — which is today's topic of discussion.

We wrote a guide compiling everything we figured out about how to make your game get page views and downloads on Itch. While it was first aimed at helping our friends making VNs, the knowledge here applies easily to all games. With this information we managed to climb up all the way to 105th highest rated Itch.io game and we are supporting a few projects which are climbing up. So yeah, this works. Check it out!

Much like our latest DevLog, this one comes in a Google Doc. We would have given a direct from Itch if we could! If you value your privacy, go Incognito for a second and download it as a PDF.

How to Get Your Game Noticed
Search Engine Optimization for Itch

If you like this guide, please consider following us, checking our game and giving us a 5-star rating if you like it!

And to conclude... If you have been following our DevLogs, a few times we talked about/linked other worthwhile visual novels. I'm thinking of turning this into a habit, mainly by picking one or two projects at most for each DevLog.

Today's mention goes to BEYOND THE HARBOR by Harmonious. This VN released recently, it's only at its 0.1 build, and it succeeded in engaging me with a well-constructed atmosphere, effective use of assets and, what I liked the most, interesting plot threads that show an appreciable depth of characterization. This is definitely one of those first builds that already show profound care and vision, and which have more to give the more you look into it and speculate.

So this is it, folks. Have a good week!