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Established seller, new game not indexed, not NSFW, no response from support - what else can I do?

A topic by Mae Finch created Apr 24, 2026 Views: 1,607 Replies: 8

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Mae Finch151 days ago

I published my 4th game on this platform, Ode: Prototype, 5 days ago at a significant launch event. I had no problem with my first 3 games getting indexed but this one has remained unindexed and support isn't responding. I'm an established seller who has complied with all of the guidelines set out in itch.io's documentation on indexing requirements and quality guidelines. This game is not NSFW. According to this documentation, this game should have been automatically indexed, and the fact it is still not indexed is significantly impacting me as an active contributor to itch.io's game catalogue. To quote:

"Established sellers with no history of issues will skip this review step and will be indexed immediately. If you have any questions or need to be expedited, then please contact us through our support page."

So I waited 2 days to make sure my game was actually held for review not just slow to index, and then I did that. My support case is 360768. I'd love a response on why I'm not being indexed so I can address it, or if this was a mistake, to be properly indexed so people who attended my launch event can actually find my game. Anything else I can do here?

hechelion150 days ago (1 edit)

There's probably nothing wrong on your end that you need to fix. An automated algorithm must have detected something and flagged your game for manual review by a human, and your game won't be indexed until a staff member can review it. If you check other posts, you'll see that this is relatively common, and while wait times vary, one to two weeks isn't unusual.

Personally, when the documentation refers to "Established sellers," I don't think it applies to an account that's barely a year old and is limited to donating. On Itch, to "sell" a game, the client must be able to "download" it, so projects that are only HTML are not considered sales.

No Time To PlayModerator150 days ago(+1)

I've let our admins now about your ticket, but two days is a very short time. Even five days isn't much. As for what you can do: promote your game like the official and unofficial FAQs say, so your game page gets prioritized.

redonihunter150 days ago (1 edit) (+1)

Yes, five days is not much. But in the official documents/faq, five days are much. It would be helpful for everyone, if the faq would be worded differently. It is causing lot's of frustration and countless indexing threads and even more support requests, because people think they did something wrong, or just simply do as the faq tells them.

We generally review these within a few business days after a project is published.

then we ask that you wait a bit before reporting it

This proces may take a few days. Please contact us only after you've waited at least one day.

If you just published the page, please wait at least a day before contacting us.

If you've gone through all the following and you believe your project still isn’t indexed, then please contact us

And from the questions & support rules

typically we will respond within a 1-3 days

(It not only implies that there will be a respons, but also, that 1-3 days is typical. From what I read, they never respond to indexing and quarantine issues and if they would, it would take a lot longer than that.)

Mae Finch150 days ago

Thank you for passing it along. I'd second that the documentation should be updated to give devs an accurate expectation of how indexing works here.

I am obviously promoting my game as hard as I can in other channels, but for very small devs like myself, indexing has a significant impact on my traffic and my ability to grow, due to both being included on category pages and coming up in search. With the way the internet is set up these days, plenty of people are going to search for a game by name after seeing a post or stream or demo about it instead of clicking through to someone's bio for a direct link or scanning a QR code, and then give up when it isn't a result. I've seen plenty of people find my other games via direct name search in itch or on google. I'm being very clear that you can only find my game by direct link in all my communications, but people often don't fully read captions and descriptions.

I'd also love clarification on what the "threshold" is for an established seller since the documentation implies it's just someone who has had a game published and indexed with no issues before. But I've gotten multiple comments saying that you have to have a significant following, charge money, have an account older than 1 year, and/or list executable instead of browser-based games. I enjoy putting out small free games that are playable in browser but if that's somehow hurting my ability to get indexed I'd like to know.

I understand this is a problem of volume that can't really be avoided, but there's a lack of transparency and miscommunication of expectations from itch that could be addressed and would solve a lot of headaches for all parties involved. I'd also hazard that given the randomness of the games that are flagged for review, itch's algorithm could likely be improved. I've seen and read through a lot of the other posts from unindexed and de-indexed devs over the last few days and all that really tells me is that this is a pretty big liability for devs on this platform. I think myself and everyone else stuck in this boat is pretty rightfully upset that the games we put a lot of time and passion into can be hidden at the whims of a completely unknown algorithm even after we've done our due diligence in following all of itch's public quality guidelines. And I'd like to think we can advocate for ourselves a bit here and ask for a better system.

redonihunter150 days ago

Since Itch does not talk about such things, do not expect an answer from support or an admin. The community message board moderator is not the kind of moderator the faq talks about.

If there is a threshold, it probably is the checkmark icon you see on some accounts. See the top page of /games/top-rated . But you will notice that there are games with many thousand ratings, that still do not have that verified account sign. Itch just does not verify all that many accounts. And frankly, they cannot afford to protect even those accounts from the mechanisms that puts some new games and updated games on the waiting list. After all, there are reasons when the system wants staff to have a look. Itch does intentionally not tell what those reasons are, but they obviously exist.

And to clarify, I am pretty sure the faq only talks about the situation when a game gets put on the list, because it is a first time paid game. There are plenty other reasons why a new game or an updated game might end up on that waiting list. The problems only arise, since indexing takes weeks and not days - if you have to wait.

That waiting list is not first in first out. Games with more traffic are supposed to have higher priority. But think about it. Your game is not the only one on that list with a similar traffic, and there are bound to be a lot of games with more traffic.

My opinion, based on some threads I read, is that Itch's opinion about indexing is, that it is a bonus and not essential. After all, a page is fully functional, with or without indexing and if you do promotion, you are promoting a direct link to the game or at least your account and do not say, hey target audience, head to Itch and search my new game by name.

Also, search does not even work on the Itch app. So there is that.

redonihunter150 days ago (1 edit)

Did you read any of the indexed threads at all? Please do.

Also, you are not an established seller. You do neither sell, nor are you established. If there is a threshold for being established - and I doubt there is one - than your account is likely below that threshold. You will find such indexing threads from accounts with thousands of follwers and they waited weeks and weeks for indexing.

people who attended my launch event can actually find my game

If you held an "event", did you give the title of the game and tell people to search it, or did you give them a direct link to the game? Because your game is not affected by not being indexed. It's also very visible on https://maethefinch.itch.io/ . Oh, and your homepage does not link to your Itch.

As a side note, there is no need for a manual no-ai tag.

Inactive150 days ago(+1)

Hopefully you have better luck than me. I'm still waiting 3 weeks for a response. Hopefully the mod was able to speed yours up, but otherwise be prepared for a wait :( I think they are just snowed under right now.

Mae Finch150 days ago

Sorry to hear you're in the same boat. I'll give your game a play and share it with my circles. Best we can do is try to help one another and advocate for a better system here

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