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My game isn't indexed after 2 months, and support isn't helping

A topic by Mickael Bergeron Neron created 26 days ago Views: 206 Replies: 7
Viewing posts 1 to 5
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Hi there,

I did read the /docs/creators/getting-indexed link, and still have no clue why my game isn't indexed after two months.

I contacted support, but no response so far.

My game's here: Liquid Swarm by Mickael Bergeron Neron and I don't see anything that breaks the rules or should make it unlisted.

Yesterday, I posted a postmortem that took me hours to write and which I believe is highly informative, and yet it doesn't show up in the devlogs page, presumably because the game isn't indexed int he first place: https://mickaelbneron.itch.io/liquid-swarm/devlog/1579269/six-weeks-on-crazygame...

I posted a major update as I plan to develop the Itch version of my game more (if support hopefully fixes the indexing issue), and yet that major update doesn't show up in the devlogs page: https://mickaelbneron.itch.io/liquid-swarm/devlog/1579223/updated-version-playab...

What am I supposed to do to solve the indexing issue, if support doesn't answer? I want to update my game on Itch, post an html version, and post more devlogs as I do so, but what's the point if my game isn't indexed and devlog posts don't show up in the devlogs page?

Can anyone with answers help here?

[tumbleweed]

Admin

Your account has been reviewed and is now eligible for indexing.

Blog posts are handled separately, and a pre-requisite is having your page indexed. So it should be picked up by indexing soon.

Thanks

(1 edit)

I appreciate the update, thank you, and I can now indeed find the game and the post mortem. I still can't see the major update in the devlogs, but I'm hopeful it'll be indexed and show up soon.

I find it would be useful and reassuring to understand why my account or game got flagged in the first place. Right now, I have to admit by trust in Itch is broken, as I can't know if that will happen again with no obvious reason and no solution other than having to go out of my way to get the admins' attention, and I can't know if future devlog posts will have any effect at all as it appears my game could unexpectedly get de-indexed again any day with no obvious reason.

I planed to update the Itch build of my game in the coming weeks, and possibly replace the downloadable build with an HTML link if my exclusivity deal with CrazyGames allows it for a demo, but I feel understanding why my game or account got flagged in the first place would be important for trust in the platform, and to avoid that kind of flagging if anything I did did actually trigger some automated flagging system or something.

E.g., I'm not familiar with Itch. Did me posting updates as comments on my page instead of a devlog (which I just heard of) trigger something? Did adding a link to the CrazyGames hosting of my game trigger something? Do games just automatically get de-indexed after a while when they are not updated?

To be clear, I read the indexing doc, quality guideline, and at least one more doc (I think a FAQ), and still can't understand what got my account or game flagged.

(2 edits) (+1)

Ok, so I see that my major update does show up in the devlogs page, but it's far in the list. Even though the game, and therefore the post, just got indexed, the update appears far in the 'recent' list, as thought the time the post was made is used for sorting instead of the time the post was indexed, which basically means that my post was useless because it didn't show up in time to be meaningfully discoverable. Again, this leaves me quite disappointed with the Itch experience. I believe the team behind Itch should improve their system, as I think it's currently hugely flawed, frustrating, disappointing and unfair.

why my account or game got flagged in the first place

Itch will usually not talk about specifics. And being flagged in this case would probably just mean, it got put on the manual review waiting queue.  /t/4120453/unofficial-search-and-indexing-faq

And that can take weeks and longer.

 Do games just automatically get de-indexed after a while when they are not updated?

No.

A few words about your game. I disagree with the tags. That's not a role playing game, nor a survival game. It is not a roguelite nor is this pixel art. It's literal pixels. You have no avatar whose role you play, and said avatar is not in a survival situation.

That's an action game. You you would want music and sounds in such a game (look up those old Tempest arcaded games) and you would want to port that onto mobile devices. For the incremental genre, shorten your numbers, do not write 20000. The name is fine. Minimalistic game or not, your game description is rather short.

The game already works on mobile and I'm not interested in sounds and music. The Itch version is dated. The most up to date version right now is on CrazyGames, which classified the game as arcade (not action).

I do believe the game has roguelite, rpg, and survival elements, though I don't mind changing the tags. I put the Itch version quickly for feedback initially, and didn't initially intend to update it (I considered it final). I decided to update it recently after it got quite popular on CG.

I'll change the tags soon. I don't want to do it now, because I'm concerned Itch will somehow de-index it again if I make any change, so I'll wait until my postmortem is further down the list before updating the tags or making any change at all.

Shortening numbers has been planned for a while, but there are other priorities. It'll come in time.

After a demo of the latest version is ready for Itch, I'll update the description and cover image (and tags).

It's still frustrating and concerning that Itch is opaque about why it de-indexed it in the first place. I'm willing to make the necessary changes if anything is necessary, but if the Itch team won't give a clue, what am I supposed to do? Guess? Give up? It's just not a good experience.

Arcade games are action games. It means that the player's manual skill is needed, and not only thinking and decision making . And that crazygames place is where I played the game.

and I'm not interested in sounds and music

But casual players are. Eye and ear candy help. It should make satisfying sounds when you slurp up the new liquid or whatever. Yes, I know, that's not what those pixels represent, but that's what it looks like.

Music helps too, and such things are used in arcade games for a reason. Even if you did not want to make an aracade game, it should make you think, that a platform chose that classification for your game. If you want to appeal to arcade players, good music and rewarding sounds will help.

I played several incremental games. And dexterous action, like in an arcade game, is not the key quality of those incremental games. And it has quite an impact how you direct your swarm. For mobile you might even consider splitting the swarm for touching at multiple points.

I do believe the game has roguelite, rpg, and survival elements

Care to elaborate why you think so?

It's not roguelite, it's an incremental arcade game. Incremental and roguelite only share the getting better by failing and resetting mechanic. On Steam you even tagged it Roguelike. That game is neither a roguelike, nor a roguelite. You have no permadeath for your run so it is not a roguelike. For a permadeath you need a character that will have other statst the next run. And you have no random runs where you can improve your character differently. You do not even have a character. Where is the power ups you can collect in a run? Where is the branching where you chose your path? Your game is more like a tower defense game. There are waves of swarms you have to defend against. 

It's not an rpg, because you have no protagonist. No inventory. No quests. No story. No dialogue. If you have elements of rpg in the game, I did not encounter them. Upgrading your swarm fleet is not the same as buying new armor for your hero. It's a basic mechanic of incremental games.

It's not survival, because you do not have scarce resources and a protagonist that could die in an environment. You have an incremental game. You heap in resources a plenty. And failing is part of the core game mechanic. There is no dread, no risk. Surival is a sub genre of horror or adjecant to it. Your game is rather the opposite of the survival genre.

You seem to plan more for the game, seeing how you intend it to feature multiplayer and a campaign. Maybe it will have some rpg like aspects in the future, but unless you create a framework of story around it, where the pixel fights is the fight mechanic inside it, I have doubts. 

I'm willing to make the necessary changes if anything is necessary, but if the Itch team won't give a clue, what am I supposed to do?

There are no necessary changes. And yes, any update can trigger a temporary delisting.

Basically ignore the indexing. People are not gonna search your game by name much and any traffic you direct here by direct link will not care about the indexing status of your game.

My 2 cents are, it would be wise to chose accurate tags. If you attract fans of the surivial rpg genre and they are disappointed, that's not a good thing. It might even be considered tag spamming. You might be better off with tagging it tower defense game because of the enemy waves. But an rpg that ain't at the moment. Same for surival and rogueanything.