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Game not indexed for 5 YEARS

A topic by Sternenprinzessin created 6 days ago Views: 185 Replies: 10
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(1 edit) (+1)

Hi itch.io Support Team,

I published my game Vom Suchen und Finden 5 years ago, but it still hasn't appeared in Search & Browse or the recent games listings.

I contacted support by email on September 18 and received the automatic confirmation that my request was received and is being reviewed.

My support ticket ID is: 404670

However, I haven't received any further response since then.

I've updated my game some months ago and until then I didn't realise it's not searchable.

Game URL:

https://sternenprinzessin.itch.io/vom-suchen-und-finden-demo

Could someone please check whether my game is still waiting for review/indexing, or if there is an issue preventing it from being indexed?

Thank you for your help.

I came across your post by chance, and unfortunately I can relate to this situation.

I’m also an indie developer currently dealing with very similar issues with itch.io. I’ve contacted support multiple times regarding my game, but I never received a response. I eventually had to open a forum post just to try to get some kind of information, and even there the situation wasn’t particularly helpful.

I completely understand that itch.io has a lot of games to review and that the process can take some time. The problem is when projects remain stuck for weeks or even months with very little communication or information about what is actually happening.

For an indie developer, this can become a serious problem. Many of us are investing our own time and money into our projects, sometimes even paying other people to work on them. Being unable to properly publish, promote or have people download the game because of review or quarantine issues can basically put the entire project on hold.

What concerns me even more is seeing other developers reporting that their games have been waiting since April or even earlier without being approved. If these reports are accurate, then this seems like a much bigger issue than an individual support ticket.

I’m not asking for special treatment or to jump ahead of everyone else. I’d simply like to see a clearer and more predictable review process. Honestly, I would even be willing to pay for a higher-priority review queue if itch.io offered something like that.

And this is especially frustrating because itch.io has historically been an important part of the indie game ecosystem. Vampire Survivors, for example, started on itch.io before becoming the huge success that it is today. Platforms like itch.io can genuinely give small developers the opportunity to be discovered and build an audience.

That’s why it would be a real shame if indie developers started moving away from itch.io simply because they cannot get their games reviewed or published in a reasonable amount of time.

I really hope this situation improves, because I would personally much rather keep supporting itch.io than move my project elsewhere.

I’m adding my own experience here as well, in case it helps show that this isn’t an isolated issue:
/t/7016659/publishing-game-issue-ticket-406736-felisomnia

Moderator

I’ll help speed things up for you, but your game was published a month ago. That’s public information easily visible on the page.

(1 edit)

Thank you. But there is a missunderstanding: it was updated a month ago, but the fist version is from over 5 years ago and it was never indexed.

Moderator

I don’t know which version you mean. The one you linked to was clearly published 35 days ago. It shouldn’t take that long, but it’s not five years.


The page record indicates that the game was published 35 days ago.

Itch's indexing system is based on the page rather than the game itself; in other words, if you created a page five years ago and have now created a new one for the same game, Itch does NOT count them as the same project.

For indexing purposes, the moment that matters is when you make the content publicly available; if you created the page five years ago but kept it inaccessible to the public, that time does not count.

(2 edits)

I don't know why its only showing the new file but here is the data from both files



(+1)

I found the problem.

The link to your game isn't the same as the one you posted; watch out for that, because the moderator will fast-track the indexing of the game the link actually points to.

Your link say:

https://sternenprinzessin.itch.io/vom-suchen-und-finden-demo

But, the URL go to:

https://out-index.itch.io/eremos
(1 edit)

Thank you a lot for the help! I have no idea how that happend, now the link is the one of my game 
https://sternenprinzessin.itch.io/vom-suchen-und-finden-demo

i was told the link wasn't right, now it's the right one to my game
https://sternenprinzessin.itch.io/vom-suchen-und-finden-demo

Moderator

I’ll help speed things up for that one, too. In the future, please make sure your game page is ready before making it public.