itch.io

Just 3 weeks until the Craftpix Indie Jam #1-2026!

Almost 200 game developers have already joined and during the jam, they’ll be making games for all of us to play.

But we want to make it bigger than just a game jam.
Streamers, bloggers, and creators will help bring these games to a wider audience, while our sponsors have provided awesome prizes for the winners.

Join us and be part of it!
👉 /jam/craftpix-indie-jam-1-2026

how to contact you?

About a year ago I started this discussion about Featured Jams:  /t/5461380/clarification-on-featured-jams-criteria-and-visibility...

In that thread leafo mentioned that my jam had simply been missed. That made me realize that organizers have no way of knowing whether their jam has actually been seen or considered for featuring.

I'd like to suggest a small improvement to the process.

What if organizers had an official way to request a Featured review? This wouldn't guarantee a Featured spot or require any explanation if a jam isn't selected - it would simply let organizers know that their jam has actually been seen.

This could be implemented in different ways, for example:

• A "Request Featured Review" button on the jam page.
• A simple review queue with statuses like:
  • Pending Review
  • Reviewed
  • Featured
• Or even an official thread where staff can acknowledge that a jam has been reviewed.

I'm not asking for feedback or justification if a jam isn't featured. I just think it would be helpful for organizers to know that their jam has actually been reviewed, rather than wondering whether it was simply overlooked.

I think this would make the Featured process feel more transparent while keeping the final decision entirely in the hands of the itch.io staff.

P.S. It would also be great to see some general guidance on what the staff considers when selecting Featured Jams. Not as a guarantee of being featured, but simply to help organizers better understand the process.

Hey everyone! 👋

We're excited to invite you to Craftpix Indie Jam #1-2026!

Whether you're a solo developer or part of a team, this is your chance to create something fun, experiment with new ideas, and share your game with the community.

🏆 Every winning team member will receive 12 months of Craftpix Premium, along with additional prizes and community promotion.
The jam focuses on making games that are fun to play, fun to watch, and fun to stream. 

👉 Join here: /jam/craftpix-indie-jam-1-2026

I really liked the core idea — the contrast between a seemingly harmless goose and a dark, unsettling atmosphere works extremely well. This mix immediately grabs attention, and the overall concept feels fresh and memorable.

The puzzle format fits this theme perfectly. I also appreciate that the puzzles aren’t overly easy, as is often the case nowadays to quickly hook players. Some may find them simple, but in my case I actually had to spend some time figuring things out — which felt rewarding rather than frustrating.

Regarding the game’s pacing, I don’t fully agree with some of the previous comments. Yes, the goose isn’t fast, but maybe it doesn’t need to be. We’re surrounded by content that constantly rushes us, pushes fast dopamine, gives hints, and simplifies everything. Here, it feels like the developer chose a slower, more thoughtful approach to immersion — the kind we used to have in older games (cue the old-school “things were better back then” moment 😄).

Overall, it’s a very atmospheric and unusual project. Wishing the developer the best of luck with further development and looking forward for part 2!

Nice! Have a great stream!
I'll try to check

Still waiting and would be thankful for some clarification.
Pure random?
Right now it's like this, even there are some jams with hundreds participants (200+,300+, even 400+) 

Hey!
+1 to previous guy. The game is really nice! It's a mario-like game with 100% hit on the jam theme. Jumps in the dark really add feelings :D
Feel sorry you weren't be able to submit it. 

Hey!
It's very nice mario-like game!
Great job!

He’s a Unity game developer looking for someone to team up with.
If you’re up for it, just reply to his post so he gets a notification.

Yes, the time you see (2:02 AM) is shown in your local time zone, so for you the jam will indeed start at 2:02 AM Spain time.
Participants in other time zones will see a different start time — for example, for me it’s 4:02 AM.

Yeah, I understand that big-name jams like GMTK or Game Off (even GameOff had lesser numbers than my jam before it was featured and now they have x4 more) are often featured — that totally makes sense.
But I’ve also noticed that sometimes much smaller jams (with 10–50 participants and starting in just a few days) get featured too.
So it looks like there might be some additional criteria besides popularity — maybe activity, theme relevance, or how the jam is presented on the page?

Hi! 
Each game can be created by a team of up to 4 members.
A tester can absolutely be part of your team — in that case, they should be registered and will also be eligible for prizes.
However, if your team already has 4 members and someone is just helping you test the game (similar to how streamers get feedback from their audience), that’s totally fine too! They don’t have to register, but they won’t be eligible for prizes.
If you’d like, you can still have them register just to help the jam’s visibility — but it’s not required.

Hello everyone,

I’d like to bring up a topic that hasn’t been discussed on the forum since 2023 — the criteria for getting a jam featured on Itch.io.

Recently, I contacted support a week ago (Request #317400) but haven’t received a reply, so I’m posting here to hopefully get clarification from moderators or the community team (and hopefully to make changes in my own game jam that starts soon).

I'm currently running a game jam, which has around 350 participants, collaboration with known sponsors, and an active community.
However, it doesn’t appear in the Featured Jams section - while some jams with only a few dozen participants and minimal descriptions are being featured.

I'm fully understand that featuring decisions depend on multiple factors beyond numbers or size. Still, it would be extremely helpful to have updated guidelines or more transparency about how the selection process works.

To emphasize how important Itch.io’s visibility is — in my case, around 60% of all traffic to our jam page comes directly from the Itch.io platform itself. This shows how powerful and valuable the platform’s discovery tools are for jam organizers.

At the same time, I’ve noticed that non-featured jams tend to get quickly pushed down in the calendar by newly created events with just a couple of participants, while featured ones remain at the top. This creates a significant visibility gap that can impact participation and engagement across the community.

I believe that more clarity on this system would benefit both organizers and participants, allowing everyone to plan their jams more effectively and align better with Itch.io’s standards.

Looking forward for your reply and help.

Two weeks before the jam. Good luck everyone!

Overall, the game is enjoyable and quite engaging. A few things I’d like to point out:

1. There’s a Space (Continue) button, but pressing it doesn’t seem to do anything. Being able to skip dialogue would be nice.

2. Sound. It would be great to have a mute button and volume control — the game got pretty loud a few times (raid boss for example).

3. Ladders. Climbing them isn’t the most pleasant experience — one small step to the side and you’re falling down.

4. Shark is a b*tch 😄

5.  I really like the inclusion of mechanics like air bubbles and climbing - they add nice variety to the gameplay.

6. Boss fight. The boss behavior felt a bit inconsistent. In the first two fights, he used bites and electric orbs, but in the third, he barely did anything until the very end, when he used his laser breath.
I think it would make sense if his attack pattern changed depending on HP:

• 5–6 bars - bites

• 3–4 bars - electric orbs

• 1–2 bars - laser breath

7. The boar is also a b*tch 😄

Again, it was nice to play it.
Would be happy to try part 2.
Good job guys! 

Everything for the whole game!
Great work! Thank you!

Great as always!
Good job guys!

Okay, my bad.
Played a bit more and...

You really have to try different strategies with towers.
I tried to add magic tower to my mix and freezing started to work. They are really good against bosses.

Moreover, magic tower have larger range compare to stone, so it can hit enemies that reached the base. 

About #9. There is no button, but if you read (i didnt before) you know how to jump back to menu :D

Thanks again for the game. I think it's great that game can offer so many options to play and explore.

What was your highest score? Did u complete the 1st level?

Thank you so much, the game is really nice! I played for about 40–50 minutes.
Result: I still couldn’t beat the first level. My best run was 678 creeps.
I’d love to see your results guys — if someone beats that, let me know and I’ll go back to try again! :D

For the developer:

1. I really like the variety of tower mechanics. However, I think some kind of introduction or tutorial would help. I spent a while figuring things out on my own. It felt a bit nostalgic, clicking everywhere like in the old days, but times are different now, so maybe a short guide would make sense.

2. I couldn’t figure out what the red diamonds are for. Just no idea.

3. I don’t really see the point of magic or archer towers when stone towers exist. Stone towers have higher attack and hit 3 targets at once. Archers and mages deal less damage and hit only one target (I only tested the first two waves, maybe it makes more sense later).

4. Upgrading feels very fast. From the start, you can already fill the field with towers and get them to the first upgrade level. After the second wave, towers are maxed out. By the third, you’ve already bought all four boosts for the towers, and after that, monsters stop being a threat since they die even without using skills.

5. After a while I noticed towers have perks (two boosts for 500 each). But since you always have 15–20k crystals, they feel meaningless—you can spend as much as you want. I tried stacking +20% freeze chance on every tower, but after 4–5 waves I never saw a single enemy frozen. Then I switched them all to fire, but also didn’t notice any extra damage. A 20% chance is quite high, so I think it just doesn’t work.

6. The last tower doesn’t reach enemies that manage to get to the fortress. Not sure if that’s a bug or a feature, but if a boss gets through, it’s basically GG. Skills deal tiny amounts of damage, and to take 200–300 HP off a boss, you’d have to cast them about 10 times each.

7. At some point enemies start running faster and more spread out, and mathematically it becomes impossible to stop them. I also noticed situations where a tower throws a rock, but the enemy outruns the impact zone and dodges it. And then we hit the same issue as above: enemies and bosses are near the base, towers can’t reach, and skills only do 10–20 damage, meaning you need 10–15 casts to kill = gg.

8. If you activated a skill, there’s no way to cancel it—you’re forced to cast into the ground. I think it would be great if you could cancel instead.

9. After losing, there’s no “Menu” button - in fact, no button at all. You just sit there waiting for something to happen. It would be much nicer to have the option to return to the menu and restart right away.

Great as always!
Thank you guys!

The Pink Knight looks very glamorous ahaha
Good job!

Found this pack after played your game and saw them in action.
That's nice that you gave us idea how can use it!

I really enjoyed the transformation mechanic—switching between dog, bird, and rat forms adds a creative layer to puzzle-solving. In many cases, choosing the right form makes difficult obstacles surprisingly easy. For example, early pipe jumps can be completely skipped by flying over them!

Drones felt slightly overpowered due to their speed, and their behavior was a bit confusing:
– the first drone ignores the rat form,
– the second detects all forms, including the rat—making one section nearly impossible to pass.

Special Thanks to the music — it gives strong Mortal Kombat vibes!

Very interesting concept :)
Ahaha! That's 5!

Really like CastleLand and SkyLand!
Thank you guys!
Great work as always!

hahah. guys, u really need a clicker for this game :)
Idk how much time did i spend, but my hand hurts :D
Boss is kinda fat, but it was fun.
Thank you for the game.
My record is 60k+ (Nick - NG)

hahah. huys, u really need a clicker for this game :)
Idk how much time did i spend, but my hand hurts :D
Boss is kinda fat, but it was fun.
Thank you for the game.
My record is 60k+ (Nick - NG)

I won, I'm happy :D
Thanks for the game!
It was interesting

It's hard to add something new after Zoltan's review ahaha
But just two and maybe not super important things.

1) You start level 2 by killing the tree to make a path and the prisoner gives you a tip right after you made it. I'm not an expert, but the phrase @cut the tree@ should be before you figured that out. I know there is no option what to do, in this case maybe better to remove this phrase.

2) Would be nice to add the description to pets, because i can see them in the store, but no idea what do they do as result I'm not sure if i should spend so much money of them.

The same actually with potions, when you are checking the store, there is no description on them. But in this case you at least can check in on your screen next to your level.

3) Need more dodge features as guys said before.

Right now u cant control the fight against melee enemies. If you decrease the attack speed, it would be a time to avoid their attacks. For now you just trying calculate how many potions do you need to pass or how many times you should ruin your run.

Overall, the game is nice. I surely like it!
Thank you so much! Waiting for updates and continue.

This will definitely come in handy!
Thank you!

These roots/plants actually look like a circulatory system. 
Very creepy and cool! Great Job!

Very good work! Thank you!
This will definitely come in handy.

Thank you so much!

Good work!
Thank you!

Check their website, they have file license.
You can use it in your games and monetize your game.

Great characters!
Thank you guys!

Am I the one who sees Princess Leia from star wars? ahaha

new characters in this style would be nice, something like dinosaurs.
And, i think you should think about women who like to play games. 
Maybe i didn't find or maybe you just don't have it - kitchen things/sims things.. etc..