GameJolt or Itch.io

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MagicFool64

Guest
Where do you suggest me to publish my games? Gamejolt, Itch.io or both?
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
I've used both, here's some comparisons that might help you pick which one is the right for you:
  • Itchio has a much easier interface to use than GameJolt's
  • Itchio lets you customize your pages more (including changing the URL, adding custom backgrounds and images, fonts, etc) and by default hides that your page is an Itchio user profile and not its own thing, so it looks more professional
  • Gamejolt has a much higher focus on their "star ratings" (they use a lightning bolt instead of a star, but details)
  • Itchio lets you sell non-game stuff like assets and books
  • Gamejolt are much more lax on fangames and has less quality control tweaks, so they're overrun by stuff like MSpaint FNAF
  • There's official GameJolt T-shirts
 

YanBG

Member
I've used both, here's some comparisons that might help you pick which one is the right for you:
  • Itchio has a much easier interface to use than GameJolt's
  • Itchio lets you customize your pages more (including changing the URL, adding custom backgrounds and images, fonts, etc) and by default hides that your page is an Itchio user profile and not its own thing, so it looks more professional
  • Gamejolt has a much higher focus on their "star ratings" (they use a lightning bolt instead of a star, but details)
  • Itchio lets you sell non-game stuff like assets and books
  • Gamejolt are much more lax on fangames and has less quality control tweaks, so they're overrun by stuff like MSpaint FNAF
  • There's official GameJolt T-shirts
Doesn't seem like there is a lot to GameJolt, maybe you missed something? I stopped updating there and kept Itchio though, so idk either.
Maybe there is more fan interaction on GameJolt?
 
E

ethian

Guest
If you publish your game in Itch.io, your game will have true fans, it will have its own wiki and even will have its sprites ripped in The Spriters Resource! All by fans!

All of that happened with Temmie Chang's game "Escaped Chasm", published on Itch.io.

Idk if the same will happen if your game is published on Gamejolt or not, but if you want true fans that can even do fanart of your game (Idk if Escaped Chasm has fanarts or not), publish it on Itch.io being free, like Escaped Chasm.
 
M

MagicFool64

Guest
If you publish your game in Itch.io, your game will have true fans, it will have its own wiki and even will have its sprites ripped in The Spriters Resource! All by fans!

All of that happened with Temmie Chang's game "Escaped Chasm", published on Itch.io.

Idk if the same will happen if your game is published on Gamejolt or not, but if you want true fans that can even do fanart of your game (Idk if Escaped Chasm has fanarts or not), publish it on Itch.io being free, like Escaped Chasm.
This seems a good idea, thanks
 

Cpaz

Member
I think Temmie's game got more attention than average since she's in the Undertale core team, though...
To dig a little deeper, Gamejolt is MASSIVE when it comes to fangames. Note the large ampunt of FNAF and undertale fangames specifically.

Other communities are also represented, but in general, you'll see those two the most.

I use gamejolt for now, but that's because I I'd need to invest a significantly larger amount of time in getting a itch.io page setup. I'll do it eventually, if only for coverage. But I do see itch.io having a much more significant perch for indie originals.
 

Yal

🐧 *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
To dig a little deeper, Gamejolt is MASSIVE when it comes to fangames. Note the large ampunt of FNAF and undertale fangames specifically.

Other communities are also represented, but in general, you'll see those two the most.
I'm pretty sure GameJolt has separate official tags for "fangame" and "fnaf" specifically, that was one of the reasons I quit using it (anything I made drowned in FNAF fangames made in MS paint in 5 minutes). Itchio had a more streamlined upload process and let me upload game assets for sale as well, so it basically was like Gamejolt and the Marketplace at once. Kinda hard to say no to that.
 

NightFrost

Member
Little off topic, but one thing I like about itch is how the jam interface is so much better. It also seemed to me, though it has been several years since I last checked, that gamejolt was filled up to the tubes with minimum-effort gamejam entries with zero participants. Itch has a lot less but at the same time almost all of them can be considered proper jams.
 
I used both Gamejolt and itch.io for my first game, but for my second I have just gone with releasing it on itch.io. I was using Gamejolt to publish the devlogs, but as it got near to the release time I found that no matter what I tried I could not get the payment system to validate any of my photo ids. I was only wanting this so that I could accept donations for the game, but Gamejolt's payment system just wouldn't accept the ids no matter how many times I tried (or how many different ones I uploaded for them). I gave up after that and set up the payment process on itch.io and within a couple of hours that was all sorted and I had migrated all of the devlogs onto itch as well.
I'm probably just going to stick with using itch.io from now on, even though I did like the Gamejolt platform too.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Does anyone but devs use either? Are they serious platforms for sales? I heard about them only by reading this forum...
 

Fern

Member
Itch.io/Game Jolt are not for serious sales however on Itch I've seen *some* traffic. It really depends on what you're goal is.

^ This is after years on Itch, multiple titles, and tool releases.

Mind you $200 of that is from the past month or two. So in comparison to other *real* platforms, Itch isn't a big hitter.

Note the views, I've had 2 of my games on the front page of Itch in the past.

Normally I'd avoid showing real numbers but these seem safe to show.
 
B

blossy

Guest
I thought I've done bad but apparently these two sites are not that great for promotion (or sales). Here are my stats:



This is from one title, released 1.5 years ago and marked as "NSFW" so not visible by default.

Also, I just logged into GameJolt and saw I've got ~ 2.5k views and almost $40 in sales. Amusingly low performance on both places, but funnily I am now motivated to make another little game...
 

woodsmoke

Member
I used both sites for a while but stopped using gamejolt because itch.io is less of a hassle to upload to. And you can design your page the way you want. Gamejolts colour palette can really interfere with the visual presentation of your game page.
Here are my stats (currently all my games are free, but some do allow donations):
 

Warspite2

Member
Where do you suggest me to publish my games? Gamejolt, Itch.io or both?
Not sure if you are looking to make money off your games? If so I am not sure I can recommend Gamejolt simply because there are just far too many free games. As developers we are killing our markets by saturating them with free games. What happens then is potential customers will say, oh this game is $1 so i'm going to just pass and download one of the 100's of free games instead. On Itch.io I haven't noticed as many free games so you may be able to make some money on that market. If you're not looking to make money (which I doubt), then just post it on either.

Too many freemium games is one reason for the sad gross revenues posted above and it's ashame. Those devs above have priced their games (maybe?) but customers are choosing the free games instead. We spend hours upon hours, month after month and year after year working on our games. Let the customers know we are not giving our games away! Only us as devs can change the market simply by putting a pricetag on your games even if it's $1 and I can't stress this enough. Well I am steering too far off topic of this thread so back to the subject. Another option, I find Steam is where the money is at because there are very few freemium games and Steam players don't care about paying $1 for a decent game. But...Steam does have a $100 fee which is really not a lot because if you have a decent game you can make that back in the first week of launch. Then once you reach 1000 in sales Steam refunds the 100 and from my experience it's nothing to reach 1000 in sales. Last if it's a good game post it to all 3 markets, do Gamejolt and Itch first then hopefully you can make your 100 then use that to hit Steam :)

Whatever market you choose good luck and I hope it all works out for you!
 

Warspite2

Member
Itch.io/Game Jolt are not for serious sales however on Itch I've seen *some* traffic. It really depends on what you're goal is.

^ This is after years on Itch, multiple titles, and tool releases.

Mind you $200 of that is from the past month or two. So in comparison to other *real* platforms, Itch isn't a big hitter.

Note the views, I've had 2 of my games on the front page of Itch in the past.

Normally I'd avoid showing real numbers but these seem safe to show.
Those are some great looking games! Nice work.
 
Always publish on both. You're there to get seen, not give them traffic with an exclusive.

To dig a little deeper, Gamejolt is MASSIVE when it comes to fangames. Note the large ampunt of FNAF and undertale fangames specifically.

Other communities are also represented, but in general, you'll see those two the most.

I use gamejolt for now, but that's because I I'd need to invest a significantly larger amount of time in getting a itch.io page setup. I'll do it eventually, if only for coverage. But I do see itch.io having a much more significant perch for indie originals.
I remember when my game was wedged between 2 Undertale fan games on the front page. Then in the same week they changed their structure to hide fan games in their own section so myself and others don't have to compete with FNAF and Undertale for the top 10 new games. I had a top 20 game at some point. Lots of five and four stars, then in the span of 15 minutes I gained a 1, 2, and 3 star. Which flung the game downward.

GameJolt has given 2 of my games the front page. I think I had the #2 new game on itch.io for a weekend, without a front page mention, before I took it down as people hated it, yet some donated $10 worth of money. Of which I think I saw $5 due to Paypal payment structures (let itch.io keep $100 and then cash out). #1 that week was Doki Doki Literature Club

Itch.io/Game Jolt are not for serious sales however on Itch I've seen *some* traffic. It really depends on what you're goal is.

^ This is after years on Itch, multiple titles, and tool releases.

Mind you $200 of that is from the past month or two. So in comparison to other *real* platforms, Itch isn't a big hitter.

Note the views, I've had 2 of my games on the front page of Itch in the past.

Normally I'd avoid showing real numbers but these seem safe to show.
You also did that $1 sale with a Steam key for Don't Sink.
 
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K12gamer

Member
I use both...Both are good for HTML5 games...because they make it easy for you to embed
your game on your own website...either with or without a widget.
 
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