On Fri, 11 Mar 2022 11:23:34 -0600,
ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
Never heard of them before.
Itch.io has been around for a long time as the distributor for smaller independent games; prior to Valve loosening up their requirements for
new games, they were the primary platform for a lot of smaller titles.
As I remember it, they'd host your game for free and only took a cut
if you used them as a payment processor, which made Itch.io a much
more favorable deal for small development houses whose yearly gross
revenues are likely less than what it costs to host elsewhere. Even
after they 'make it big', many Indie studios still maintain a presence
on Itch.io.
They've done a number of "bundle" sales like this before; one for
racial justice following the protests in the US, and another to
support Palestine.
Anyway, this is just my long-winded way of saying that this is a
reputable company and not a fly-by-night operation, so if you're
worried about trusting them with your donation or payment info, don't
be. They've been around for about 10 years, and have a good
reputation.
As to the content of the bundles themselves... well, you're getting
quantity more than quality. There are a number of good games included,
but the majority of the games tends to be very amateur or unfinished.
That's not to say they can't be innovative or interesting, but the
amount of polish varies dramatically, as is common with many Indie
titles. Expect to find 5% games that are fun and well made, 30% games
that are interesting but flawed, 30% games that are awful but have
some intriguing ideas, and the rest being fodder.
Still, it's a great way to see what the Indie community is up to, and
of course it has the added bonus of supporting Ukraine against the
Russian aggression. I'm not sure it's worth it if you've already
participated in their earlier bundle efforts - there's a lot of
duplication - but if you haven't, this is a fun and helpful way of
exploring new Indie games. And even if you have bought an earlier
bundle, this latest one might be worth consideration, because the
added 'sales' do help individual developers by giving them a wider
audience (and, you know, that whole Ukraine thing).
Honestly, the main reason I'm /not/ participating this time has less
to do with dissatisfaction with the product itself than fighting my
own compulsive desire to index everything. If I add 600 more games to
my library, I KNOW I'm going to have to go through all those games and obsessively sort them into various genres and styles, and I don't want
to be bothered with all that right now. So instead I'll funnel the
money to Ukraine some other way, whilst simultaneously bolster
itch.io's own efforts here ;-)
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