If there's one thing I love about itch.io, it's how they really do work to help game developers in as many ways as they can and they're now launching a job listing board.
It's not enough that they: host game jams; have an open source client (that you're not forced to use); allow developers to give back nothing and take the full cut of sales; support Linux, Mac and Windows; allow developers to do a PWYW system instead of a set price; deal with VAT MOSS for you and the list goes on for a while.
Having a dedicated section for developers to post their developer job advertisements seems like a pretty fitting addition to everything else they do and there's even jobs already available from Failbetter Games.
What's interesting, is that this is going to be a little more curated. It's not a board for every single developer to post every tiny job they have going. It's for developers offering proper paid work that's either "paid full time or contractor positions".
You can see all current open jobs here and more information about it all here.
Quoting: TermyI really don't get why not more people are buying there. Especially when most of the games include a steam-key, so missing features of the client don't really count...i ALWAYS look if a game is availiabe on itch...
I love Itch.io! I've participated in a few game jams and plan to do joining more when time permits. I have downloaded and played a number of games from the store (and I love browsing the 'tools' and 'assets' sections, as well)... but... Itch.io is kinda the 'Dollar Store' game store. I only barely heard of Itch.io before joining THIS site and even then, it wasn't until a good year or so later that I said "I keep hearing GOL mention this place, and I trust GOL, so let's take a look at it".
From the Average Joe/Jane Gamer's perspective... Itch.io is an unknown. If Steam was getting shiz for their lack of curation, Itch.io has none at all (as far as I know). There are virtually no AAA games (which is still a major draw, regardless of how shiz the industry has been over the last decade or so). The solid Indie games we love that may also be on Itch.io are buried with all of the graphic novel, dating sim, NES rom, fetish, and (often incomplete) game jam games.
There is ALOT of AMAZING things that can be found on Itch.io... but, I think it'll remain a relative unknown until the AAA industry crashes completely, bringing down Steam, Epic, and all of the other major launchers. Until that time, the only people who will ever know about Itch.io will be small game developers and the odd gamer really looking for something off the beaten path.
That's my opinion, anyway.
As for why it is mostly unknown... well, they lack the big money to invest in publicity, they don't sideline the indies to make space for the big games, and they could still improve usability and user friendliness. Make it easier to find games you like somehow, make downloads more transparent for users, improve the looks and base themes.
The main problem with itch is there are a significant few devs who always 'paste games, grab cash and run'. No responds, no update (or at least some mitigation advice), or no nothing at all. That's the problem I faced here.
No, I won't want to mention whose devs here.
Yes, itch do need to have some curation or at least 'delisted until it fixed' system.
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