{"slug": "itch-io", "name": "itch.io", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 9, "warners": 0, "score": 5.515, "rising": 0.36, "first": "2025-11-13", "latest": "2026-10-22", "why": "Itch.io allows for browser-based app distribution and is probably a better path to a large audience", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 7, "neutral": 4, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Itch.io allows for browser-based app distribution and is probably a better path to a large audience", "kind": "game", "icon": true, "domain": "itch.io", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://itch.io", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["itch.io", "Itch.io"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 795646544, "item_id": 49727909, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49727909", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Itch.io is an option for people who don't want to set up a site or handle payments.", "excerpt": "I'd love to see people distribute their apks directly. Itch.io is an option for people who don't want to set up a site or handle payments. While they focus on games, they're cool with distributing non-games: https://itch.io/blog/32835/itchio-isnt-just-for-games-check-out-our-non-gaming-content", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week"}, {"id": 792950113, "item_id": 49559382, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49559382", "by": "rdmuser", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "itch and steam both have ways to find them.", "excerpt": "There are a fair amount of open source games out there and some great lists but I mainly wanted to highlight with this comment that itch and steam both have ways to find them. Hell I was just playing one earlier to check out the new content (drl). Steam has this handy curator: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38475471-Libre-Open-Source-Games/ Itch has this filter: https://itch.io/games/tag-open-source As a bonu", "context": "", "use_case": "finding open source games", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Death of Physical Media"}, {"id": 769414721, "item_id": 48088420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48088420", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you considered also releasing it to itch.io?", "excerpt": "I can't overstate just how much I love seeing a NES game developed in 2026. It looks great. I really like the music too. Have you considered also releasing it to itch.io? (I don't do business with Steam due to DRM and their inaccessible website.) I would happily purchase a NES ROM file so I could play it on my pitendo (RPi3 in a case that looks like an NES). I'm not well versed in video editing. That said, the people", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 769389875, "item_id": 48086867, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48086867", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm really surprised that more people don't use Itch.io for distributing software", "excerpt": "A small launcher for Claude Code, to make switching between different providers and configurations easier: https://ccode.kronis.dev/ For example, if I downgrade from Max to Pro I'd still be able to use the subscription, but also run sessions with other models (less expensive/local) as desired: ccode init-config # initializes a new config file for me to set everything up ccode edit-config # opens it in my editor so I ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 766554608, "item_id": 47909663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909663", "by": "cxr", "date": "2026-04-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Itch.io allows for browser-based app distribution and is probably a better path to a large audience", "excerpt": "Itch.io allows for browser-based app distribution and is probably a better path to a large audience\u2014especially those interested in the two examples you listed\u2014than a custom domain is. It's not well-known, but Itch's offline Steam equivalent (<https://itch.io/app>) is also open source.", "context": "", "use_case": "indie game distribution", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's OK to Use Agentic to Revive the Projects You Never Were Going to Finish"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["finding open source games", "indie game distribution"], "compared": [{"slug": "steam", "name": "Steam", "co": 6, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48085993", "title": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50185455", "title": "Open Source Games", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49724927", "title": "The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540873", "title": "The Death of Physical Media", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48533848", "title": "Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47981979", "title": "A Physics Engine with Incremental Rollback for Multiplayer Games", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 2}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 803161793, "item_id": 50197612, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50197612", "by": "rdmuser", "date": "2026-10-22", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Itch has this filter", "excerpt": "Steam has this handy curator: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38475471-Libre-Open-Source-Games/ Itch has this filter: https://itch.io/games/tag-open-source As a bonus here are some random non abandoned lists I found with quick search: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games https://github.com/michelpereira/awesome-open-source-games https://github.com/bobeff/open-source-games", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Open Source Games"}, {"id": 795646544, "item_id": 49727909, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49727909", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-09-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Itch.io is an option for people who don't want to set up a site or handle payments.", "excerpt": "I'd love to see people distribute their apks directly. Itch.io is an option for people who don't want to set up a site or handle payments. While they focus on games, they're cool with distributing non-games: https://itch.io/blog/32835/itchio-isnt-just-for-games-check-out-our-non-gaming-content", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Google Play app review process now regularly takes longer than a week"}, {"id": 792950113, "item_id": 49559382, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49559382", "by": "rdmuser", "date": "2026-09-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "itch and steam both have ways to find them.", "excerpt": "There are a fair amount of open source games out there and some great lists but I mainly wanted to highlight with this comment that itch and steam both have ways to find them. Hell I was just playing one earlier to check out the new content (drl). Steam has this handy curator: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38475471-Libre-Open-Source-Games/ Itch has this filter: https://itch.io/games/tag-open-source As a bonu", "context": "", "use_case": "finding open source games", "switched_from": "", "story": "The Death of Physical Media"}, {"id": 776592288, "item_id": 48537018, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48537018", "by": "zimpenfish", "date": "2026-06-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Let me introduce you to itch.io[0] where, in fact, people bang out HTML5 games", "excerpt": "> And yet, there was no html5 newgrounds. Let me introduce you to itch.io[0] where, in fact, people bang out HTML5 games at a rate that will stagger your eyeballs. (Even me, a resolute \"backend-only\" dinosaur managed to use a HTML5 game engine to knock something out playable in an hour or two.) [0] https://itch.io/games/platform-web - ~689k results", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe"}, {"id": 769414721, "item_id": 48088420, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48088420", "by": "nosioptar", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Have you considered also releasing it to itch.io?", "excerpt": "I can't overstate just how much I love seeing a NES game developed in 2026. It looks great. I really like the music too. Have you considered also releasing it to itch.io? (I don't do business with Steam due to DRM and their inaccessible website.) I would happily purchase a NES ROM file so I could play it on my pitendo (RPi3 in a case that looks like an NES). I'm not well versed in video editing. That said, the people", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 769389875, "item_id": 48086867, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48086867", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2026-05-10", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'm really surprised that more people don't use Itch.io for distributing software", "excerpt": "A small launcher for Claude Code, to make switching between different providers and configurations easier: https://ccode.kronis.dev/ For example, if I downgrade from Max to Pro I'd still be able to use the subscription, but also run sessions with other models (less expensive/local) as desired: ccode init-config # initializes a new config file for me to set everything up ccode edit-config # opens it in my editor so I ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (May 2026)"}, {"id": 767852417, "item_id": 47990776, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47990776", "by": "BSTRhino", "date": "2026-05-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "You can upload to itch.io yes", "excerpt": "You can upload to itch.io yes: https://easel.games/docs/learn/publishing/export The export basically creates a page with an HTML IFRAME in it that embeds the hosted version of your game on easel.games so that all the multiplayer and leaderboards continue to work. Thanks for your interest!", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "A Physics Engine with Incremental Rollback for Multiplayer Games"}, {"id": 766554608, "item_id": 47909663, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47909663", "by": "cxr", "date": "2026-04-26", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Itch.io allows for browser-based app distribution and is probably a better path to a large audience", "excerpt": "Itch.io allows for browser-based app distribution and is probably a better path to a large audience\u2014especially those interested in the two examples you listed\u2014than a custom domain is. It's not well-known, but Itch's offline Steam equivalent (<https://itch.io/app>) is also open source.", "context": "", "use_case": "indie game distribution", "switched_from": "", "story": "It's OK to Use Agentic to Revive the Projects You Never Were Going to Finish"}, {"id": 760284752, "item_id": 47517797, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47517797", "by": "hiccuphippo", "date": "2026-03-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Does Itch have a CLI for installing the games?", "excerpt": "Does Itch have a CLI for installing the games? From Heroic's FAQ, that's the first step for adding support to the store. https://github.com/Heroic-Games-Launcher/HeroicGamesLauncher/issues/4605 Not exactly first class, but one step away.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls"}, {"id": 755491968, "item_id": 47218248, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47218248", "by": "tmtvl", "date": "2026-03-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Itch by default only takes a 10% cut instead of 30%.", "excerpt": "Better link to Itch (<https://maddymakesgamesinc.itch.io/celeste>) than Steam, Itch by default only takes a 10% cut instead of 30%.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Video Games in 2025 (without an engine)"}, {"id": 734707826, "item_id": 45919239, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45919239", "by": "badsectoracula", "date": "2025-11-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "all of which are DRM-free stores", "excerpt": "FWIW 95% of the games i play on my Linux are from other stores than Steam: GOG, Zoom Platform (not related to the Zoom telething) and itch.io, all of which are DRM-free stores. The Steam games i buy are mainly from small indie devs that do not have nor plan to have releases outside of Steam. To play games i use UMU Launcher which is basically Proton minus Steam (or Wine plus DXVK, etc, depending on how you look it at", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Steam Machine"}]}