Itching to Publish?

For those who aren’t familiar, itch.io is an indie games marketplace, designed for video games, but just as useful for other digital releases, like tabletop/print-and-play games.

There’s been a huge surge in uploads of physical games since the publication of DC’s overdue call-to-arms for tabletop game designers to give the platform a try, and they’re right, the monoculture of OneBookShelf (DriveThruRPG, DM’s Guild, and other faces of the OBS shopfront) is starting to hurt the indie scene as much as it has helped it over the years. Itch is certainly easier to use on both sides (designer and consumer), and they take a much smaller cut of the sale.

Helping @WanderingGM publish Instant RPG the other day was what motivated me to do more on the platform. I had put our Tiny D&D business cards up as free-or-donate before, but had many #NaGaDeMon files sitting around since November 2018, and decided to quietly release my Scales & Scoundrels hack of Ironsworn’s quests-and-resources model, Secret Dragons. It sold a copy this morning! Whoo, virtual dollar!

I have a bunch of other tiny hacks which I might put onto the site, just to see if anyone likes them. I’ll try to abort any design which develops into something too frighteningly unoriginal, but it’s funny how often I’ll get a hundred words into a design only to realise that either Blades in the Dark did it better, or I’m just unconsciously re-writing Burning Wheel, then file it in the Windows Folder of Despair. I’m still working on the Wardlings intro game to release after this Winter’s Ettin Con. I’d love to sell (and potentially expand) it but I’m guessing that WizKids would prefer me to rename it, even if it’s the only game specifically devised for that miniature line. I can understand that, but I keep wanting impossible things anyway.

Anyway, if you weren’t already thinking about getting your stuff out there, or you were intimidated by the complexity of submitting to DTRPG, maybe give itch a go. I’d love to add more stuff to my private and public collections of creative games on the site.