Show HN: I made a site for hosting/selling indie games

The technology stack of the site is pretty interesting. I wrote a little about it here:<p><a href="http://leafo.net/posts/introducing_itchio.html#technology" rel="nofollow">http://leafo.net/posts/introducing_itchio.html#technology</a><p>Essentially the web app runs directly inside of nginx (but a special build of nginx from the project OpenResty[0]). The entire site is coded in MoonScript[1], which is my language that compiles to Lua.<p>I developed a web framework called Lapis while making this site, it doesn't have documentation yet but you can find the source here: <a href="https://github.com/leafo/lapis" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/leafo/lapis</a><p>I you want to see another sample Lapis webapp you can check out my MoonRocks project. The source is here: <a href="https://github.com/leafo/moonrocks-site" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/leafo/moonrocks-site</a><p>[0]: <a href="http://openresty.org/" rel="nofollow">http://openresty.org/</a><p>[1]: <a href="http://moonscript.org" rel="nofollow">http://moonscript.org</a>

Why no directory? I uploaded a game to this when it was advertised on gamedev.net Only subsequently did I realised this site does no marketing, or even a directory on the front page. So you take 10% just to filehost and not even put up a link? 10% for 1 type of payment processing is not all that competitive without some game discovery. I could just put my game on my own random webpage for much the same effect. (<a href="http://t_larkworthy.itch.io/runesketch" rel="nofollow">http://t_larkworthy.itch.io/runesketch</a>) OK my game is a free to play so I have no idea how you are supposed to charge me. You can gladly have 10% of subsequent revenue for any conversion originating at itch.io but there is not gonna be any unless you actually market the games on your site

Nice looking site!<p>I'm a professional programmer just getting started with indie game development (it's so much fun!). The biggest thing I want out of a game hosting site apart from actual sales is insight into the potential players/customers. I want to know which categories are popular, whether free demos are increasing paid sales, which platforms are selling, where are viewers coming from. I want to see what people are saying about my game, what they are rating it and why. It's not hard for me to put up a quick page with a paypal link to a file download, but you can add lots of value with good analytics and things like comments and ratings.

How did you do the recording for the &#60;canvas&#62; demo of the product? You got my upvote just for that.

Just for fun, I tried to pay $0.00 for X-Moon. I got a fun message that said:<p>"Name your own price to get download access to X-Moon. There is no minimum price, pay what you want.<p>Due to processing fees the minimum amount is 50 cents."<p>I realize it can still be downloaded for free, but it's not really "no minimum, pay what you want".

What is your use case for why this has a reason to exist, in a market that all ready feels over-saturated (Steam/Desura/GOG, etc)

I'm an indie game dev who has used Indievania for a previous release -- it's same kind of PayPal-powered setup, only they ask customers to tip them at time of purchase instead of taking a cut of every sale. Could you explain why I should consider using you instead of Indievania?

I'd change the default displayed price, even on a free game, to be something other than $0.00 (and for those people who type 0.00, it should directly take you to the link).

The video is a real eye-catcher, nicely done!

I and a small team at my university are a month or two away from shipping our game. I think that we will highly consider using this site! The minimum price payment scheme is exactly what we wanted to do. Thanks a lot for posting. Bookmarked.

I like it, and went to create a page for one of my games (free, but I'd like a nice landing page), however you only support downloadable games. I guess it makes sense to begin with, however if you add support for browser games, let me know!

I really like this. I do want to see a directory though.<p>Just a little detail I really like the way you show how much money will go to each party involved in the sale:<p><a href="http://itch.io/about/faq#someone-buys-my-game-for-10-how-much-do-i-get" rel="nofollow">http://itch.io/about/faq#someone-buys-my-game-for-10-how-muc...</a><p>I know it's just a sum, but I like the way you formatted it :)

This is pretty cool.<p>It might just reduce the friction enough for me to post my unfinished 2D Counter-Strike -like game that I worked on for 5+ years, that otherwise the world would likely never see (I have a lot more important things to complete before I can afford to get back to working on it).

The video actually threw me off. My cursor was right there, very confused for a sec - imo it's not separated enough from the rest of the experience for it to be entirely helpful, felt like more of a distraction. Just my $.02, cool site outside of that one small thing!

what are tags? Are there plans for in-itch discovery? As a buyer, the front page doesn't really help me at all.<p>as a seller, I can see the use case. Maybe integration with online arcades? kongregate, for example.

Why confine this to games?<p>I think the layout and format of the site is great, but I dont see anything about it that necessitates that particular vertical. Why can't I use this to sell my OSX app?

This looks good, but one of the things that could stop us from using it, is Paypal, we can't withdraw money from Paypal where we are located.

Love the idea. But I would consider one thing. Changing your domain name. It doesn't ring and the .io will be confusing..

Is there an ability to upload a demo of the game? Will there be some kind of discovery system for buyers?

You should accept Bitcoins, this could solve the issue of Paypal and foreign countries.

Are you using redactor.js for the WYSIWYG editor ?

"I’m a 24 year old male living in San Francisco."<p>Really? You're "a male"? Not a man? You disgust me.