Download & Play

Where to upload your game

So you're an indie game developer (like me), and you've made a brand new and shiny videogame (like me); CONGRATULATIONS! You've done the easy bit, now for the hard bit: getting your game in front of people!

One of the tasks I've found most daunting is figuring out where to post a videogame to get it in front of players. You'd assume since my game is free, that shouldn't be so difficult. Free is not as good a label as you'd think as people tend to associate "free" with "crap". Now I'm not saying that Vecter is the second coming but I like to think it's okay, and other people have told me it's okay and fun so I'm driven to keep working on it and get it in front of the masses.

This page will serve as a living document where I catalogue my experience with various stores. I'm mainly interested in documenting: The store I uploaded to, the number of downloads it received from that store, the procedure needed to upload Vecter to said store and how much it cost me to do so.

I recommend checking this page regularly to see if I add new entries in the store list. That's enough waffle, let's get on with the list. (DISCLAIMER Your mileage will vary)

  1. GameJolt - Submitted 12 May 2019

    Cost: Free + 10% or less revenue split | Experience: Very Positive
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

    GameJolt was my first and remains my favourite indie game platform. The process to submit a game is super easy (you do need to create an account though) and it's very straight forward although it does ask for a lot of images and videos to prettify your page with. Once you've created your GameJolt account all you have to do is this to get started. A lot of my traffic comes from GameJolt itslef, although you do have to post new things semi-regularly in your Dev Log to have traffic coming in.

  2. Itch.io - Submitted 10 September 2019

    Cost: Free + 10% Revenue Split by default | Experience: Meh...
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

    Itch.io was my second submission and I can't say that I'm overly impressed. It does alright, the pages it generates are okay but a little messy, the exposure to players on its platform is not stellar and the dashboard is a little confusing. I didn't have a great experience with it and the traffic it generates is pretty small but maybe I did something wrong. To upload your game to Itch just go here and sign up.

  3. Discord - Submitted 24 September 2019

    Cost: $25 + 10% Revenue Split | Experience: Awesome, but pointless...
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

    The developer console of the discord store is EXCELLENT! It has some really powerful features when it comes to storing your game and it also provides an SDK to integrate with your game and do all sorts of crazy stuff in the Discord client. However, all of that is useless because the store is buried deep in the discord client where nobody cand find it. Seriously check this out:



    Y U SO HIDDEN? Anyway, because the store is so inaccessible and considering it also costs $25 to post, I guess a submission here is pretty useless. They advertise it as "Distribute your game straight on your discord server" which is true but with so many other alternatives what's the point? Still, it's nice that there's an option. You can see here how to submit your own game to the store.

  4. IndieDB - Submitted 30 September 2019

    Cost: Free but you can't sell your game on it directly | Experience: Very Positive
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS (You can upload pretty much anything, but mainly used for Windows, Mac, Linux)

    IndieDB is the uglier, yet somehow clearer GameJolt. While the website is aesthetically stuck in the early to mid-2000s, it is very powerful. You get stats on top of stats about how your game is doing, who is visiting, how people are getting there, how many have downloaded or rated your game, awesome little embedded buttons that look good and so much more. Yes, the darn thing looks pretty bad but it is quite a good platform to show off your game and write articles about it which will be displayed on their front page thus driving new traffic to your baby.

    Vecter (Note: The position updates automatically as your game grows in popularity)

    It's a bit of a learning curve and there's a bit of trial and error involved when setting up your page, but the spike in traffic is worth it (at least in my experience). You can add your game at this address.

  5. Kartridge - Submitted 02 October 2019

    Cost: Free submission, 0% Revenue split for the first $10000 made | Experience: It's super easy, really quick, and worth the hassle
    Platforms: Windows and Mac

    Kartridge (made by Kongregate) is the new kid on the block. Seems to be still in beta but looks pretty good to me so far. Setting up the account and page was a breeze. The interface is really good and your game ends up looking great on it, I highly recommend it. I'm going to wait a few days to see what kind of traffic I can get from here, but I'm not very hopeful since it's a brand new platform that's still in beta. Instructions on how to set up your own game available here.

  6. Game Front - Submitted 01 October 2019

    Cost: Free but you can't sell your game on it directly | Experience: Too easy not to consider doing

    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS (You can upload pretty much anything, but mainly used for Windows, Mac, Linux)

    Game Front is a strange little website in which people upload files (like mods, texture packs and other things) for games. You could potentially use this as a means of hosting your game files somewhere for free if you wanted to but everyone has access to these files so it's not particularly secure. Because everyone can see what you've uploaded it might be a good and quick way to get a few downloads if your game is free. Not very usefull if you have a paid title tho'. Here's how to upload your own. You'll need an account first, but it only takes a few seconds to set one up.

  7. Gamers Gate - Request Submitted, Awaiting Response

    Cost: Free + 30% revenue split | Experience: None yet
    Platforms: Mainly Windows with a tiny bit of Mac, Linux

    Now we're getting into the lesser-known stores. Gamers Gate is a semi-popular Windows Mac and Linux game store. I haven't tried it yet, but you can check here how you could request that your game be published on their store.

  8. Steam - Not submitted yet

    Cost: $100 + 20%-30% app revenue split | Experience: Survival of the wealthiest
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

    This is not my first rodeo with Steam... Steam is an ocean of possibility that favours the wealthy. You could have the best game ever (TM) and go unnoticed or a horrible asset flip and be front and centre if your pockets are deep enough. Here you are fighting for survival against every other PC game ever made, and publishers with million-dollar budgets that can guarantee themselves a spot on the front page if they bat their eyelids quickly enough at GabeN. Submitting to steam is a whole article in it of itself and doing a quick google will produce countless results from the experiences of other devs, so I'm not going to parrot them here. If you think you are ready for a steam submission, check here to learn how to do it.

  9. Humble Store / Humble Widget - Not submitted yet

    Cost: Free submission, 25% revenue split for store, 5% revenue split for the widget | Experience: None yet
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux (but there are some Android and iOS options for the bundles)

    I haven't researched into this option as of yet, will update once I do. But you can check here how to do it. They offer a lot of different services for developers.

  10. GOG - Not submitted yet

    Cost: Free AFAIK + 30% app revenue (uncomfirmed) | Experience: I want to be part of the club that won't accept me
    Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux

    GOG is very exclusive and very well curated. They won't allow any old indie game onto their store and are very picky. This is ultimately good for the platform as you don't end up with a massive catalogue of nonsense like Steam, but it also means it's outside the reach of most indie developers. Still, I recommend you attempt a submission if you have a very polished game since the worst that's going to happen is they wills ay "NO". Click here to submit a request to them.

  11. Kongregate

    Cost: Free AFAIK + 30% Revenue split on Kreds purchases | Experience: None
    Platform: In-browser games [Html5, SWF, UnityWeb]

    Kongregate is a platform for "in a browser" type of games, as such is not suited for what I'm doing. Still, that's no reason not to include it in the list as it is very popular for browser-based games. Instructions on how to submit here.

  12. NewGrounds

    Cost: Free | Experience: None
    Platform: In-broswer games [Html5,SWF]

    NewGrounds has an ironic name since it's been around for over a decade now. This is the place where you can find hidden gems made by new developers just wanting to have fun. Sadly it only hosts browser-based games but some of them are really good and transition into full industry-acclaimed games (Like the Binding Of Issac). Sadly, the only way you make money on Newgrounds is through add revenue sharing with the site. It is by no means a sales platform of any kind. You can upload your browser game, as well as other stuff (animation, audio, art, blog posts) here.

  13. Epic Games Store - Submission Rejected

    Cost: Unknown right now + 12% revenue split | Experience: Exclusive club, for now
    Platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux (Sort of)

    I have attempted to submit my game to the Epic Games Store earlier this year, unfortunately, I was politely informed of the following:

    "Thanks for your interest in the Epic Games Store, we are overwhelmed by the response!

    The product lineup for 2019 is nearly complete, but we are actively building tools and technology to ensure developers have a path to the store later in 2020. As we release more features, we will be able to support more titles.

    We look forward to talking more with you in the future. Of course, Epic will be making additional announcements about the store all year long, so please watch our social media channels for the very latest!"

    So yeah... I guess we're all waiting until they open the gates again.

  14. The Windows Store - Not submitted yet

    Cost: $19 or $99 if you're a company + 5%-15% app revenue | Experience: It's complicated...
    Platforms: Windows 10, Xbox, HoloLens, Windows Mixed Reality (VR)

    I am not the freshest potato on the block when it comes to the Windows Store. I attempted a long time ago to publish a game there and, at the time, it was a little less than an ideal experience. However that was 3 years ago and things have changed. I will be trying to publish my game there, I think there IS a requirement that the game be a UWP app so depending on your code that might be a super simple rebuild or a nightmare for you. Recently I've learned that the Windows Store now accepts non-UWP apps as well but you have to jump through some hoops in order to get that to work. I'll update this section once I've figured out how to do it myself but for now, here's how to get started on the Windows Store.

  15. The Google Play Store

    Cost: $25 registration fee + 30% app revenue | Experience: It's straightforward and a pleasant experience
    Platforms: Android

    Publishing to the Google Play store is a fairly straightforward experience, not too painful and you get access to one of the largest catalogues of smartphone apps do distribute your game. Sadly, Google doesn't help much in terms of promoting your app/game so that's mostly all on you. If you're big enough, popular enough and good enough you can reach some of the more interesting sections in the store like the featured games / featured new apps.

    Like steam, the Google play store now also has an early access style section where the competition isn't that fierce, so you can potentially use that to your advantage. Follow the instructions here that will guide you on how to create a Play Console account and publish your first app.

  16. The Apple App Store

    Cost: $99/year developer account fee + 30% app revenue | Experience: Haven't tried it in years but reading online, still looks complicated
    Platforms: iOS

    As much as I dislike Apple I have to give it to them: Their store is rock-solid from a consumer stand-point. All the stuff that goes on the store is well-curated and subjected to scrutiny, but that does make the app fees pretty high (highest on this list if I'm not mistaken). Getting an app or game published on their store is a complicated affair requiring the apps be signed with certificates in very specific ways and while I'm told that it's not strictly required, it's much easier to develop for their devices when you also have a MacOS machine available. Still, if you have a good enough game you may be handsomely rewarded for your efforts. Here's a general article on how to get started posting on the App Store.

If you want to support and help other devs find out what their options are, consider sharing this article on social media, or retweeting my tweet bellow so it reaches more people:

Know any other stores where indie devs can publish their games? If you have the name and a link to where they outlined how to submit new game entries, hit me up on twitter @taranasus or by email taranasus@gmail.com

Arrived here from the Google? Have a look at my game by clicking the Home button at the top. Maybe, you'll like it

@taranasus - Discord Server - @taranasus_dev