At first, I wanted to distribute my free games from my own website; however, after thinking on this for a while, I decided that it would be better to find a distributor. Unfortunately Steam is not an option for me right now. So while searching, I came across itch.io, a website for indie game distribution.

I was wondering if any of you have had any experience using their services. If so, could you share (in very general terms) your experience? How has it worked for you? Have you had any particular difficulties or successes using itch.io versus another service? Lastly, do you have any advice for me, as a beginner?

Thank you for your time.

Hi there,

I've only one finished project-ish thingy or "game" so far, so not much experience or reference on this front, but I can wholeheartedly recommend itch!
It's extremely easy to set up, and with relatively low effort, your game page can look pretty.
As I've mentioned I don't know how common and expected are these features, but I guess it has all what one would need:
Simple analytics, notifications, seller settings, privacy/security, good game page customization options etc.

I also liked it as an end-user, that lead to it as a choice of distribution.
If you are interested give it a go, you can even create a private test game page just to try it out!

Br.

Since the Desura problems itch.io seems the solution, but you know as my experience goes, you need to do the marketing for your project even on sites like steam green-light or your game will get stuck on a certain amount of visits and go to the forgotten land, is a work to maintain the fan base and stuff like that, you can see some youtube videos about that there are also conferences with indie developers that explain how they do it before success.