You have your exported game files from the development tool of your choice. In the easiest scenario you will have offline assets for a physical game or just one single html file from Lumi/H5P or Twine. If you used more complex tools, you now most likely have a zip file full of ‘stuff’ somewhere on your computer. In any case, itch.io will be the easiest way to make your game available for all to play.
Itch.io is not the only option, but as it is by far the easiest, let’s look at the publishing process in detail.
- Go to itch.io
- Log in or create an account if you don’t have one
- Go to the Dashboard (either top menu bar or via the down arrow next to your avatar top right)
- Click the “create new project” button
- Carefully read and choose every setting on the form:
- Choose a catchy name for your game
- Choose a simple URL for your project – two words are enough
- Write a short description of what your game does – no more than two sentences (you can write more in the ‘details’ section)
- For classification, put Games
- The “Kind of project” option will depend on the type of game you have created. Select Downloadable for physical, offline games only. All digital games will either be one single html (Twine or H5P) or a zip file (GDevelop, Ren’Py, Godot, etc).
- Release status will depend on you. Choose whatever option best describes your game.
- For this game jam, please ensure you set the price to No payment
- Upload your HTML or ZIP file for digital games; for physical games, please upload an instruction document and any files that players need to download and/or print off to play your game.
- The Details box should contain instructions for your players:
- What is my mission to accomplish?
- What does your game teach me?
- What buttons do I press to do X?
- For physical games, what are the basic instructions for playing?
- Your Genre for this Game Jam should be ‘Educational’
- You can ignore tags, store links and custom nouns
- Comment settings: choose whichever setting you are most comfortable with
- Visibility & access needs to be set to Public, otherwise nobody will be able to play your game.
- Cover images and video trailers are optional