itch.io

I guess it's alright. As a backrooms developer myself, what I can tell you is to put as much effort and detail as you can and avoid using overused tropes.. aka hazmat suit people etc. There are already a ton of backrooms games out there, you'll need to stand out as much as you can, it's what I've been doing for my game. 

New games get attention; however, all games after launch start flatlining.. it's something you have to deal with as a dev. 

AI can be a useful tool, buuuut it allows people to use it just to "Not put any effort" into their projects. And that's the sad part. 

There is no right or wrong answers, you can use a pre-existing like "Gold" or "gems" but you could make up something new.

Thanks for clarifying, and I appreciate the compliment on the screenshot itself.

To clear up a quick misconception: I don't use the 'same assets' as other titles. As a solo developer, I handcraft my own models, textures, and layouts specifically to avoid that boilerplate look. While the genre has signature visual elements that feel familiar, the actual gameplay mechanics on the page are where the unique spin lies.

While I don't mind reviews, reviewing a single image without ever seeing if there is more to review (aka seeking my page) will result in a flawed review, esp since there's an actual link to my game... a place with a chance to house more details to 'review' but you failed to check, It would be a different story if this page allowed more than 1 image—then that would be on me for only posting 1 image. 

I don't view your thoughts as an insult at all! I just wanted to point out that a single image under a strict constraint doesn't represent the whole project. I completely understand if genre fatigue makes you hesitant to jump into another liminal title, and you're entirely entitled to that preference.

Best of luck with your own development journey!

I appreciate you noticing the visuals and atmosphere from just the one screenshot! To clarify, the post had a strict one-image rule, so it didn't show the full gameplay mechanics. If you check out the actual itch page, you'll see there is quite a bit more to it than just walking around.

At the end of the day, I make games to learn new skills and have fun, not to chase market trends. Every genre—from liminal horror to murder mysteries—has been done countless times, but that shouldn't stop anyone from creating what they enjoy. If liminal games aren't your cup of tea, that's totally fair, but judging a whole project off a single image is a bit of a leap!

I'd be careful before you cast harsh judgement on others just minding their own business and creating something they enjoy doing. Because one person might like a game but that doesn't mean another person will, however, dogpiling on someone else's hard work because A, B and C, esp making it vocal about it can come off as rude and disrespectful to the developer. 

Not sure if my game will be something you'd be into but I'll talk about it. 

I'm a solo dev and this is my first game. Between Places is a single player exploration based backrooms game where you find yourself lost in the backrooms, goal is to wonder around and discover the wonders of the endless levels of the backrooms. Pair that with sanity management, items, alt routes, one way doors and lost notes packed into this game. So far it's just a demo. 

https://liminary-dev.itch.io/between-places-demo

Lots of cool games here. 

Here is mine. 

It's a demo. But if you are into backrooms exploration based games where I have the game for you. 

Between Places is an exploration backrooms game where you find yourself in the depths of the endless halls of the backrooms, coupled with sanity management, discovering lost notes, alt routes to wonder and one way doors, there will be awesome places you can find. Will you find your way out? 

https://liminary-dev.itch.io/between-places-demo

Due to a lack of man power to moderate the platform, it's likely no extra restrictions will be put into place. 

Status quo seems to be fine for now. Unless a ton of more people put up a stink about slop then maybe it's time to do something, although I'm somewhat new to itch, I've not seen a lot of users like you who've questioned the quality of games on here. 

I never said relying on user reports is the key, no site has enough people behind the works to moderate everything, so just like many sites, they also use user reports to help. 

"Repeating that a fee will destroy free content"
I will repeat it because that's what I believe. No different from how you keep repeating it will not, it's how arguments work..

"Clinging to the belief that any entry control will kill the platform while ignoring zero cost alternatives is an emotional response."
I never said "any entry control" will kill the platform, if you've been paying attention, I said I don't believe paying a $100 fee will work and will kill the platform and as you should know a "fee" is only 1 method of control. 

Also, no I'm not "resorting to rude and aggressive behavior" Please reevaluate how you read my replies, and try again. 

Between Places Demo 0.5.1 

https://liminary-dev.itch.io/between-places-demo

"You acknowledge that Itch needs tighter upload rules and quality standards, yet you reject every actual mechanism required to enforce them."

I gave you that reply "Such as implementing better and improved upload rules for games, holding games for review if enough people report the game and, ensuring people follow." stop pointing out bullshit. I'm not going to dive into every refined detail, otherwise the post will be 5000 pages.

Itch was built on free for all. To then make a paywall WILL push users away onto other platforms and itch will die. Itch caters towards new devs and indie devs. Most of itch has free to download content and free to play games, the moment you add a fee, BOOM all that stuff will be either behind a paywall or gone. So no your idea of a fee WILL NOT WORK and it will never work because of how itch's foundation was built. 

That's what I also believe, itch has always been free for any skill level, so to suddenly gate keep with a $100 fee when the entire site is popular for being a place to download/play free games and assets.. well you can say goodbye to all the free to play games and downloads, and since itch wasn't built on the model steam was, itch will die. 

My argument isn't realistic at all, what about people in third world countries who make good games but CAN'T afford that $100? 

I can say the same thing for steam, however it comes down to how the platform is constructed and it's aim for users. Steam is a professional platform for quality games and thus from early on required users to pay to post a game, when it makes money, you get that money back. 

However, itch has always been a open gate community that accepts everyone (if we ignore the nsfw ban and payment processor issue not long ago) so to suddenly gate keep itch with such force will push people away from a platform that was free. Because Steam is a platform users know that a huge chunk of games are paid titles, whereas, people come to itch because of the amount of free to play games and easy methods to support small devs via buying their demo or donating.. and if you suddenly add a payment to post a game.. you can say goodbye to most if not all the free to play game.. as paying to post your own game free or not will completely flip itch's devs and users on their heads. 

Paying $100 to post your game on a platform originally designed and pointed for new devs with required $0 upfront cost is pretty extreme. 

A far better direction would be for itch to hire more staff or use their current staff to tighten up rules and regulations on the platform that DOESN'T require a complete restructure that makes their users and creators suffer entirely. Such as implementing better and improved upload rules for games, holding games for review if enough people report the game and, ensuring people follow. 

I do agree that itch has become a place full off ranged levels of effort in terms of game quality, however itch has been built on "open for all" and "fair chance for all" and as such, in order to somewhat keep that going and be fair on everyone, they need to tighten the rules on the quality of game you can upload and add a few new rules. 

 What you are suggesting is "Welcome to my restaurant that anyone can enter, but you must pay us $100 to eat here" But the restaurant in question is McDonalds, not some fancy club restaurant.

100% 

Like how cars replaced horse and kart, how walking was replaced with horse and kart etc.. the world will continue to get lazier and lazier. 

Below are a collection of BEFORE images.

These are my old Main Menu, Controls UI and, Pause Menu.

Below are my new Main Menu, Loading Screen, Controls UI and, Pause Menu.

My main menu is also interactable, so hovering over some parts make things happen.

I'm in the process of polishing existing areas of my game so I hope these improvements are doing wonders for my game. 

It's not about if you get a review or not, it's about what is SAID about the review. 

The same could be said about game engines... sure I made a game but I used a engine someone else built.. but no one bats an eye and no one goes on about "You should make your own game engine and not use someone else's" 

Or the fact we use cars to move from point A to B, but no one questions why we don't just use our legs we're born with instead of getting another tool to move for us. 

AI made is a car with autopilot and drives for you.. makes sense. 
Ai assisted is what cars are today, helps you move from point A to B but you got to control it and pay attention around you. 

People forget we all use a ton of shit on the regular that does stuff for us and or helps us. Let's also not forget that every company copies each other and steals from each other to make their own products.. but hey no one puts up a stink about that. 

All I'm saying is that if you use nothing but AI to make something, you A) can't say you made it, B) take credit for it and C) don't tell Ai did everything. So yeah depending on the level of Ai you use will match what you can and can't claim. 

All in all, no matter what generation we are in, there will ALWAYS be people that use the tech they have to make something with little effort as possible and make slop content from it. 

I understand your point, but Itch is a corner stone for new devs to get their game out there without having to pay for anything unlike steam. 

In 2026, with everything so expensive, making users pay a fee to post their game might sound like a good idea to weed out bad games, but it will also weed out good games from devs who just can't afford to pay the fee. 

Also, a lot of devs use places like itch to get their game seen and then move onto bigger platforms like steam, so itch is a stepping stone and if you make the stepping stone harder to step on.. well people will avoid itch and turn to other free platforms, so in the long run I believe a fee to post a game will only hurt itch. 

It's impossible to clear out all low effort/slop games, but what we can do is pay little attention to them, hoping that the less attention it gets will send a message to others that if you make a low effort slop game you will not get much attention. 

thank you so much!

No. I just watch Manwha's on youtube. 

Yeah, it's a lot because you don't have a concrete path, once you place the first stepping stone, it will soon enough be easier. 

Fair enough.

No Problem.

I've gotten 135 downloads for my first game here in the first month, it's been 35 days now. 

My players come from Reddit, YouTube, Discord and Itch. 

I agree, we live in a world where the top want more and leave less and less for the little guys... aka us. 

Just so you know, you can learn Unreal Engine, just like I did.. I have actually been working on my very first game and I released a demo not long ago and I can tell you I have never made a game before and never touched UE5 before this project. 

I recommend is to write down the type of game you want to make, start small and simple, this includes the name of your game, genre, style and some basic features. 

Then hop on YouTube and just sift through the endless amounts of Tutorials that guide you through the basic common set ups and go from there. 

I'm a creative person myself by nature, love making stuff, drawing, 3d printing etc so this is just another medium I can build on, and also as a visual learner, you have 2 options to use when starting in unreal engine, C++ or Blueprints, most people use Blueprints becauses it's far easier for newbies to manage the engine. So don't give up.. 

Hey there, here is my game! 

Between Places (demo) You find yourself unhappy with life and end up in the backrooms. Between Places is an exploration based backrooms game with Sanity Management, Dsicovering alt routes, lost notes, one way doors and simple puzzles. 

This is my first game and have been working on it for the past 8 months in my spare time. No Ai was used to make textures, assets and models... they were all hand crafted by me. 

https://liminary-dev.itch.io/between-places-demo

For me it's backrooms games, my fav ones are 'The Complex' 'Escape The Backrooms' and 'The Backrooms: Let's escape together'

Unless the update is fixing critical bugs, the odds that people already playing will update is low.. esp if they see a warning that their save will be cleared. 

Best bet is to hook new players who haven't sunk in countless hours. 

Another method is if possible add teleport locations for players who already played the game to warp to where they left off.. ofc if your game allows it and doesn't break the game aka via skipping important areas that have to be played to continue etc. 

You got to promote your game every so often. 

Like for me example, I've released my first demo over a month ago but I still try to post it on itch and reddit every so often, I'm working on the full release but you have to keep promoting it.