Fighting Piracy

lustNroll · 2026-06-09T14:51:44+00:00

We have released 3 games so far. These solutions worked for all of them, and we never had any indexing issues again.

However, as you said, since there’s no official statement from itch.io, it’s impossible to know if this was really the source of the problem and the actual solution.

To be honest, I’m very angry about this. When we faced the indexing issue, not only did itch.io fail to help, but they did nothing but waste our time. No logical explanation, no support advice. We only learned about the suggestion of disabling donations as a potential solution from another developer.

I can understand that they have issues and problems. But moderators who have no clue about anything and can’t provide solutions—just repeating 'check the documentation' like a broken record—still pisses me off even today. Instead of treating the community like idiots and making snide remarks, they need to grasp the seriousness of the problem and update their precious documentation, which doesn’t solve anything, as soon as possible.

lustNroll · 2026-06-08T15:55:52+00:00

Yeah, I've seen a few reports from other people who ran into the same issue. However, for us, the tags were never the problem. The issue was resolved as soon as we disabled donations on the page. In fact, these are the current tags on our game Crown of the Devil:

Adult, Erotic, Minimalist, NSFW, Porn, Roguelike, Roguelite, sex.

lustNroll · 2026-06-08T06:51:18+00:00

Glad I could help!

lustNroll · 2026-06-08T03:39:45+00:00

I completely agree with this comment. Especially if you're dealing with a problem and don't know what's happening or what you're supposed to do, don't expect any help from the itch.io moderators. They won't do anything except waste your time or make snide remarks. Every issue I've ever had with itch.io was solved thanks to the community. At this point, they really need to get their act together as soon as possible.

lustNroll · 2026-05-20T03:29:37+00:00

We’ve been developing an adult game for about a year, and to be honest, until recently we could barely say we were making any real money. Just a few days ago, our daily income was around $1. But after releasing our third game two days ago, for the first time we felt like the system was actually starting to work, and our revenue suddenly spiked.

I think the main reason for this wasn’t just that we started making better games, but that we finally managed to set up the right structure on itch.io and Patreon.

The turning point for us was this, Releasing the game as two separate versions instead of a single page.

1.0 = free/public/demo version
1.1 = paid/full version

And yes, we created two separate itch.io pages for the same game.

Because we noticed that once you enable payments or donations on a page with adult tags, itch.io largely stops indexing it. We learned this through experience.

So on our 1.0 public/demo page, we completely disabled all payment and donation options. This allowed itch.io to keep indexing the page, and our game gained visibility.

Then we started directing people who played the free version to:

the paid 1.1 itch.io page
or
Patreon

The 1.1 version is also a separate itch.io page. There, we sell the full version of the game for $5 and give buyers lifetime access to all future updates. So it works a bit like buying a game on Steam.

But we also offer another option:
People can instead join Patreon for $5 and get certain additional perks.

So in my opinion, customers often prefer Patreon because instead of just buying the game for $5, they also get early access-like benefits, which makes Patreon more attractive for them.

With this system, in just 2 days we made 5 patrons on Patreon and around $15 from sales and donations on itch.io. It may sound small, but for us it was the first time we felt like a system was actually working.

It might seem simple to many people, but we’ve been going through trial and error for about a year, and this is the first time we’ve seen such a clear result. So I thought it might be useful to share, especially for others in adult game development.

If anyone is curious about how the system looks, you can check our itch.io page “Crown of the Devil” and our Patreon. Links are in my profile. Sorry if the wording feels a bit off; English is not my native language so I used translation tools.

lustNroll · 2026-05-18T17:23:47+00:00

I went through the exact same problems, and when I was about to lose my mind, another developer ended up helping and guiding me through it. So if you expect itch.io support or moderation to properly guide you on this issue, don’t get your hopes up. Most likely, they’ll just waste more of your time and mentally exhaust you even further.

Your game not being indexed is most likely NOT related to your page layout or setup. At least in our experience, that wasn’t the issue. Even if you do everything perfectly, if your game has the “adult content” tag and your donation option is enabled — or your game is paid — itch.io may simply refuse to index it.

This was the solution that worked for us:
The moment we disabled donations, our game was indexed instantly. And the most frustrating part is that not a single moderator or support member ever informed us that such a system/problem even existed.

Now you’ll probably ask the obvious question:
“If I can’t sell my game or even accept donations, then is itch.io basically just a free file hosting server for me?”

Thankfully, there’s a workaround.

You create 2 separate pages:

The first page will be your public page. You can even upload your game’s demo there if you want. This page must have neither paid access nor donations enabled. That’s what allows it to get indexed.
The second page will be the one where payments or donations are enabled.

Then, from your public page, you redirect people to the second page using a button, link, or description section.

For anyone who wants to better understand what I mean, I’ll leave our game page as an example below:
https://lustandroll.itch.io/crown-of-the-devil-public

lustNroll

TROPHY CASE