Alternative to Itchio for indie and audience ? I think about creating one let's discuss it

[liade]

Thinking Seriously About Building a New Platform for Indie Devs


A few tech-savvy friends and I are seriously considering creating our own game distribution platform. The plan is to integrate multiple payment providers to avoid the increasing censorship issues we’re seeing elsewhere.


We know it won’t be easy — but unless Itch.io or Steam reverse course and return to a more open, creator-friendly model, we’re committed to pushing forward.


Personally, Itch has completely lost my trust, much like Unity did some time ago. Their recent decisions go against everything that made these platforms valuable for indie creators.


If we succeed, this new platform will be free for developers (except, of course, for illegal content). Indie devs will be welcome to join, sell their games, and grow with us.


We’ve already started figuring out the tech stack and infrastructure.


My biggest fear?
That great indie devs might give up before we — or someone else — can offer a real alternative.

I hope we are not delusional it's sound like a big project !

 

[liade]

To the F95 community
If a new platform similar to Itch.io were to launch, one that fully supports adult creators, would you help it grow?
And if the payment methods aren't the usual ones, would you still be willing to go through the extra steps to support it?


In the end, those might be the only two questions that really matter.

 

[lazerhawk1]

Payment providers like Stripe or PayPal still rely on Visa/MC's payment network. They're just a frontend that sends your payment information to said network in a secure way.
It's impossible to completely escape the influence of Visa/MC without also losing reach/accessibility which is ultimately what any game dev needs in order to move units. Can't sell your game if people can't find out about it or they have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it! For this reason crypto is going to be a bad fit. Even if people use an exchange to buy crypto for USD then a payment processor is still involved and can exert influence.

 

[alonehentain]

To the F95 community
If a new platform similar to Itch.io were to launch, one that fully supports adult creators, would you help it grow?
And if the payment methods aren't the usual ones, would you still be willing to go through the extra steps to support it?


In the end, those might be the only two questions that really matter.

Well, if the step are secure and there are good content, I’m in, as long as there is a back step through the wall

 

[alonehentain]

Well, if the step are secure and there are good content, I’m in, as long as there is a back step through the wall

And I think steam situation still in control able , much more better than itch right now

 

[liade]

Payment providers like Stripe or PayPal still rely on Visa/MC's payment network. They're just a frontend that sends your payment information to said network in a secure way.
It's impossible to completely escape the influence of Visa/MC without also losing reach/accessibility which is ultimately what any game dev needs in order to move units. Can't sell your game if people can't find out about it or they have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it! For this reason crypto is going to be a bad fit. Even if people use an exchange to buy crypto for USD then a payment processor is still involved and can exert influence.

Yeah, it will definitely lose some convenience at first. People will need to adapt and learn new steps. But some payment processors out there don't rely on Visa or MasterCard, and that's exactly what I'm looking into right now. I'm talking to people who know more about the subject than I do.


Of course, that's going to be the hard part no doubt about it.

 

[liade]

And I think steam situation still in control able , much more better than itch right now

yes but you know soem stuff will happen, also it already ban a lot of game, i would love gaben to say no but it look less and less probable

 

[RPDL]

You should read this thread when you get a chance. There's a lot of discussing surrounding payment processors https://f95zone.to/threads/idea-for-an-adult-game-site.262785/

 

[lazerhawk1]

Yeah, it will definitely lose some convenience at first. People will need to adapt and learn new steps. But some payment processors out there don't rely on Visa or MasterCard, and that's exactly what I'm looking into right now. I'm talking to people who know more about the subject than I do.


Of course, that's going to be the hard part no doubt about it.

Good luck. I mean it!
Creating an online store is easy.
Creating a payment gateway is harder, but still doable for a committed team.
Creating a payment PROCESSOR is impossible without overwhelming support from the US government and its banking system.

My opinion is that the best option available with existing tools is to use gift cards. Ex: User buys a $20 amazon or w/e gift card via any way they prefer (can be cash in store or from amazon itself). Then they submit the code for that card as payment for a game. Once the platform verifies that the code is legit it can use a "gift card cashing" service to convert the card's amount into dollars and finally send the user a download.

 

[liade]

Good luck. I mean it!
Creating an online store is easy.
Creating a payment gateway is harder, but still doable for a committed team.
Creating a payment PROCESSOR is impossible without overwhelming support from the US government and its banking system.

My opinion is that the best option available with existing tools is to use gift cards. Ex: User buys a $20 amazon or w/e gift card via any way they prefer (can be cash in store or from amazon itself). Then they submit the code for that card as payment for a game. Once the platform verifies that the code is legit it can use a "gift card cashing" service to convert the card's amount into dollars and finally send the user a download.

i will not create a payement processor it's too hard and difficult. i will use different payement processor

Itch and steam can't accept to lose visa and mastercard but we can create a place without them from scratch. other provider eexiste i pass all day finding them and their tech, it's doable !

 

[Vollezar]

The only way to bypass VISA/MC is to use Swift system or something like that. Where it's bank to bank transfers. Subscribestar does that.
No idea what setting that up involves though.

 

[The Goblin Archives]

In times like these one would look at crypto but man all the scammers really put its reputation through the mud.

 

[liade]

In times like these one would look at crypto but man all the scammers really put its reputation through the mud.

Totally agree, it's why we will build a not only crypto payement systeme , but people will probably have more fee with greedy nsfw payement processor

 

[Hiayaya]

God speed to you, but with luck you understand what you are going for is a massive undertaking and not one to be done in a spur of the moment decision. It's going to take a lot of time, and even more money. And of course, then you'll have to deal with content moderation, squeaky clean places like Facebook already can't stop people from uploading VERY distressing content, so once you create a space for pornographic content, expect to see things you never wanted to know existed, and I'm not talking fiction or weird kinks.

If you have the dedication and discipline to see it through, all luck to you.

 

[The Goblin Archives]

Totally agree, it's why we will build a not only crypto payement systeme , but people will probably have more fee with greedy nsfw payement processor

Good luck, hopefully things turn for the better.

 

[miyuki25]

Payment providers like Stripe or PayPal still rely on Visa/MC's payment network.

And even if they didn't...

Spoiler

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[liade]

God speed to you, but with luck you understand what you are going for is a massive undertaking and not one to be done in a spur of the moment decision. It's going to take a lot of time, and even more money. And of course, then you'll have to deal with content moderation, squeaky clean places like Facebook already can't stop people from uploading VERY distressing content, so once you create a space for pornographic content, expect to see things you never wanted to know existed, and I'm not talking fiction or weird kinks.

If you have the dedication and discipline to see it through, all luck to you.

Yeah, it won’t be easy but we’ll take that as the baseline and grow from there. Step by step, iteration by iteration, we’ll make it happen! every help will be welcomed

 

[taiki_wata]

Uh... there was another thread about the exact same thing but somehow it disappeared.

Edit: Idea for an adult game site | F95zone | Adult Games | Comics | Mods | Cheats Not disappeared

 

[MissCougar]

Best of luck!


I'm starting to feel like building a new adult version of Steam is the new AI CG NTR Phone genre, except the lift is 1,000,000,000 times harder to do.

 

[MurkySkeleton]

Good Luck

I support the idea but it definetely wont be easy