A new Itch.io sale is live this Black Friday, but it's a sale with a difference. The Itch.io Creator Day is waiving all proceeds the site would usually take from sales, meaning that 100% of the revenue from sales is going to creators and only creators today.
Given its stance on reproductive rights, as well as its attitude towards NFTs, it's probably fair to say Itch.io is one of the good guys. Today's Creator Sale cements that reputation and sees Itch.io forgoing any cut of sales made on the site today, and that goes for tiny indie games and bigger hitters alike.
While there are plenty of smaller titles on sale on Itch.io today, including autorunner Quartz and roguelite platformer Gunmetal Arcadia, you'll also find bigger games like Double Fine's Grim Fandango Remastered up for grabs, as well as more well-known indie hits like deckbuilder Nowhere Prophet or quirky adventure Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion.
Enticingly, you'll also find lots of Playdate games on sale on Itch.io today, so if you've picked up one of the intriguing little handhelds, this might be a great time to build up your library for it. Highlights include match-four puzzler Shift, sidescrolling shooter Spike II: The Great Emu War, and puzzle exploration game Castle Helios, but there are plenty of others on sale if those don't float your 8-bit boat.
The split between storefronts and creators in terms of revenue is a pretty pressing issue right now. Famously, the Epic Games Store takes just 12% for its revenue share, which is why it's such an enticing prospect for publishers. Microsoft also increased PC developers' revenue share to 88% last year, although storefronts like Apple's App Store still take a fairly standard 30% revenue cut from sales. Itch.io's standard model is to allow sellers to decide how much they want Itch.io to take from sales, which is a pretty neat and developer-friendly option.
In any case, a day entirely devoted to creator revenue must be a pretty appealing one for developers, so if you're a dev and you've got a game on Itch.io, now's a good time to start hyping it up on social media. The Itch.io Creator Day initiative ends at midnight tonight (Pacific time), but hundreds of games will still be on sale until midnight on Tuesday (also Pacific time). Head over to Itch.io if you want to see what's on sale, but remember that anything you buy from the site, sale or no, will give 100% of the revenue to creators today.