OviManic 2022-01-05 03:27:04

Took me some thinking, and I just want to put this out there. While I understood what GameJolt was trying to do (change their target demographic), how they did it was unprofessional and borderline idiotic.

Turns out, this apparently was a policy made and executed ON THE SAME DAY with no warning to any of the devs who were going to be affected by this. What you’re SUPPOSED to do when you’re changing the infrastructure of a platform, site, or whatever, is to warn the users about it long before the date of execution: maybe a month minimum? For crying out loud, Google does this with their email policies! GOOGLE!! GameJolt decided to just chuck games out the window, and then give notice about it by email to the owners. Since they had the ability to send the notice to us devs about our games being unhosted en masse, why didn’t they give us a warning email about it a month ago!? Imagine devs using just GameJolt to distribute their games only to discover that one game can no longer be accessible. I’ll say it again, THANK GOD I also had the game on itch, and even Newgrounds in some caliber!

This rant is coming from me checking …Twitter… only to discover recent tweets from GameJolt and Itch in my notifications for some reason. GameJolt being rather aloof by redirecting kicked devs to Itch and Steam without considering what they just did to said devs, and Itch using it as a marketing benefit by calling GameJolt a prude. These actions are awfully immature for owners of platforms game devs rely on to make either a hobby or career out of: A LOT more so for GameJolt than Itch. Is irresponsible a trend nowadays or has GameJolt completely on off their rocker?

I replied to the email they sent me, dejected, “Bummer… When was this policy updated if you don’t mind me asking?”. But considering the display they gave themselves on Twitter, I doubt they will give me a straight answer or even one at all!