How to prepare your game page for indiedev.games

Adding a game to indiedev.games takes a short form, a few pictures and a zip of your web build. This guide lists everything the site asks for, with the exact sizes, so you can prepare it all in one go. It also shows how to use an AI assistant to write the text and plan the pictures, and what to check before you trust what it gives you. The age rating helper can help you choose the age label.

What you need

1. A title and a one-line tagline. The title is also used to make your game's web address, and that address cannot change later.
2. An "About the game" text. Up to 5000 characters, written in Markdown (the editor has a toolbar, and it understands text you paste in).
3. An age label and up to 5 tags. Choose them honestly. A reviewer checks the label against the game.
4. Pictures: an icon, a cover image, a banner and up to 6 screenshots.
5. A zip of your web export, with index.html at the top.

The text

• Title: up to 100 characters. Use the game's real name.
• Tagline: up to 160 characters. It shows on your game's card, so make the first few words count.
• About the game: start with what the player does, then what makes it different, then anything they should know before playing, such as controls. Headings, bold, lists and links work. Pictures and raw HTML do not.
• Tags: pick the ones that describe the game, not the ones you wish described it. Players use them to filter the catalog.
• Age label: Everyone, Everyone 10 and up, or Teen. Games for older players do not fit this site. The age ratings guide explains how to decide.

The pictures

JPG, PNG or WebP. Everything is re-encoded as WebP and stripped of hidden data such as location. Cropped pictures are cut from the center, so keep the important part in the middle.

Name your screenshot files with a number, such as screenshot_01_start.png and screenshot_02_boss.png. When you upload them together they are put in the order of their numbers, so you do not have to reorder them by hand. Show real gameplay, not mock-ups, and caption the ones that need a word of explanation.

The build

• One zip of your web export, up to 100 MB, or 300 MB once unpacked, with no more than 500 files.
• index.html at the top of the zip. A zip of one folder that holds it works too.
• Use relative links, such as game.js and not /game.js, so the game works from any address.
• Only files a browser game needs. If a file type is refused, the message names the file.
• The game runs in a sandbox, so it cannot use cookies and, for now, may not keep saves in the browser.

Using an AI assistant

An assistant can do a good first draft of the words and tell you which pictures are still missing. It can only do that well if it knows this site's rules, so the game form has a Copy brief for AI (Markdown) button at the top. It copies everything above, in a form an assistant reads easily, with the same limits the form checks.

1. Open your game's form and press Copy brief for AI.
2. Paste it into your assistant. If your game already exists, the brief includes its current text.
3. Under "My game", describe it in your own words: what the player does, the setting, the characters, and what is different about it.
4. Read the draft it gives back and change anything that is not true. Paste the pieces into the form.
5. Ask it for a list of the pictures you still need. Use it as a to-do list.

What to check in its answer

• It must be true. Assistants like to promise features, modes and "hundreds of hours". If the game does not have it, delete it. Players and reviewers compare the page with the game.
• Check the limits. Count the characters in the title and tagline. The form refuses text that is too long.
• Make it sound like you. Generic copy is easy to spot. Add one detail only you would know.
• Choose the age label yourself. Use the answer as a second opinion, not the decision.
• Mind the rights. If you used generated art or text, keep a record of what and where. The AI disclosure guide covers what to say. Do not ask an assistant to copy another game's page or art.

What happens when you send it

A first automatic check reads your text, the file names, the start of index.html and your pictures. If something looks off, such as placeholder text, a page that only redirects somewhere else, pictures that do not match, or an age label that looks too low, the build is held for a person to review before it goes live. The check is a guess and can be wrong, which is why a person decides. Otherwise it goes live as soon as you publish it. The content policy lists what is not allowed.

A checklist before you press publish

1. The title, tagline and description are accurate, and nothing is promised that the game does not do.
2. The age label and tags are honest.
3. You have an icon, a cover image and a banner that look good when cropped from the center.
4. Your screenshots show real gameplay and are in the order you want.
5. The build starts from index.html and you tried it with the private preview first.
6. You have the right to use everything in the game and on the page.