In 2012, an American hobbyist programmer named Leaf Corcoran created his own programming language, "MoonScript", and started making games in it, but had nowhere to distribute them.

Corcoran decided to create a more open marketplace for indie games in MoonScript, inspired by Bandcamp's model.

[1] Itch.io started to become noticed through his participation in the game jam Ludum Dare, and so Corcoran added contest-hosting tools to the platform.

One user launched the "Unspeakable Jam" and Itch.io joked on Twitter that Apple's lawyers called and said to “turn off ALL the games".

[8] ScreenHub Australia's Chantelle McColl thought that the response was moot, considering that such third-party applications could be accessed on Apple devices.

On December 8th, 2024, Itch.io's domain was made inaccessible due to an automated phishing report generated by BrandShield's AI platform on behalf of Funko.

Alan Hazelden, creator of A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build (2015), asked for a "price-changing API" which changed the cost to match real-world temperatures.

[1][2] The "Refinery" early access tools debuted in 2016 after a request from Overland developer Adam Saltsman.

Developers can use secret URLs, password protection and limit the number of sales, and add tiered purchases and rewards.

He cited a 2017 game called Clone Drone in the Danger Zone, which was a financial success on Itch.io but its sales on the website dropped by 20% after it moved to Steam.

Itch.io lets users split up bundle profits between accounts any way they want, either evenly or by percentages of total sales.

[25][26] This willingness to experiment [...] makes Itchio feel like a garden of digital possibility, one unburdened by corporate overlords or the growing malaise of loot boxes.

A review of Itch.io by PC Mag's Jordan Miner praised its library of more unique and artistic indie games, but conceded it catered to a more specific, "indie-centric" audience.