About FreshPlay

FreshPlay covers free browser games in the first days after release. New games rarely have guides, so we write the first one.

How a game gets a page

  1. We read itch.io's public feed of newly published HTML5 games every day. On a typical day that is more than a thousand titles.
  2. We keep free games with a real description, a genre and itch.io's official embed. Fan games of big franchises and adult content are left out.
  3. We load every game in our own browser test, capture what it shows, and drop the ones that do not start.
  4. We write the page from the developer's description and the itch.io details: what the game is, how to play, controls, features and an FAQ.
  5. Some games we also play through ourselves. Those pages carry a "Played" stamp and add the numbers from our runs, such as levels cleared, times and what ended a run. Every stamp shows the real date of our test, and says "launch day" only when that is the day the game came out.
  6. We check every listed game again before each update. If a developer removes a game or turns off embedding, it leaves every list and its page says so.

Playing games here

The game on each page is loaded through itch.io's official embed, so it runs from the developer's own upload and every play counts on their itch.io page. Each page links to the original itch.io page as well.

For developers

Every game page has a badge you can add to your itch.io page or README. Your developer page lists all your games on FreshPlay.