# Publish Your Game — README

Your game is finished. This pack is the route from "a folder on my
computer" to **a public page with a link your friends can play** — the
step beginners most often never take, usually because nobody wrote the
steps down in order. Here they are, in order.

## The route (checklist in `publish-checklist.md`)

1. **Export** your game to a web build (for Godot: the Godot Game
   Pack's `export-to-web.md`). Zip it with `index.html` at the root.
2. **List it on itch.io** — free, no approval queue, plays in the
   browser. These steps are proven: they are the same checklist used
   to publish a real game from this project (Poppy's Sniffari).
3. **Share the link.** That's the whole launch. Everything else —
   stores, fees, audiences — is later and optional.

## If your thing isn't an itch-shaped game

A web game or site can also live on free-tier hosting — Cloudflare
Pages, Netlify, or GitHub Pages. `hosting-routes.md` covers all three
at checklist level. One honest classification: those are **services**
with free tiers a company can shrink. itch.io is a service too. Your
game files remain yours in every route — if a tier ever changes, you
move the files, not the game.

## What it costs (`costs.md` has the table)

Publishing this way costs **$0**. The first numbers that ever appear
are the store fees, and they are the stores' numbers, not ours:
Google Play is $25 one-time if you go there; Steam is $100 per game.
Most first games should go to neither until itch has told them
someone wants to play.