[Itch.io] A noob question: interesting or not?

It's how you say it, their client sucks, their searching sucks, but it's great if you are especially into retro, they got nice games there that aren't on steam, desura was alot better.

itch is something quite new, here. still, a truly great experience. might depend on what you're searching for, and what you like. if "playing games" is between your needs, itch.io is then fast, light, fun.

scrap? i didn't find huge differences compared to Steam, but site offers you all the tools you might need to browse, find, collect, discuss.

hidden gems easily? no, and luckily... easy=not hidden enough :P (still, you may find more info at itch.io about something than at Steam. happened to me with Pixeljam, one of my favorite devs)

plus, its client is truly a little gem, i use it often, it just works (even if site is more handy to browse/search). you can download free games/redeemed ones, play in-browser games, and browse the internet!!1! cause, yes, itch.io client browser actually works...;-)

I love it. I go there every day to see what's new. You never know what you'll find. I've found several obscure gems that way and quite a lot of short, fairly simple games with fresh and interesting ideas and concepts behind them.

I'm a huge indie game lover, but I've never used itch. If a game which started there is really good it usually ends up on Steam sooner or later. Also, there's more than enough hidden gems on Steam to take all of my free time, so I see no point in delving into another store ;)

The 80/20 rule works everywhere, in an open indie platform like Itch.io the bar even lower and many will just drop a first try shit. But you can find some good games and some even real gems that worth even paying for.

I fear that Itch.io is overwhelmingly full of scrap game

Not more or less than Steam, lol.

I really like indie games, because I like to believe they are great for testing out new ideas or gameplay mechanics, things we would never see in big titles. I've used itch and other sites like indiedb quite a lot a few years ago, however since my Steam backlog is growing, I have been focusing on Steam indie games lately.
Obviously most indie games will not be great, I would say most of them are not even that good, however I really enjoy them, since I accept them for what they are.
If you try games with a similar mindset on itch, you will be just fine, but do not expect great quality or content all the time.
Itch is a great platform if you want to provide feedback for a game or ask the devs something too.

There are some youtube bloggers that specialise in finding itch.io gems and do regular updates on new ones. Sorry as I can't give you a name as these people randomly appeared in my list from youtube. I don't use itch myself so I never subscribed to any of them but you should be able to find them.

I would say it's quite easy to find "hidden gems" if you like a certain kind of game. Are you into bizarre, artsy, experimental stuff? Do you like one-off games you can finish in under twenty minutes? If so, Itch is perfect for you. (Plus, most of them are pay-what-you-want.)

Some longer and more polished games are only available on Itch, like Subserial Network, which has garnered some nice reviews. A small number of mainstream games like Dead Cells or Night in the Woods find their way onto Itch as well. (Sometimes you just get a Steam key, sometimes you get DRM-free, sometimes both.) If you like supporting developers, then it's completely worth it to buy on Itch, because they let devs decide how much of the money from each sale they want to keep versus how much goes to the site.