Where can I publish my Unity game for free?
When it comes to making Unity games, a post-development challenge for many can be where to post, publish, and distribute your Unity game. After going through the trouble of creating your Unity game, you want players to find it! And actually, be able to play it.
If you are just starting your indie game design journey in Unity, there are plenty of free solutions available when it comes to platforms for distributing your game.
If this is a hobby project, you do not need to go to the trouble of paying to publish your game just yet. But even for the hobbyist, you can also publish on these free platforms.
Certain free platforms for hosting Unity games are great experimental zones too. This can be a great way of learning how your game is played and how the public responds. Although, you may not always appreciate the feedback.
Where can I publish my Unity game for free?
There are several platforms you can use in order to publish your Unity game for free.
Publishing your Unity game need not be an expensive endeavor, especially if you’re doing this just as a hobby or it’s a small side project. The platforms mentioned in this post, are all free to use in order to publish your Unity game.
Here is the list of platforms you can use to publish your Unity game for free.
Itch.io
Itch.io is one of the most popular platforms for Unity developers to publish their games for free. With Itch.io You can also sell your game, make it ‘donate’ to play, or make it completely free to play. When uploading your Unity game to itch.io, you can either make it solely browser-based or as a digital download.
Itch.io has a thriving indie game developer community that will gladly play your game.
My experience with Itch.io has been nothing but positive. I found the uploading process relatively straightforward when it comes to adding games to their platform. Itch.io is a great solution if you want to publish your Unity game for free.
New Grounds
Newgrounds is another thriving indie game community. Is also another platform where you can host your Unity game for free. Newgrounds used to be very common for browser-based Flash games and Flash animation. You can now publish your Unity game to Newgrounds there too.
Kongregate
Kongregate is another online platform that allows you to upload and distribute your games for free.
Game Jolt
Game jolt Is another active and lively community for publishing and distributing your Unity games for free.
Indie DB
IndieDB is a community, dedicated to all things to do with indie games. If you have created a game in Unity and need somewhere free to publish and distribute your game, this could be another platform to use.
As with the websites and platforms mentioned in this list, Indie DB is another great way of distributing your game to indie game lovers.
Your Own Website
If you have your own website and domain you can publish your browser-based Unity game there for free ( well, if you already have hosting, which isn’t free ). It will require you to upload and distribute your own game and create a web page to embed your Unity game.
You can then distribute your game for free ( setting aside the initial costs of your own hosting and domain ). Or, you can make it so that people can download and play your game. You also retain complete control of how and where your game is played by hosting it on your own website.
You may be curious to know if you need to host your own game and website.
Simmer.io
Simmer.io is a website where you can upload your Unity project for free in WebGL format. It offers a simple drag-and-drop system in order to upload your Unity game.
I have to say, I am less familiar with Simmer.io, but from what I have read and seen on their website, it could be another emerging platform. If you are looking to publish far and wide, it is another one to consider.
Github
GitHub is not only for web and software developers. With GitHub you can also host your Unity for game free. You can also create new versions of your Unity game and publish them there too.
Publishing your Unity game for free
Of all of the platforms mentioned above, they all come with their own merits. I can personally vouch that itch.io does allow you to upload your game for free.
I have created a Unity game and published it to itch.io as a free-to-play graphic adventure ( or learning how to make things in Adventure Creator). The game was an experimental project – an exercise. You can see this experiment here
. In addition to knowing where you can publish your Unity game for free, you may want to know what some great starter assets for Unity. Or whether Unity is also good for 2D games.