Over the last week I have released my first prototype for free public download. Great...
However,
It has very quickly become clear that their is a trust issue surrounding releasing my work, and I understand the concern.
I have worked very hard to make the install process simple for the user. Just like games I would install myself, mine offers an installer which guides the user to install the prototype and ensures system dependencies are met. This brings the setup to a single .exe file that can be easily distributed and downloaded.
Here is the problem; although the game page gets attention, more than one person has indicated that they find deployment in this way to look suspicious. What's more, Windows also doesn't help- it too warns it's suspicious.
However, so far it appears that my release through itch.io (indie steam) is being trusted more, but I don't see much difference. Again, at the end of the day, itch is just installing the exe for the user, the only difference is that the user may only see a nice image and an install button through the itch app.
So, what would be a good way to release closed source software which inspires trust in people?
In the past I have had to use code signing for client work, but as far as I can see that just boils down to: If you pay some money, you become trusted. In my experience, there is no review of the code of any kind. Is it purely the alignment with a larger company that makes people trust the itch.io release over my direct download? How can an individual be trusted?