Square Town for game developers: a $1 favicon for your itch.io or Steam page

One dollar, one square, your game's icon on a live 3D wall that other people fight over.

Square Town (square.pov.town) is a favicon wall: you paste the URL of your game page, pay $1 once, and its favicon sits on a shared, live, 3D grid until someone pays $2 to evict you. For a game developer it is a permanent, clickable icon for your itch.io page, Steam page or studio site, plus per-square view and click counts. It is a fun, cheap showcase — not a marketing channel that replaces a Steam launch.

TL;DR — $1 per square, one-time, no account. Paste your game's URL, click an empty cell, pay by card. You get a favicon on the wall, a click-through, a deed page with views/clicks/kisses, and a tower in 3D that grows with every click. Several games? Buy adjacent squares and line them up. Downsides: no SEO value, no traffic promise, and anyone can evict you for double.

The problem#

Games are the most crowded thing on the internet. itch.io alone lists hundreds of thousands of projects; a Steam page without wishlists is invisible; a jam entry has a shelf life of about a weekend. Every "promote your game" channel is either free and ignored (a Discord #self-promo channel) or expensive and slow (paid ads, festivals, influencer outreach). Small studios and solo devs need places to be seen that cost less than a coffee and don't require a marketing person.

Square Town is one of those places. It won't sell your game. It will put your icon somewhere people who like small internet things go to poke around, and it will tell you honestly whether anyone clicked.

What a $1 square gives you#

The wall is live for everyone: when your icon lands, it appears in every open browser and in the event feed. That first moment is a small free announcement.

How to do it#

1. Pick the URL that has the best favicon. Your itch.io page uses itch's favicon; your Steam page uses Steam's. If you want your icon on the wall, point the square at your own domain (a studio site or a game landing page) with a proper favicon. See how to add a favicon.
2. Open square.pov.town and hover over the live area. Empty cells highlight; the gold 4×4 in the centre is the Throne, and the ring around it can't be built on.
3. Click an empty cell, paste the URL, and check the preview. If the preview is a clown emoji, your site has no detectable favicon — fix that first or you'll launch straight into the Hall of Clowns.
4. Pay $1 by card (Stripe). There is no account to create.
5. Save your deed URL. After payment you land on a deed page; that secret link is the only proof you own the square. There is no login and no password reset. The "My deeds" button remembers deeds bought in that browser, but a bookmark is safer.
6. Repeat for each game on neighbouring cells if you want a row. Squares of the same domain are allowed, so a studio can also buy one square per game landing page under one site.
7. Optionally unlock analytics for $5 one-time from the deed page if you want per-day view and click charts rather than running totals.

Tips#

• Location is the game. Cells near the Throne get looked at first because that is where the camera starts. Only the central 16×16 is live at launch; it grows by 8 cells in every direction each time the live area is 70 % full, so early squares are automatically central.
• Kiss your icons. An icon nobody has kissed for 90 days fades to grayscale (it is still yours, it just looks dead). Anyone can kiss any icon free — put a reminder in your studio Discord, or ask your players.
• Keep the favicon alive. If your game page later loses its favicon (site migration, new host), the clown returns on the next check. There is an "I fixed my favicon" recheck button.
• Use the 3D angle in your own marketing. "Our icon is the tallest tower on the wall" is a screenshot-able thing. Height is clicks, so it is earned, not bought.
• Save every deed URL somewhere you won't lose it — a password manager note is fine.
• Don't buy the Throne for a jam game. It starts at $100 and every eviction doubles the price. Fun to hold, expensive to keep. See The Throne.

What it won't do#

• No SEO or backlink value. The wall is a WebGL canvas and clicks go through a 302 redirect. Nothing about a square improves your search rankings or Steam's algorithm.
• No traffic guarantees. Square Town is a niche wall for people who like small internet things. Some squares get clicked a lot; many don't. The deed page tells you the truth.
• You can be evicted. Anyone can take your square by paying double what you paid ($1 → $2). The eviction is announced in the live feed. You can take it back for double again, or move on.
• It doesn't host anything. No screenshots, no trailer, no description — a favicon and a link. Your game page does the selling.

For the broader playbook of $1–$10 places to show a project, see places to promote indie projects under $10 and the indie hacker launch checklist.

FAQ#

Can I put my itch.io or Steam page URL directly on Square Town?#

Yes. Any URL works. The favicon shown will be the one Square Town fetches for that domain (itch.io's or Steam's), so if you want your own game icon on the wall, use a page on your own domain with its own favicon.

How much does it cost to put a game on Square Town?#

$1 per square, one-time, paid by card through Stripe. Optional per-day analytics on a square is $5 one-time. The Throne (the 4×4 centre) starts at $100 and doubles with every eviction.

Can a small studio show several games at once?#

Yes. Every square is 1×1, so buy one square per game (or per landing page) on adjacent cells. Each square gets its own deed and its own view/click/kiss counts.

Will a square on Square Town get my game more players?#

Maybe a few clicks; there is no guarantee and Square Town does not promise traffic. What it does promise is honest numbers: your deed page shows views, clicks and kisses per square.

What happens if someone evicts my game's square?#

They pay double what you paid, your icon comes off, and the eviction is announced in the live feed. You can evict them back for double their price or buy a different empty cell for $1.

Does the square link help my Steam or itch page rank in search?#

No. Clicks are 302 redirects from a JavaScript canvas; there is no link equity. Treat it as visibility and analytics, not SEO.

What if my game page has no favicon?#

Square Town marks it with a clown emoji and lists it in the Hall of Clowns until you add one and hit the recheck button. Adding a favicon takes minutes — see how to add a favicon.