After poking around itch for a bit, I decided to put Scarlet Sorceress in two game jams. The Women’s Game Fest and the Interactive Fiction Showcase. (Game jams are typically events for developers to build a game in a short time, but some organizers use the jam platform to host game showcases for already completed works.) I’m not sure if this will get some extra eyes on it, but no harm, I guess.
Unfortunately, both events (by default) sort submissions by popularity, so you’ll immediately know how you compare to the others. On the Women’s Game Fest, Scarlet Sorceress is 84th out of 145 entries, which I suppose is a decent performance, considering that it was only out for two weeks and is competing with titles which have been out for months. (For the record, Scarlet Sorceress has passed 4000 views and 2000 plays on itch at the two-week mark. Let me know if you want the full analytics.)
Interestingly, I found the demo for Devil on your Shoulder in the jam. It was released this year, so it qualifies.
On the other hand, Scarlet Sorceress is 6th out of 40 entries on the IF showcase, by popularity. The five submissions ahead of it are all visual novels. Unfortunately, intfiction is still a pretty small and niche community on itch. I guess that makes me a big fish in a small pond.