Promote Your Indie Game for Free: How Google Sites Helped “Solarpunk” Shine

Google Sites is a free, easy-to-use website creation tool developed by Google. It allows users to build simple but functional websites without coding or design skills.

Google Sites uses a block-based structure that works well on most devices. Moreover, Google Sites automatically adapts websites for different devices, so you don’t have to manually optimize for each screen size.

Google Sites offers a wide range of features that indie game developers can use to showcase their projects:

Text Blocks. The platform allows you to add editable text blocks with support for hyperlinks, text formatting, and royalty-free fonts from Google Fonts. Like everything else, text automatically adjusts to different screen sizes.

Images. You can search for images online or upload them from your computer. However, oddly enough, Google Sites does not support WEBP (a format developed by Google itself). The lack of WEBP support can slow down site loading, negatively impacting both optimization and user experience.

Videos. Videos can be embedded directly from YouTube, which is convenient. However, if you want to upload a video from your computer, it will be added as a downloadable file.

Widgets. Widgets, including iframes, can be embedded since Google Sites supports custom code. The main drawback is that Google Sites automatically adjusts pages for different devices, which can sometimes distort widgets and introduce scroll bars.

Page Import. You can import entire pages into your Google Sites project. They integrate well, and the menu remains above the imported content. However, the imported page’s design might not match your site’s style.

Buttons. Google Sites provides basic button styles: filled, outlined, and hyperlink-like. All buttons are rectangular — rounded “pill” shapes are not supported.

Links. Standard hyperlinks are fully supported.

Completely Free. The biggest advantage is that users don’t have to pay for hosting (since the site is stored on Google Drive) or for website-building services (unlike WordPress, Wix, etc.). This makes Google Sites a great starting point for small studios and solo developers, where budget constraints are critical.

When discussing Google Sites, it’s worth examining how Rokaplay used the platform for their game, Solarpunk. 

Is Google Sites a silver bullet? Definitely not. It’s best viewed as a free alternative to traditional website builders — ideal for small teams where budget matters most. However, “free” comes at a cost: developers lose fine control over design due to automatic device adaptation, and the limited feature set may deter larger companies or e-commerce projects where every customer counts.

Larger studios might use Google Sites for internal corporate sites (training, business processes) to cut costs. But for complex, high-budget projects requiring deep customization and SEO optimization, Google Sites falls short.

Google Sites suits both big studios and small teams — it all depends on the goal:

• Large companies & e-commerce: Best for internal communication/corporate sites.

• Indie devs & small studios: A free alternative to paid builders, letting them allocate more budget to game development rather than marketing.

For indies, it’s a great starting point. Big studios shouldn’t dismiss it entirely — it’s a viable option for internal use (especially if keeping the default Google Sites domain).