Steam, itch.io, Payment Processors, and The Future of Adult Gaming

This is outside of my normal posting schedule, but this is important and I'm seeing a lot more traffic coming in here than usual, so let's talk about it.

 

You might have heard that itch.io recently de-indexed all adult games. If you want to read itch's own announcement on the topic, you can find that by clicking here. This is following Steam taking similar action recently against games with specific content, and other websites like Patreon before that.

This has been the result of a consistent and concerted effort by payment processors - primarily Visa, MasterCard,  and PayPal - to restrict creative freedom and censor artists. If this continues, it won't just be adult games and pornography that contains potentially questionable material that isn't allowed. Groups like Collective Shout - the group that's claiming victory as this censorship takes place - want all adult content, along with any other form of media they happen to disagree with like manga and anime, removed from society altogether.

Whether you support creative freedom, enjoy content that doesn't cut to black after two characters kiss, believe there is beauty worth celebrating in the human form, or just dislike censorship and don't think you should be told what you can and can't spend your own money on, this affects you.

 

So, what can you do about it? Believe it or not, there's a lot you can do about it.

First, you can learn more. StopCensoring.Games is a website with a few more paragraphs on how this unjust wave of censorship has been negatively affecting communities and individuals alike.
There are also several videos you can watch by creators like Madam Savvy and Moist Critical on YouTube that discuss Collective Shout and some of the specifics about what's currently happening.
While you have every right to be angry with itch, Steam, and Patreon for conceding to these outrageous demands, it's important to know that they were forced into this and staying angry with only them won't fix the root of the problem.

Next, you can sign petitions. Both Change.org and the ACLU have petitions open calling for payment processors to end their policies against sex work and for censorship advocates like Collective Shout to cease their attempts to control what we as adults are allowed to read, watch, and play.

You can also contact the payment providers yourself and let them know directly that this behavior is not going to be tolerated. You can contact Visa through askvisa@visa.com in the US and Canada. 
Points of contact will vary depending on who you want to contact and what part of the world you're in. You can find more contact information like phone numbers and email addresses collected here.
Collective Shout claims that it only took them roughly 1000 phone calls to convince these payment processors to take action.

If you want to take it a step further, write to your local politicians and lawmakers to enact legislation that will protect our freedoms in artistic expression and provide you as an individual fair and open access to banking and payment infrastructure. 
In the US, the Free Access to Banking Act is a bill that seeks to do exactly that. 
Outside the US, you can still write a letter or email to those that represent you and call them to take action. There's a template on the Stop Censoring Games website that will require some adjusting to fit your part of the world, but will still provide talking points to bring to their attention.

If you've done that and still want to do more, share these links. Talk about it online. Let the extremists calling for this censorship know that they do not speak for you. The more people that are aware of what is happening and how it infringes on their rights, the more support these petitions will have, the more negotiating power organizations like the ACLU gains to fight on your behalf, and the more likely it becomes that we can prevent this from continuing.

If we don't do something now, we may not have the opportunity to do something in the future.

 

Your actions matter.

Your voice matters.

Your support makes a difference.

Take action.

Summer Adult Games Bundle

This was supposed to go up yesterday, but things have been hectic lately. Whoops.

 We have so many games for you to play, we had to split it into two bundles!

 

We have the usual free bundle with Maids and Masters in it here: https://itch.io/b/3122/summer-adult-games

If you want free stuff and want games that have some new content for you to play, that's the bundle for you.

 

Then we have a tiered bundle with Precious Kouhai in it here: https://itch.io/b/3123/summer-adult-games 

If you want a ton of premium content at a whopping 90% off, or just want to check out some demos or games you might have missed, give that link a click.

 

Both bundles have hit both stretch goals already, so there's also links to more than 100 renders that were made special for the bundle as well as even more discounts for things like Patreon pages if you decide you want to support a particular developer.

The only catch is that it won't last forever -  there's only a little more than a week left to grab these bundles.

 

Maids & Masters (& v0.23's First Update)

I already talked about this a bit ago, but I think it bears repeating after the recent burnout and the delays it's caused in getting v0.23 out in the world.

v0.23 will be coming out in several parts. This first update (which will be going into early access on Friday unless something terrible happens) will be on the smaller side for a few reasons. The obvious reason aside, I've been getting a lot of bug reports regarding the last few updates, which has taken up a lot of time that could have otherwise been spent developing new content (which, to be clear, is not a sign to stop sending bug reports or similar feedback; it is always and will remain incredibly helpful). I also decided to start with Ella, since her story is the one I've been wanting to tell the most, and she took a little more work than what I expect the average Maid to take. Roughly 50 new renders, two new animations, and all but 5 of her existing fireside chat renders got reworked because I lost the scene data for the original renders.

 

The good news is that Ella's bit is all done now. I still want to take a more detailed test run through it all to make sure there aren't any obvious bugs, but that aside, that's one Maid down with just... 21 left to go.

Hoo boy.

Once I build some momentum back up, things should go pretty quickly, though. Basically all of Ella's new renders, both of the new animations, and close to a third of the writing was done inside of a single day. It really is just a matter of getting back into the swing of things, and I'll be able to get an update out every 2-3 weeks with at least 3-4 Maids per update.

 

That does mean v1.0 won't be here until September at the earliest, but if this little stumbling episode has taught me anything, it's that it's best to take this whole thing one step at a time instead of trying to sprint to the finish line.

I'm not quite sure which Maid I want to start on next to also include in this first v0.23 update, but I'm writing this in advance so I have more time to do development the day I post this. I'll have picked and started working on someone by the time you're reading this.

So, obligatory Patreon and Subscribestar links. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me if you can.

And here's not one, but two bundle links. More on those next week, but if you wanna go check them out now, I won't stop you.

Maids & Masters (& Still Starting on v0.23)

Man, burnout sucks.

It really feels terrible to falter this close to the finish line, and I really would feel so much better if I already had a handful of quest lines done and ready for a test build. However, having been here before, I know if I don't slow down to properly recover, it'll get worse before it gets better.

 

Thankfully, I have largely recovered at this point. I'm not just staring at the editor when I open it and try to get something done - I'm actually making some kind of progress. Right now all I have done is most of Ella's new fireside chats for the love shack and the Task List information for her new quests, but it's something, and I'll take wins where I can get them. 

 

Less fortunately, Ella needs new renders for those fireside chats, and even less fortunately, I don't seem to have the old scene data for the original renders, which means all of her love shack renders need to be remade. This isn't the worst thing ever, since Ella's renders where among the first I made when I was first building everything for the love shack and her renders kinda need to be redone anyway. That didn't stop the pang of dread from all the extra work that I discovered I'll need to do, though.

 

This is also a rather busy week for me, so it's hard to say if I'll be able to get anything done except Ella's content. It's entirely possible that this Friday's Patreon/Subscribestar post is a test build that's just Ella, but I'm hoping that by the time everything is done for her, I'll have built up a little more momentum and I'll be able to fit at least two more Maids into the actual release of v0.23. As much as there's a large volume of quests and words and renders to be implemented, it's also all pretty straightforward, and that makes it easy to test.

 

Sorry for the last few weeks being as slow as they have been. Just know that I don't like it either, and I'm actively working at doing something about it.