Robert Yang is personally affected by the fact that his games aren’t available on Steam, which gives him a somewhat different perspective.

Robert Yang is an indie developer who creates great, funny, and brilliantly gay games. He’s currently working on a project. Radiator Forever is a free mega-bundle and remaster—a collection of Yang’s experimental short games—that includes titles such as Hurt Me Plenty (“consent, negotiation, spanking, and aftercare”), Succulent (“juicy butt physics and demonic possession”), and Stick Shift (“autoerotic night driving and manually pleasuring a gay car”).

In a recent blog post detailing his experiences compiling the Radiator Forever collection, Yang discussed the ongoing consequences of last year’s removal of “adult” content from stores such as Steam and Itch.io. The right-wing, anti-pornography group Collective Shout claimed responsibility for pressuring payment providers to remove the content. Yang also discussed the impact of regional censorship laws, such as the UK’s Online Safety Act. Since Itch.io was forced to ban adult games, Yang’s projects are almost impossible to find there. This has driven him back to Steam. However, even on Steam, games of this type continue to face problems. Yang also mentioned the ban imposed by Steam on Horses, which could not be appealed.

“Of course, I will continue to use and support Itch as a much-needed alternative to Steam. However, the fact remains that Itch reaches far fewer people these days. Unfortunately, Valve has flagged my game as having ‘frequent nudity and sexual content,’ and now it’s hidden from most Steam users. Since most people don’t change their default settings, this is essentially a delisting/shadowban from 99% of the Steam user base. Although I was careful to avoid explicit nudity, compliance in advance is never enough to appease a zealous censor. The Steam content reviewers decided that the game’s general ‘nature’ was just too gay, despite my good-faith efforts.

Valve isn’t interested in having a nuanced conversation or admitting any moral judgment errors. If video games are a form of protected free speech, I wish there were more concern over blocking access to my games, which were designed to be political speech. Valve loves it when Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 throw customizable genitals at you in the first five minutes, but of course I can’t because I actually have something to say about genitals!”, Yang wrote.

This is a perfectly understandable frustration and a reminder that the reactionary crusade against adult content continues to affect creators, even though the debate surrounding the censorship of online stores last year has died down.

Source: PCGamer, Robert Yang, Steam