Payment Processor Pressure

Yesterday over 20,000 titles including all of my games have become shadow banned on Itch without any comment or notice. Various paid titles from other developers have also been removed from libraries. In a move which has done irreparable damage to the trust of the userbase the official statement came many hours after the bans. This statement mentions that they are planning to audit the entire collection of adult content one game at a time. Not only are my games only accessible to those with a link, but they will also likely to get slowly deleted as the auditors move down the line and torch anything that may upset the payment processors.

The fairytale ending would be that the credit card companies are pressured, roll back all censorship, and Itch gains many more visitors due to media coverage. I however suspect that the baffling response of a raid without warning has set the site on a permanent downwards spiral due to a catastrophic loss of trust. It's too early for me to make judgements or look for a new home, there's also a fair chance that even SubscribeStar may get hit by the all-consuming wave.

For now I am suspending all plans for future games. I will work towards finishing Bastion, Finders, and Vault, then we'll see if I still have any reliable places to host my projects. I intend to make games for as long as I can, so there will be many more releases (even if I need to put them on flash-drives and hide them in the park), I just need to stand on solid ground before I can make long-term plans. Things in my schedule may get moved around, and for now I will remove the poll and previews for upcoming projects.

Update

New terms of service regarding adult content have been posted on Itch today, and depending on how broad their definitions for unacceptable content will be stretched, most of my most popular games are now pending deletion. When or if this happens will depend on how many mods are allocated to "sanitize" the site.

I don't know how soon I will rehost my games, but for now make sure that you grab copies of anything from Itch that interests you. You can browse my own catalogue here, and I strongly recommend looking up the works of other creators while you still can.

Some stuff like community discussions, reviews, and comments will be gone forever. Concept art will still be here on SubscribeStar under the NewGame and ConceptArt tags. Here the links to all Itch devlogs that showcased concept art and development plans:

• Psychic Archeology Agency concept sketches not available on SubscribeStar
• Psychic Archeology Agency imp and guide sketches not available on SubscribeStar
• Secrets of the Bastion concept sketches
• Secrets of the Bastion room sketches
• Monster Monsoon sketches and old demo
• Girlfriend Saves the City sketches and old demo

Girlfriend Saves the City is now available on Steam!

Download it for free from the store page!

I have partnered with Shady Corner Games to bring some of my finished projects to a broader audience!

Since my games are still fully free, shared publicity is the goal, and any downloads and reviews will really help!

Girlfriend Saves the City is the first in what I hope will be a series of Steam releases which will come with new key art illustrations and some additional polish.