Itch did an Oopsy, Now What?

Hello everyone! For those who don't know, Itch.io, the website on which I started Hazelnut Latte, has decided to delist all adult games from their website. They are manually reviewing every game, and some games, such as Max the Elf, are being taken down.

So what does this mean for our future on Itch?

We honestly don't know! But here is what we plan to do.

If we get removed

Might not be much recourse here, but we will try to fight Itch to keep our account alive. Upon reviewing their rules, we don't appear to violate anything. But if they don't want us, we can't stop them.

If we are allowed to stay

This is way more likely. The games I am seeing getting removed have Gen AI, non-con lewd combat, or have characters that look way too young. Hazelnut Latte doesn't fit those categories, so I am confident it will stay, but who knows?

If we stay, we want to make some changes at some point to future-proof the game.

When the Unity demo is released, it will be "SFW," meaning that nothing lewd will occur in the game. We will have an NSFW Patch for the demo on Patreon that you can install on the demo for free.

Since this crackdown has been affecting Steam, we also want to take similar action. When the game is eventually released on Steam, it will be SFW with an NSFW DLC.

This helps us because if they ever decide they don't like the lewd content, the DLC will be the target, not the game. Then we'd sell the NSFW patch on Patreon with install instructions. (Hoping they don't just nuke the whole page.)

This is also beneficial because people will be able to stream the game without fear of being taken down, as the SFW version will have no lewd content. And streamers do help sales.

Wrap Up

Does this suck? Yes, we make/play adult games, and we are always in the political crosshairs. We are constantly looked down on and made easy targets. It's annoying, since games with gore and stuff are completely fine, but falling in love? Ban it!

But no matter what, I will be here, and I will continue to make games.

Life, uh, finds a way.

Stay safe out there as we continue to navigate these troubling times, and don't forget to Stay Rad!