Hi, dear players! How are you? Me, I’m fine, but could be better lol.

I would like to speak more seriously about something that is happening on itch, in case you haven’t heard of it. Itch is shadowbanning NSFW games on its platform and, in worst cases, removing them (even preventing some players who bought NSFW content on the platform to download it anymore). By shadowbanning, I mean something simple: imagine, for example, that you want to find games using the “otome” tag. Itch would natively only show you SFW games, sorted by current popularity (however popularity is measured by itch). However, there is a setting you have to toggle for NSFW games to be displayed. When you do, the platform will show you all otome games sorted by popularity, including NSFW ones. The only issue I had with this system is that, if you had published a NSFW game, then you couldn’t turn off the toggle, which was a bit bothersome: having created NSFW content doesn’t mean you always want to see it.

Admittedly, you may think I’m not very concerned by this change, considering my only NSFW game is He tasted like poison, and truth be told, I’m not that bothered about this game being shadowbanned. However, there are a lot of devs who created much more NSFW content, monetised even, and are now cut from a good source of their revenues. I can’t speak for all devs, but in my case, most of my games’ traffic comes from itch itself (the only exception being High School Lolita, of which the traffic mostly comes from Google, for reasons I have yet to understand). So, I want to highlight that itch having a functioning system, allowing all projects to be seen, or at the very least, to have the chance to be seen, is of the utmost importance. And even without considering this, projects being deleted/removed without warning, or players not being able to have access to content they paid for is unacceptable.

Another consequence of this also concerns queer media: a lot of queer media explore sexuality, whether it is to offer positive depictions, traumatic ones, or fetish-exploring ones. The shadowbanning of NSFW content also serves to muffle, if not shut completely queer voices.

Itch seems to be at the mercy of a lobby controlling their payment processor. But if this lobby has enough power to expect itch to “hide” porn which wasn’t exposed to non-consenting players in the first place, what will stop them to expect itch to shadowban explicitly-tagged queer content, even if not NSFW? Or tagged content with questionable tags?

Let’s consider an example. I have a trilogy of games entitled “The Daughters of the Sun (TDOTS) trilogy”, based on the title of the first installment, narrating the tragic story of a Phaedra, queen of Athens, who is in love with her step-son, Hippolytus. Something important to consider is that the game therefore deals with incest, hence my use of the “incest” tag. However, the game doesn’t portray incest as the games focusing on incest usually do: there is no romance as Phaedra’s incestuous feelings lead her to develop self-hatred and seeking death, while the step-son, Hippolytus, is horrified by his step-mother’s love. And the point of the trilogy was to show how Phaedra, pushed by her feelings, ends up acting violently towards Hippolytus, symbolically raping him even (I insist on symbolically). Needless to say these games do not include any sexual content, implicit or explicit, they handle a heavy subject matter, but are ultimately SFW.

Guess what? The content is banned from itch and without anyone actually experiencing it!

How wonderful! Now you can’t play a story trying to educate you to a myth and a famous French play from the 17th century adapting the myth, but also offering its own reinterpretation to narrate a story about the brutality of desire and rape! Son of the Woods in particular, the second entry of the trilogy, focused on Hippolytus, the victim, processing the events. Well: gone! I’ll try my best to upload them again and find a solution, but ultimately, I don’t want to do it in a way that would get my itch account suspended.

So, now what? Should devs stop labeling their NSFW content as NSFW? And therefore exposing it to people who do not want to see NSFW content? I won’t lie that this whole situation got me really worried. What’s the point of art if we can’t handle sensitive subject matters? And I fear for the evolution of the platform.

Let’s speak a bit about my future projects. Waterlily on the Froth (WOTF), the first chapter of which I’d like to release this summer, narrates a grooming situation and, in that regard, goes into more detail than High School Lolita. The rest of the paragraph will detail a grooming scene, so if you are uncomfortable with this type of content, please skip it. I won’t spoil much, but to give you an idea, although the game never includes porn scenes for obvious reasons, depictions of characters in coitus are present, and there are naturally some details regarding what they are doing, and the characters have lines in which they moan (“A-ah, harder, Chris!” Gaëtana moans). Obviously, the point of this scene is to portray the dynamic between the two characters (Gaëtana leading and Chris being used) and setting it up for later chapters; in particular, this scene is important to show that Chris has a tendency to obey Gaëtana, so that, when he obeys her for actions that have bigger consequences later in the story, it doesn’t seem out of place. And of course, the sexual abuse portrayed in this scene (Chris is 17 and Gaëtana 29) also serves even later in the story, for Chris to realise the relationship was abusive and then break free.

Truth be told, I don’t fear that much for WOTF, considering itch doesn’t examine content, but bans based on tags apparently (since, well, if they did examine the content published, they would have realised TDOTS trilogy was safe for work. But still, how are we supposed to narrate stories in this environment?

Other thing I’m worried about: I have started to brainstorm my NaNoRenO 2026 project. Yes, quite early, but I had a very good idea for it, and guess what, guys? If you followed me for games like When The Wind Blew You Away (WTWBYA), rejoice, it’s its spiritual successor: green flag love interest, sweet romance with a deep emotional connection, surrounded by nature… And expect something even sweeter since the protagonist, Ghilas, and the love interest, Côme, do have a very close friendship at the start of the game, rather than the strained relationship Amanda and Peter had due to Peter suddenly moving out in childhood. But maybe you guessed it from the names, maybe not, this game, which will certainly be entitled A Summer with my Pen Pal, since it happens during the summer, is a boy’s love story, with Côme and Ghilas both being 18 year-old teenagers. The game will obviously be safe for work and won’t even include any mention of sex (just like WTWBYA); it deals with grief and loss, and especially, with having complicated and contradictory feelings about someone you lost, but… it is a gay romance, and I’m genuinely worried. Not that the people behind itch are villains in their lair wanting to erase queer culture; but rather, if they cannot even tell the lobbies behind them “We already have a filter for NSFW games”, and proceed to ban games without any sort of discernment… What proves things won’t get worse? What proves “boy’s love”, “gay”, “yaoi” or “lgbtqia” content won’t be shadowbanned or automatically labeled as NSFW? And if itch chooses to maintain good relations with their payment processor and makes it a priority… What will be going on?

I am certainly being paranoid, but I want to emphasise the distress of many devs. In my case, I am lucky enough to not rely on games to live, and the games from TDOTS trilogy weren’t even open to donations in the first place, since I worked with volunteering voice actors for them, and therefore refuse to win a single cent on people’s free work. But remember that many devs count on their games to survive, or, even without surviving, to create new games for you to enjoy; and that itch is definitely harming them. One thing is sure in my case: I’ve brought down my revenue sharing with itch to 0%, as I definitely don’t want the money players give because they enjoy my games to be in the pockets of people who do not care about said games.

So I don’t know. I’ll try to have the issue solved regarding TDOTS trilogy, and if I really can’t do anything, perhaps I’ll make a single build including the three games and post it on Steam. Maybe someone will be brave and come up with a platform similar to itch but better, just like Bluesky did with Twitter. Or maybe itch will fix the situation. Either way, rest assured I’ll keep uploading my games on itch, as I know most of you follow me here. But more than ever, I do invite you to follow the creators whose work you enjoy (not necessarily me) on your social media, that figure on most of our game pages.

I could update you on some progress I’ve made, but I won’t lie, it feels a bit meaningless right now. Maybe expect a WOTF devlog soon? In the meantime, just take care.