so I thought games with sexual violence weren't allowed to sell on itch.io,but how is "the price of flesh" allowed? I mean I can't seem to find it on the actual site but when I look it up on chrome it finds it on itch.io,how does it work??
If you believe a game violates Itch's TOS, you should report it using the button at the bottom of this page.
Asking the community won't help, because the community doesn't make the rules or enforce them.
It could be a mistake, and your report might result in the game or account being deleted. Alternatively, you might believe the game violates Itch's rules, but the staff disagrees, and even if you report it, nothing will be done.
This is the first time I've ever heard of that game. I don't deny that it might be popular within its niche, but it's not a game that everyone knows, so I wouldn't assume the staff is familiar with it.
You can check the exact rules here:
https://itch.io/docs/creators/faq#is-adult-content-allowed
Over the years, what I've seen is that Itch has several rules, but they don't actively enforce them. For example, the rules state that you must have all the necessary copyright permissions for the games you publish, and if you search, you'll see many games based on content from companies like Nintendo, which obviously aren't uploaded by the people who have the copyright permissions.
I'd say the staff trusts that people will follow the rules and tend to act more when someone makes a report than actively searching for those who don't comply with the Terms of Service.
Itch's staff is very small; on the one hand, I doubt they have the human resources to actively enforce the rules, and on the other hand, it also gives developers some freedom, since it wouldn't be pleasant to have the staff reviewing every illustration or line of dialogue in your games.
It is a vague policy that is ill defined. It's pixels and fiction. You could ban most Hollywood movies under such vague guidelines.
It's not "has x in it". That would be easy. Just like you can say, there's a nude pixel boob, it's nsfw.
It's something something gloryfication somethings something. Very ill defined. And morally highly questionable. There is games that glorify murder and genocide and slavery and other things, yet they are not under attack by the bigots.
So I would assume that the game in question might have x in it, but not in a way that violates guidelines. And from a legal standpoint, that's even more ridulous, since it is fiction and not illegal. Banning games is basically the same as burning books.
Oh, and the game is paid. Because of those bigot's attacks and blackmail, and because Itch has not implemented a sufficient solution to this, Itch hit an emergeny brake and just removed all nsfw games that accept payments from the public listings, so you can't find them within Itch by browsing.
Also, if it's "not allowed", it is not only not allowed to sell, but not allowed on the platform. The bigots have no legal grounds to try banning the content they do not like. That's why they pressure payment processors and those blackmail Itch. It's fiction for crying out loud. It is very, very hard to ban fiction. Even in prude USA. Especially in the USA. Fiction falls under free speech and even porn with actual humans doing a homevideo falls under this and is not legally bannable. That's why they fight so dirty. Inventing false arguments. Appealing to emotion and trying to invoke cancel culture.
Itch does not like it, if you try to skirt the rules. But they also do not like restricting creativity and freedom. I do not know the situation for the game you mentioned.
But all games that are adult games and accept payment are currently not indexed. No matter their content. This is because people that lie have started a dirt slinging campaign and made payment processors threaten to withdraw services entirely from Itch. For content that is ok on other platforms. Including Steam. There is no legal grounds for this. So those bigots bully companies. There is not really many alternatives for low cost payments internationally. So Itch just made it all invisible for the time being.
What Itch hosts and does not host is within in the chosing of Itch. Even if they write guidelines about it. It is not law and there is no rights involved to treat every game the same and have strict enforcement of guidelines. They do have several layers of how they chose to present content, according to my observations.
1 Promote it in the featured list. https://itch.io/games/new-and-popular/featured
2 Have it indexed in the discovery system. (Appears in search and browse)
3 Remove it from the discovery system.
4 Remove the game.
5 Remove the developer.
Adult games never get 1. 2 only happens if you set your settings to show it. All paid adult games currently got 3. 4 is banning the game, although you will find many complaints about so called bans, that are just removal from index. 5 fake accounts and actual law breakings get that. For payments, there is also the possiblity that Itch refuses the option to use Collected by Itch as a payment option. I believe that to have to do with taxes and risks and such things.