[Devlog #048] Dark times for adult games ☹️
Posted on: 2025-07-28
Hello everyone! 😊
Hope you had a great week! ✨
(Definitely wanna turn this image into a full NSFW version for Patreon someday...)
Adult games, censorship and the future of Orange Smash
This week's been rough for adult content online.
On itch.io (that's the site you're currently on), all adult/NSFW games were delisted, or 'shadowbanned'.
This means that you can't search for them anymore — including Orange Smash.
The Orange Smash game page still exists and can be accessed with a direct link, but it no longer shows up in search results or recommendations, thus significantly reducing the chance for new players to discover the game.
This definitely sucks 😔
itch.io states they're currently reviewing and will likely implement new measures and rules.
This means that Orange Smash! might actually get taken down in the future.
Right now, it's hard to say, but it's definitely possible that the platform goes full SFW in the future, because, as always, money matters more than principle.
So, what if that happens?
I'd need to host and distribute the game elsewhere. It's already been posted to the f95zone forum by someone else (with some pretty positive feedback I was very happy to see!), so that's the most likely fallback. I'll look into other options too.
And the cause of all of it?
Again, payment processors like VISA/Mastercard telling you what you can and can't buy with their services. Collective Shout, a radical conservative group that tried to ban games like Detroit Become Human and GTA V, seems to be involved too.
This also happened to Steam some time ago, where a lot of adult games were removed from the store, and now it's happening to itch.io.
Personally, I've really liked itch.io.
Unlike Steam, it's pretty easy to release your game here, and it's also just a wonderful site for indie developers, and great for discovering indie games.
So it would really suck if this site ends up shooting itself in the foot.
As if that wasn't enough, there was another thing:
This week, the Online Safety Act came into effect in the UK, requiring adults to complete age verification to access NSFW sites.
This of course includes sites like Pornhub, but even Discord, since there are NSFW channels.
The way I understood it, the websites are expected to implement (or integrate?) the verification tech themselves into their sites.
Possible data privacy concerns aside, this of course also requires time and resources, which not every site has.
Might be the reason why sites like e-hentai, nhentai, civit.ai and rule34 instead just blocked UK users.
Yes: In the UK, you can't access nhentai or rule34 anymore.
Sounds dystopian, but it's real. People are comparing it to Shimoneta, a dystopian comedy anime, and sadly, it's not that off.
I can only hope people in the UK push back and abolish this terrible, terrible law.
On a related note, I learned only recently that in a certain Asian country with a very high population (and no, not the one famous for curry), all adult content is banned. Not just strictly regulated, but literally banned. You can't legally watch any kind of porn or erotic content there. I still can't wrap my head around that.
Sorry for the long section, but well... it is very relevant to the kind of game Orange Smash! is.
On a lighter note...
I watched some episodes of Kakushite! Makina-san!! from last season this week, an ecchi comedy with a sexy android (and a shota) that doesn't shy away from showing nipples.
It's really nice to see more uncensored ecchi anime appearing:
Last season, besides Makina, we had the Yandere Elf and Takamine-san anime in this category as well! 😄
Other than that, I also watched the first episode of Bad Girl, a hilarious CGDCT comedy with yuri undertones.
Give it a try! :D
Progress this week
I mentioned working on the second H scene last week, and I'm happy to say that scene is pretty much finished! 🥳
And for once, the H scene actually fits the current season (of the Northern hemisphere), meaning, it's summer-themed! 😎☀️
Fun fact: For that scene, I generated around 1,000 images, out of which I selected the ones that made the cut and fused them together like I usually do.
The record holder in that category is the standing sex scene from v.0.4.0 (when you win the board game) with more than 1,200 images generated for that one 😅
Plans for next week
I mentioned there'll be three H scenes for the next update, so yeah... I'll work on the third one now 🙂
I might split the H scene into two parts (blowjob and main scene), but not sure about that yet. I'll decide as I go.
That's all from me for this week!
Don't let the stupid things happening in the world dishearten you too much!
Have a great week, and see you all next Sunday! 👋😊