As I'm sure you know, itch.io has deindexed the entirety of adult/NSFW projects on their platform. Several of my projects are among them: The Demon, Lilith, The Poetess, and my short comic collection Love Stories. (My one SFW game, Jane, was not, and is still able to be found via search.)

I'm not here to complain about my projects in particular. All of them are still available, and all of them can still be downloaded, completely free, as they've always been. As of this moment, there is no procedure for having them reindexed, but when there is, I expect to comply with whatever that is.

I don't blame itch.io for these events. In their own words,

itch.io is a small company, both in team size and in transaction volume, compared to a company like Steam. We have limited ability to "push back."

I do blame their payment providers, Stripe and PayPal, and their financial partners, Visa and Mastercard, for capitulating to the slightest pressure from one insignificant activist group. You'd think the most powerful financial corporations in the world could show some backbone, or, at the very least, indifference, but what do I know.

I agree, mostly, with the IGDA's statement expressing "serious alarm" at these actions, especially regarding the silencing effect this has on LGBTQ+ and marginalized creators, though I disagree with how the statement conditionally embraces some adult content while throwing other adult content under the bus. That said, I'm at least encouraged to see the support.

I'm more in alignment with the statements and intent of these two petitions, which I have signed, and I would encourage you to as well, if you feel safe to do so:

• Tell MasterCard, Visa & Activist Groups: Stop Controlling What We Can Watch, Read, or Play
• Mastercard: Sex Work is Work. End Your Unjust Policy.

As for me, I'm not going anywhere. My games will always be available, if not here, then somewhere, unaltered and uncompromised.

And to all the other game devs out there, no matter who you are, I want you to know:

Your voice is important. Don't stop making games, and don't let this keep you from making the games you want to make.

—

One last thing: I'm not ashamed of the games I make. And I'm not ashamed that some of those games are made for adults. And one of the reasons why I'm not ashamed is that, as it turns out, I am an adult. In fact, as I write this, I've already been an adult for quite a bit longer than I've not been an adult, and if I'm lucky enough to live to be 80, why, I'll have been an adult for over 75% of my life!

And so if most of my time on this earth is going to be spent living and breathing and creating as an adult, why should all my choices for what I can read, watch, and play—

—have the same restrictions as if I were a child?