Before I get to the titled topic, I did want to mention that I am pushing to get Ménage à Moi Chapter 1 Part 2 out by the end of May. The header image above is spliced together from renders of an upcoming scene. "Production is going great" is kind of far as it goes for a progress update (amazing what can be done when I'm not fighting Daz issues). I thought this month's progress update was just going to be a positive-only post until a week ago...

For those unaware, itch.io has been demonetizing adult games despite claiming to be a host for NSFW content. The situation is still developing but the trend so far is more and more games are getting the boot. The reasons and communication from itch.io have been all over the place. I've read enough emails posted by other devs to know this is most likely another big push by payment processors (who are being pushed by anti-porn political entities) to end indie adult content creation. Succinctly, it doesn't matter how "vanilla" or not the game is or how much percentage of the revenue is shared with itch.io, any game featuring adult content may lose its monetization at any time.

So far I haven't received an email from itch.io stating they will no longer handle payments for my games, but I believe it's just a matter of time. Since itch.io keys are supposed to be part of a giveaway and tier rewards, all of my supporters may be affected. I do have a contingency plan in place so all current eligible supporters can continue to access the game on itch.io with a key. Due to the existing Patreon integration with itch.io, it may mean that only people who sign up on Patreon would be able to get a key in the future.

This whole situation just sucks. I wanted my supporters to be able to get a permanent key to play my games as an alternative to subscriptions. My current hectic production schedule means I'm nowhere near ready to get on Steam yet, so itch.io was supposed to be the one-time payment solution until then. As someone who grew up buying games on cartridges and CDs, I was accustomed to when you bought a game you owned the ability to play it indefinitely. This new era of digital distribution has some incredible benefits that were unimaginable at the time, but some huge caveats came along with them.

I don't know which way the winds of change are going to blow tomorrow, but I will do my utmost to ensure that my supporters get access to the content they paid for.