Monetizing & Publishing Games with Fetishes - Patreon & Steam Questions

[Deleted member 2282952]

Hey everyone! I've been fully immersed in the development of my first adult title, after doing a bunch of normal games in Canada.

Now, here's where I could use your help. I have experience publishing non-adult games, and that process is usually pretty straightforward, whether you go through game publishers or self-distribute. However, I'm a bit confused about the acceptable "fetishes" when it comes to platforms like Patreon and the Steam mod teams.

For instance, there's a developer called 4MinuteWarning who has a game Ravager (I'm a big fan, by the way) that is published on both Steam and Patreon. The game revolves around the theme of bestiality, which is considered prohibited in all content protocols, yet they are published/funded on both. So, I'm wondering which of the following scenarios might be true:

1. Can Steam publish games if the sexual content is removed and made available separately as a patch?
2. Can Patreon support games with prohibited themes as long as the funds aren't used for developing those specific features? For example, let's say the game focuses on bestiality, but Patreon funds are allocated exclusively for engine development, renders, and other aspects unrelated to that theme. If this is the case, how do you prove it to the Patreon mod team?
3. Do Steam and Patreon not really care about the themes as long as they're removed from the core game and made available only as a patch?

If nothing is true, please let me know what might be the case. I tried doing some research before posting this, but I couldn't find any concrete answers. Any advice or pointers you can provide would be appreciated.

 

[peterppp]

1. yes
2. no
3. steam doesn't care as long as patches with non-permissible content are not mentioned or supplied anywhere on steam or in the game, but own website is ok. patreon don't allow devs to release patches with non-permissible content anywhere. someone else has to release them (anonymously if it is the dev).

i don't know ravager but bestiality is not allowed on patreon if it's a human having sex with an animal. a human with slightly animalistic traits like cat ears is fine. a human fucking a horse is not.

just because you've seen a game on patreon doesn't mean everything in it is allowed. patreon acts on reports and many games with content not allowed on patreon manage to stay there for a long time anyway, until they don't

 

[Deleted member 2282952]

1. yes
2. no
3. steam doesn't care as long as patches with non-permissible content are not mentioned or supplied anywhere on steam or in the game, but own website is ok. patreon don't allow devs to release patches with non-permissible content anywhere. someone else has to release them (anonymously if it is the dev).

i don't know ravager but bestiality is not allowed on patreon if it's a human having sex with an animal. a human with slightly animalistic traits like cat ears is fine. a human fucking a horse is not.

just because you've seen a game on patreon doesn't mean everything in it is allowed. patreon acts on reports and many games with content not allowed on patreon manage to stay there for a long time anyway, until they don't

Thanks a lot; that makes things clear. I used Ravager as an extreme example, to get a better hang of things, my content wouldn't go that route, though, there will be plenty of dark themes. Guess I will study content moderation policies and try building content around any grey areas.

If anyone had any experiences with these things, would love to learn more. Overall, will probably have to move the stand-out fetish aspects on the down low.