What kind of games does itch.io allow?

[MisutaOtoko]

Hello, am currently developing a video game that's going to be an open world hentai action rpg. I think I'll go with Unreal as the engine as I love the UI. It seems very easy to use and UE4 has tons of features for me to utilize, even for the smallest of things. I can't program unfortunately but I like to think I'm adept when it comes to art, modelling, texturing, rigging and animating.

Despite that, I still made an itch.io account as a form of preparation. I got the "draft" down and I'm writing out development goals in documents for my project so that I have a clear path to follow and also ideas for characters, fetishes and the like. The most "extreme" forms of content in the game would be bestiality and rape and I wonder, does itch.io allow that? I've seen games that have bestiality in it already (such as Faefire Fantasy) but I still wanna make sure.

 

[hhrichards]

There are games on itch.io tagged with "rape" so I assume that means it's fine:

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I actually thought they had a problem with games including incest, but there's a tag for that too, so maybe that's ok?

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There is no tag for bestiality (0 games:

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) although a few do come up with a search term

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- so this makes me think that might not be allowed, or at least doesn't do very well there.

 

[79flavors]

itch.io's conditions are that

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. Beyond that... have at it.

However, if you want to charge money for something you put on icho.io, it must also meet the T&C's of the payment providers.

... and this is where it becomes as clear as mud for adult content....

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say they do not permit "certain sexually oriented materials or services" and then don't clarify what that means. So expect something that was okay 2 or 3 years ago to be frowned upon now.​

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(who handle card payments through Visa/MasterCard/etc) say they will refuse service if something you do will "expose you, Stripe, or others to risks unacceptable to Stripe." and again don't clarify what "unacceptable risks" might be. Sprite go on to also cover themselves by saying you must also meet the T&C's of the individual card processing companies.​

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... at which point, you're knee deep in T&C's for MasterCard, Visa, Discover, American Express and anyone else who they act on behalf of.​

When thinking about "what is legal?"... keep in mind that there are different laws for certain acts and the depiction of those same acts. Rape is illegal, yet it is depicted in the

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and

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. Incest is illegal in most forms, yet

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and

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have not one, but two incestuous relationships each as part of their stories. Hell, shooting people is illegal... and I could be writing from now until the turn of the century listing all the films, series and games that feature people being shot. It helps if you can discuss it with people who can tell the difference between fantasy/fiction and reality - good luck with that.

Invariably - if you get into trouble, it's not going to be a well defined legal issue... it's going to be the very vague T&C's that mean someone is just going to go "Nope!" and that will be the end of it.

 

[hhrichards]

I hadn't thought about the payment providers! Apparently Mastercard & Visa have pulled out of Pornhub, leading to Pornhub having to massively cull a lot of their content. That shows how much power the payment providers have!

So maybe be careful. If you're monetising your game, you don't have to think of the rules right now, but maybe the possible rules in the future too!

 

[MisutaOtoko]

Oh dear, that complicates things a lot then in case I'd wanna monetize it. What's cool about itch.io is that people can choose to pay as opposed to being forced to do so and that makes it pretty chill in my eyes though on the safer side, it'd be better to just not deal with it and go fully free instead. As far as I know, most people don't like spending money on their porn or hentai either so it'd be a better move >.<

 

[79flavors]

Oh dear, that complicates things a lot then in case I'd wanna monetize it. [...]

Then perhaps the solution is to monetize it as you planned to, but not be too shocked if someone takes offense.
Take the money while you can, then make it free if the game is removed for any reason.

Because... and I keep coming back to it on conversations like this one... as far as I know, it's not possible for a pixel to rape another pixel... or kill them... or be their sister and pixel #2,404,611 is no more an animal than pixel #12,015,499 is a human being. That said, I'm not familiar with the law regarding the depiction of bestiality. But clearly the depiction of rape for entertainment purposes must be legal*, since it is the focal point of various books, TV series and films... old and new.
* I am not a lawyer.

And if it is legal, then itco.io's guidelines seem to point to them not having issue with adult content.

 

[MisutaOtoko]

Sounds good and I wouldn't mind too much if people get offended or itch.io removes the games page once it's public. Money ain't the primary motivator for this as I already know this will be a very niche kind of game anyways but getting some reward for the effort is a nice thing. It's not good business thinking, I know, but there are other things I value in the production of games.

This is gonna sound dumb because I haven't read up on this (I read up on it as much as I could) as I can't find anything in regards to the "legality of production of "cartoon" pornography in Sweden" but I don't think I can add loli/shotacon content into the game (that's illegal in Sweden and has been since 2015, I believe) but the rest should be fine. To make sure, I should probably talk to a lawyer about it though. So long as everything is and looks sexually mature then it should all be good.

I'd guess itch.io would probably allow these things then considering how lax they are with adult games in-general. The only requirement being proper tagging or else your page gets removed.