• Limonene@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Steam’s explanation is below.

    I suspect the game was just too gorey. Note that the game isn’t out yet, and I saw no indication that the authors of the article had played or seen it.

    After review, we will not be able to ship your game HORSES on Steam. While we strive to ship most titles submitted to us, we found that this title features themes, imagery, or descriptions that we won’t distribute. Regardless of a developer’s intentions with their product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor. While every product submitted is unique, if your product features this representation—even in a subtle way that could be defined as a ‘grey area’—it will be rejected by Steam. For instance, setting your game in a high school but declaring your characters are of legal age would fall into that category and be banned. This app has been banned and cannot be reused. Re-submissions of this app, even with modifications, will not be accepted.

    • belluck@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      4 days ago

      Regardless of a developer’s intentions with their product, we will not distribute content that appears, in our judgment, to depict sexual conduct involving a minor.

      Steam doesn’t usually have a problem with gore.

      day six featured a scene in which a man and his young daughter visit the farm. The daughter wants to ride one of the horses, resulting in an interactive dialogue sequence where the girl rides on the shoulders of a naked “horse” while it’s led by the player.

      I can see how this might’ve been interpreted as sexual.

      Edit just in case: There’s a lot of shady shit Valve does that you could criticize. This is just blatant attention-seeking.

      • PumaStoleMyBluff@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        all characters in Horses are clearly 20 years old

        man and his young daughter

        Weird to write the former in their FAQ but then wonder if the latter might be a problem

        • belluck@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          4 days ago

          This article mentions that they took the scene out of the final version of the game. It also mentions that the dev claims that the young girl model was just a placeholder, which just raises the question of why they would use a child as a placeholder in such a scene.