Autumn Chen
Taylor McCueHFTGOOM has been restricted in the UK on itch.
If you are in a country that doesn't have legal access to my games you can still play them on my self hosted website:
Previously HFTGOOM was banned in Germany on steam.
With the way things are going, my games are starting to exist in a weird tangled patchwork of restrictions and countries.
The thing that scares me about everything happening right now is that I feel like it's a test run.
I feel like they want to have a way to cover up abuses and injustices by just marking them as inappropriate.
I've seen these policies used against people other than me talking about sexual trauma.
I know at this point I sound like a broken record but like it's just really sad.
Like if you traumatize a painter they'll probably give you a painting about trauma, if you traumatize a sculptor you'll get a statue about trauma.
When you traumatize a game developer and then make it so that they can't make anything about trauma or show it to the world...
What happens to them?
This is setting the medium back and there are people who are going to choose silence because of these laws and policies.
The space in games for work about trauma was so embyronic. People were just starting to make really cool stuff.
If you've read this far and are thinking about making a game about trauma, please don't let this stop you.
Games are still worth making, I think ultimately we are going to find a way to get games to players.
I don't know what that future looks like but it'll happen.