Monolilith (+18)
No Steam Early-Access for us
Sad news today, Steam refuses us the Early-Access for Monolilith.
A failure? Really?
I know some of you were waiting for the Steam version of the game and I'm very sad to tell you it won't be happening as soon as expected. Steam refused to publish my Early-Access. I searched the documentation but I guess it's a reaaaally recent change since there's no information about that Mature themes rules. It's unfair since Steam made me fix the Early-Access descriptions, delaying the publication of the game's page in the first place.
I expected a lot from this Early-Access, mostly financial support to complete the game. With the recent events on itch, on X and now on Steam, I'm not sure about the fate of the game or this industry. I'll keep working and do my best to complete Monolilith and its story though, it's my baby and I won't abandon it UwU
What's next?
First, I have to find a way to cancel the Early Access for Monolilith. Thankfully it's a painstaking thing to do on Steam, so I'll keep begging for their help ^^' It's also totally dead for Steam's Halloween Fest, even though the whole game was made for it, cause I'm a big Halloween fan. There's no way I can finish the 1.0 version of the game in time, get it accepted and release it in time before this sale.
Development wise, I have to divide my time between completing the game and promoting it. While I'm not comfortable with marketing, I guess I don't really have a choice here. I could try to find a big publisher but with the recent dramas and censorships, it's probably a dead-end as well!
I imagine we shouldn't expect the situation to improve on itch.io either.
Any ideas?
I open if you have any suggestions or ideas, as always. In the meanwhile, I'll go back writing sexy cinematicsand animating lewd cultists!
As you can see, if game dev was hard, now it's just impossible!
Comments
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Hi. MB, this information will be useful for you.
I had a problem with publishing MyJLC on Steam. Well, now it seems like it will never be there. And since they don't say anything specific other than "gray area" and similar nonsense, I suspect that they are avoiding any words or names with the letter "L". For example, Lolly, Lilia, Laila, Lilith and other names that could look like references to minors. This is just my guess, but I follow many creators and everyone who has something like this in their game titles were rejected.
Nobody cares what you meant by adding that to the title of your game. For them, it is a product that they just want to get a percentage for. Sad, but I think this is the way it is.
The way to publish your game might be changing the title. Still it's just my guess.
I guess the game is completely doomed at this point then :/ thanks for the infos! I'll think about it!!
honestly with the war going on against payment processors i wouldint fully discredit steam once steam is safe from pp they will probly drop the lewd rule of theirs it will just take time sadly
Oh boy, surely this won't result in people releasing half-baked almost-games as "1.0 games with future updates" because Early Access has no rigorous rules and you can just call it a full version as long as the credits can roll.
Yeap. Frankly unless me begging works and they took pity on me and accept, I can't see other ways to finish this project. Like many game devs I'm using my personal savings to survive until I can start monetizing, and this move is a very hard blow. Game dev is hard, but in the adult market it's gonna be impossible.
Time to go to "GoG" My fav app to buy any games
So sorry this is happening to you.
I was talking to other adult game devs and they said there's other adult early-access games that are still getting released. fingers crossed it's just that one reviewer and not a super recent blanket ban on Adult Games in early access.
Apparently, Steam said it would not allow adult games in early access a year ago for fear that an adult game would pivot after review and add content that breaks TOS after release.
You should push for an appeal for them to review your whole game's planned content from your design doc to steam staff. and perhaps that will convince them to let you into early access.
In any case, I hope you can get the the early access removed from your game so you can be eligible enter another next fest at least.
Wish you the best, I love your work!
Thank you, I started begging them cause at this point I'm just screwed ^^`
que mal.
aunque a la ves bastante sospechoso parece como si alguien te hubiera prohibido adrede, me explico ahorita por lo menos e visto 7 juegos que entran en esa categoría (+18) que están en acceso anticipado y están perfectamente en venta .
no entiendo porque te denegaron la verdad
First the delisting on itch and now steam is killing off early access, grim times ahead.
Odds are, it's a change the payments cards company (Mastercard, etc...) or payment processors is forcing on them. Probably following the issues they had with Paypal and the forced removal of incest related adult games.
Must be really recent since they never had a problem with adult game in Early Access before. There still are some adult games in Early access (Carnal Instinct, Sapphire Safari, etc...).
Latest released adult only game in early access was released on the 25th of August 2025.
We will have to see if other games are blocked or if it's only yours.
One option would be to have a "safe" version for Steam with a patch existing outside. That's what some Japaneses adult/erotic games are doing when publishing on Steam
Worse, come to worse, just release the game not in early access and add somewhere in the title or the description that it is a work in progresss.
A bit stupid, but the situation as a whole is stupid and if it work, it work.
Fuck Collective Shouts and companies like MasterCard.
Yeah it's fucked up... I guess I'll have to go with something like that!
Wicked Island released into Early Access last week on Steam. So it must be a REALLY "new change" according to the Steam reviewer ED.