Nick Scarpino

Then, a day after launch, the Humble store banned it as well.

The decision shocked the developers at Santa Ragione, makers of the critically respected Saturnalia, as these storefronts were the homes they had found for their game two years ago, before it was preemptively banned from Steam.

Valve and Epic says Horses violates their sexual content policies.

Humble hasn't yet said why it banned the game after hosting it for several hours post-launch.

However, Santa Rajeon claims neither Epic nor Valve has clearly explained what exactly in the game is objectionable and that these decisions have put the studio in peril of shutting down.

The Back and Forth has catapulted horses from a little-known prestige indie title to the next battleground in the fight between game storefronts, indie developers, content policies, and creative expression.

Though all of the action kicked off late last month, Horses' story officially began two years ago.

In a lengthy FAQ, the developers explained that in 2023, Horses was rejected during Steam's review process, which we talked about on a previous episode of Cave City.

I'm gonna jump forward in the article to see if we can get past all that stuff.

In November, after Santa Reggione shared Horse's release date and the reason why it wouldn't be sold on Steam, Valve finally responded.

A statement to GameDeveloper.com read, quote,

A short while later, the developer asked us to reconsider the review and our internal content review team discussed that extensively and communicated to the developer our final decision that we were not going to ship the game on Steam."

The studio says that the Steam ban put the company in financial peril as it completely erased our ability to find an external supporting publisher or partner to fund the rest of the game as no one in the industry considers an indie game that cannot be released on Steam to be viable.

Though the developers were able to continue work on horses through investments from friends, unless the game's a hit, they say the studio will shut down.

What are these horses doing?

I know, that's what I'm trying to find.

these companies aren't letting that happen yeah so like to get back into some of the article that i think helps explain a little bit more as with steam epic didn't explain what in horses triggered the band the band only referring to the policy on inappropriate and hateful slash abusive content and the fact that games rated ao or adults only could not be distributed on epic game store um

And then jumping forward a paragraph, Santa Ragione is very clear about the kind of content Horses contains.

The lengthy content warning on the game's website lists physical violence, psychological abuse, gory imagery, mutilation, blood, depictions of slavery, physical and psychological torture, domestic abuse, sexual assault, suicide, and misogyny.

It also makes sense that out of an abundance of caution, Steam would ban the version of the game it saw with the father and daughter scene, which I...