Love Conquers All Games’ erotic visual novel Ladykiller in a Bind launched on the Humble Store last October, but at the time it was unclear if the game would be able to be sold on Steam due to its sexually explicit nature.
But that’s all changed as of today. The game’s creator Christine Love announced via Twitter that Ladykiller in a Bind will be coming to Steam on January 9, and will be doing so without censoring any of its content.
While the sex-driven storytelling of the game may not be for everyone, the conditions of Ladykiller’s Steam launch are still relevant for game developers, especially those that might have been discouraged from exploring similar themes in their own games by Steam’s somewhat inconsistent treatment of sexually explicit games in the past.
“I think the biggest problem is really just with the industry as a whole being very cagey about adult content in general. It’s hard to cite precedents for video games that are both mature and also explicit about sexuality, so a lot of developers naturally feel very wary and worried that it won’t get accepted,” explained Love via email. “Hopefully that’ll start to change more, especially since Valve certainly has been supportive.”
Though the option to skip sex scenes and cover-up topless characters with colorful holiday sweaters was added in shortly after Ladykiller’s original launch, Love recently stated that she wouldn’t have been willing to fully remove explicit bits from the game just to get it published on Steam.
Luckily, this wasn’t an issue once she was able to speak directly with a Valve employee and explain how important the sexual acts scattered throughout were to the game itself.
“Honestly, the biggest problem simply came from getting through to someone at Valve. As a small developer, that can be a challenge,” said Love. “Once I was able to get ahold of someone, though, they were very understanding and supportive in getting it on the platform. They immediately agreed that any sort of censorship wouldn’t be appropriate, and never asked for any!”