{"id":2037173,"date":"2026-07-10T16:50:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:50:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2037173"},"modified":"2026-07-10T16:50:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T13:50:45","slug":"just-too-gay-robert-yang-is-battling-censorship-to-launch-a-collection-of-his-award-winning-games-on-steam-and-itch-and-its-completely-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2037173","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Just too gay&#8221; &#8211; Robert Yang is battling censorship to launch a collection of his award-winning games on Steam and Itch, and it&#8217;s completely free"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">&#8220;Just too gay&#8221; &#8211; Robert Yang is battling censorship to launch a collection of his award-winning games on Steam and Itch, and it&#8217;s completely free<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;Valve loves it when Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur&#8217;s Gate 3 throw customisable genitals at you in the first five minutes, but of course I can&#8217;t, because I actually have something to say about genitals!&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/radiator_screenshot_header-2.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Image from designer Robert Yang&apos;s Rinse and Repeat showing a closely cropped shot of two men in a shower.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"radiator_screenshot_header-2.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Robert Yang<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Matt Wales avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1521645425.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Matt Wales avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1521645425.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/matt-wales\">Matt Wales<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      News Reporter<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-07-10T16:50:45+00:00\">July 10, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/robert-yang-radiator-forever-collection-steam-itch-free?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          2 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"be451725-cc47-4b13-9c3b-3fc8a4806c31\" data-name=\"Rinse and Repeat\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Rinse and Repeat\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Rinse and Repeat\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Rinse and Repeat\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Rinse and Repeat\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Rinse and Repeat\" title=\"Follow Rinse and Repeat\"><br \/>\n  Follow Rinse and Repeat<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Robert Yang, the award-winning designer behind the likes of The Tearoom and Rinse and Repeat, is battling increasingly restrictive rules adopted by digital storefronts to launch an &#8220;ongoing re-remaster&#8221; compilation of his short experimental games. It&#8217;s called Radiator Forever and is available now for free &#8211; although it might take a bit of hunting to find it.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re wondering about that &#8220;ongoing&#8221; part, Yang also refers to his release model of choice as GaaS (Gay as a Service): Radiator Forever initially launches with four of Yang&#8217;s acclaimed games, all remastered to varying degrees. Rinse and Repeat &#8211; a &#8220;steamy first person showering game &#8230; about consent and safety&#8221; &#8211; has received a control overhaul to jettison the hybrid 2D\/3D system it originally had when conceived as a VR project. Hurt Me Plenty, Succulent, and Stick Shift, meanwhile, have all had &#8220;minimal&#8221; changes.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, more games will be added to Radiator Forever. Yang&#8217;s celebrated historical bathroom simulator The Tearoom &#8211; a commentary on 60s sodomy laws and video game censorship, in which men stand at urinals with guns for penises, while avoiding undercover cops &#8211; is anticipated to arrive later this year, after it receives a similar control revamp and streamlining. Also on the way are Hard Lads, Logjam, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/acclaimed-lgbtq-developer-robert-yang-explicit-game-angler-catching-hogs-critiquing-modern-dating-overfishing\">Yang&#8217;s most recent game Rainbows Are Carnivores<\/a> &#8211; which simultaneously manages to be a commentary on modern dating, a homoerotic play on male stereotypes, and a criticism of overfishing. Yang notes these latter titles seem &#8220;fairly straightforward to bring over.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cobra Club, Yang&#8217;s 2015 &#8220;photo studio game about body image, privacy, and dick pics&#8221; is said to require a much more substantial rework. &#8220;The controls aren&#8217;t gamepad friendly, the online features aren&#8217;t maintenance friendly, the chat system isn&#8217;t localisation friendly, and the politics weren&#8217;t reality friendly,&#8221; Yang explains. As such, this one isn&#8217;t likely to join Radiator Forever until next year or &#8220;even 2028&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>That just leaves skinny dipping simulator Pool Day &#8211; a &#8220;homage to David Hockney&#8217;s swimming pool paintings&#8221; &#8211; and gay hockey romance Two Body Problem to go for the time being. The former is expected to arrive relatively soon, and Yang says the latter &#8211; which is currently &#8220;69 percent done&#8221; &#8211; will likely launch next year, &#8220;probably coinciding with season two of Heated Rivalry for maximum synergy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Yang&#8217;s homoerotic, politically charged work has earned the designer significant acclaim, but that hasn&#8217;t stopped Radiator Forever from falling foul of Steam&#8217;s reviewers. And the collection is struggling for visibility on both Valve&#8217;s platform and <a href=\"http:\/\/itch.io\/\">Itch.io<\/a> &#8211; both of which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/itchio-deindexes-all-nsfw-games-blames-same-anti-porn-group-that-campaigned-against-steam\">launched a significant crackdown on adult-orientated games<\/a> at the behest of payment processors last year following a campaign by conservative Australian pressure group Collective Shout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Collective Shout\/Visa\/Mastercard\/Stripe&#8217;s anti-sexuality censorship campaign in 2025 forced Itch to delist\/bury many NSFW games to avoid getting cut-off from virtually all online payment processing,&#8221; Yang explained in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.radiator.debacle.us\/2026\/07\/radiator-forever-is-gay-as-service-its.html\">lengthy post announcing the release of Radiator Forever<\/a>. &#8220;Additionally, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/uk-online-safety-act-explainer\">much-criticised UK Online Safety Act<\/a> has forced Itch to geoblock the UK rather than risk expensive, intrusive, and ineffective compliance with a bad law. Overall the situation is still pretty fragile, and the coming tide of anti-anonymity laws (masquerading as teen social media safety laws) is going to make it all even more expensive for websites to serve their users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Yang, Steam&#8217;s content reviewers elected to flag Radiator Forever as containing &#8220;frequent nudity and sexual content&#8221; despite him being &#8220;careful to avoid&#8221; explicit nudity. &#8220;Compliance-in-advance is never enough to appease a zealous censor,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;and the Steam content reviewers have decided the game&#8217;s general &#8216;nature&#8217; was just too gay.&#8221; As a result, Radiator Forever is now only visible to Steam users who update their preferences to enable Frequent Nudity or Sexual Content &#8211; a situation Yang says &#8220;amounts to a delisting\/shadowban from 99 percent of the Steam user base&#8221;. UK users will also need to verify they&#8217;re 18 or older in order to access games Valve has flagged as &#8220;mature sexual content&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As shown by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/its-extremely-frustrating-and-also-fcked-up-one-of-the-worlds-best-indie-studios-is-facing-shock-closure-following-confounding-steam-ban\">Santa Ragione&#8217;s frustrating experiences with Valve&#8217;s zero-appeal rejection of Horses<\/a>,&#8221; Yang continued. &#8220;Valve isn&#8217;t interested in a nuanced conversation or in admitting any wrongs in moral judgment. If video games are a form of protected free speech, I do wish there was a bit more hand-wringing over blocking access to <em>my games that were designed directly to be political speech.<\/em> Instead, no video games are allowed the luxury of free expression except for the AAA blockbusters! Valve loves it when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/cyberpunk-2077\">Cyberpunk 2077<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/baldurs-gate-3-a-critical-success-with-critical-failures\">Baldur&#8217;s Gate 3<\/a> throw customisable genitals at you in the first five minutes, but of course I can&#8217;t, because I actually have something to say about genitals!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Radiator Forever is available now via <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/385370\/Radiator_Forever\/\">Steam<\/a> (log-in required to view) and <a href=\"https:\/\/radiatoryang.itch.io\/forever\">Itch<\/a>, and you can read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/queer-developers-speak-out-as-adult-games-remain-in-limbo-following-payment-processor-showdown-at-steam-and-itchio\">difficulties queer developers are facing amid the payment processor crackdown on adult games<\/a> in our report from last year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>Robert Yang, the award-winning designer behind the likes of The Tearoom and Rinse and Repeat, is battling increasingly restrictive rules adopted by digital storefronts to launch an &#8220;ongoing re-remaster&#8221; compilation of his short experimental games. It&#8217;s called Radiator Forever and is available now for free &#8211; although it might take a bit of hunting to find it.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re wondering about that &#8220;ongoing&#8221; part, Yang also refers to his release model of choice as GaaS (Gay as a Service): Radiator Forever initially launches with four of Yang&#8217;s acclaimed games, all remastered to varying degrees. Rinse and Repeat &#8211; a &#8220;steamy first person showering game &#8230; about consent and safety&#8221; &#8211; has received a control overhaul to jettison the hybrid 2D\/3D system it originally had when conceived as a VR project. Hurt Me Plenty, Succulent, and Stick Shift, meanwhile, have all had &#8220;minimal&#8221; changes.<\/p>\n<p>Over time, more games will be added to Radiator Forever. Yang&#8217;s celebrated historical bathroom simulator The Tearoom &#8211; a commentary on 60s sodomy laws and video game censorship, in which men stand at urinals with guns for penises, while avoiding undercover cops &#8211; is anticipated to arrive later this year, after it receives a similar control revamp and streamlining. Also on the way are Hard Lads, Logjam, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/acclaimed-lgbtq-developer-robert-yang-explicit-game-angler-catching-hogs-critiquing-modern-dating-overfishing\">Yang&#8217;s most recent game Rainbows Are Carnivores<\/a> &#8211; which simultaneously manages to be a commentary on modern dating, a homoerotic play on male stereotypes, and a criticism of overfishing. Yang notes these latter titles seem &#8220;fairly straightforward to bring over.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cobra Club, Yang&#8217;s 2015 &#8220;photo studio game about body image, privacy, and dick pics&#8221; is said to require a much more substantial rework. &#8220;The controls aren&#8217;t gamepad friendly, the online features aren&#8217;t maintenance friendly, the chat system isn&#8217;t localisation friendly, and the politics weren&#8217;t reality friendly,&#8221; Yang explains. As such, this one isn&#8217;t likely to join Radiator Forever until next year or &#8220;even 2028&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>That just leaves skinny dipping simulator Pool Day &#8211; a &#8220;homage to David Hockney&#8217;s swimming pool paintings&#8221; &#8211; and gay hockey romance Two Body Problem to go for the time being. The former is expected to arrive relatively soon, and Yang says the latter &#8211; which is currently &#8220;69 percent done&#8221; &#8211; will likely launch next year, &#8220;probably coinciding with season two of Heated Rivalry for maximum synergy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Yang&#8217;s homoerotic, politically charged work has earned the designer significant acclaim, but that hasn&#8217;t stopped Radiator Forever from falling foul of Steam&#8217;s reviewers. And the collection is struggling for visibility on both Valve&#8217;s platform and <a href=\"http:\/\/itch.io\/\">Itch.io<\/a> &#8211; both of which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/itchio-deindexes-all-nsfw-games-blames-same-anti-porn-group-that-campaigned-against-steam\">launched a significant crackdown on adult-orientated games<\/a> at the behest of payment processors last year following a campaign by conservative Australian pressure group Collective Shout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Collective Shout\/Visa\/Mastercard\/Stripe&#8217;s anti-sexuality censorship campaign in 2025 forced Itch to delist\/bury many NSFW games to avoid getting cut-off from virtually all online payment processing,&#8221; Yang explained in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blog.radiator.debacle.us\/2026\/07\/radiator-forever-is-gay-as-service-its.html\">lengthy post announcing the release of Radiator Forever<\/a>. &#8220;Additionally, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/uk-online-safety-act-explainer\">much-criticised UK Online Safety Act<\/a> has forced Itch to geoblock the UK rather than risk expensive, intrusive, and ineffective compliance with a bad law. Overall the situation is still pretty fragile, and the coming tide of anti-anonymity laws (masquerading as teen social media safety laws) is going to make it all even more expensive for websites to serve their users.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Yang, Steam&#8217;s content reviewers elected to flag Radiator Forever as containing &#8220;frequent nudity and sexual content&#8221; despite him being &#8220;careful to avoid&#8221; explicit nudity. &#8220;Compliance-in-advance is never enough to appease a zealous censor,&#8221; he continued, &#8220;and the Steam content reviewers have decided the game&#8217;s general &#8216;nature&#8217; was just too gay.&#8221; As a result, Radiator Forever is now only visible to Steam users who update their preferences to enable Frequent Nudity or Sexual Content &#8211; a situation Yang says &#8220;amounts to a delisting\/shadowban from 99 percent of the Steam user base&#8221;. UK users will also need to verify they&#8217;re 18 or older in order to access games Valve has flagged as &#8220;mature sexual content&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As shown by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/its-extremely-frustrating-and-also-fcked-up-one-of-the-worlds-best-indie-studios-is-facing-shock-closure-following-confounding-steam-ban\">Santa Ragione&#8217;s frustrating experiences with Valve&#8217;s zero-appeal rejection of Horses<\/a>,&#8221; Yang continued. &#8220;Valve isn&#8217;t interested in a nuanced conversation or in admitting any wrongs in moral judgment. If video games are a form of protected free speech, I do wish there was a bit more hand-wringing over blocking access to <em>my games that were designed directly to be political speech.<\/em> Instead, no video games are allowed the luxury of free expression except for the AAA blockbusters! Valve loves it when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/cyberpunk-2077\">Cyberpunk 2077<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/baldurs-gate-3-a-critical-success-with-critical-failures\">Baldur&#8217;s Gate 3<\/a> throw customisable genitals at you in the first five minutes, but of course I can&#8217;t, because I actually have something to say about genitals!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Radiator Forever is available now via <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/385370\/Radiator_Forever\/\">Steam<\/a> (log-in required to view) and <a href=\"https:\/\/radiatoryang.itch.io\/forever\">Itch<\/a>, and you can read more about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/queer-developers-speak-out-as-adult-games-remain-in-limbo-following-payment-processor-showdown-at-steam-and-itchio\">difficulties queer developers are facing amid the payment processor crackdown on adult games<\/a> in our report from last year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News &#8220;Just too gay&#8221; &#8211; Robert Yang is battling censorship to launch a collection of his award-winning games on Steam and Itch, and it&#8217;s completely free &#8220;Valve loves it when Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur&#8217;s Gate 3 throw customisable genitals at you in the first five minutes, but of course I can&#8217;t, because I actually [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2037173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037173\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}