Bad news regarding Steam

MIST has just been banned from Steam. Despite the page being online for over a month now they just informed me that they have banned the game. I had basically no chance to even get a word in and wasn't asked a thing. In fact they were completely silent until I reached out to them.

The reason for the ban is basically that they feel Mia's age is too ambigious, which is kinda weird. I know that she is petite, but I don't think anyone playing the game would mistake her for a minor, she clearly isn't written like one and her character model is the same as the other ones, only like 20cm shorter and with small boobs. It looks like that is already too much for Steam's policy, which is fine but kinda doesn't sit right with me. I know that I played the fetish of her being "small" but I honestly think I never tried to depict her as underage. As the creator that is always deep inside the game it can be hard to accurately tell how others perceive what I do, so I might have just lost sight of Mia and am actually in the wrong, but personally I have never seen her as a minor and I always simply wanted to lean into the "petite" theme. Maybe I did so too heavily, but I really think that you can't really say she appears to be underage if you've played through the game. The way she carries herself, interacts with the others, her skillset, history, emotions and struggles make me think of an adult and her body is 100% that of an adult woman with wide hips and small breasts. I don't know.

I'm very sorry that I have to say that the Steam sale won't happen. I've been looking forward to this for 3 years now and I'm not even sure what I can say to you. I've written to the Steam support and asked them to rethink their decision but let's be honest, there's veeeeery little chance they'll do that.

For now the final build will release as planned here on Patreon and on Itch.io. I'm sorry about this situation. I never expected it to happen but it's not like it'll change. Let's move on.