Hazelnut Latte 18+ Patch? Let's Discuss!

Hello everyone! We want to discuss something we are strongly considering with the community.

Developing Hazelnut Latte has been difficult, and one of the biggest challenges has been Steam.

We mentioned it in a previous progress report, but it's worth repeating.

Over a year ago, we tried to get a demo of Hazelnut Latte on Steam Next Fest, but they declined. The reason?

Anyone with a firing synapse in their brain knows this isn't remotely accurate. But once Steam has made a decision, they stick with it. Unless we can cause a giant storm, they won't do anything. And those only happen for non-adult games. Adult games are seen as lesser, so it would be hard to get massive online support for Steam to notice the error and fix it.

At first, we were told this only affected the demo, but apparently it affects the entire game. As a result, we've had to shut down our Hazelnut Latte Steam page and lost 3 years of wishlists.

So, what do we do? Do we try to get our game up on a new page and hope the person testing it this time is normal? We certainly could. But then what if the person testing the first Expansion Pack hates us? Or the second?

We'd basically need to get lucky 4 times in a row, and then be lucky if we ever want to do fun DLCs.

I don't know about y'all, but I doubt we'll get that lucky. So, what do we do?

Have a free 18+ Patch!

For those who don't know, some adult games on Steam get around the Steam review system by simply... removing all the adult content.

This is completely allowed because Steam only cares about the content it is hosting on its service. Any outside content is not their jurisdiction because you are not getting it from Steam.

So it is perfectly fine to release a game on Steam with zero adult content and then download a free patch from the developer that adds all the adult content back into the game.

It's the same as you installing a mod, just one made by the developers.

How will this help?

This way, we won't run into the problem of a Steam tester seeing a hot guy and thinking, "This must be a minor!" They will just play a lovey-dovey visual novel about a guy going on dates with cute guys and hot trans people where nothing explicit happens.

This means the review/acceptance process will be much easier!

This also means we will be more discoverable on Steam because we won't be flagged as adult/sexual content. We'll just be a dating sim with kissing and hand-holding. No reason to hold us back if we're doing nothing wrong! ;)

People will discover Hazelnut Latte, play the whole game, and might have no clue that there was supposed to be a ton of sex happening the whole time. Which is honestly not the end of the world. The game is very character/story heavy anyway. I know many of you are invested in the narrative regardless of the sex.

The unpatched Steam release can also be safely streamed, which may attract an even bigger audience.

You can buy the game on your main Steam account, and no one will know the truth...

Not to mention, Itch is still super weird about adult games on their platform, so if there is no adult content, they should calm down too.

All things considered, it feels like nothing but wins to us! Easier to release, a wider audience, and no chance of Steam deciding one day it hates us.

How will the patch work?

Games on Steam that also do this make it pretty easy. A game's Steam page can link to the developer's website. On there, they usually have a section for Patches. You can download the patch for free and either drop it into the game's files or run an .exe to install it.

If we do this, we want to make it as easy as possible for players to download and unlock the adult content.

If you don't have the patch, the game will play mostly the same, except we'll likely just fade out before a lewd scene starts and fade back in once it is over. Like watching a movie. Or something; we haven't 100% decided.

How will players know there is a patch?

For obvious reasons, we as the devs can't say on our Steam page that there is a patch. That is where the community comes in!

I'm sure the top review of the game will start with someone saying "GET THE 18+ PATCH," and there will likely be Steam Discussions, Twitter threads, etc.

Likely some people won't know, but hopefully you all will let them know ;)

Is this decision final?

As the developers, we obviously don't see any problems with this plan.

But we also wanted to ask everyone how they felt.

So we want to open the floor for people to voice their thoughts/feelings/concerns.

Let us know what you think!

And stay Rad!