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 “ongoing re-remaster” compilation of his short experimental games. It’s called Radiator Forever and is available now for free – although it might take a bit of hunting to find it.
If you’re wondering about that “ongoing” part, Yang also refers to his release model of choice as GaaS (Gay as a Service). Radiator Forever launches with four of Yang’s acclaimed games, all remastered to varying degrees. Rinse and Repeat – a “steamy first person showering game … about consent and safety” – 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 “minimal” changes.
Over time, more games will be added to Radiator Forever. Yang’s lauded historical bathroom simulator The Tearoom – a commentary on ’60s sodomy laws and video game censorship, in which men stand at urinals with guns for penises, while avoiding undercover cops – 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 Yang’s most recent game Rainbows Are Carnivores – 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 “fairly straightforward to bring over.”
Cobra Club, Yang’s 2015 “photo studio game about body image, privacy, and dick pics” is said to require a much more substantial rework. “The controls aren’t gamepad friendly, the online features aren’t maintenance friendly, the chat system isn’t localisation friendly, and the politics weren’t reality friendly,” Yang explains. As such, this one isn’t likely to join Radiator Forever until next year or “even 2028”.
That just leaves skinny dipping simulator Pool Day – a “homage to David Hockney’s swimming pool paintings” – 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 – which is currently “69 percent done” – will likely launch next year, “probably coinciding with season two of Heated Rivalry for maximum synergy”.
Yang’s homoerotic, politically charged work has earned the designer significant acclaim, but that hasn’t stopped Radiator Forever from falling foul of Steam’s reviewers. And the collection is struggling for visibility on both Valve’s platform and Itch.io – both of which launched a significant crackdown on adult-orientated games at the behest of payment processors last year following a campaign by conservative Australian pressure group Collective Shout.
“Collective Shout/Visa/Mastercard / Stripe’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,” Yang explained in a lengthy post announcing the release of Radiator Forever. “Additionally, the much-criticised UK Online Safety Act 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.”
According to Yang, Steam’s content reviewers elected to flag Radiator Forever as containing “frequent nudity and sexual content” despite him being “careful to avoid” explicit nudity. “Compliance-in-advance is never enough to appease a zealous censor,” he continued, “and the Steam content reviewers have decided the game’s general ‘nature’ was just too gay.” As a result, Radiator Forever is now only visible to Steam users who update their preferences to enable Frequent Nudity or Sexual Content – a situation Yang says “amounts to a delisting/shadowban from 99 percent of the Steam user base”. UK users will also need to verify they’re 18 or older in order to access games Valve has flagged as “mature sexual content”.
“As shown by Santa Ragione’s frustrating experiences with Valve’s zero-appeal rejection of Horses,” Yang continued. “Valve isn’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 my games that were designed directly to be political speech. Instead, no video games are allowed the luxury of free expression except for the AAA blockbusters! Valve loves it when Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 throw customisable genitals at you in the first five minutes, but of course I can’t, because I actually have something to say about genitals!”
Radiator Forever is available now via Steam (log-in required to view) and Itch, and you can read more about the difficulties queer developers are facing amid the payment processor crackdown on adult games in our report from last year.
