Steam Rejects Visual Novel Demo Even With a Completely Black Screen
The Steam platform rejected the demo of a new visual novel despite it being an all-ages game, even after the creator replaced a scene with nothing more than a completely black screen, leading him to criticize Steam’s verification system.
The case involves Japanese developer Hyogo Onimushi, known for Return to Shironagasu Island, who is currently working on a tentative sequel titled The Distant Circular World. According to him, the game’s demo was blocked during Steam’s review process due to alleged sexual content, despite containing no nudity or explicit scenes.
The game is a sci-fi suspense visual novel that follows an investigation across two timelines, involving a detective and a high school girl with photographic memory. The game’s Steam page had already surpassed 10,000 wishlists in just three days, demonstrating strong public interest.
According to the developer, Steam rejected the game mainly because of a specific scene: a completely dark image that, within the story, represents a character after taking a shower during an emergency situation (watch the scene above).
The developer explained that the original scene showed the character after falling into a river and taking a shower at someone else’s home. After the first rejection, he replaced the image with a completely black screen, without any suggestive visual content.
Even so, Steam’s review reportedly classified the scene as sexual content. According to the creator, there is no nudity, sexual implication, or explicit element involved — only a moment of introspection for the character.
The developer criticized Steam for the lack of clarity in the platform’s approval criteria. He claims that similar situations have happened with other games, where seemingly harmless content was flagged as sensitive or rejected.
He also cited examples of games that were initially blocked and later approved following public backlash, reinforcing the perception of inconsistency in the moderation process.
According to the developer, the problem is not the existence of rules, but rather the difficulty in understanding exactly where the line is between what is allowed and what is not
Despite this, The Distant Circular World continues to be developed for PC via Steam. The game has not yet been confirmed for a global release, but the developer has already stated that he is exploring localization possibilities for other languages in the future.