Pay Cara Cadaver and you'll be donating to a Canadian charity tackling family violence.
Vile Exhumed is being offered as a free Shareware title in the face of its ban from the Steam marketplace, DreadXP and developer Cara Cadaver have today declared.
The solo-developed title deals with topics of sexual assault, abuse, and entitlement, “and uses a combination of FMV and practical effects, predominantly featuring the developer, with the goal of creating images as horrifying as the themes,” DreadXP wrote in a statement.
“There are a lot of intense visuals in VILE: Exhumed, but there is no uncensored nudity, no depictions of sex acts, and no pornography present at all – which is one of the justifications bad actors are using right now to censor games,” a statement from Cara Cadaver continued.
Last month, Cara Cadaver revealed that “Vile: Exhumed has been fully removed and banned for sale on Steam,” as a result of recent pressures put on game platforms and payment processors by Australian lobbyist group Collective Shout. It was originally intended to be published on Steam from 22 July.
“I want to be clear, Vile Exhumed was not banned for its use of gore in storytelling, or the violent themes,” the developer wrote. “It was banned for ‘sexual content with depictions of real people’, which, if you have played it, you know is all implied, making this all feel even worse.”
In response, the pair have decided to launch Vile Exhumed as a free shareware title under a CC BY-NC-ND license on itch.io, where it can still be found. Moreover, DreadXP and Cara Cadaver will donate 50% of all profits from the game to the Red Door Family Shelter, a Canadian charity that helps families, refugees, and women escaping violence.
“This censorship of my work is a direct attack on creative expression and artistic freedom, and it will not stop with false accusations of sexual content. They will come for anything that speaks more loudly than they do,” said Cara Cadaver.
“This is our response to being censored, and our rejection of the idea that horror can be defined as acceptable or not.”
You can head to this page on itch.io to learn more, access Vile Exhumed, and name your own price for its download.
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