Exhumed is back as a free shareware title

After her game was banned from sale on Steam in , solo developer Cara Cadaver has made VILE: Exhumed available as shareware under a Creative Commons license. The can be downloaded for free, but players can opt to donate in support of the solo developer’s work. Both Cara and publisher DreadXP will pay forward those donations, with 50 percent of the game’s profits being given to the Toronto-based charity . The group aids families, refugees and women who are escaping violence.

Both and have recently adopted sweeping and vague policies regarding their approach to projects with adult content due to . Itch.io has begun re-indexing some projects, but .

These changes have disproportionately impacted projects by underrepresented and queer creators, according to a from the International Game Developers Association that condemned the broad delisting of adult games. In her post announcing the new distribution plan for VILE: Exhumed, Cara summed up the situation pretty aptly: “What this actually results in is taking power and storytelling away from women, other marginalized artists, and ultimately, from everyone.”