He Fucked The Girl Out of Me launches on Steam as a release of shame

When you think of an R18+ game launch on Steam, your mind probably goes to porn games—video games made for sexual gratification and objectification. It’s quite rare for a game launch to actually simply be adult in theme and rated as such, without targetting that specific sex game market. However, that’s exactly what’s happened with new release ‘He Fucked The Girl Out of Me’ as it debuts on Steam for free. Developer Taylor McCue has told a deeply personal and intensely painful story with this release, and whilst the game is about sexual assault and trauma, it’s being linked alongside porn games in Steam’s algorithms.

The game is a reflection on Taylor’s own lived experiences and a way for them to share their story. It covers topics of transitioning, sex work, finding empowerment in one’s own sexuality and gender, bigotry, consent (or lack thereof), and suicidal ideation. The approximately 40-minute game comes with some much-needed trigger warnings at the beginning for those who may be uncomfortable with the content. Taylor describes the Steam launch as a release of shame.

“The reason I made the game was primarily shame, it was overwhelming me. 

I wanted people to understand and accept me because I felt that after sex work, no one would if they knew. 

Unfortunately I didn’t have the courage to properly talk to people so I used the medium of video games to explain myself. By using video games I could get over that shame and have the trauma out there so that I didn’t spend my whole life hiding in shame.”

He Fucked The Girl Out of Me originally debuted as an itch.io browser game, after which the title won the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling, was an IGF Nuovo Nominee in 2023, and won the Queer Games Festival 2022 Jury Award. The game also features in various exhibitions and galleries, with Taylor mentioning “It was easier to have my game shown in an art gallery than to have my game on Steam.”

For anybody interested in checking the game out, you can find it live on Steam or via itch.io.