Fortune’s Run: Why Did Steam Reject Its Build?

*WARNING* This article discusses depictions of sexual assault. Viewer discretion is advised.

There are a lot of games on Steam, more than you could fathom. The de facto online gaming marketplace that got its start as a Half-Life 2 hub has become Valve’s main revenue stream for almost two decades. Now, you can find a wild variety of games on the platform as other launchers still struggle to compete. It then comes into question, how can bottom-of-the-barrel, barely-playable garbage get a place on Steam, no less in droves? Well, it seems as if it doesn’t take much to get your game approved. However, in recent times, Team Fortune’s Fortune’s Run has had some difficulties.

There are plenty of boomer shooters on Steam, each more gratuitous and bloody than the last. What’s the holdup for Fortune’s Run? Team Fortune shared on Twitter that the third rejection was for two big reasons: “Their first issue was that the “Huge Combat Level could not be found“, an error in the reviewer’s guise. The second is more delicate and nuanced, involving a disclosure of the game containing sexual assault. Valve allegedly did not acknowledge the content to necessitate it. This is a massive head-scratcher as Team Fortune would elaborate on the moment in question.

“We chose to depict it as simply disgusting and revolting … according to Valve, this is not sufficiently explicit to be a reference to sexual assault.” Dusk developer David Szymanski questioned, “Are you 100% certain these are both actually the issues the build was failed for?” and Team Fortune responded, “We are quoting verbatim the reviewer’s statements … the reviewer’s fail message is a single sentence.” With the game’s build approved the next day after the content warnings were removed, this can all but be confirmed. I have to wonder how the developer will warn players of this triggering, disturbing content.

This brings up a lot of questions about Valve’s review process. Is it streamlined for tiny developers and put under a microscope for games with more eyes on them? Is it done by a team or is some of the process automated/glossed over? Why would a warning (under any circumstance) be a detriment to a game’s ability to be approved? With pornographic and ultra-violent games denoting a content warning on their Steam pages now, why was Fortune’s Run punished for it? This is a first-of-its-kind case that has left fellow developers skeptical and others dumbfounded.

Where a two-person dev is just trying to get their passion project out to the world, this roadblock has raised eyebrows into something PC gamers normally don’t think about. As my Steam library sits at 1800+ games, I now have to stop and think: How did all of these get approved, but another game follows all the rules and gets the banhammer? There hasn’t been much fanfare in recent memory for upcoming games not making their way to Steam storefronts. Hopefully, this is a once-in-a-blue-moon incident that won’t see the light of day again, especially considering the reasoning Valve expressed.

Editor’s Note: After this article was written, the developers posted more details. Fortune’s Run is now available in Early Access. Details on the situation can be found below.

I'm working so I can't answer everything so I'll put the relevant info up here: all references to the SA content had to be removed from the Steam page. The warning still exists in-game on game launch. That doesn't make me happy either but I guess that's what we had to do.

— ䷷ 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘦'𝘴 𝘙𝘶𝘯 (@FortunesRun) September 26, 2023