Game Jolt

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Game Jolt
URL https://gamejolt.com/
Status Unknown
Archiving status Unknown
Archiving type Unknown
Project source gamejolt-grab
Project tracker gamejolt
IRC channel #gamejilt (on hackint)

Game Jolt is a social platform for video games. It also hosts games, including downloadable ones for different operating systems, HTML5 games, and the obsolete formats Flash and Unity Web Player.

On January 3, 2022, with no prior warning or official announcement, they removed their adult tag and locked a number of adult games behind a new "GAME_LOCKED_STATUS_ADULT" category. This change can be seen in their open source website/client code.[1]

They also added the ability for users to report games as explicit, which may lead to further removals.

The public webpage for a locked game doesn't show up, but users who purchased a locked game can continue to download it until December 31, 2022, according to e-mails sent to developers whose games were locked.[2]

It's unclear whether there is a workaround to download locked games that were previously free, such as by modifying their client.

The Wayback Machine captured the change to their official policies.[3][4]

Game Jolt offered this statement in response to an inquiry from Vice News. "While the roots of Game Jolt have been around hosting games, the site has grown to become more of a social media platform for the next generation of gamers. As such, Game Jolt recently implemented a policy that ensures games that feature explicit adult content will no longer be available. We are currently working with developers to make sure they have an opportunity to move their games to another platform, and are responding to any categorizations that may need to be reassessed."[5]

By January 7, 2022, the locked games were back on-line, but this appears to be a very brief reprieve. PC Gamer reported that a follow-up e-mail to developers apologized for the abruptness of the policy change. "Creators who had their games taken down now have seven days to notify any users or take their games elsewhere."[6] While PC Gamer didn't clarify exactly when this countdown started, it appears that the follow-up e-mail went out sometime January 5.[7] That e-mail stated, "What we will do starting today is reinstate your games page for the next 7 days."[8] That would appear to make the deadline for game removal sometime on January 12.

Discovery

It appears there is an easy way to discover based on sequential IDs: https://gamejolt.com/site-api/web/discover/games/overview/id?ignore (replace "id" with the sequential ID), which is accessed on normal game metadata page viewing.