‘Soulash II’ Dev Stands By Decision To Not Include Same-Sex Marriages For Gameplay Reasons: “I Showed My Teeth, The Oppressive People Left, And Now We Can Continue To Have Fun In Peace”
Despite a wave of bigotry accusations and cancellation attempts, indie video game developer Artur Smiarowski is refusing to budge on his gameplay-based decision to refrain from adding a same-sex marriage mechanic to his upcoming title Soulash II.
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A sequel to Smiraowski’s original Soulash, the aptly-titled Soulash II is described by the developer as a “sandbox RPG roguelike with a procedurally generated open world, simulated history, skill-based progression system, customizable abilities, material-based crafting, building, trading, and the possibility of total mayhem.”
Though its full 1.0 release is set for sometime “around March 2025“, the game is currently available to play via Steam’s Early Access feature, with Smiraowski continually providing new gameplay updates as he builds to its official launch.
To this end, on August 15th, the solo dev released the Version 0.8.6 update for Soulash II, which notably saw Smiraowski moving to introduce one of the game’s most requested features: The ability to start a family.
“I have the first of the two parts of the family feature, where you can start your new family in your settlement, marry someone to move to your town and family, and have children with them,” explained the dev of his update. “By having your own family, you can also start working at your building as another way to generate wealth, train your potential, or just progress the world by a couple of years while ensuring your legacy lives on after your inevitable doom.”
Following this announcement, Smiraowski was pressed by a player, “Hey Artur thank you for your hard work. I’m a queer fan of your game and wanted to ask if same sex relationships would be possible in future updates.”
“I know other devs like the ones who made medieval dynasty said they considered it too late to put it into the game,” they added. “I just wanted to see if it was something on your radar or if it would be safe for you to implement in the future. Thank you for your time and dedication to this game and this community!”
Unfortunately for the player, Smiraowski confirmed in turn, “The main purpose of the family system is to create a legacy through children, and given our limited ways to interact with NPCs, I don’t think there’s a good way to represent relationships, so I don’t plan to expand that right now.”
“More extended interactions were something that some players wished was a bigger focus of the game, but unfortunately, it would take a long time and probably the removal of the conversations and dialogue systems to turn Soulash 2 into The Sims, as well as the other games I’m already trying to mix,” he explained. “We’re gonna have to see if I ever get excited about it, but right now, I’m too pumped to go to war [the game’s next planned update will see ‘vampire wars’ thrown into the mix of challenges the player must face] to delay it any further. ;)”
Unsurprisingly, following this news from Smiraowski, the thread related to the game’s new update soon devolved into a back-and-forth between individuals who demanded that same-sex marriage mechanics be added no matter what, and those who believed said critics should instead respect the dev’s creative decisions, regardless of whether or not they agreed with them (which, given the direct-back-and-forth nature of the discussion and the constant quoting of other posts, we recommend reading directly on the Steam forum itself rather than via screenshots).
Things would only continue to devolve on the game’s community page when, a week later, Smiraowski released the Version 0.8.7. update for Soulsash II, therein “finaliz[ing] the family system” without any same-sex options.
Enduring yet another round of backlash, Smiraowski would eventually address the situation on August 25th, thereupon taking to her personal Twitter account and declaring, “How many people you would piss off if you made a game how you truly wanted to. Let players inspire you, not demand how you express yourself. No boss, no publisher, no f–ks given about reviews. That’s art. That’s what’s worth spending years of your life to create.”
Refraining from addressing any one critic individually, the Polish dev then shared an image of his nation’s flag and asserted, “My grandparents survived the Nazis, my parents endured communism, I had to live through religious oppression since the age of 10, and now some spoiled brats think I’ll bend my knee to their rainbow flag, or else they’ll type some words. I already have a flag I’m proud of.”
Notably, in response to this last tweet, Smiraowski was met by concern from another Twitter user, @Xeloph, who felt that he was unintentionally leaning too far into rhetoric used by the American political far-right.
In turn, the Soulash II creator clarified, “Thank you for the explanation. I don’t follow US politics, nor do I care what you guys call yourself to inflict anger. For us in Poland, Nazis and communism have an actual deep meaning because our people lived through it.”
“I also didn’t compare this group to Nazis,” he added. “If anything, I said they are nothing in comparison by belittling their attempt at oppression. I did use a clear hyperbole by calling them spoiled brats.”
Further pressed by @Xeloph as to whether his vitriol “isn’t about gay people broadly, but instead about the people engaging in this harassment,” Smiraowski affirmed “Yes, this is about a group that imposes themselves on developers to change their games. It is not about people who just want to live their lives in peace like me.”
Eventually turning to address the backash directly, after a brief sleep, Smiraowski returned to Twitter to note, “Just woke up. The lightning didn’t hit me. I don’t feel canceled at all. After all, it looks like there was nothing to fear from the oppressive mob. Thank you to everyone who went past a single tweet and offered their support and understanding.”
Responding to a now-deleted tweet which ostensibly asked for context as to his declaration, the dev shared his above initial Steam message and detailed, “This is my response a week ago. After that response, a weeklong activism campaign engulfed all our community channels. So I showed my teeth, the oppressive people left, and now we can continue to have fun in peace.”
From there, the dev would note that he had “heard people falsely claim I intentionally hardcoded a way not to have gay marriage in mods,” to which he sought “to clarify that Soulash 2 is on a custom engine, and modding is only configuration-based.”
“This means there’s no way to develop new mechanics or change the simulation through mods,” he told the public, “but we have friendly in-game editors that can help add custom content from players who don’t code.”
Asked by another user if he had any “plans to allow more modding options via code in the future”, Smiraowski admitted, “I have a wish to do so, but it would take many months. I’ve tried to hook up Lua twice over the years, and I think I would need to employ another programmer if funds allow.”
Ultimately, as of writing, both Smiraowski and Soulash II continue to find themselves under fire.
Just before this articles’ publication, the dev shared a screenshot showing that his game had recently suffered a rash of negative reviews, positing, “The cavalry has arrived.”
“I will keep that review bomb as a badge of honor, hoping it will encourage more developers to resist mob pressure and focus on developing the best games they can according to their design goals,” he declared. “Thank you for your support.”
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