Hello, my name is Jack, and I made Double Dead Studio.
For as long as I can remember, I've always been fiercely independent, to the point where asking for any help feels like pulling teeth straight out of the root. It may have had something to do growing up poor, where my mother would make sure to verbalize every sacrifice she's made for me to instill a sense of gratitude for her suffering.
While not necessarily a virtue, being independent has taught me many important skills but the most important of them all is understanding my own limitations. I think true independence isn't a wearing a strong face in quiet dignity while suffering, but learning and accounting for one's limits, and this is what led to me making this website...
Before we get into it, a backstory.
The Itch NSFW Purge of July 2025
On July 23-24 2025, Itch swept through its own website and deindexed over 20,000 games from its search engine. [link]It was the result of the petitioning from a movement called Collective Shout, an "activist" group claiming to be against the objectification of women in media. They put pressure on credit card companies that forced Steam and Itch to take action against NSFW games. Itch, in almost a blind panic, deindexed all of its NSFW games, even including LGBT games that weren't NSFW.
I was one of those developers.
The sudden overnight ban struck real fear in me because I was relying on my games to supplement my income. I live in the Philippines, and while the cost of living is low, the salaries are low too, unless you work in law or medicine. I did so poorly in call center that I got fired during training. Despite being dull, unskilled, and uncharismatic, I did have a few talents up my sleeve. I knew how to draw and write, so I lovingly crafted visual novels and found moderate success in the field.
An overnight sweep with no prior warning felt like such a slap to my face. I spent half a decade making games, and even two more honing my skills. I pour real blood and tears over everything I make, but Itch staff can just erase all that in an instant without so much as a glance.
I understood something fundamental that day: Big platforms are not my friend.
I've always understood it but, oftentimes, you live life with a certain conceit of stability. You can put things off another day. A website would be good to have "just in case", but you don't realize when the "in case" is about to happen... and it's happening now.
Global Fascism is on the Rise
In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte got elected as president of the Philippines. In the same year, Donald Trump took office in the US. The pendulum swings between progress and regression, and I felt it swing back in real time.The signs were always there. When culture became a monolith because of the internet and people started offloading vital critical thinking to algorithms and chatbots, I knew they would start coveting a fictional "before times" when everything was better without any knowledge of real, world history. I've seen people push for censorship for art they didn't like, and ironically, oftentimes it was done by queer people who took their mainstream acceptance for granted. It was like I was watching Nazi Germany rise from its grave, burning innovative art that'll set culture back decades.
When Collective Shout decided to 'protect' women from violent media, sure, they might've gotten their wish and purged some violent pornography, but that is a very small demographic compared to the actual women, queer, and trans people that were disproportionately targeted by the bans. Women in particular are usually heavily ostracized in gaming environments, and oftentimes, their preferences are viewed as lesser forms of entertainment. What does it say about these power structures when women-made indie games exploring their experiences and sexualities are so easily erased, and yet games that depict macho acts of gruesome imperialist violence remain at the front page of game websites?
There is no such thing as controlled censorship.
To the powerful men holding the hammer, you are about as degenerate as the art you think you're against, because disgust is a never a reliable metric to morals.
The Journey to Making My Own Website
After the bans, I knew I had to do something to protect myself and my work... and that was through making a website.Of course, there would be no algorithms shepherding users to my content like on Itch, but the basic conceit of it is that there is a location created and coded by me to host art that I've made so, when the next "just in case" happens, I wouldn't be flopping helplessly like a fish.
I have gotten a Responsive Web Design Certification on 2024 on FreeCodeCamp because I wanted to learn how to code better "just in case" I needed to pivot from game development to tech jobs. (Looking at the state of the tech industry right now... yikes.)
This, at least, meant that I knew how to get started, but I have been putting it off because, even as someone as cautious as I am, despair actually isn't a good motivator to start a herculean job as making a website.
My beautiful ray of sunshine came in the form of this wonderful YouTube video by onionboots: A Web Revival: the Internet didn't die, you're just not on it
It was the first time I've actually felt motivated to create my own website. Seeing it as a creative outlet where I can play, and not just an obligation, really motivated me to start. Now, I try to advocate it to anyone that might listen.
Even if Neocities goes down, I feel reassured knowing that I possess the code to create this again, so I'm not reliant on other websites' tools.
So, if I disappear online again, you guys know where to find me! :)