Does itch.io allow AI-generated games? The AI disclosure tag and the spam rule

itch.io allows games made with generative AI, but it expects you to say so. Its quality guidelines ask creators to tag AI use in an AI Disclosure section on the project page, list tagged projects on an AI Assisted browse page, and say itch.io is strictly enforcing disclosure on game asset pages. The same guidelines treat mass-produced AI pages, and projects made predominantly by AI with minimal human involvement, as spam.

There is no flat ban and no flat permission. The rules sit across three parts of one document, and the part that sounds most like a ban only applies to a specific kind of project. This page puts them together and adds the adult content label, since the two rules apply together to an adult game.

It describes the guidelines as they stood on 24 October 2026. The guidelines page shows no revision date and says it is “continually updated”.

Key points

• Generative AI is allowed, but tagging is requested. The AI Disclosure section is on the project edit page.
• Tagged projects appear on an AI Assisted browse page. That is a separate list from the main one.
• Asset pages are policed more strictly. The guidelines name “legal ambiguity” around rights and say failing to tag may mean delisting.
• Traditional game AI needs no tag. Pathfinding, procedural levels and dynamic music are named as exceptions.
• Mass-produced AI pages are spam. So are projects made predominantly by AI with minimal human intervention.
• The penalty is mostly delisting. The page remains reachable by direct link.
• Adult content has its own label. Skipping it can mean delisting or disabled payments.

What the guidelines say about generative AI

The relevant text is in the Content creator quality guidelines. The document is a list of things a creator should and should not do on a project page, written to keep itch.io’s discovery features useful. It says that following the guidelines makes a project eligible to be indexed in browse, search and recommendations, and that failing to follow them can mean removal from that index.

Two headings deal with AI.

Tagging

The first is titled “Accurately tag your use of generative AI”. It defines the term as artificial intelligence systems that create new content (text, images, music) by learning from large datasets, and it gives examples: large language models such as ChatGPT, and image models such as DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion.

The request is that creators tag a project that contains material produced by generative AI, using the AI Disclosure section on the project’s edit page. Projects that say they use generative AI appear on the AI Assisted browse page.

The guidelines add an exception. Projects using self-contained algorithms without external large datasets do not need the tag. They list examples: NPC pathfinding, enemy behaviour patterns, procedural level generation, fuzzy logic systems, dynamic difficulty adjustment and dynamic music. For a visual novel developer this is a short list, because most visual novels have none of these. What matters is the art, the voice and the text.

The section ends with a sentence about enforcement. itch.io says it recently added the AI Disclosure feature, that creators will have time to review and update their pages, and that it is “strictly enforcing disclosure for all game asset pages due to legal ambiguity around rights associated with Generative AI content”. Failure to tag an asset page “may result in delisting”.

So there are two levels in one section. For game asset pages the wording is strict. For other projects the wording is a request (“We ask that you accurately tag”), and the page does not spell out a separate penalty for games. That matches the earlier reporting we covered in AI-generated art in adult games, where coverage of the 2024 rule conflicted about whether game-page tagging was optional. The guidelines now read as a request for games and a strict rule for assets, but they do not say how a missing tag on a game is handled.

The spam rule

The second heading is “Avoid uploading excessive amounts of automatically generated or AI-generated content”. It is about volume and effort, not about whether AI was used at all. The text says itch.io understands that automatically generated or AI-generated content can sometimes be useful or interesting, but that creators must not use automated systems to mass produce product pages, which itch.io would consider spam and may remove from browse and search.

It lists three examples:

1. Games or projects predominantly created by algorithms or AI with minimal human intervention.
2. Content that is randomly generated with no or minimal curated design.
3. Multiple iterations of essentially the same content generated by AI or algorithms.

It closes with a standard: the content should bring something new and valuable to the community, and where a project involves automatic or AI generation, that should be clearly stated in the project description and add substantial value to the player’s experience.

This is the part that sounds like a ban, and it is not one. It targets pages produced at scale and projects with little human direction. A game with a human writer, a designer and a plan, where AI produced some of the art, does not match the examples as written. The guidelines do not set a percentage or give a test, though, and the words “predominantly” and “minimal” are left to itch.io’s judgment.

How the adult content label fits in

An adult game made with AI art faces two rules at once. The guidelines have a separate heading, “Adult content must be labeled”. It says a project page with strong adult themes must be marked, that people only see adult content on itch.io if they have enabled it in their account settings, and that creators should avoid explicit images as the cover image. The setting is on the project’s edit page under Metadata and then Classification.

The consequence is stated plainly. If itch.io sees that a creator does not respect the adult content classification, it may remove all of that creator’s pages from discovery features or permanently disable payments on the account. The heading also points to itch.io’s FAQ on adult content and to the Acceptable Payment Forms section of its terms, which this page did not read. For the wider payments picture, see payment processors for adult games.

The two rules are independent. Tagging AI does not change the adult label, and the adult label does not excuse missing AI tags.

What happens when a page breaks the guidelines

The guidelines describe their own penalty system near the top. If a creator fails to follow them, itch.io’s systems or a site moderator may choose to remove the page from the discovery index. The page remains reachable to anyone with the URL or through the creator’s profile, but it is not shown on listings.

A few stronger penalties appear under specific headings. Misusing unrelated tags to promote a game can remove the creator’s account from browse and search. Recreating pages to boost visibility can make an account ineligible for discovery features. Removing paid content from buyers without a way to keep access can lead to suspension, cancelled payouts and refunds. None of those are AI penalties, but they show the pattern: delisting is the usual tool, and account-level action is saved for repeated or deceptive behaviour.

What this means for adult game developers

1. Tag AI use if any asset is AI-generated. That includes backgrounds, sprites, voices and text, not just full scenes. The definition covers text, images and music.
2. Treat asset packs as the strict case. If you sell assets, an untagged page risks delisting.
3. Do not use algorithmic tools to mass-produce pages. Several near-identical pages made by AI are the clearest spam example in the guidelines.
4. State AI use in the description too. The spam rule says AI generation should be clearly stated in the project description and should add substantial value.
5. Label the adult content separately. The AI tag does not replace the adult classification.
6. Keep a human-directed design. The guidelines ask for “something new and valuable”, and projects with minimal human intervention are the named problem.
7. Check other platforms before cross-posting. Rules differ between stores. See where to sell adult games for the wider picture, and itch.io and UK age verification for another rule that affects adult pages.

What is still unknown

• How a missing tag on a game page is handled. The guidelines name delisting for asset pages and are silent on games.
• How tagged projects are ranked. The page says they appear on the AI Assisted browse page, not whether they are filtered elsewhere.
• Where “predominantly” and “minimal human intervention” fall. The wording gives no threshold.
• Whether jam hosts apply their own AI rules. The guidelines page does not cover individual game jams’ content rules.

How this page was put together

The guidelines were read on itch.io’s own documentation page, in a browser, on 24 October 2026. The text was cut off partway through the game jam rules, so the last sections on jams, sales and community posting were not read, but every section on AI, adult content and penalties was. Short phrases are quoted and the rest is paraphrased. The page shows no revision date, so this article cannot say when the AI wording was last changed. A page at the address usually given for itch.io’s content guidelines returned “We couldn’t find your page”, so the adult content FAQ and the payment terms it links to were not read.

The author has not published an AI-assisted game on itch.io, and nothing here is a first-hand account of tagging or delisting.

This page was written on 24 October 2026 and will be updated when itch.io changes the guidelines. To report an error, see the corrections standard.