Another game has seemingly been revealed by the Gothic Therapy YouTube channel to be a recent client project of Sweet Baby Inc., the controversial narrative design firm co-founded by Kim Belair.
The game in question is called The Crush House, and it was developed by Nerial LTD, which is most known for the strategy game Reigns. It was published by Devolver Digital, the company that put out Cult of The Lamb.
SBI’s alleged involvement was pointed out by the Gothic Therapy YouTube channel’s hosts MasterOfTheTDS and WritingRaven (For the sake of transparency: WritingRaven is a frequent contributor to That Park Place under the name Raven Redgrave).
The hosts identified it as a potential Sweet Baby Inc. game when one of Belair’s narrative designers admitted to working on the title on social media.
A Sweet Baby Inc. Employee shares information on The Crush House on social media – YouTube, Gothic Therapy
Another former Sweet Baby Inc. employee also noted involvement with The Crush House.
Why is this important?
Sweet Baby Inc. is a narrative design firm that injects DEI elements into games. Belair and many others have denied that this is the company’s primary goal, however past statements contradict this.
“We do narrative development in games and kind of beyond and we try to bring inclusion, diversity, and new ideas kind of to the industry,” Belair said in a presentation at the Game Developers Conference in 2019.
She also stated the company does sensitivity reading, noting, “We need sensitivity readers. We need risk assessment. And these are like, again, important services that I literally like list on every PDF that I send out to be like, ‘Hey, I can do risk assessment and sensitivity reading.’”
Later on in her presentation, Belair admitted that she attempted to get a developer to race swap a character from a white Frenchman to a “person of color.”
Sweet Baby Inc. first became infamous after the disastrous rollout of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in early 2024. The game was a horrific failure loaded with forced diversity that reportedly cost WB Games an estimated $200 million in losses.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Sweet Baby Inc. credits
After that, interviews with Belair started to surface, where she encouraged game devs to go to their marketing teams and “terrify them.”
“If you’re a creative working in AAA, which I did for many, many years, um put this stuff up to your higher-ups,” Belair said. “And if they don’t see the value in what you’re asking for when you ask for consultants, when you ask for research, go have a coffee with your marketing team and just terrify them with the possibility of what’s going to happen if they don’t give you what you want.”
Gamers suddenly wanted to know which games and studios worked with the controversial company. A Steam user called Kabrutus Rambo created a Steam curator group called “Sweet Baby Inc. Detected,” to inform gamers on which titles Belair had her hands in so that they could make educated purchasing decisions.
Sweet Baby Inc. employees like Chris Kindred (who is no longer with the company) then attacked Kabrutus and attempted to get his entire Steam account taken down in response.
Sweet Baby Inc detected Steam Curator list – Steam
Since then, SBI has seemed very hush hush about which games they’re actively working on. The company’s website highlights past titles like Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, and God of War: Ragnarok. However, there’s not a lot about upcoming projects outside of After Love EP by Pikselnesia and Pocket Sized Hands.
MasterOfTheTDS alleged in a previous video, citing an inside source, that SBI has as many as thirty upcoming titles in active development.
Many see the involvement of Belair and her team as an instant death sentence for a title in the modern gaming market.
Recent SBI commercial flops like Surgent Studios’ Tales of Kenzera: ZAU and Reflector Entertainment and Bandai Namco’s Unknown 9: Awakening make a powerful case for why so many studios try to keep their connection to Sweet Baby Inc. quiet.
A screenshot from the trailer for The Crush House – YouTube, DevolverDigital
The Crush House is a reality TV production simulator where the player takes on the role of a producer and camera operator trying to cast and subsequently film a group of scantily clad people in an attempt to capture “drama and romance.”
The player is encouraged in the game’s trailer to keep the ratings up through their footage.
A screenshot from the trailer for The Crush House – YouTube, DevolverDigital
“The spicier, the better,” the trailer says. You’re also encouraged to shoot “big fights, big emotions, and big butts.”
There’s even a companion website for the game with ads for subtle products like “hot dog milk.”
The Steam concurrent player count for The Crush House as of 12/21/24 – Steam
The Crush House has an all-time Steam player count of 362. Its most recent 24-hour peak was 14 players worldwide.
Have you played The Crush House? Would finding out that Sweet Baby Inc. worked on a project deter you from buying the game? Sound off in the comment section below and let us know!
