Category: Adult Analysis Anthology

Pitch submissions for the third issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology have been closed as of Saturday, February 15th! Thank you to everyone who pitched! I’ll be getting in contact with writers whose pitches are selected over the next week, and we’ll announce next steps for the 3rd issue once the table of contents has been finalized! Original post follows below:

Now that all of the web versions of both previous essays have been republished on this blog, the time has finally come for the big announcement: the Adult Analysis Anthology is planning its third issue! This means that pitches are now being accepted for essays to be included in said third issue. If you would like to jump right to pitching, you can do so via this form. If you would like to learn more about the anthology and the pitch process, read on!

Continue reading “Adult Analysis Anthology Issue 3 Submissions Now Open!” →

This is ninth of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: Laney Norman

Growing up with unfettered access to the internet in the early 2000’s gave me an early introduction to the wide world of adult media, especially games. They’re engaging, creative, and sometimes taboo with how they depict sex and intimacy. The best part is that they’re interactive, giving the stories an extra level of immersion. Porn games aren’t often seen as therapeutic, but in my adult life they ended up being a strategy to repair my personal relationship with sexuality.

Following an experience of sexual trauma, I wasn’t really focused on my own physical and mental safety when I pursued intimate relationships. This is a common coping response in those who have experienced sexual assault or other types of sexual trauma. According to the 2019 study “Navigating Sex and Sexuality after Sexual Assault”, victims of sexual assault often experience changes in sexuality in response to their assault. “Changes in sexuality included loss of interest in sex, increase or change in sexual partners, engaging in sex work, and increased sexual behavior.” (O’Callaghan) There’s no one way of coping with sexual trauma, so there are many ways this can present in survivors.

I would go on “Tinder binges” where I’d be on my phone for hours, swiping and chatting with almost anyone who spoke to me, looking for any sense of connection. Every time I’d get a notification, I’d feel a little thrill of potential and throw caution to the wind to pursue these kernels of intimacy. Dating apps are becoming more and more game-ified. In “The Brain and Swiping for Love”, Samantha Beck describes gamification of dating apps as “the idea of applying game elements to non-gaming situations—like dating. This unhealthy environment of unlimited swipes convinces users that there are always new people to meet and potential matches to be made, even if that is not necessarily the truth.” (Beck, p 111)

Disregarding my safety completely, I would go out, putting myself in risky and dangerous situations in an attempt to feel some sort of connection. Most of these encounters left me with more baggage to unpack rather than anything that felt like a fulfilling way to be intimate. I was hurting in many ways and how I was engaging with any form of intimacy or sexuality was harming me rather than helping me.

Continue reading ““I’m Game If You Are” – Reclaiming Consent Through Porn Games” →

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This is eighth of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: Leo G.

It’s 2004 and you’re horny. So you type into Internet Explorer the naughty words “porn game boobs” and click the first result. It’s a Macromedia Flash game! And it’s using the crustiest jpegs of anime girls you’ve ever seen.

It’s 2007 and you’re horny. So you type into your Wii Opera browser the naughty words “porn game boobs” and click the first result. It’s an Adobe Flash game! And it’s using the most obviously traced vector art of anime girls you’ve ever seen.

It’s 2024 and you’re horny. So you type into your VPN enabled Firefox browser the naughty words “porn game boobs” and click the first result. It’s an HTML5 Unity game! And it’s using the most beautiful art of anime girls you’ve ever seen.

The game says it’s got 50 girls to romance, each with 9 unique sex scenes. That’s 450 drawings of women getting railed, not counting any possible portrait or talk sprites. And all this for only $9.99? Before, those adult flash games were free, but if there’s this much content maybe it’s worth shelling out a couple of bucks. However, maybe I’m an experienced shopper, but where one might see a great deal, I see nothing but red flags.

Then it hits: something’s wrong. Maybe it’s how the same girl never has the same exact design details. Or maybe it’s the way her musculature will be off that’s questionable. And whoever the artist is seems to only know a handful of poses despite their masterful grasp on painterly renders. No, your intuition is actually working, that feeling is your gut instinct taking a trip through the uncanny valley. A human didn’t make this, a machine did.

Continue reading “The Quality And Quantity Quandary Of Adult Games” →

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This is seventh of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: blit

Heads up: this essay contains mentions of bondage, transformation, extreme size differences, and complicated consent.

Coziness in Games; An Exploration of Safety, Softness, and Satisfied Needs was published in 2017, and still shows up in gamedev discourse today. The business part of the title (aafer the semicolon) tells the reader what’s up: we’re here to talk about feeling safe, satisfied and soft.

  • Coziness, to the authors, is safe. Cozy experiences are low risk, and often stress familiarity, reliability or openness to vulnerability.
  • Coziness is, to the authors, abundant. Basic needs are being fulfilled – things like shelter, food, and water. This gives cozy experiences the time to focus on other needs, like connection, belonging, and intimacy.
  • Coziness is, to the authors, soft. They’re talking about an aesthetic sense of softness here, the ways we use art to signal to someone that they can let their guard down, relax and move a little more slowly. Communication is authentic, sincere.

So, then, how do porn games help foster experiences like this? I’d like to talk about three adult games I’ve played and how I’ve found them cozy:

Continue reading “This Abundance Of Sex Is Kinda Nice, Actually” →

This is sixth of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: LewdNeko

It’s the end of a long day… I strip out of my work clothes, grab my Lovense vibrator, and sit myself in front of my computer to boot up some of my favorite porn games. And once I’m settled and ready for some well-deserved stress relief… I hit the “go live” button.

I’m LewdNeko, a virtual camgirl, and I stream porn games.

Continue reading “Cumming Together: Lewdtubing, Eroge, And Community” →

This is fifth of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: MadCreativity

As the developer of a erotic visual novel, I’ve had my fair share of difficulties when it comes to properly marketing and publishing. Initially deciding to sell it on Steam, Itch.io, and DLsite, I later reached out to Fakku and Kagura Games for the possibility of publishing it there. Throughout my research and interactions, I couldn’t help but notice some incredibly glaring issues that seemed to me to be somewhat discouraging for the sale of games such as my own.

Even just after the release of the demo, we received a few complaints from players who had been expecting a female-on-female game or who wanted an option to make the protagonist male. More surprising, though, was that Fakku, Kagura Games, and DLsite required various states of censorship, with one not even permitting NSFW screenshots on the game page.

The way things currently stand, NSFW games (and porn games, hentai games, etc.) are at a unique disadvantage in the games market. For instance, many platforms and systems, such as Nintendo consoles, downright forbid NSFW games. The same applies to many mobile app stores, resulting in a significant decrease in potential customers. For PC games, there are several different storefronts to choose from. The most popular option is likely Steam, as it has a user-base so large that it borders on a monopoly, with recommendation methods and guaranteed refunds that put it at the top of the industry. For many indie developers, another popular option is Itch.io, for its easy, free uploads. If you make indie games, you’ll probably want your games on at least one of these platforms, if not both.

Continue reading “What Makes A Game Storefront NSFW-Friendly?” →

This is fourth of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: Eithi

CONTENT WARNING: THIS ESSAY CONTAINS DISCUSSION OF NON-CONSENSUAL SEX ACTS.

What Is The Rance Series?

The Rance series is a long-running series of erotic Japanese role-playing games developed by Alicesoft from 1989 to 2018 spanning 13-ish games. They star its titular character, the brutish hero Rance and his faithful slave Sill Plain as they venture out in the Continent. While the earlier games feature more small-scale misadventures in a single town or village, they quickly escalate into large-scale conflicts involving the larger powers that control entire kingdoms and wars between the human powers and the monsters who rule the other side of the Continent. Throughout the games, Rance and Sill meet the people who inhabit the world from all sorts of social classes and kingdoms, learn about their situations, and usually get involved in the conflicts that arise-be it by Rance’s own actions or the actions of others.

However, what Rance wants isn’t really to help others or to fight for justice; he’s simply in it for the women. Throughout the games, Rance has many sexual encounters with the various women he meets, often in extremely non-consensual contexts, and forms friendly relationships with some of them as they become recurring characters. Yet Rance’s main interaction with sex (usually) involves rape, and it’s an aspect of his character that’s remarked upon throughout the games as he meets new people.

This element is understandably something that will turn people off from the series. It’s the main barrier for people who’re uncomfortable with rape being depicted in media even if the setting, gameplay, and designs are appealing on the outside. I am not trying to convert people who don’t like those elements wholesale into the series. Rather, I think the Rance series has a lot of interesting elements that it explores through this framework and I personally find those elements interesting, especially as it relates to how the characters form relationships where consent is dubious or non-existent.

To do this, I want to first establish some basic ideas relating to how the series operates, as I believe it’s very important to get some elements clear for people who haven’t heard of the series or only know about it through its reputation on the internet.

Continue reading “The Dynamics Of Sex In The Rance Series” →

This is third of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: Lynn “wintermute” Robinson

I enjoy playing Tales of Androgyny. It is a well illustrated porn game with Visual-Novel-style dialogue and a surprisingly deep combat system that leads into evocative sex scenes. The majority of fuckable NPCs within the game are large, voluptuous women sporting equally large penises. The outcomes of the dialogue and combat systems determine whether they end up fucking your player character (“PC”) or being fucked by them, as well as who is “leading the action”. As a trans woman who is sexually interested in other women, these characters are unsurprisingly appealing to me. I enjoy the sex scenes, although what keeps me coming back to the game as it continues development are the engaging systems and the fantasy of inhabiting the world. The game allows some level of character customization, and so I tend to play Tales of Androgyny the same way I do Corruption of Champions (“CoC”), or games like Fallout or Skyrim: I make my character into a facsimile of myself, and role-play as if I were inhabiting that world.Though not particularly fine-grained, the character customization does facilitate this style of play through renaming the PC, picking their facial characteristics, skin tone, hair color, and the sizes of body parts. You cannot pick your gender, notably, nor can you pick your genitals like you can in CoC. Though I am unbothered by the mandatory penis and solitary hole, the lack of gender selection is where I begin to experience friction in my desired role-play.

Continue reading “Femboys, Futanari, And Finding Myself In The Space Between Their Bodies” →

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This is second of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: raginghadron

Time and time again while browsing adult games, I see store page after store page with bad marketing copy; bad enough that it actually obstructs the process of deciding whether or not to buy or try a game. This sucks from the perspective of a consumer, and it’s also gotta suck from the perspective of a developer.

It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve seen indie developers talk about struggling with marketing, and I can totally understand how it can seem difficult from the outside, but it isn’t something that’s out of reach, even for an indie developer with no budget.

I used to work as an editor for marketing copy; I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself a marketing expert, but pointing out flaws in marketing copy (and suggesting ways to fix them) was part of my job.

In this article, I want to use that experience to help you market your adult game. This isn’t about advertising or social media campaigns, but about the fundamental way you describe your game to potential buyers. Specifically, I’m going to focus on what goes on a game’s store page, but this information should generalize well to any other forms of marketing you choose to do.

Continue reading “Don’t Play Coy: Marketing Advice For Adult Game Devs” →

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This is first of ten essays contained within the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology, an experimental collection of longform writing that seeks to expand the breadth of critical discourse around adult games and adult game culture. I will be re-publishing the web versions of all essays from the first two issues of the anthology to this blog over the course of the next few months, but if you’d like to support the creation of more high-quality writing about adult games the full anthology is available for purchase on Itch! Anthology logo by Pillow!

Written By: Davis G. See

The Dark Ages Of Western Gay Visual Novels

When I backed Coming Out on Top on Kickstarter at the tail end of 2012, I had only played one other gay adult visual novel. That game was Enzai, which, in 2006, was the first gay adult VN to receive an official English release, with only a very small number of others having even had English fan translations. I had no idea what I was getting into with Enzai, only that it was a video game featuring men having sex with each other. When I played it, I discovered that it was actually about a skinny young man being imprisoned and repeatedly, violently raped. This was not what I wanted.

In the time between the release of Enzai in 2006 and Coming Out on Top’s release in 2014, a handful of other gay adult VNs saw official or unofficial English releases. Some were fangames for properties like Death Note or Hetalia; some were small, amateur projects with low production values; and at least one was about old, heavyset men. But most were similar to Enzai, i.e. games about yaoi twinks being sexually assaulted. I’m sure some people felt well catered to during this time, but for those of us who could not understand Japanese1 or get off to depictions of rape, the pickings were slim.

I explain all this to stress that Obscura, the developer of Coming Out on Top, was doing something unique. At least as far as the English-speaking world was concerned, there was nothing else like Coming Out on Top.

Continue reading “Coming Out On Top: A Ten-Year Retrospective” →