One of the great things about breaking into the adult industry is that there are multiple options for you to choose from, from content creation and adult films to technology and, yes, even AI. But for the creative, there is a fast-growing market that is ready for you to tap into – the world of creating porn games.
Porn games have quickly become a popular part of the adult industry, offering users the chance to explore new kinks, fantasies and have fun in a range of ways: from hentai-focused games reminiscent of the old school Final Fantasy games and RPGs (role play games) or online games that allow you to play with others and create new worlds, the possibilities to be creative and design the latest porn game is endless.
However, before you can start making your next porn game, there are key concerns that must be addressed: from content restrictions surrounding how explicit the game can be to making sure you are complying with the local and national laws and platform-specific guidelines that need to be understood before you proceed.
While NSFW games are a great revenue stream, understanding the legal and ethical considerations that surround the industry is key to ensuring you succeed and making sure your game can be developed and launched from the get-go.
From ensuring you are correctly marketing your game as 18+ to tackling the ethical concerns of addictiveness and desensitization. You need to understand these things before you even start conceptualizing your game! That’s where Adult Site Broker comes in.
If you have ever had a brilliant idea for a porn game, then this article is for you! Adult Site Broker will be walking you through the process of how to create a porn game, from conceptualization to development, and what happens after.
Understanding the Legal Framework
Before we look at the fun stuff, such as how to conceptualize your NSFW game and what development tools are crucial to success, we need to start with the boring topics. Namely, what does the law say about creating adult porn games?
As with any creative project, especially in the adult industry, creating an NSFW game that meets legal requirements is key to success.
Firstly, when you start developing a game, you need to get a licensing agreement, within which you may find that the development engine you are using has stated explicitly if there are any content restrictions, such as depicting underage characters, extreme and realistic violence, or even restricting the depictions of certain types of kinks or sexual acts. It will also clearly state that, to create the game and later upload it to a platform, because it depicts explicit scenarios, the game is for adults only (18+).
If these licensing agreements are broken, you may not be able to develop the game, market it, and upload it to a specific platform, or you could face local or national legal issues due to criminal offenses or breach of contract.
Beyond legislation and legal considerations, it is important to understand that specific platforms have guidelines on the types of games they allow, with Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox refusing to license NSFW games or allowing them in their app stores. This means that when designing your game, you need to consider creating a PC game, so you also need to factor in designing a website for the game.
Conceptualizing Your Game
When you start to create a porn game, like with any game, conceptualizing your creative idea is key.
To begin with, you need to decide the type of gameplay you wish to create: an RPG, puzzle, or maybe a novel erotica game. Alongside choosing which adult themes you wish to depict, are you interested in creating a game about furries?
What about hentai-styled visuals or even focusing on a specific kink? You may want to offer an easy-to-use game that depicts good, old regular porn and people. You need to nail these key concepts to help you develop a storyline.
Storyboarding what you want to show, your characters, and your game’s storyline will help you plan what to do next and let you refine or replace ideas to better fulfill your game concept as you start developing the game.
Being flexible with your concepts is also important to meet the wants of the players themselves, gain feedback from close friends or via online communities on what they want to see/be able to do during gameplay, to help you understand if you need to tweak the design or game concept before you hit the beta testing stage.
These games aim to entertain users and offer erotic content, so balancing this with character development, engaging gameplay, and visuals is the right approach.
The most popular porn games offer a storyline throughout, creating world-building opportunities for your audience to immerse themselves in. Remember, if people wanted to watch porn, they would watch an adult film.
Choosing the Right Development Tools
Once your concepts are ready, your next step is to develop your game before marketing it and creating a beta version for people to play and provide feedback on. The two most popular game development engines for creating adult games are Unity and Unreal Engine. But knowing which suits you can be tricky; check out our guide to help you decide below:
Unity
- Complexity: Beginner-friendly interface
- Price: Free until a product earns $100k in 12 months
- Audience: Beginner and Indie creators
- Supported platforms: mobile, desktop, console, web, and VR/XR
- Compatibility with creating adult content: Allows for the creation of adult-only games, but you cannot say Unity is affiliated with the game itself.
Unreal Engine
- Complexity: For those with more experience.
- Price: Free, but a 5% royalty is added once a product earns $1 million
- Audience: AAA devs and indie creators looking for hyper-realism
- Supported platforms: mobile, web, console, and VR/XR
- Compatibility with adult content: Unreal Engine is a versatile platform that allows creators to make adult-only games in various styles, from pornographic RPGs to first-person shooters.
Both offer the chance to create adult-only games, which is a good match for you, depending on your experience creating games and how realistic you want the game to be.
If you are a beginner who wants an easy-to-use game with limited visuals, Unity is the one for you. If you want to create hyper-realistic visuals, Unreal Engine is the right choice.
Making porn games can be a lucrative venture, but understanding the legal framework and best practices for conceptualizing and designing your game is imperative to ensure success.
