Please share and contribute to support our next collection of longform writing on adult games (and possibly even force me personally to write a game review for you)

Below the cut is the full text of the campaign:

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About The Anthology

Hello! I'm Bigg, the owner and lead developer of boutique adult game studio BP Games, makers of award-winning erotic visual novel Opportunity: A Sugar Baby Story as well as the upcoming Monstrous Liberation. In 2023, I asked myself: where is all the good writing about adult games?

Video games about sex have existed as long as video games have existed, but you'd never know it by looking at the past several decades of video-game-focused journalism and criticism. Adult games are seen as lesser, their content shameful and sophomoric, embarrassing to even acknowledge - never mind write about. Advertiser prudery more or less guarantees that no large outlets will ever dedicate more than the occasional article to the subject of adult games, and what other coverage that exists on the topic amounts to little more than surface-level reviews of new releases on small-scale enthusiast sites.

And yet - there are thousands of adult games, played by millions of people. From dubiously-translated Japanese imports, to crass, high-energy Flash photo hunts, to experimental Twine explorations of darker kinks, to the current-day crop of Ren'Py-powered visual novels and RPGMaker offerings, adult games have shaped and excited our sexuality through countless experiences. Surely, within all of those experiences, all of that history, all of that craft, there must be SOME things worth writing about!

It was with this philosophy that I organized, edited, and published the first issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology. This issue contained nine essays, with subject matter spanning personal disaffection with queer-friendly porn games, conventions surrounding the application of adult-content patches, and even scholarly examinations of the interactions between Bluetooth-enabled sex toys and game modding. This first issue received very warm reception - even getting featured in curated games writing aggregator Critical Distance - and it became immediately clear that there was an appetite for more of this kind of writing. Which brings us to this campaign.

Planned Essays

(Please note that these are summaries based on high-level pitches, and essay content may evolve between this campaign and final publication!)

• A ten-year retrospective on the 2014 gay visual novel Coming Out on Top and how the landscape of Western gay visual novels has changed since its release, by Davis G. See

• An examination of the Rance eroge series and its employment of nonconsensual sexual relationships, and how entries like Rance VI and Sengoku Rance subvert this pattern, by Eithi

• A discussion of what makes platforms like Steam and Itch hostile to developers of NSFW games, what an NSFW-friendly platform might look like, and how such a platform could service NSFW game developers, publishers, and, most of all, players. Told from the perspective of the developer of the upcoming Benefitship game, by MadCreativity

• A critique of the marketing copy for many adult games (which often neglect to discuss the kinks and fantasies the games appeal to), why it's a problem, and how to write copy that attracts the people who want to play your game, by RagingHadron

• An interrogation of the ways that inflated, unrealistic expectations for the amount of content that ought to be in an adult game are being addressed by art thieves and AI-generated slop, by Leo G.

• A personal essay about the author's attraction to erotic games wherein everything works out and everyone has sex, using Project Horseshoe's report "Coziness in Games: An Exploration of Safety, Softness, and Satisfied Needs" as a framework, by Blit

• A recounting of four years as a VTuber/lewdtuber, sharing experiences with building a community that is centred around sharing sex/kink positivity and embracing porn gaming as a hobby, rather than as a shameful pastime, by LewdNeko

• An exploration of how porn/romance games help those with complex relationships to sex get back in touch with their sexuality in a controlled environment, drawing on the author's own experiences, by Laney Norman

• A scrutinization of the pornographic character archetypes of the "futanari" and the "sissy", how these archetypes are articulated, how they are played against each other, and where their boundaries break down, using Tales of Androgyny as a lens, by Lynn "wintermute" Robinson

The Essayists, In Their Own Words

• Davis G. See is a gay writer and game developer out of Alberta, Canada. He has an assortment of published works, including short stories, poems, and essays. He is currently working on his own gay visual novel in DESERT OF ASH: a Post-Apocalyptic Gay Sex Simulator. Learn more about it and his other games at https://davisgsee.itch.io.

• Hey everyone! My name is Eithi and I'm a Mexican writer who is incredibly passionate about games, visual novels and their adult counterparts. My main interests lie in the world of Japanese visual novels and erotic otaku fiction and helping people understand the wonderful and awesome worlds that these writers leave for us. Big or niche, I love them all and want to write about them so much my head explodes from joy. You can find me on Twitter as @misha_seraph or on Cohost as Eithi if you'd like to see more of my writing. I'm very happy with the opportunity I've been given here at the AAA and I look forward to sharing more all of you in the future!

• MadCreativity is the developer of an upcoming NSFW visual novel, Benefitship, and a professional programmer.

• RagingHadron (he/they) is a freelance writer who is familiar with marketing copy, having worked as an editor and proofreader for it. They play adult games as a hobby, and are also a hobbyist musician, gamedev, and enjoyer of traditional roguelikes. You can find them on Cohost @raginghadron, usually making or reposting bad jokes.

• Leo G. is a programmer and writer that has been in tech for a decade running. As one half of [Clown Control], they write the Field Report series chronicling the sexy misadventures of space-faring scientist Del Doppler. They're also hammering away at an adult video game, with a demo dropping this year. They like long walks on the beach and even longer walks in the woods. You can find them on Cohost @leo-g, on twitter @leognyc, and on tumblr @leog4u.

• Blit is a programmer, musician and writer who pretends to be a funny animal person online. He hopes that writing about porn instead of computer code will finally make all his digital humanities professors proud. You can find him goofing around on Cohost.

• LewdNeko is a virtual camgirl who has been streaming since 2020. Her streams mix adult gaming and camming into a sex-positive and interactive experience with a heavy emphasis on hentai and kink. She also writes for FuwaNovel and co-hosts the Sexy Business Podcast where she discusses the adult gaming industry. You can find her on Twitter and Chaturbate as @LewdNekoNya or on ePlay and RPLAY as @LewdNeko.

• Laney Norman is a graduate student in the Masters of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program at SDSU where she studies all things romance, erotica, and internet culture through the lens of comparative media studies. Chronically online in fandom spaces for the majority of her life, she loves all things paranormal romance, K-pop, and the Regency era. You can find her floating around social media under the user handle @draculaney on most platforms.

• Lynn "wintermute" Robinson is a Sex & Gender Studies scholar with an emphasis in Queer Studies, as well as a longtime enthusiast in games, porn and porn games. Her area of interest in both cases are the structures we create with the words we use to describe each other, and how we (re)create ourselves within those structures. She can be found on Cohost.

Costs

Issue #1 of AAA was an entirely self-funded experimental proof-of-concept, with each contributor receiving $50 USD for their finished essay, and myself not receiving any compensation. Given the enthusiasm for AAA #1, I would like to increase the compensation for our essayists, while also being a little more fair to myself. Thus, our costs break down as such:

• $75 USD per essay, times 9 = $675 USD total

• $75 USD for my own labour in writing for, organizing, and editing the anthology

• 11% added for business income tax = $82.50 USD

• 5% added on top of that for Indiegogo's platform fee = $41.63 USD

This brings us to a total of $874.13 USD, or $1199.82 CAD, which has been rounded up to $1200 CAD. Any funds in excess of this goal will be split evenly between myself and all other contributors. Should we not meet our goal, essayists will be given the option to withdraw from the anthology, and what money there is will be split evenly between myself and all remaining contributors.

Perks

Our perks are very straightforward:

• The Anthology! You will receive a PDF copy of the final version of the second issue of the Adult Analysis Anthology one week ahead of its publication. Also includes a PDF copy of AAA #1.

• Special Thanks! Everything in the previous tier, but your name will also be added to the "Special Thanks" page of AAA #2.

• Buy My Opinion! Everything from the previous tiers, and I will also acquire, play, and write a minimum-1,500-word review of an adult game of your choosing, to be included in AAA #2. Limit 1, so snag this one quick!

Risks & Challenges

Should this campaign not meet its goal, there is a possibility that the final anthology will be published with fewer essays than listed above. However, there WILL be an anthology published regardless of the success or failure of this campaign.

Otherwise, after the experience of organizing and editing the first issue, I am very confident in my ability to bring you a professional-grade anthology of high-quality long-form writing about adult games. Should there be any delays or changes, I will communicate those changes to all contributors as soon as possible.

Other Ways You Can Help

If you can't contribute, sharing is still extremely appreciated! Thank you for helping us increase the stock of high-quality writing about adult games!