By Orin Zayvek, Staff Writer
Porn Games was able to sit down with a digital entertainment strategist to discuss the past, present, and future of adult gaming. Our expert guest for this Q&A session is Daniel Vanech. Daniel has consulted on user experience, monetization strategies, and overall platform development for a wide range of adult gaming sites for over ten years. He’s worked on everything from huge international platforms to smaller niche operations. He’s also specialized in helping a number of gaming platforms transition from Flash to HTML5. We cover a variety of topics including the evolution of adult gaming, virtual reality, and future technologies.
How would you say the adult gaming industry has changed over the past five years?
Daniel Vanech: Wow, if I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say “porn games will never replace real porn”, I’d be able to retire comfortably. Adult gaming nowadays is night and day compared to what this category used to be. I remember when hentai flash games were the height of interactivity and everyone was just sort of laughing off amateur games with terrible voice acting and nonexistent plots. Things really started to pick up for gaming when Adobe discontinued Flash a few years ago. Gaming platforms realized they needed to make the move to HTML5, WebGL, or Unity-based games, and developers obliged. It wasn’t long before we started seeing games with fully animated cutscenes on par with Hollywood movies. RPG elements, branching story paths, avatar customization? No problem! As the quality of games being produced increased, players started coming back to the sector in droves. Not only have monthly active users across adult gaming platforms increased by several hundred percent over the past five years, but the demographics of players have changed as well. It used to be only guys were playing sex games. Now we see women, LGBTQ+ players, and adults of all ages enjoying these interactive experiences. The diversity of players has skyrocketed over the past several years, and the games themselves have changed to match that growth.
What are some important features that separate great adult gaming websites from bad ones?
Daniel Vanech: Well, first and foremost you have to get your curation right. There’s nothing more annoying as a consumer than trying to browse thousands of games on a site that doesn’t paginate their games into categories, or worse, cutting off their descriptions to fit their thumbnail size. If I have to spend more than 5 seconds trying to find something I want to play I’ll just go look somewhere else where I can easily discover new games. Sure, players will always go back to their favorites but they also love finding new stuff.
Speaking of discoverability, you also need to have performance dialed in. Page load times on gaming sites should be instant, and games themselves should take no more than a few seconds to load. If it doesn’t load quickly you lose your visitor. Listen, when you’re browsing to consume adult content you don’t have the patience to wait around for stuff to load. And don’t even get me started if your games are laggy during play. Dump your webhost and find someone who can afford high-end servers and a top-notch delivery system.
Last but not least, show your players respect. Keep your UI clean and modern. Don’t bombard your players with popups and sketchy gimmicks. Make it easy for players to navigate your site, and keep your age verification process simple. We all know how adult sites love making you watch five videos before you can view their content. Please don’t do that with games. Most people are gonna be playing by themselves, so if it takes forever for your game to load or your site sucks to use they’ll go find something else to play.
Why do you think browser-based gaming has become so popular in this niche?
Daniel Vanech: Honestly? Convenience. I think casual gamers love browser games because you don’t have to download shit. If I want to play a porn game, I don’t want to download an .exe from who knows where. I don’t want to worry about my computer getting viruses, and I definitely don’t want my boyfriend to see it on the computer we share. Modern browser games require zero installation. Point. Click. Play. That’s all there is to it. No clients. No waiting. No files taking up space on your computer.
Another reason I think browser games have become so popular is the ability to play them anywhere. As more and more people started playing games on their phones and tablets, adult gaming platforms saw a massive increase in mobile visitors. At this point, I’d estimate that around 25% of all traffic across most porn game sites is coming from mobile devices. As long as your games perform well on small screens and touch inputs, players will flock to those platforms above their competitors any day of the week.
Is community content important to gaming platforms?
Daniel Vanech: Players love to talk about games with each other! For the longest time we didn’t really see gaming platforms offering users a way to discuss games and share opinions with others. Lately I’ve noticed that as players spend more time on sites and play more games, features like game ratings and reviews are some of the best tools to increase engagement on a gaming site. Not only do these types of user-generated content features keep players on your site longer, but they give players a reason to come back and play more games. Sites like Porn Games have really nailed that balance of integrating those community features while still keeping the main focus on quality content.
I’ve also noticed that a lot of great games are coming from smaller independent developers who may not have the budget to advertise their games on their own. When I’ve seen platforms open up a line of communication between these developers and players it creates a really cool feedback loop. The platform gets better content, developers get exposure, and players get access to new hot games they may not have otherwise known about. Platforms that invest in their developer community now will reap the rewards in the future.
Where do you see the future of adult gaming heading?
Daniel Vanech: Literally, everywhere. The opportunities for growth and new content are virtually limitless these days. As for where gaming is headed in terms of content, I feel like we’re going to see some crazy advances in AI-driven NPC interactions. We’re already starting to see games play around with voice actors that simulate real conversation, but this technology is going to blow that right out of the water. Say goodbye to awkward clicking through dialogue menus. Future games are going to have NPCs that can actually listen to you and intelligently react based on your actions and dialogue inputs. It won’t be scripted phrases you’ve read a thousand times before either. These game characters are going to learn and adapt based on how you play and what you say to them. As for virtual reality? We’re already starting to see some absolutely incredible porn VR games. The technology is finally here. Hell, we’ve already seen some games come out for standalone VR headsets that look absolutely amazing. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see VR-specific sex games become their own huge market within the next five years.
Technology-wise I’d expect gaming platforms to continue implementing features that allow them to personalize the user experience. Better game recommendations, personalized content feeds based on the individual player, maybe even AI-generated games based on your play history? So much room for growth there. The companies that start investing heavy now in that tech are gonna smoke their competition in a few years.
Final thoughts…
Daniel Vanech: Adult gaming will never be mainstream. However, that does not mean it’s not respected or loved by millions of users every day. Just like any other hobby or form of entertainment, a lot of these gamers care about the quality of content they’re playing. With so many talented developers out there creating amazing games, there’s never been a better time to get into adult gaming. Major adult companies have invested millions of dollars into branding themselves as more than just “porn websites” and it’s paying off. The days of Flash games and shitty voice acting are long gone. Right now we’re in an era of quality games across all genres that will satisfy even the casual gamer.
