In DiGRA conference proceedings. The definitive version will be on DiGRA digital library. Patreon is a crowdfunding platform where pornographic games are funded; even the most successful game developer in terms of the number of members is developing a pornographic game. We looked at 42 developers and their Patreon pages in order to examine the effects of the Patreon crowdfunding model on videogame development. Especially we studied membership rewards. As a result, developers were not only selling the game, but rewards we much about Community , Influence, and Recognition.
Regulating Content Access is used regularly but often the latest version of the game is made available to everybody, just later to the members funding the development. We propose that certain rewards are similar to backstage passes in the music business and suggest that Patron pornographic games funding deviates from the crowdfunding model is not following mainly product-oriented commodity logic but a more community-oriented concept.
Crowdfunding is a recent fundraising tool see, Macht and Weatherston Several crowdfunding platforms have surfaced in recent years. Notably, some low entry selling platforms, such as itch. According to Smith , crowdfunding has become an important venue for funding game development projects. Kickstarter and Indiegogo are some of the prominent crowdfunding platforms for games. Developers usually set a minimum funding goal needed for the project realisation, and a deadline. If not funded by deadline, backers receive their investments back.
An alternative funding model has recently arrived where project members on the Patreon service fund projects by monthly payments or when work is published. Patreon hosts many game development projects. Surprisingly, Patreon also hosts many pornographic game projects. Moreover, these pornographic games have more funding members than regular game projects, at least among the top 50 listed developers cf. Figure 1. Summertime Saga DarkCookie n.
Adult Games YouTube channel covering all kinds of adult games including Patreon funded games has Pornographic games, both hard- or softcore, have traditionally mostly existed outside of the traditional Western game publishing ecosystem cf. Krzywinska Erotic game mods also exist as mostly free amateur production. In general, these mods remove clothes or change them for more revealing ones, but they can add sex toys and dialogue.
