In case you are wondering where to publish your lewd games, we want to share a steamy game you spent hours, months, or years developing? Let’s explore some of the top places!
Creating your lewd game and learning all about the different game engines you can use is only part of the process. Once you create your game, you have to find a platform to publish it so that people other than your friends and family(!!) can play it. There are lots of publishing options online, but not every possibility is going to work for every game. You need site, platform, or app that supports lewd games, as well as on that will makes it easy for players to find your game in a sea of millions of titles. You’ll also want to look at solutions that make it easy for you to get your game uploaded and ready to publish, while giving you lots of tools and options as far as presentation and promotion.
Here are a few of the popular lewd game publishing platforms that you should consider.
itch.io
One of the best options of places where to publish your lewd games is Itch.io. This platform has gained popularity in recent years for being a go-to spot for indie game developers, including those creating adult games. Itch.io allows you to upload your game easily and set your own pricing, including options for pay-what-you-want models.
One of the main attractions of Itch.io is its inclusive and welcoming community. It supports a wide range of genres, making it a friendly place for creators of all types of games, including lewd ones. The site is also known for being developer-friendly, with minimal restrictions on content, which is a boon if your game pushes the boundaries of traditional platforms.
Moreover, Itch.io offers a straightforward interface for both developers and players. You can easily customize your game’s page with images, descriptions, and even additional downloadable content. The platform provides analytics tools to help you track your game’s performance, which is invaluable for understanding your audience and making informed decisions about future projects.
Overall, Itch.io is one of the top choices for any indie developer aiming to reach a broad audience for the least possible budget. Its popularity and strong community focus make it the favorite of many lewd game developers.
Steam
One of the most popular gaming platforms that you can find is Steam. They have both an app and a website, so it’s easy for gamers to find them and get their games. They have lots of AAA games as well as much smaller, independent games to buy. What makes Steam such a popular destination is that it acts as both a game selling storefront and a launcher. The only thing anyone needs is the app, and they can access their gaming library and play them right on the device they happen to be using. That’s a big reason why it can be such a good choice to publish your lewd game.
Having the biggest audience of any gaming site doesn’t mean Steam is without its drawbacks, though. The big one is that Steam tends to make it difficult for people to find adult games. You can’t simply sign up and find games meant for an older audience. You have to go into your account settings and adjust things so you can see lewd and mature content. It makes your audience a little bit smaller, but since Steam customers are used to spending money, it’s still a good option for creators.
F95Zone
If you’re looking to tap into a robust community of adult game enthusiasts, F95Zone is a must-consider platform. This forum is one of the most popular online destinations for adult game developers and fans alike. You can create an official thread for your game, reaching an audience that is already deeply interested in your niche.
One of the key advantages of F95Zone is its syndication power. Information and discussions about adult games posted on the forum often get picked up and shared elsewhere, increasing the visibility of your game. This can be an excellent way to build traction and attract players who might not have found your game through other channels.
F95Zone also offers a supportive community where you can get feedback and suggestions from fellow developers and gamers. This can be invaluable for refining your game and staying connected with your audience’s preferences and needs.
While the forum’s structure might not be as straightforward as a dedicated game platform, the potential for community engagement and amplified reach makes it a compelling choice for publishing and promoting your lewd games.
Nutaku
Finally, there’s Nutaku. Just like Steam, this one is a massive platform with lots of games and users going through it. They focus on lewd games, so it can be a better fit than Steam. They also offer lots of support for creators, including finding your projects and giving you the assets that you need to make it a reality. Just keep in mind that a company can’t simply hand out money to anyone. You have to pitch your game and they have to accept it. Once that happens, they’re going to work very hard to make their money back, plus a profit. That’s all going to come out of what people are paying for your game. Still, there are few options that will give you money before your game is complete.
Nutaku have a large resources section dedicated to what they have to offer developers and how you can start the process of finding out whether they want to fund your project. It makes a lot of sense to take your time when you write out your pitch. It’s the only thing that Nutaku will have to decide on going into business with you. If you succeed with your pitch, you’ll have their support for the entire game creation and marketing process.
Literotica
For those interested in interactive sex stories to text games of any type, Literotica is an ideal publishing platform. Known as the world’s most popular sex story website, and having been around longer than any online gaming website, Literotica offers a massive audience eager for new and engaging lewd stories/games.
The site allows authors to use Ink – a scripting language created by Inkle and used in many popular and award winning Unity games – for publishing interactive sex stories. They often refer to their interactive stories as “Adult Story Games”, presumably because the use of Ink allows interactive stories to use variables, functions, lists, conditionals, and other high level gaming features.
Anyone can publish interactive stories on Literotica, giving authors potential access to millions of readers daily. Although monetization is not directly available through the platform, authors do have the option to link to their Patreon or other “tipping” or “support this creator” type account. This makes it possible to financially benefit from your audience’s support while still offering your work for free and getting access to Literotica’s millions of readers.
Literotica is an excellent place to build a following and gain recognition for your work. Since the platform is primarily text, some developers create interactive text spinoffs to publish on Literotica, and then upsell their graphic games via Patreon, itch.io or other methods.
DL Site
DL Site is a good platform for anyone who’s new to game creation and publishing, especially if you’re trying to find a market for your visual novel. One of the biggest benefits of the site is that you can simply upload and publish your game on your own. You choose how much you want to charge, and the site will take a cut of the profits. It’s a very simple way to get your game to its audience. Visual novel buyers often check the list of new releases on DL Site daily, looking for interesting titles.
Another benefit of DL Site is that they have a large collection of assets for creators. These include tools, music, visual assets, and sound effects that you can buy to use in your games. They have one section for general games and one section for adult games. You’ll be able to find assets that you likely didn’t know you were going to need for your lewd game. For instance, they have a sound effect for sex scenes, poses for your characters, bondage dungeon assets, and a lot more than can be mentioned here. After purchase, these assets can typically be used in the game engine of your choice. It creates a community of developers that often stick with this one platform from creation to publishing.
Manga Gamer
Manga Gamer may be another good option, as long as your game is polished and has a built in audience. The difference between Manga Gamer and most other platforms is that, like Nutaku, you can’t simply upload and publish the games on your own.
Manga Gamer curates its own collection by licensing games from creators and putting them up on their platform. Once they do that, you’ll get a cut of the profits, and that’s the end of your involvement. Your license will come up at some point and the platform will have to decide if it wants to renew it for another term. That means your game has to perform very well to make it worth the cost for them. Underperforming games can expect to be taken down and replaced with a more popular and easier to sell titles. If you’re creating the type of game that this platform focuses on (visual novels and lewd games inspired by or somehow related to Japanese culture), it might be worth your time to research further.
While definitely not for every game developer, if you can show them that they’re likely to make money licensing your game, this might be a publishing solution worth your time.
Android/iOS Native Apps
Publishing explicit games on mobile platforms like Android and iOS can be challenging due to the strict policies relating to “porn” in the App Stores. However, if your game doesn’t cross the line and qualifies more as a spicy romance game or visual novel, creating a native app might be a viable option.
Developing a native app can help you reach a broader audience by making your game available on phones, tablets, and even wearables that hundreds of millions of people use every day. It also allows you to take advantage of the app stores’ built-in features for monetization, such as in-app purchases, mobile advertising, and subscriptions.
However, navigating the app store guidelines can be tricky. You’ll need to be cautious with all of the content included in your app (text, images, audio, video, etc.) to ensure it complies with the stores’ policies. Additionally, the development process for native apps can be more complex and time-consuming than web-based platforms.
That said, the potential reach and convenience for users make native apps a worthy consideration if your game fits within the acceptable content guidelines. With careful planning and execution, you may be able to tap into a massive market and offer your lewd games to everyone using Android and iOS.
Publishing Lewd Games is Easier than Ever
No matter which website/app option you go with, it should be understood that publishing lewd games is easier than ever. There are many different platforms you can choose from and quite a few of them have active communities to help you out with the creation, publishing, and promotion of your project. Some platforms may even help fund your project and give you access to assets that will help speed the process of getting it made (with potentially some compromise between speed and quality, since free assets are usually reused in many games).
Make sure you take time to understand exactly what each platform offers, and how their features match up with your goals, before picking one or more platforms to publish your game. There is no one “best” option, instead there are many possible ways to match your creation up with like-minded gamers.
Since most indie lewd games are developed for fun (rather than with a goal of getting rich), the most important thing is to finish your game and get it out into the world where it can be played!