Patreon is no stranger to furry porn games. Heat, a VR “intimate anthro video game,” follows in the footsteps of adult furry VR games like Yiffalicious (now titled FurryVNE). But Heat is only five months old and already has over 780 patrons pledging nearly $9,000 per month for the game’s release. Why?
Heat is a single-player VR porn game that lets users hook up with a variety of anthropomorphic creatures through direct, first-person contact. The game, which is in active development, currently lets players fool around with two furry characters: Emerson the dragon and Hera the dragoness. Not unlike VR games like Captain Hardcore and The Villain Simulator, game play is entirely open-ended: Players can do as they please with their furry partners for as long as they want.
Heat developer Edef originally began looking into virtual reality after
he became interested in bringing his fursona, Emerson, into VR. These
initial experiments gained his fans’ interest, and Heat “naturally
evolved” from the process, he told the Daily Dot. Nonetheless, the
game’s success on Patreon remains “a pleasant surprise for sure.”
“We knew we had something really cool on our hands but had no idea how
viable it really was,” he said. “It was great to see that the VR market
was mature enough to allow something like Heat to exist.”
Heat’s interactions are pretty dynamic. A clip from developer Edef shows how the game lets the player “boop” Emerson’s snoot. Gentle, intimate physical interaction is a huge selling point with Heat, as the game features realistic physics that let players lovingly caress Hera and Emerson from head to toe.
But Heat’s physics really shine through with its erotic gameplay: another, more explicit video shows how players can directly stimulate Emerson’s genitals. Players can grab his erection, stroke his tip, or watch his cock bounce slightly from brief contact. It’s as fluid as it is lifelike, a surprising feat in a genre known for its uncanny valley effect. Hera has equally realistic vaginal and anal physics. Players can play with her breasts, insert sex toys into her, and even make her cum.
More recently, Heat introduced “oral features”, such as licking characters’ bellies, lips, and more. And yes, for foot fetish fans, you can even lick Hera and Emerson’s toes. Other kinky features include a macro mode (short for macrophilia, a fetish for giants and giantesses) and the ability to draw on the game’s characters. If you have a spare VR tracker, you can even have furry sex with Emerson and Hera (and if you don’t, one of your two main VR controllers will do just fine). Other upcoming features include additional characters “of different body types and genders,” new locations such as glory holes and dark alleys, and additional sex features like bondage sex.
“However, none of these ideas are set in stone. That’s why we have you Patrons!” Heat’s Patreon notes. “You’ll get to influence the features we work on and give us feedback on what you’d like to see next. This game is for you guys!”
Moving forward, Edef and Wiah are interested in adding a horse boy character, “small details” to bring the characters to life, and additional fetishes added into the game. “I’ve had requests for growth, vore, watersports, and bondage,” Edef told the Daily Dot. “Vore is probably too much of a tangent but some more detailed maws aren’t out of the question. All fetish content like that will be hidden toggles though so
it won’t interfere with those who aren’t interested.”
While Heat is primarily a VR game, it also supports 2D play options for interested players that do not have a VR headset available.
Edef and Wiah, Heat’s two developers, originally required $5,000 per month to develop Heat full-time; it’s now the 20th-highest-grossing adult game on Patreon among creators who publicly divulge their monthly earnings. That’s particularly impressive given Heat’s Patreon only launched in May 2020. And while Heat’s popularity may befuddle non-furs, the game’s popularity can be attributed to two key factors: its realistic sexual mechanics and its appeal with furry fans themselves.
Yiff art, or sexual furry artwork, is considered somewhat taboo online. But despite its divisive nature, furry porn is incredibly popular within the furry fandom: One 2013 study from FurScience found the overwhelming majority of men and women in the furry fandom look at furry porn. While men were far more likely to have positive feelings on furry porn than women, furries across genders have a long and storied history of supporting adult furry creators, including sex toy retailers like Bad Dragon. Heat’s success should come as no surprise: It’s tapped into the yiffing zeitgeist, so to speak, with a VR game that brings plenty of furry porn fantasies to (virtual) life.
“‘I’ve been in the furry scene a long time and I’ve always dreamed of creating my own furry game,” Edef says on Heat’s Patreon. “It’s finally time to make that dream into a reality. I’m a generalist programmer with years of experience in the indie gaming scene and I have the knowledge necessary to take this game to greatness.”
Try out Heat by subscribing to the game’s Patreon.
Update 1:50pm CT, Oct. 6: This article has been updated with quotes from Heat developer Edef.
