This 'xxxhibition' complete with dildo joysticks was the highlight of PAX Australia

This year at PAX Australia I was given a wristband with an R18+ rating on it, certifying I am a real adult who is allowed to look at real adult games. Australians campaigned long and hard for 18+ games to be sold here and the system's still not perfect, but I'm glad to see official recognition that games aren't just for children. With this wristband I could have lined up to play South Park: The Fractured But Whole over on the show floor, but instead I chose to spend the last day of the con at an 'xxxhibition' of games for adults. 

It's a hike from the show floor to the theater building and then up two flights of stairs to room 214, where a sign with an eggplant emoji welcomes visitors to this showcase of sexy games. It's not a place you're likely to stumble across by accident while looking for the Injustice 2 booth. 

Compared to most of the con it's a calm and quiet space, illuminated by fairylights and a widescreen monitor where people play Genital Jousting (a game whose publisher chose not to submit it for classification in Australia, and which cannot be sold here) with controllers made from dildoes. In the middle of the room is a kiddie pool full of sextoys and around the walls are stations where you can play The Sims 4 with the Robert Yang's games about gay culture, and Blushbox Collective, a group dedicated to highlighting games about love and romance as well as sex, and Bar SK, a videogame bar that hosts indie games and whose owner makes custom controllers like the dildo joysticks here. There are no games about building a harem of anime girls, no VR humping simulators. Whether it's laughing at Genital Jousting's wobbly wangs or discussing what to say to someone you wake up beside in visual novel One Night Stand, these games and this environment are designed to foster intimacy rather than boners.

Katie Stegs, one of the co-founders of Blushbox, talked me through the xxxhibition.

PC Gamer: Tell me about Blushbox. How did it start?

Katie Stegs: It started as a collective in the beginning of 2016 and the reason we started was because Kim Allom from Defiant Development wanted to go to One Night Stand, is by Kinmoku. It's a story about a person waking up after a one night stand and it's about choices that you make. Are you gonna go home or are you gonna speak to the person? What are you gonna do? Are you gonna get their number? The awkwardness—it's up to you really if it's an awkward encounter but it's exploring that idea of sex with a stranger and intimacy with a stranger or someone you don't really know. What do you do? How does that feel? It's really interesting to me because I think sex is often talked about so biologically. This game explores the emotional side of it much more. It's really awesome.

Luxuria Superbia by Tale of Tales, it's about female pleasure. It's like a very slow, deliberate racing game I suppose you would say. You're trying to make these little petals bloom to climax, it gives you hints and feedback along the way.

At the Robert Yang station we've got recent, controversial indie hit The Tearoom. You would have seen probably a bunch of articles on that.

Heartbeat symposium that we're doing in January and he's going to be speaking about why he actually made this game. It's had a lot of controversy around it, it's all about penetration and being penetrated, but it's not necessarily about pleasure or the penis as a power symbol. It's more about the funniness of it.

They are very silly penises.

KS: They are very silly penises! And we don't often see penises represented in this context. It's usually a symbol of power, of dominance or aggression. This is the opposite of that. He made this dick joke.

Is that why the dildo controllers are a good match for it? 

KS: The dildo controllers are made by Louis Roots, this exhibition is put on in collaboration with his