Advice for new developers?

ErospaceGame

Member
Nov 28, 2017
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Hey there!
I am the writer on a team developing a new adult game. It is our first attempt at game development, so we're trying to get involved in the community to learn as much as possible. Do y'all have any tips for first-timers, in terms of art, writing, and marketing? I know this is a vague question but really any input would be helpful :) Thanks!
 
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buffmuffin

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Apr 5, 2016
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1. If you have art, that's good.

2. If you have good art, that's better.

3. Don't take or solicit advice from 'the community'. Envision your game and create it. You should solicit advice only for ways in which what you were planning to put in the game anyway is depicted.

If you try to mash together a game based on what a random solicitation of people want, it's going to be mediocre at best, and you will get sick of working on it because it is not what appeals to *you*. Your game, do what you want.

If you want something to appeal to a broad base, be aware that what appeals to you is not going to appeal to everyone, so your best bet is to put a variety of character types, bodies and personalities into a strong story that overrides peoples preferences.

As an example, I cannot stand large breasts. Most especially cartoonishly large breasts. But i have seen a couple of game offerings where the underlying story and fetishes involved were so to my taste, that i was willing to overlook that and some fetishes that were strong turn-offs just to play the game.

Be that game, and it will be a success.
 

Klaptrap

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
436
203
Be prepared to support your choices. A lot of people don't know the difference between suggestion and demand or assume that any taken action is clearly worse than the alternative they support. Be willing to engage them. Be confident without being smug.

Don't be afraid to cut something that doesn't work. Even if that something is big. Even if that something is a person (the cutting is metaphorical here, don't cut someone).
 

flyrenders

Well-Known Member
Jul 2, 2017
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Art is what sells the product, coding game mechanics is what keeps the users playing, so it's very important to have a good art as a first impression. Be prepared for lots of work and if you decide to use Patreon, don't put rewards, where the supporters have too much control over the development of the game or where you will end up working on something crazy, for example if you have a reward that lets the user design a characater, they may want 1 character that has 200 abilities and 50 skins or something like that, which you won't be able to complete on time.
 

The Silver Bard

Well-Known Member
Sep 2, 2015
207
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This isn't specific to adult games and is more relevant to the designer, but start small. If your project lead is new at this, they may not know it, but their most important responsibility is controlling the game's scope. Scope creep kills most projects, especially for inexperienced teams. I'd estimate 90% of new game developers have their first project collapse under their uncontrollably expanding scope. Your project lead needs to look at every suggested addition to the game, budget the work involved, and figure out whether the value of the addition is worth it. If you don't have a project lead, then this responsibility is split among all members and much harder. Don't agree to any new additions to the game until everyone on the team has had a chance to calculate the work involved and approve it.

On a related note is the role of the game's designer. Fundamentally, the purpose of design is to get the most value for effort. In the case of games, this equation becomes enjoyment for man-hours of work. Ideally, this means making sure aspects of the game synergize in a way that provides more enjoyment than the sum of its parts. Keep this in mind every time a new feature or piece of content is suggested. The thing a lot of new developers don't realize is that regardless of whether team members are collecting a paycheck, you still have a fixed budget. That's the amount of time the members of your team have available to work on the project. Don't assume you can make up extra work by just trying harder. Don't add stuff for the hell of it. Every new piece of work you add costs hours that could be used elsewhere.

Some advice specific to adult games: Don't try to add fetish or sexual content that you don't find appealing just because it's popular. A lack of passion will show in your work.

Some general writing advice. Writing characters for games is similar to writing characters for other mediums, but you'll usually have less time to develop each character. This doesn't mean that you should just write shallow characters. You should know each of your characters likes, dislikes, background and quirks even you don't plan on sharing any of that with the player. Consider how each of those things will influence the character's actions, thought process, and manner of speech while delivering whatever text you need for gameplay purposes or to advance the plot. By keeping these things constantly in mind, you'll be able to gradually develop an interesting character without needing to devote time to explicit character building.

Some more specific writing advice (Your mileage may vary): If your player character is intended to be a player surrogate, rather than an established character, be careful with dialogue. It's really jarring to the player if their character says something they would never say. I personally handle this by never including any dialogue from the player. The narration just summarizes what was said. You can also handle this by having the player choose all of their own dialog (the Bioware/Telltale solution). Even if there's only two choices and they don't have any consequences, people will generally not be bothered by dialogue that they picked.
 

ErospaceGame

Member
Nov 28, 2017
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Wow, you all have given me a lot to think about! Thank you so much for your time and feedback, it's incredibly helpful. Clearly there are a lot of things to keep in mind, and while I know the first time doing anything is never easy, it's always encouraging to hear from people who have been there.
 

ErospaceGame

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Nov 28, 2017
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Good point. We're going to do our best to keep our egos in check, trying to maintain our vision and confidence in the face of criticism. As of right now, we'd probably prefer screaming over the silence we're currently getting, but hopefully as we continue to work and post, we'll get more attention to our game.
 
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YSlayer

Active Member
Jul 1, 2017
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Be prepared for little feedback at first. It can be jarring to feel like theres just nobody even looking at your game but they will. Make sure wherever you post it, you give it a good succinct description. In less than 30 seconds of reading the reader should know who the main character is, the setting, the premise, the planned fetishes and how much is currently available (preferably in hours of playtime). If you have less than an hour of playtime a lot of people won't bother looking till theres more.

An example would be like:

In this game you play as anna, a young women fresh out of college trying to start a new life in a new city while putting her troubled past behind her. Can you make it on your own and stop your past from catching up to you?

Theres currently 3 hours of playtime which will take you to the end of week 4. We plan to release updates monthly.

Current fetishes and pairings include:
Masturbation
Oral
Vaginal
Anal
F/M
F/F
F/M/M

Planned fetishes include:
Non consent
Gangbang
BDSM
Prostitution

THEN you can go on and on about the specifics and your team and what your vision for the game is and all that. You should also include art in there and download/patreon links either near the very top or the very bottom. The first wall anyone faces is getting someone to try their game so put some thought into it. You could be sitting on the best game of all time but if no one plays it theres little point.

Oh you can also sort of cheat to get a dialogue going by asking a question when you post a game. People might be more willing to answer the question than give their gameplay impressions as a whole and once people start talking discussion can break out. Something simple and specific like did you like the black or white outfit better for X character as opposed to something vague like do you like the direction of the game.

Theres bound to be a lot better writers here than me but when I'm coming up with characters I like to almost immediately think of what they would do in their free time outside the plot. Basically who are they by themselves. Then if I don't have a great idea about the characters interactions I just try to write some normal to mundane to crazy situations and try to write how they would interact. I usually start with all the characters at a table eating lunch. It can be surprisingly hard to actually write a scene just off eating lunch together with no crazy event to focus on. Still, I'm a novice, listen to other people over me.

The guy talking about scope is also to be listened to. Keep it simple, don't add any more than necessary. Think of it better this way. Complete the core essentials to make the game function and get to the end before adding stuff that might not be as necessary. Everyone wants to make their ultimate life simulator with 50 million story branches and dynamic AI with 10000000 pictures but thats just not feasible. The more you can plan out and the more you can stick to that plan the better. Of course sometimes adjustments have to be made if something that seemed simple turns out to be a lot more work than anticipated and sometimes extra stuff has to be developed due to stuff you didn't originally foresee but always do your best to keep the workload down as much as possible or someone will inevitably burn out and then your project is dead in the water until a replacement is found which could take a long time and the project as a whole is likely to fall apart.
 

ErospaceGame

Member
Nov 28, 2017
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Thanks for your input; the scope does seem really important. I know when we started we wanted to do EVERYTHING, but I think we've got our project down to a manageable size. I'll also rework our description, as per your suggestion.
I really like what you have to say about writing characters; in some of the other games I've played, the characters seem like the same recycled tropes over and over, which got me wondering if it was worth it to actually develop complex characters.
Our game is also a bit different, because I think we're less pornographic and more erotic, if that makes sense. We've definitely got explicit stuff going on, but you have to work up to a lot of it. Since we're more story-oriented than sex-oriented (not that you can't have both), we don't have tons of fetishes yet. We plan to include more as we develop new chapters, but I worry that if we're not overflowing with sex scenes, we'll get overlooked.
 
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Savin

Master Analmander
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Aug 26, 2015
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Hey there!Do y'all have any tips for first-timers, in terms of art, writing, and marketing? I know this is a vague question but really any input would be helpful :) Thanks!

God help you.

My advice would boil down to:
  • (Marketing/Business) Release something for free. People have a strong disincentivization to pay for porn (there's an ungodly amount available for free), especially sight-unseen. Whether it's a "first act's free" or "backers get early access" kind of deal, put something meaty out there anybody can dig their teeth into and get hooked on. Give 'em some boners for free, charge for continual or additional boners.
  • (Writing) Write what you like first and foremost. Try and keep a good balance of smut to character/world development. A good sex scene is one thing; an NPC the player genuinely cares about is worth much more.
  • (Art) A good bust or CG can go a long way. Don't skimp to save money; get the best you can and let people see it as soon and as often as possible.
 

ErospaceGame

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Nov 28, 2017
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Thanks Savin, we'll definitely release our game for free; as of right now, we have a demo coming in about a week, so hopefully that will garner some attention. I'll try to stick to my writing guns, and maintain that smut/development balance!
 
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MotoKuchoma

Well-Known Member
Nov 3, 2015
288
59
Be critical of your own and other games. Any game has tropes and quirks in them, and by becoming aware of what these are and how they're used, you can start innovating. But also, be humble enough to see that your game inevitably will have shortcomings, this has to do with scope and investment. Your game can be great without needing to be perfect, just do what set out to do. After all, if there is room for improvement, there are always sequels ;)
 

TheDarkMaster

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Creator
Aug 28, 2015
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Most of the key stuff has already been covered from the looks of things. I only see a few missed points, like making sure to include game genres in the short description (like visual novel, simulation game, platformer, rpg, etc.) The other one is deciding if your game is going to focus on a specific fetish or general appeal. Since human sexuality is stupid complicated, it's usually best to have a game include only one mandatory fetish, or make sure all sex is optional. Avoid mixing and matching mandatory content, since the more stuff you mix in the more likely someone is going to run into something they don't like. If you are having a mandatory kink, that should probably be the focus of the game and what you chiefly advertise the game to be about. As a general rule, surprising your audience with sexual content is a very bad thing. Everyone should either know exactly what they're getting into before they trigger a scene and can opt out if they want, or they had ample warning about the theme before they downloaded the game and on the title page.
 

MotoKuchoma

Well-Known Member
Nov 3, 2015
288
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I would try to communicate the theme of the game on top of what is actually done, perhaps even more so. A lot of sexual terminology is unfortunately amibigous and doesn't provide you with context. M/M/F doesn't tell you if a girl is being spitroasted or if a domme forces two guys to suck each other off etc.
 

Nephilim_Anunnaki

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Sep 7, 2015
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I would try to communicate the theme of the game on top of what is actually done, perhaps even more so. A lot of sexual terminology is unfortunately amibigous and doesn't provide you with context. M/M/F doesn't tell you if a girl is being spitroasted or if a domme forces two guys to suck each other off etc.

So true, a lot of people makes that mistake.
 

ErospaceGame

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Nov 28, 2017
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Great points, thanks! I think we're trying to go for "general appeal" (but what does that even mean?) rather than a specific kink, though we don't have enough sex scenes yet to really have a cohesive theme.
 
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TheDarkMaster

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Aug 28, 2015
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Great points, thanks! I think we're trying to go for "general appeal" (but what does that even mean?) rather than a specific kink, though we don't have enough sex scenes yet to really have a cohesive theme.
General appeal is when you're aiming your game at a broad audience. Usually in that case you'll want things like a wide selection of different pairings, fetishes, and a significant amount of vanilla sex content. The reason there being that you want to include a lot of content that people are likely to be interested in. Most people aren't going to want to play a fairly long game just to get to the one character that actually has content they're into, you've got to tide them over with something in the mean time. Vanilla content is the most likely thing to satisfy that, so that's the general recommendation if you're going for general appeal.

It's a bit like making a more mainstream game vs one that's for a much more niche audience. You'll get to more people with the general appeal game, but they're less likely to get really into the game and there will be parts that people will skip simply because they cover content they don't like. With a focused appeal game, your audience will be much smaller but they're much more likely to really enjoy the game from start to finish and appreciate all the content you put into it.
 

ErospaceGame

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Nov 28, 2017
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Thanks for that clarification; I think our game will most likely fall under "general appeal." I think we're hoping to attract and maintain player enthusiasm through character development/ plot. Does that seem like a valid approach?
 
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Obscure

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Sep 13, 2015
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Including stuff like Incest and HARD bestiality is just throwing away money.

Make sure all your bangable animals talk and have jobs. And if you have a sister, you can't be the one that taps that.

And you want a Steam release.
 

Klaptrap

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2015
436
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Don't listen to anybody here if you're not sure if your game falls under general appeal.

They think having just one horsecock makes a scene vanilla.
 

ErospaceGame

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Nov 28, 2017
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Could you elaborate on what you consider vanilla? It'd be nice to know what the different expectations are, if we market under general appeal.
 

TheDarkMaster

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Aug 28, 2015
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Thanks for that clarification; I think our game will most likely fall under "general appeal." I think we're hoping to attract and maintain player enthusiasm through character development/ plot. Does that seem like a valid approach?
Not if you're trying to draw players in for the sex. If people are there for the story, that's what they'll be playing the game for. Sex then is maybe a small bonus. A lot of visual novels do this, many now forego the sex entirely because that's not why people play the game. I wouldn't call it a sex game in that case, which is fine, but maybe isn't what you were thinking of.

Could you elaborate on what you consider vanilla? It'd be nice to know what the different expectations are, if we market under general appeal.
Vanilla content is just sex without any strange or unusual kinks mixed in. Typically vaginal sex, anal sex, and oral sex fits into this. So if you've got a bunch of f/m scenes between relatively normal humanoids that cover that, plus a fair spattering of m/m and f/f that do that throughout the game, you should be fine. Stranger or less common kinks might appear as one-off scenes for those characters, or maybe you have some characters who's content completely focuses on one specific fetish, making them into mini focused appeal stuff inside your game.
 

Mavar4ik

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Dec 15, 2017
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Hello, I too am an aspiring game developer for adults, mostly I write lyrics. Recently I posted on this forum and still waiting for his check:) and now I want to ask how many days it usually takes? Or maybe what I did wrong and where you can see the design rules...?)
 

ErospaceGame

Member
Nov 28, 2017
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Thanks TheDarkMaster, thats helpful to know. Our game might be trickier to market than I thought; there's enough explicit content that it's definitely an "adult game," but the focus is in fact more on the story/characters, at least in my opinion. I think the best thing to do is to wait for the response to the demo, and see how players would characterize the game? We've mostly got f/f content going on currently, but still vanilla.

Mavar4ik, best of luck with your project! I know that getting started has been tricky for us, so I wish you all the best.
 
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Obscure

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Sep 13, 2015
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People do like story heavy games and there are markets for clam bakes.

Sierra Lee and Winged Cloud being modestly successful developers.
 
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TheDarkMaster

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Aug 28, 2015
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Thanks TheDarkMaster, thats helpful to know. Our game might be trickier to market than I thought; there's enough explicit content that it's definitely an "adult game," but the focus is in fact more on the story/characters, at least in my opinion. I think the best thing to do is to wait for the response to the demo, and see how players would characterize the game? We've mostly got f/f content going on currently, but still vanilla.
You can focus on a pairing too. It doesn't have to be a specific kink. I brought up those two general categories of sex game because it's important to understand your audience. The people who play your game are going to be the people who're into what your game has to offer. If you disproportionately focus on one thing over another, you attract more and more people who're into that thing. Those will be the people who're actually going to pay you money, and they're going to want more and more of that particular content. So if your game is intended to be broad appeal, but you have like 75% of your content focusing on f/f, you'll quickly gather an audience that only cares about more f/f and will push you towards a game focused entirely on that anyway. It's the same if you focus on any particular kink.

As a game dev, it's important to understand that if you want to make a general appeal game, you need to pull away from that sort of thing and the best way to do that is to attract a broad audience that's into a wide variety of different things. That means making sure there's lots of content for them and it isn't crazy out of proportion with other content.

If you want to make a focused appeal game, make sure the subject matter is something you actually enjoy. Otherwise you might find yourself getting shoehorned into a path and type of content that either you're not into or want to move away from due to that being the only thing your audience wants more of and will pay you for.