QUESTION: What issues do most adult games have that frustrate you?

[HunterHeath]

Hello.

I've played many adult games from here and from other sources (Too many that I care to admit to) and I feel most games almost run from a template. What I mean by that is you could play 5 - 10 games back to back and see a lot of similarities between them.

For me, it's the mentioned things below that frustrate me, what are yours? Thank you.

1. Porn star looking models - I'd like to see more normal (and I mean that in the most respectful of ways) looking women. Women in the real world do not all look like pornstars, Women are all shapes, sizes, colours, faiths and beyond. I'd like to see this reflected in more adult games.

2. Clicking beyond comprehension - Sometimes the relentless clicking through scenes can drive me a little insane, I mean the other day I downloaded a game and 10 minutes later I was still clicking through the back story. I understand the concept of Visual Novels but having to make 3 choices in 30 minutes of clicking seems a little overkill.

3. Work harder - I find adult games a bit too eager to get to "the good stuff". Often you will install a game and you just meet a new character, within four clicks her top is off she's saying "oh sorry this doesn't usually happen and oh look I've stumbled and fallen on your penis". There is nothing wrong with a bit of hard work or underhand tactics in a game to get to "the good stuff"

4. Un-Original Stories - For a lot of these games, it's the same thing .... "You are a boy who has to move in with his family since his dad passed away/moved out/went missing and oh look ... they all happen to be pornstars, even your little sister who for some reason looks like she should be on the cover of Penthouse, what a stroke of luck!

Now it's important to note I am in no way having a dig at all adult games, I have the ability and know how to create my own games but I have not, so who am I to judge, But I feel I see these 4 issues enough to warrant opening a discussion about things that annoy you.

 

[karunama]

1. Games listed with M/M that pull the following; 'Choose your gender! *forced transformation into a woman before any sex happens*'

2. Games that consistently demand two hands to play them. I feel like this should be a common sense sorta thing: If you're deliberately making interactive porn then the interactivity should only need one hand.

3. Calling it incest when they're only step-whatevers.

4. Games that tout themselves as being super inclusive, but on further inspection only have the tiniest nod to any of the niche crowds they're trying to court with that BS line.

 

[DawnCry]

-Personally I would say that they are easy and focused on instant satisfaction. The story is usually very simple with only a few games trying to make anything a bit harder than that, even more the "fetishes" limit a lot what type of interactions you can have in a game. Basically you have to make everything optional because if not then people will be "mad".

-Frozen worlds: This is a heavy issue that you can easily find in any game, but the thing is that adult games are focused on characters and interactions with them, and the problem is that I can sleep for one year and nothing changes in the world. Things like a girl finding a boyfriend, moving to a new house, or even anything that would indicate that the world hasn't stopped, you won't find that.

-Fear of male characters: This is actually on the funny side but in most games the moment that people find that there is a "male NPC" then they are gonna raise a living hell, it's actually funny the fear that some people have against male NPC's even if they do nothing at all and just exist. Personally I like a bit of competition towards getting a girl in games, because you know if you try to get a cute girl then I'm quite sure you won't be the only one.

-Irony: One thing that I find quite interesting is that while there are many people that fear to be "cucked" in a game most of them have no problem being the one cucking other character and in fact they like it.

While I don't mean to be critic I actually hope that the adult games develop towards a direction more related with storylines and "being a game", basically you can fail, things happen and you don't start as the ultimate sex-master. This is for example a game that I found interesting:

http://www.dlsite.com/ecchi-eng/work/=/product_id/RE194521.html

In this one it's strategy style with many interesting things, basically you can romance girls but you have to be careful with your lustful king and that the enemy doesn't capture the girls in battle. You can lose territories, your characters can get captured and you have to be careful with a dick king, however you can win against that situation and romance the girls that you like, the thing is that it's a game and you have risk of losing on many fronts, be it battles by losing territory or having to rescue the girl that was captured by the enemy. I just find that a good game.

 

[HunterHeath]

I would say you're both absolutely right. You've raised many issues there and I for one instantly see any Male NPC as the enemy. I'm not sure why I do it but maybe it's been so ingrained in games that it's the natural course to assume they will in some way screw you over.

I also agree fully with the Frozen Worlds issue raised by Karunama. I feel the world should be a living breathing entity and we are merely a pawn in the world. Not the world revolves around us. I think sometimes failing to get the girl would also add some replayability to the game as you might get lucky next time.

Yes, the incest thing is an issue. I believe incest shouldn't be forced upon players but the option should be there should players want to explore that route. Regarding them always being "step" family I believe this is more a case for Patreon who's policy on incest is it's not allowed. So a quick change to Step is put in place so they can still earn money from their work. Usually these same authors release a patch to enable it off site.

 

[Kesil]

This thread might be of interest: https://forum.fenoxo.com/threads/what-type-of-hentai-games-are-you-tired-of-seeing.10751

 

[Pestis]

Maybe it's just not my cup of tea, but i hate 3dcg 'art'. It just doesn't content not a little of originallity, not a drop of creator's soul. Even a stolen overused animee art would be better, or 5thgraders doodle.
Also this incestish-only-man-in-town thing. Looks like all game creators for last three years making the same game again and again. And all of them trying to sit on both of chairs so we can see absurdic stories about incest with neighbor.

And one more thing: difficulty of relationship. I understand that mostly erogame authors don't have much of experience in relationship, but man.
Most of seducing comes by one of the ways: girl is stupid and don't know what sex is (and this is looks like bizzard paedophillia), girl is nympho and craving for MC cock, or MC is ordinary asshole, whom flirtations sound like "now suk mah dik bitch"

 

[MotoKuchoma]

I hate how dominance and submission is often so gender coded. You can see this very easily when you got to chyoa (adult interactive fiction) and click "mind control" or "non-consent" - all the male pov stories are about being in charge, all the female stories are about being a victim. This reflects heavily onto games too, going sometimes even as far as Free Cities' "If you get fucked you're a woman, men can never be slaves" kind of deal.

It even exists in subtle forms. The body fetishes in Lilith's Throne are color coded. If you want to interact with a body part (say fuck a mouth or grope tits/pussy) they were red. If you like to use the particular body part of your own (say, pleasing someone with kisses or getting your butt fucked) they were pink. This did overlap with the Dominant/Submissive kink color (dom being red and sub being pink) - naturally, dick fetish comes along and reverses this. Using your dick is red and getting pleased by dick is pink.


Another thing I dislike is this fetish list thing enforced here and thus also comes off like this in game. You're only ever encountered with exactly a list of fetishes but you can tell none of them are thematically appropiate. This is why so many games feel so dissonant because you're just walking from one scene to the next as natural progression and organic story development is thrown out of the window to cater to specific fetishes. Sexual games offer so much room to tell the most interesting stories or discover new things you could like, but no, we so often just get glorified cg packs, to the point where you wonder why you even bother with games as medium.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

The most frustrating thing for me with porn games is figuring out what content is in them and what I should expect if I play them. There are so many out there you simply don't have time to play them all to figure out which ones are right for you. So some quick and easy way to figure out if a game should be looked into further or can be immediately discounted is a really nice thing. That's why I almost always ask for fetishes and pairings when I see a new game posted that I might be interested in. Even better if you say what the game's focused on and if/what content is mandatory or very difficult to avoid. This also goes for games themselves once you start playing them. Often I'll go into a game for a specific kink, but there's no way for me to know what I should do to find that kink or what choices I have to make. Telegraphing content in game is just as important as out of game. If you can't do that, at least include a bit of a guide that tells you which characters or locations to go to for specific content.

On the flip side, for the love of good porn, don't play mix and match your kinks. A specific character doesn't carter to a wide audience if they have a scene for every kink. Especially if those scenes are mandatory to go through first. If someone wants to interact with a character for one specific fetish, they don't want to have to go through half a dozen others they might not like to get to that one. Having scene variety on characters is fine, so long as they're optional and don't detract from one another. Though generally speaking I think it's better to stick with one or two themes to keep complexity down. If one character is the bondage character, great! Telegraph that to your players early on so those who're into that can pursue that character immediately and those who aren't can skip them. You can even do whole games themed around specific kinks. They're easier to write and avoid the whole problem of finding certain content because it's all themed around that kink.

Also, somewhat on the subject of mixing and matching kinks, is how difficult it is to find some kinks without being paired with others. There's some kinks that are almost impossible to find separated from other common pairings. For example, I like dom/sub, but don't like humiliation or people being demeaned. There are so few games out there that don't pair those two together. That's not the only such pairing that seems to be unavoidable. I wish more games out there would split them up or at least offer content that featured the side I like, but not the side I don't. Tying back to the first point, tell me if one kink is unavoidably tied to another one if it is in your fetish/pairing description!

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Basically what the other users said.
There is a reason I don't try games anymore...

 

[DarkSinfulMage]

Here's a short list:

- The subjects of desire don't do anything.

The reason AA2 is so great is because the characters do things. After a while you might understand their behavior deeply, but the fact that there's some level of two-directional interaction is something lost on most games.

- Clicking and grinding.

Don't make your game wordswordswordswordswordsSex

- Too much game in this game

Conversely, don't overburden your fapgames with too much game.

- Too many character options, not enough expression of the given options.

I don't care if I can dye my asshole hair blonde and it reads in the description. How is that substantial in the game and in the relationship with the subjects of desire?

 

[DawnCry]

Here's a short list:

- The subjects of desire don't do anything.

The reason AA2 is so great is because the characters do things. After a while you might understand their behavior deeply, but the fact that there's some level of two-directional interaction is something lost on most games.

- Clicking and grinding.

Don't make your game wordswordswordswordswordsSex

- Too much game in this game

Conversely, don't overburden your fapgames with too much game.

- Too many character options, not enough expression of the given options.

I don't care if I can dye my asshole hair blonde and it reads in the description. How is that substantial in the game and in the relationship with the subjects of desire?

In the points of "too much game" I will say the following:

-There are two types of games with adult content, one is little gameplay and a lot of sex, commonly called nukige, the second one is what we call adult game, it has gameplay and the adult elements are the complement.

-Most games done by the "western" side are just nukiges and with too much bullshit.

-I actually hope for games with adult content rather than adult content in the form of games.

Examples of games with adult content are:

*Rance series
*Eushully games
...

I truly would like more games rather than nukiges.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Artificial Academy (all of them) were good.
Grinding is annoying.
And I prefear games like the witcher/mass effect/dragon age than most of patreon ones.

 

[DawnCry]

Artificial Academy (all of them) were good.
Grinding is annoying.
And I prefear games like the witcher/mass effect/dragon age than most of patreon ones.

Same, in my mind what I would like to happen is that we break the taboo about sex and it's truly added to the storyline.

For example in fallout new vegas when I found the NCR correctional and found the gang within it I truly thought something like "oh come on, I'm quite sure that a bunch of criminals that got free the first thing they would do would be to capture women to rape and take them back to their base, a few sex slaves would be something I would totally expect".

In mass effect when I found about the "underworld" in the sense of the gangs I have to be clear that there are "three businesses" that I would totally expect, "protection", "drugs" and "prostitution" and perhaps the three will happen at the same time... basically the corrupted part of the society would totally have prostitutes that cater "to many fetishes" or even use men and women to improve the relationship with some "important characters".

In dragon age I would have truly liked to see if Morrigan on bed was like a "beast", I call bullshit those romances of Origin, really the only one that would make sense would be the one with Alistar being a female MC, but we have a spymaster that knows "many tricks" and I'm quite sure most of them are sexually, a witch that has an aggresive and direct personality... but they go to the "pure" side of romances.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

In dragon age I would have truly liked to see if Morrigan on bed was like a "beast", I call bullshit those romances of Origin, really the only one that would make sense would be the one with Alistar being a female MC, but we have a spymaster that knows "many tricks" and I'm quite sure most of them are sexually, a witch that has an aggresive and direct personality... but they go to the "pure" side of romances.

Except near the climax, where they actually do something interesting with it and the dark seed of the archdemon.

 

[DawnCry]

Except near the climax, where they actually do something interesting with it and the dark seed of the archdemon.

Yeah that was an interesting deal, it's one of the few things that I truly liked, in fact I kind of hoped that they would make that part "canon" for the other games.

 

[Grimoire]

Okay, this is just a rare thing for me as i don't actively search for Adult Games on a regular basis (i know, shocker!) but i do find that some games have compelling story narratives and uniquely interesting personalities. I love the sex scenes to "meat, meat gotta beat it" AND read a story that i can immerse myself in the world and pick someone interest to be avid in knowing more about. Games are suppose to be interesting and fun, not just creative and sometimes sexy.

I can watch a porno vid, i read an erotica novel, i can play a game. What i can't do is play a game that reads like a bad porno video, and what i mean by porno video I mean a really really shitty scripting or improv scripted videos with the poor voice acting or the weak sauce narrative that makes writers like me tremble into a fetal position out of sheer cringing spite. Not only do some of the stories seem short or lackluster because of either time or lack of imagination, but they do not sit well for me when the girl or guy or bipedal fucktoy or whatever not only: 1) Talks like an Eve Bot 2) Fucks like a deadfish and 3) the whole experience falls flat on its ass because of *insert coincidental circumstance here* whether it be someone walking in on the two of you or someone does something stupid like "you're not my father, but i'll still call you daddy". If your personality and intelligence is limited by your shoe size and the depth is equal to one, please exit to the nearest incinerator please

Then there's the Lost Arc or the side plot that goes absolutely nowhere! Take for instance there was a character of a roster of 28 characters and one of them has been the one you've liked to get a chance to read into and find out their side of the story and see if their fuckability cred can jump up or down depending on the quality that went into the character's development. But when you finally, after hours of searching for ways to get that perfect satisfactory path ... it just ends. Doesn't matter if the entire plot depends on that character, doesn't matter if they had a super special role that would make everything believable ... that's it. That one girl or guy is never spoke of ever again, either because it was incomplete or the writer working on them quit, main character? nope, too bad, story just ends without any satisfactory conclusion. Or the creators were stupid enough to toss in a half-assed attempt to make something work like "oh no, they died" or "I can't", "i'm celibate" or they lose interest with you. (looking at you Samara and Tali) *shakes fist at Mass Effect reference*

But the story isn't just the only thing that's enjoyable, the story and narrating can be on par with the best and have the greatest style and still have a dumpster fire in terms of how cliched, niche and stereotypical when they fall into too common tropes that have been played out over and over again. Like another said, it's always some random ass prick that's the last man on earth with a harem of women his age or slightly older and no male counterpart to offset the male to female ratio. Mix it up! Change the formula, try a dildo up the ass if its your first time, grab her by the pussy, something! Its just tiring to read another cookie cutter story and weak sex scene that have no substance.

Yes, I indeedy do love a good wine pairing with my Adult Gaming tasting <3 A good synopsis and a few bits of the what is expected and what can be inferred from gameplay would be a nice sample of what each of the players would be getting once they either download or purchase. Less page turning of our mouses clicking away furiously, less time consuming mini-games to get the goods but never TOO easy where it becomes a chore to do, never over saturate a single fetish across the entirety of the game if it was not specified, no boring characters, no boring environments, no poor choice in music, and worse of all: a long dragged out story that no one would give a damn if it burnt to the ground with the dumpster everything else fell into.

If there is a single decent Adult Game that i can blast myself in the face with my loaded gauss rifle i call a penis, I would whole-heartily endeavor to search for it and enjoy the cumloads of enjoy as i read along trying to go for my longest shot record in attempts to find the ultimate experience that can barely hold a candle to Fenoxo's Games. That is however my thought that frustrates me to no end, "soft peter" or "saltpeter" seems to be the choice of poison in this case.

 

[art926]

"What issues do most adult games have that frustrate you?"
1) lack of high quality projects
2) sometimes interesting, but never-ending developing indie projects
3) no decent m/m options (with masculine characters)

 

[Stemwinder]

Basically all time management games. It's blatantly a padding mechanism to cover up the fact that there's not much actual content so a lot of unnecessary grinding is added to get to what little there is; a "we have a decent coder but not a decent writer" situation. I don't mean that I don't like actual games surrounding the lewds (my favorite thing is actually a solid game that has smut in it or a visual novel style story that -has- a good story to set up the sex) but if the "game" is just unnecessary and tedious gatekeeping for it why even bother. No one has fun with that.

A lack of originality is a big one, obviously. A lot of these games are just copy/paste knock-offs with cheap assets stolen from porn for added laziness. Whenever I see porn stars standing in for The Guy's family I know it's probably a stinker. On that same note a lot of these perpetuate really messed up dynamics almost exclusively. Porn is famous for that but if you're being creative is it really too much to ask to idealize a healthier and more positive dynamic as opposed to another oh-you've-turned-all-the-women-into-bimbos &c. Part of the reason that CoC stood out so much to so many people, I think, was in large part because it had both: ways to perpetuate fucked up sexual dynamics but also people who were trying to deal with things, some of them sexual hang-ups, and seeing their lives and mentality actually improve through fostering a healthy relationship (often for the first time).

Erotica can challenge lots of ingrained ideas but a lot of it...doesn't.

 

[Stemwinder]

I hate how dominance and submission is often so gender coded. You can see this very easily when you got to chyoa (adult interactive fiction) and click "mind control" or "non-consent" - all the male pov stories are about being in charge, all the female stories are about being a victim. This reflects heavily onto games too, going sometimes even as far as Free Cities' "If you get fucked you're a woman, men can never be slaves" kind of deal.

Also, somewhat on the subject of mixing and matching kinks, is how difficult it is to find some kinks without being paired with others. There's some kinks that are almost impossible to find separated from other common pairings. For example, I like dom/sub, but don't like humiliation or people being demeaned. There are so few games out there that don't pair those two together. That's not the only such pairing that seems to be unavoidable. I wish more games out there would split them up or at least offer content that featured the side I like, but not the side I don't. Tying back to the first point, tell me if one kink is unavoidably tied to another one if it is in your fetish/pairing description!

Yeah, this is getting at what I mean.

If you've got a male PC chances are good that the game is just about making a bunch of women submit in this really uninteresting, pandery, utterly banal way that strokes all the worst parts of your typical schmucky d00d's ego. On the flip side if you've got a female PC the game's probably about her turning into a slut. I get to where I don't even want to play either because I get sick of being shoehorned into these niches. But then if it's the opposite there's usually humiliation involved, like if there's submissive male content it's all about how you fail as a man and your dick is small and you might as well be a girl you little sissy boy. It reflects a lot of harmful ideas people have and it'd be nice to see erotica that really tries to break away from that. If I'm reading submissive-themed content I'd much rather see the dominant character show actual respect for the main character and express that they actually like/treasure their partner. Likewise dominant POV content is way more interesting when it doesn't degrade the characters around them into mindless sluts to achieve that feeling. They don't even have to be good people; a lot of people like Rance from his self-titled series despite him being a hilariously doucheybaggy rapist because, despite his behavior, he doesn't tear down the girls he's with. They end up shining brighter when they're paired up with him and that makes for good character dynamics for both story and porn.

One of the most frustrating feelings is liking a particular something only to find that most people pair it up with something distasteful like that.

 

[Kesil]

One of the most frustrating feelings is liking a particular something only to find that most people pair it up with something distasteful like that.

Rather than "distasteful", I personally loathe how some of my interests (or just some other elements I happen to come across) are constantly paired with the same kinks and stereotypes...

• If body transformation, then loss of identity.
• Transformation in general is often paired with noncon, as if one wouldn't wish to become x (including a willing loss of identity) and enjoy it.
• If interracial (either real or fantasy), then supremacy play. Especially when concerning certain human ethnicities or being races.
• If hypnosis, it's done via spirals/a pendulum and hypnotised ones get random coloured eyes. If you're a Pokémon fan, why go with Hypno as your "weapon of choice" (especially when it puts Pokémon to sleep rather than brainwash them) when Malamar has exceptional hypnotic powers and Grumpig, Gothorita and Beheeyem gain physical and mental control over foes?
• If serpentine, then coiling. Also, a chance of hypnosis and vore.
• If canine (and sometimes feline), then pet treatment, often including baby-talk, petting, head pats, going for a walk with a leash on a collar, considerations concerning fluff and mandatory "(Who's a) good x".
• If spiders, then oviposition and bondage.
• If reptiles, then vore.
• If pig/porcine (or fat), then uncleanliness, messiness, bad scents and food.
• If skunk, then bad scents.
• If equine, then hyper and masculinity-as-power play.
• If monster, then hyper and non-con/"secretly loving it".
• If human cow, then large breasts and mandatory milking.
• If powerful character, then cheap cop-up to weaken said character or ensure mind/body breaking.
• If x-dom, then abuse. Alternatively, there's a very little amount of contents before tables being turned... hard.
• If small assets, then humiliation.
• If gangbang, then noncon.
• If feet, armpits and/or body hair (including pubes), then lack of hygiene.
• If weight gain, then hose/bad food quality feederism and/or immobile blobification, often with height gain.
• If penis, then x-dom. Similarly, if futanari, then penetration and scarce use of orifices.
• Conflating feminisation with sissification. Instead of building them up, it's about humiliation, abuse and breaking them down. It may lead to unfortunate implications if chastity, wimpiness and cock shrinking equate to "being a better girl".
• Aphrodisiacs or pheromones tend to be used as a rape drug.
• Pregnacy often seems to come after the female having been mind broken or corrupted.
• Mind drain, diapers, infantilism and soiling seem to go together. Also, a lack of imagination won't give bodily waste more pleasant attributes.
• Being gay apparently means you can't have female friends or non-sexual kinky scenes with a female.
• Dom/sub-DD/lg (or MD/lb)-master/pet relationships rarely touch on trust, aftercare or psychological elements. If I ever see another "ooooh daddy I've been naughty"-"say no more I'm spanking you!" dialogue...

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Exactly.
Too bad the standard nowadays are games that looks like a bad scripted porno.

 

[DawnCry]

Exactly.
Too bad the standard nowadays are games that looks like a bad scripted porno.

To be fair... I think it happens because most players of adult games don't truly want something more.

I mean... the basic rules that most developers have to work with are:

-Don't use male characters or if you use them do it so that the player feels like the "alpha"

-Make all scenes optional, people would feel bad if they found a scene that isn't according to their fetishes

-Don't bother about making a game, people play it to fap, not to enjoy an adult game.

-Do what people expect you to do, nothing more, nothing less

These would be the rules that most developers follow, it makes it very hard to create complex characters and good storylines, because people want to be fully in control of the situation and always add to their ego, I would like to be able to feel failure or difficulties on games, the genre that I love the most are strategy games and I just love that feeling when I'm being attacked by an enemy many times stronger and being able to defeat it.

There are a lot of interesting situations that I would like to see in adult games but... it won't happen because what I want is exactly the opposite of what we are having, I want to feel part of the world of the adult game, not in control of it, what I value the most is that the world doesn't wait for me but it continues to advance.

 

[Zavos]

Games that advertise M/M, with less than 20% of smut content being male npc compatible with a male pc.

Overuse of breastless dickgirls, labeled as male.

Male, plot transformed into female. Seriously, just restrict the character creation to female only pc, if your plot is no more flexible.

Overuse of stereotypes in a single game. Your waifu options, however much passion you put into them, will not be unique in the slightest if they're copy/paste of another npc with a new appearance and re-edited script.

Gender imbalance, make the blend of male, female and other npcs appropriate to the setting. You do not need to make the disfavored npcs sexable. Nothing breaks immersion faster than a game where 90% of the npc population has breasts.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

-Make all scenes optional, people would feel bad if they found a scene that isn't according to their fetishes

This one is very much a good best practise for new developers. Way too many adult games will abruptly throw you into content you potentially won't like without warning or proper telegraphing. Others either gate unrelated content behind scenes or have gameplay mechanics that require that you go through certain content to get to it. All scenes being truly optional and clearly telegraphed should absolutely be the default for any game trying to reach a broad audience. You have to have some sense of what you're doing before you can do otherwise, such as tracking what the player has already agreed to and only forcing them into that same type of content or have the entire game focused on one particular kink that you clearly tell the player on or near the title screen and they agree to when they started the game.

Surprising the player is one of the worst things you can do as an adult dev, and I'm speaking from the perspective of someone with fairly thick skin and experience in the community.

 

[thedoubleyew]

This one is very much a good best practise for new developers. Way too many adult games will abruptly throw you into content you potentially won't like without warning or proper telegraphing.

A prime example of this is Fractured Skies. All the content is optional, but M/M and futa are part of the main story for the PC and main chars. You can skip the actual scenes, but that doesn't change the fact that a bunch of dialogue still occurs before and after about it along with general pillow talk throughout the game, and that can't be hidden or removed. It's actually a really fun game with an interesting plot that doesn't fall into many tropes or stereotypes, but I really, really did not want to have to see some of it.


As for me, a big one is reciprocation. The player can generally do whatever they want to NPCs, but the reverse usually isn't true. Lovers in reality do various things to each other, not just one way. In my perfect world for example, if the PC is female, NPCs should be able to do to you whatever you do to them. Not quite the same for male but the NPC should be able to take charge or at least perform something they want.

 

[DawnCry]

This one is very much a good best practise for new developers. Way too many adult games will abruptly throw you into content you potentially won't like without warning or proper telegraphing. Others either gate unrelated content behind scenes or have gameplay mechanics that require that you go through certain content to get to it. All scenes being truly optional and clearly telegraphed should absolutely be the default for any game trying to reach a broad audience. You have to have some sense of what you're doing before you can do otherwise, such as tracking what the player has already agreed to and only forcing them into that same type of content or have the entire game focused on one particular kink that you clearly tell the player on or near the title screen and they agree to when they started the game.

Surprising the player is one of the worst things you can do as an adult dev, and I'm speaking from the perspective of someone with fairly thick skin and experience in the community.

I personally think that the best option is a starting gate of content, I understand that people don't want content that they don't like but the only bad thing is that you won't feel as the character because of those limitations. It kind of limit the experience.

For example something like:

-Rape: If on the player may be raped in some circunstances
-M/M: If on m/m scenes will be enabled
(having both on would mean that a male NPC could rape the MC if male)
-Futa: If on futa scenes will be enabled
...

More or less like that you configure your experience to your liking as a player and it would make the game more interesting if the creator was following with it as if everything was on for the full experience and just solving the preferences by changing events or even deleting some. Basically variations of events based on fetishes enabled.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

I personally think that the best option is a starting gate of content, I understand that people don't want content that they don't like but the only bad thing is that you won't feel as the character because of those limitations. It kind of limit the experience.

For example something like:

-Rape: If on the player may be raped in some circunstances
-M/M: If on m/m scenes will be enabled
(having both on would mean that a male NPC could rape the MC if male)
-Futa: If on futa scenes will be enabled
...

More or less like that you configure your experience to your liking as a player and it would make the game more interesting if the creator was following with it as if everything was on for the full experience and just solving the preferences by changing events or even deleting some. Basically variations of events based on fetishes enabled.

It's an option, but it isn't necessarily going to be easier to maintain than other things. Especially when considering what gets a flag and what doesn't, since there's always going to be someone who dislikes x content and would want to skip it. Unless your sexual encounters are procedural and can be swapped in to replace removed content on the fly, you basically end up with all content being effectively optional anyway. Huge lists of kinks to turn on and off are not necessarily things you want to present your players with as soon as they start the game.

Making all scenes optional is probably the easier path for a writer, and is also likely the better choice if they're custom writing every sex scene. Content toggles can be better for games that are intended to be partially about fucking the player up or which have significant parts of their sex scenes as generic or procedural. That way the game's kinks can be tailored to the player's kinks with less effort on the dev's part. Unfortunately these games do tend to end up with sex feeling stale or samey overtime. The one caveat here is with content that is extremely derisive, like Nice Time for Roo. In Seeds of Chaos we include a toggle for that content purely to make people who feel strongly about that content more comfortable playing the game. It being off doesn't actually change much about the game or the story, it only forces the player to make choices that avoid the Nice Time for Roo in the game (for example, with Nice Time for Roo off the main character MUST sneak out to meet with his wife, thereby preventing her from offering herself to her captor). Even with the toggle on, all Nice Time for Roo scenes are clearly telegraphed and are avoidable by making the correct choices (from that same scene, the player is clearly shown that the main character's wife is about to offer herself to her captor right before they make the choice to sneak out or not).

It's a balancing act and no particular way forward is always better than others. The most important thing is to not surprise your players with sex content, they need to have given their consent for whatever you throw at them somehow.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

To be fair... I think it happens because most players of adult games don't truly want something more.

I mean... the basic rules that most developers have to work with are:

-Don't use male characters or if you use them do it so that the player feels like the "alpha"

-Make all scenes optional, people would feel bad if they found a scene that isn't according to their fetishes

-Don't bother about making a game, people play it to fap, not to enjoy an adult game.

-Do what people expect you to do, nothing more, nothing less

These would be the rules that most developers follow, it makes it very hard to create complex characters and good storylines, because people want to be fully in control of the situation and always add to their ego, I would like to be able to feel failure or difficulties on games, the genre that I love the most are strategy games and I just love that feeling when I'm being attacked by an enemy many times stronger and being able to defeat it.

There are a lot of interesting situations that I would like to see in adult games but... it won't happen because what I want is exactly the opposite of what we are having, I want to feel part of the world of the adult game, not in control of it, what I value the most is that the world doesn't wait for me but it continues to advance.

Yeah, I always knew I got weird tastes XD

 

[Tinman]

Posting too early. A lot of games get posted with a version .01 Alpha that has maybe 10 minutes of content. Then as new content is added there's so many overhauls to the early game or system that you have to start over with new updates. I've lost interest in tons of games because I had to replay the beginning too many times.

Never finishing. Too often someone aims too high and can't fulfill their promises. Or they take too long and real life brings a permanent end to their project. I've played hundreds of adult games (sadly I'm pretty sure that's not hyperbole) but it seems like only a couple dozen have actually reached completion. Many of which were intentionally short games that aren't very satisfying.

Honestly, that's everything. The other things that bother me I just attribute to taste or my overconsumption of porn. Sure it's boring that every female character has ginormous tits. But that's probably a lot less of an issue for the normal people who haven't spent thousands of hours fapping to CGI women.

 

[atar]

External images in twine games. Those really need to be put into the game directory.