Re: RPG Maker Hentai Games
I can't say that piracy has affected my sales since the only person to effectively share my game was me, granted I did this in the hope that people could try the full game (princess escape) because i couldn't figure out the best way to make a second demo. but the second i noticed a higher number of downloads than id been paid for I duplicated my links and changed the paypal checkout redirect to the new link.
Erojanken hasn't sold very well, Princess escape did a lot better despite being what many consider a terrible game...I addressed many of the issues when making erojanken, everything in the game has a purpose...
Including setting up the plots for a lot of future games..
EDIT- YUP...neg repped again for talking about rpg maker games in the rpg maker thread, in a way that was on topic...odd...
I've stopped caring about the reputation thing since people just abuse it
p.s also I've been neg repped before now for posting in here...since when is there a rule that people can't post in here if the rpg maker game came from someone active on the forums?
also I wanted discussion without bumping my thread needlessly, since i havent started work on my 3rd and 1st combat based rpg yet
I'm pretty sure Princess Escape tanked because it's not really... Inviting.
You see, Kyrieru's Kurovadis has the sample pictures that clearly show what the game is about. The same pictures show, too, that the game is very polished and of an uncommon genre. If that hasn't bought the person yet, they might download the demo and play for themselves. This will show them that the game is, indeed, very polished. That's why it's successful. Kyrieru is a very skilled individual.
Your game points to an average RPG Maker Game with simple H-scenes. From the pictures there doesn't seem to be any mechanics that are too fun and the art isn't that good (compared to the average DLsite art). Being an RPG Maker Game, and what looks to be a basic one at that, means it's on the very saturated market of RPG Maker H-Games on DLsite. It being in english probably means it'll sell about as well on the Japanese DLsite as Japanese RPG Maker Games do on the English DLsite, which is... Not so well.
I understand making it must have gave a lot of trouble and all and you must have worked really hard, but that does not always equal reward.
And I don't mean this as an insult, but even though you gave your game away for free and I even downloaded it, I didn't play it. That's just how uninviting it is.
Your game would have certainly sold more if it was more inviting. But, unless I'm wrong and the game isn't just a simple RPG Maker Game with a few sex scenes thrown in, you wouldn't be able to do much for making it look better without outright lying.
The DLsite market is so saturated with RPG Maker Games that you're competing with so many other games that must have come out just the same week. Most of them will have better art, maybe one or two will have better mechanics and pretty much all of them will be in Japanese, which by itself should make them superior towards the japanese people (who should be buying the most games).
To sell your game you can either just excel and make a game with crazy good art, story and all that (and that alone might not be enough!), pick up a popular theme (I believe some say Dragon Quest = Free Sales, at least for japanese DLsite) or be very different in some underrepresented way, so that you don't compete directly with most things posted on DLsite. Kyrieru was not only different, but excelled while doing it, that's why his game sold
really well.
I am sorry if any of this came off as offensive, but I consider it to be truth. I also believe that taking it to heart will help you on your next games.
