Akabur Games

[loopy]

Re: Akabur Games

There's nothing bad about making money from your art, or turning your hobby into a career. It's just that when someone makes their money off of something that's essentially a pledge drive (and usually monthly-recurring), they need to take care how they present themselves and how they use the money. And unfortunately, with new leech accounts popping up fairly frequently, some honest artists will get caught in the backlash.

Qualifications are hard to ascertain. If someone's Patreon is for a game, I don't particularly care if they were a professional writer, artist, or programmer unless that was on a game. And in any case, I want to see some past work, especially if someone's demo is garbage or they don't even have a demo.

I've been a professional writer...Great, was it grant writing, technical writing, journalist, what? It wasn't fan-fiction, I hope. Is your game in TADS, ADRIFT, Inform, or some other text game or text-heavy engine? If it's in Ren'py or RPG Maker do you have a team with an artist and coder, or do you plan to do commissions? Or are you just going to steal art and muddle through on the programming?

I'm a professional artist (check out my Hentai Foundry)...I like your art, and would happily contribute to you drawing comics or something. Do you have a writer, or can you write? Same questions on the programming as I would ask the writer.

I'm a professional coder...Have you worked on games? Any samples of your work? Can you draw or write or do you have a team? Or are you planning to purchase Poser models that you can use and reuse, and wedge them into a stilted story that kind of sort of functions as an RPG Maker game if you don't look too closely at it?

People can pick up enough of each discipline to get by, sure, but I want to see some example of that before I throw them a recurring pledge for a game.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Akabur Games

I can't tell you the number of Patreons I've seen pop up, started by people with no game development credits to their name, and a crappy RPG Maker demo full of borrowed or derivative art, with goals like "$3,000/month - I'll quit my job and work on the game full-time." What's depressing is that they frequently get it. All they really have to do is find a fetish that hasn't been saturated with games already, and donors fall over themselves to give money.

You are aware that Akabur's artwork is derivative art, right? He did not create the Princess Jasmine character or Hermione. As for Patreons bringing in more than $3,000 a month producing English h-games, there are less than 10 that I know about. Most are less.

@Ronin: Akabur released his earlier games on a paysite. It was not intended to be free. Witch Trainer was not intended to be free either, if you followed along. It was not until his Patreon starting bringing in a lot of cash that he decided to just give his games out free.

As for the sharing of English Patreon games, if you think nobody is doing it on this forum, you're silly. The unwritten rule is you don't post a link IN THE AUTHOR'S thread. Really, is that so hard to understand? I mean, it is pretty rude to literally post a pirated link in the thread the author created to interact with the community. Might as well kick his dog while you're at it.

Either way, the answer is easy, if you don't like Patreon, DON'T PLEDGE. If you do like Patreon, pledge. Not really rocket science here. Just because other people are spending their money in a way you don't approve, does not mean the system is a "failure" or a "scam."

 

[loopy]

Re: Akabur Games

You are aware that Akabur's artwork is derivative art, right? He did not create the Princess Jasmine character or Hermione. As for Patreons bringing in more than $3,000 a month producing English h-games, there are less than 10 that I know about. Most are less.

I was using "derivative" as a shorthand for people taking stock or licensed assets for a cheap 3d rendering suite, and using that endlessly. It's not exactly plagiarism, since they licensed it. And it's not original to them, even if the characters are original. I don't know a good word for it.

Are you using "H" to mean any porn that isn't photographs? I'm not just thinking of English H-games, in any case. The $3,000 was just a for instance, but I probably should have said something more like "periodically". I've seen goals like that several times, and I can recall 3 dodgy-looking ones off the top of my head that hit that level, whatever it was. That's too high a percentage for my tastes, but if I reviewed all game Patreons as whole, it'd surely be much lower. I hope anyway.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Akabur Games

I was using "derivative" as a shorthand for people taking stock or licensed assets for a cheap 3d rendering suite, and using that endlessly. It's not exactly plagiarism, since they licensed it. And it's not original to them, even if the characters are original. I don't know a good word for it.

Are you using "H" to mean any porn that isn't photographs? I'm not just thinking of English H-games, in any case. The $3,000 was just a for instance, but I probably should have said something more like "periodically". I've seen goals like that several times, and I can recall 3 dodgy-looking ones off the top of my head that hit that level, whatever it was. That's too high a percentage for my tastes, but if I reviewed all game Patreons as whole, it'd surely be much lower. I hope anyway.

For the most part, those 3D rendered games do terribly on Patreon. A few do well, but not many. As for Patreon as a "get rich quick" idea, it is actually pretty poor in that category as well. Pretty much every Patreon I've seen that had a subpar demo has failed to garner much support. I keep track of a lot of Patreons, as I'm very interested in English games, and the vast majority of them top off at a few hundred a month. Not really BIG money we're talking here.

Do a few grow nicely? Yes, but look at the complete Patreon list on this website and peruse a few of them. I think you'll find that they are not bringing in as much money as is implied in this thread. Beyond that, it is not as easy as people think to just throw together a respectable game (even in RPG Maker). It still takes time and effort if you want any type of product that people actually want to play. If you hit on a specific fetish, you might get a few hardcore fans, but your ceiling is lower.

 

[HentaiWriter]

Re: Akabur Games

But in this case, I think it's more about wanting a level of fiscal transparency.

Oh, agreed wholly, I'm not saying Akabur is innocent or something here, etc.

And in any case, I want to see some past work, especially if someone's demo is garbage or they don't even have a demo.

Unfortunately, sometimes that's not possible due to NDAs and/or other limitations that prevent them from saying "hey, I did this!"
A lot of people do SFW work with major companies too, so they can't really have their NSFW stuff linked to that, or else they'd lose their SFW connections/work, which would basically shoot them in the foot.

 

[YummyTiger]

Re: Akabur Games

There's nothing bad about making money from your art, or turning your hobby into a career. It's just that when someone makes their money off of something that's essentially a pledge drive (and usually monthly-recurring), they need to take care how they present themselves and how they use the money. And unfortunately, with new leech accounts popping up fairly frequently, some honest artists will get caught in the backlash.

Qualifications are hard to ascertain. If someone's Patreon is for a game, I don't particularly care if they were a professional writer, artist, or programmer unless that was on a game. And in any case, I want to see some past work, especially if someone's demo is garbage or they don't even have a demo.

I've been a professional writer...Great, was it grant writing, technical writing, journalist, what? It wasn't fan-fiction, I hope. Is your game in TADS, ADRIFT, Inform, or some other text game or text-heavy engine? If it's in Ren'py or RPG Maker do you have a team with an artist and coder, or do you plan to do commissions? Or are you just going to steal art and muddle through on the programming?

I'm a professional artist (check out my Hentai Foundry)...I like your art, and would happily contribute to you drawing comics or something. Do you have a writer, or can you write? Same questions on the programming as I would ask the writer.

I'm a professional coder...Have you worked on games? Any samples of your work? Can you draw or write or do you have a team? Or are you planning to purchase Poser models that you can use and reuse, and wedge them into a stilted story that kind of sort of functions as an RPG Maker game if you don't look too closely at it?

People can pick up enough of each discipline to get by, sure, but I want to see some example of that before I throw them a recurring pledge for a game.

Then DON'T fund them, problem solved. See how easy that was?

Nobody is saying it is bad to have standards and properly evaluate whether you fund a project. If you want to wait until you've seen a full product, then do so. That is the beauty of Patreon, you pay what you want.

 

[loopy]

Re: Akabur Games

Unfortunately, sometimes that's not possible due to NDAs and/or other limitations that prevent them from saying "hey, I did this!" A lot of people do SFW work with major companies too, so they can't really have their NSFW stuff linked to that, or else they'd lose their SFW connections/work, which would basically shoot them in the foot.

Yeah, I get that. If it was a perfect world, I'd take it on faith that people are being honest when they say that's the case. Sadly, it's not, so if a person's past work is behind NDAs or can't be specified for some reason, all I can say is sorry, not good enough. Bear in mind I'm mainly talking about if the demo is shoddy or if there's no demo.

 

[DarkFire1004]

Re: Akabur Games

The topic is getting VERY out of hand. It's fine if you want to discuss Akabur's Patreon, but this is not the place to start picking fights with other developers (nor is any other thread, for that matter).

And Ronin, consider this your first warning. There's constructive criticism and there's baiting arguments, and it's very clear which of the two you're trying to accomplish.

 

[erobotan]

Re: Akabur Games

I'm kinda sad that my name is not mentioned in this conflict

 

[dumai12]

Re: Akabur Games

You know, I find it interesting that people think Akabur's games are so good. I feel his art-style is fresh, and the way it mimics Disney's art and transfers its characters into an H-game is the only draw. Hermione Trainer, IMO was a very poor game. It was incredibly grindy and basically had next to no CGs...for goodness sake the entire game took place in one room. Princess trainer was below average. It was an incomplete game, with annoying teases that never came to fruition, but also suffered a lack of CGs as well. Again the only draw here was his fresh art-style, but it seems he prefers his chibis over actual H-content. I guess the lack of decent complete english h-games is the real problem here, which...it always has been unfortunately.

 

[Laurentius]

Re: Akabur Games

Hermione Trainer, IMO was a very poor game.

Yes, well, it's a Hermione trainer game. There's a lot of lust- I mean, love for Hermione out there.

 

[ReadDxD]

Re: Akabur Games

I'm just a twisted fuck that gets off on anything slave-y. I'm the guy that was weirded out by my friends actually knowing the name of the actor that played her when I was 12 "Theyre actors, not real people, stop caring about them". Yet here I am, 24 hours or so into witch trainer later, and able to say "I actually finished the Harry Potter movies because of porn."

 

[SHerring]

Re: Akabur Games

Welcome to the 1-year anniversary of Akabur's release of Witch Trainer!

 

[leyasu]

Re: Akabur Games

I have a question regarding the silver ed, is there a way to get hermione to wear the silk gown or the open gown? i can't seem to find any activator for it. Also the maid and bar maid jobs don't seem to be working. are they still wip?

regards

 

[loopy]

Re: Akabur Games

It's probably still work-in-progress. I heard the latest Silver was largely broken when it came out, though, so it could just be a bug, depending on when you downloaded it.

The most direct way to find out is to ask Mo. The only place I know to find him is the 4Chan thread, which may have the information if you can locate it. Although, they go through them quickly, so you might have to search a few archives back to find out.

 

[Wasp609]

Re: Akabur Games

It's probably still work-in-progress. I heard the latest Silver was largely broken when it came out, though, so it could just be a bug, depending on when you downloaded it.

The most direct way to find out is to ask Mo. The only place I know to find him is the 4Chan thread, which may have the information if you can locate it. Although, they go through them quickly, so you might have to search a few archives back to find out.

By any chance can i get a link to the 4chan thread.

 

[markus0i]

Re: Akabur Games

Look for slave trainer threads here:

You must be registered to see the links

4chan threads die rapidly, but new ones spawn again.

 

[mattius77]

Re: Akabur Games

Yes, well, it's a Hermione trainer game. There's a lot of lust- I mean, love for Hermione out there.

Akabur trades on the fact that he's working with the pinnacle of Rule 34 material. As far as antagonists go, you're talking about two underage girls (Jasmine is 16; we first met Hermione, as a character in the HP world, as a sixth grader, and don't ever really see her older than 18, except in a denouement), who have been at the center of nerdboi fanlust for most of those nerds' lives. (I include myself in that nerd group, fwiw) Hermione has the added advantage of having been portrayed in real life by a smokin' hot Emma Watson. I can call her smokin' hot now, because she's legal.

Relatively speaking, look at how poor Broken Heart Bordello is compared to to the Jas and Hermione games. I would argue it's because the characters just aren't interesting. But Princess Jasmine.... Hermione Granger.............. that's red meat. As it were. The gameplay isn't a whole lot different than the trainer games..... but you're invested in Jas and Hermione because they're Jas and Hermione.

Would love to see Akabur do a game with Elizabeth from Bioshock.

 

[kokotheworm]

Re: Akabur Games

Akabur trades on the fact that he's working with the pinnacle of Rule 34 material. As far as antagonists go, you're talking about two underage girls (Jasmine is 16; we first met Hermione, as a character in the HP world, as a sixth grader, and don't ever really see her older than 18, except in a denouement), who have been at the center of nerdboi fanlust for most of those nerds' lives. (I include myself in that nerd group, fwiw) Hermione has the added advantage of having been portrayed in real life by a smokin' hot Emma Watson. I can call her smokin' hot now, because she's legal.

Relatively speaking, look at how poor Broken Heart Bordello is compared to to the Jas and Hermione games. I would argue it's because the characters just aren't interesting. But Princess Jasmine.... Hermione Granger.............. that's red meat. As it were. The gameplay isn't a whole lot different than the trainer games..... but you're invested in Jas and Hermione because they're Jas and Hermione.

Would love to see Akabur do a game with Elizabeth from Bioshock.

Well actually , not defending either of the side , I played the trainer game trying to put the Hermione character of the books as far away from my mind as I could , first the dialogue in the game highly suggest the game takes part between year two and year three . Hermione at that point was way too young for any kind of sexual thought and really not that sexy , pretty in some ways but I digresses .
Second the fact her persona is so fundamentally not compatible with the plot ,of the game ,it left what's left of my soul retching from what was going on , and not in a high and mighty kind of way but I am a softy , same goes for Snape actually . While With PT I could somewhat console myself with the fact it was not the original Jasmine but the spoiled brat of Magic shop .
While the game use the image of both those character , Hermine is somewhat physically vastly different thought , it revolve around character that are vastly different from their original .
Furthermore which is funny I spent much more time in PT pursuing Iris than concentrating on Jasmine , I really ,really hate the fact I have to serve Jafar , and to me at least Iris is the real centerpiece of the game .
Let's not forget about sweet Lola too . Let's not trow the stone at BHB for now , the demo is a bit broken in my opinion right now but it might change for the better .
Also have you people checked the Rogue trainer , I mean plotwise it's relative crap but gameplay wise it's awesome , way too easy but awesome .

 

[Laurentius]

Re: Akabur Games

Rogue Trainer looks like it has a lot of potential. The art is pretty nice and Rogue's face is rather expressive. I hope the dev puts out a less buggy demo soon.

More trainer games can't hurt.