What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

[dumai12]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Yeah ears/tail is the safe option and thats why I went with it. But I am pretty sure there will be an uproar if I tried to do a #4 yet many people wants that. Perhaps sometimes I can do a furry poll to test the waters .

I'd be curious about the results, since #4 is pretty tame imo. Like, would people stop supporting over having a couple of models like that? I mean, #1, yeah I'd see people bailing. Maybe I'm overestimating what most people would tolerate in the h-game community. It sounds like you're giving the option to turn content like that off anyway.

 

[uokutopa]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Hi, I am an more or less successful adult game maker. Filled and sent your question thing.

Well making adult games is 100 times harder than making normal games. Of course the most important part of an adult game is the xxx part. And there is nothing harder in the world to animate than xxx, as it's different bodies interacting which each other in detailed and unusual ways. Usual ways would be boring. Also alot of impressions are in there.
For example, animating a game like super mario world or street fighter2 is easy. If street fighter had only throws that would get hard. And when tit is needed to make the throws varied and custom to every character with extreme need for detail and correct position, expression and body fluids...

Anyway, sounds like thats not what you wanted to hear. It's really tough to answer your question because you are as vague as possible. Because human comunication is a huge problem. The less words I use the less you understand what I am thinking. Unless you are experienced and got your own awesome ideas.
Right now everyone would have to write 1-3 pages to get close to what they have in mind.

So everyone is on board with me here is what I am thinking:
- The harder the game is the better the reward must be.
- Gameplay can be crap as long as the xxx is outstanding.
- Interactive xxx animation > xxx animation > picture (of same quality)

... have to go to work now.

 

[dumai12]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

So everyone is on board with me here is what I am thinking:
- The harder the game is the better the reward must be.
- Gameplay can be crap as long as the xxx is outstanding.
- Interactive xxx animation > xxx animation > picture (of same quality)

Make the game too hard and it's better to visit exhentai or just rip the files for the images. The same thing can be said for your second point. Just pure CGs sets do exist, so I see little point in making someone wade through a bunch of muck to access the h-content if you're not going to put effort into making the journey a good experience. I'm hesitant to agree with #3, but in general that sounds right.

 

[KHTA]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

gameplay, intruding story, replay-ability
lotsa memes, even more jojo references
basically everything other than the H content

This. Minus the memes, extra serving of JoJo, with Touhou on the side.
Oh, and if you want JP buyers....some Dragon Quest references.

And if you run out of ideas for a scene, make the characters do a random JoJo pose....even if there's absolutely no purpose in it.

As for the furry talk, maybe cause I grew up with the characters (Sonic) but 3 and 4 isn't all that different to me. I can roll with it, though I mostly prefer 5 (which only those in the west, and a minority at that, considers furry). The only 1 that ever goes justified is Len/Ren.

Spoiler

So everyone is on board with me here is what I am thinking:
- The harder the game is the better the reward must be.
- Gameplay can be crap as long as the xxx is outstanding.
- Interactive xxx animation > xxx animation > picture (of same quality)

- Nope, if a game is hard but not fun...no one will care to complete it even if the reward is great. Only M's, completionists and idiots play a game they don't enjoy.
- Depends on how the scenes are gotten. Some will opt for a save, some will bear with it, but crappy gameplay can be a deal breaker for others. It's really a game of balance.
- This is 100% opinion based. And greatly depends on the type of game for me. In a rpg, an interactive H-scene is just making me work while I'm watching a scene which is unneeded work, I'll prefer just regular animation in this case. If it's a harem game and the number of scenes will be less for animated and more for static....I'll go with static or a combination of the two. Finally, if there's no other gameplay involved than interactive animation all the way.

 

[The Lurkers Shadow]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Hmm breaking into the adult market might be a bit rough due to far more varied tastes. From my time roaming around the hentai games I have some thoughts that might give some help these are just my observations so take them with a grain of salt.

1. Aim for a short but not too short game as your first time out to test the waters as it were.
2. As a game type, I'd suggest taking a look at Kyrieru's works. They tend to be very popular though one downfall tends to be somewhat painful platforming in places can be a bit of a sharp increase in skill needed to get past which can turn people off. Aim for a steady difficulty curve to give the players time to adjust to more complex stages if you go with a game in the platforming genre or any genre really.
3. Furry content tends to have a heavy fan base that is desperate for more. So far they have had to deal with scam artists or lousy devs who screw them out of money half the time making more solid content far and extremely few between. Same could be said for beastiality content but that's a much more difficult area due to laws in various countries so mostly a no go zone but many who favour that fetish will leap on it in a heartbeat.
4. A good mixture of fetishes would probably be the preferred route would draw in a good number of customers, futa would be nice but some prefer to avoid it like the plague (still can't understand such a harsh reaction even after asking why but to each their own) so if you do add it in make sure players can avoid it easy enough while those who do like it can leap into it with gusto. Naturally Scat, Watersports and Guro are the deep end of the no go zone for most people and will drive off a lot more people than it would draw in. Loli/Shota is a pretty grey area borderline for most before it goes into the no go zone but laws tend to make this a best to avoid unless your country has no bother with Loli/Shota content.
5. One particular thing I tend to enjoy in a game is a form of corruption that might lead into outright surrendering to the particular creature/character/ fetish leading to an ending of sorts a Happy End? kinda thing. Some examples would be the dog from Z-fied's Resident Evil Progeny it had a mechanic where you could submit to enemies in this case to lessen damage but the characters reactions would reflect your choice going from a "please stop" to "fuck me!". In the case of the dog it would eventually knot the heroine causing her to need to struggle out more however just let it go eventually she would submit on her own until eventually she would give in so quickly there was no escape leading to a more Happy End? game over. Sadly It and another game with similar corruption text and possible future submission ends, Unforbidden, never got finished.

Anyway there are my thoughts hope some give some help. Good luck with your run, hopefully you will be able to succeed where many have failed- mainly failed to finish.

 

[djweish]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Form the business side of things, I'm sure NSFW games probably have a tougher struggle than other kinds of indie games in many ways. Many people will probably just refuse to ever pay for porn games, and pirate instead. And advertising is harder - your audience is limited to 18+, you probably can't get exposure through things like family friendly youtubers. People are probably less likely to even pass on word of mouth about porn games; there's a social stigma there. Obviously there are exceptions, but in general I personally can't even imagine talking to friends about their favourite porn games.

If your goal is to make money, then these downsides need to be considered; is there enough of an upside to balance them? If you could make a great indie game that didn't need porn elements to sell, it might end up more profitable. But then again, porn does have upsides (or no one would make porn games). You probably need to consider the game you want to make and whether the upsides outweigh the negatives. Sometimes simply slapping good quality pictures on an otherwise mediocre game might be enough to make it sell as a porn game when it wouldn't sell as a regular indie game. Of course, people will tell you to make a game that's good enough it doesn't need the porn (we all want to play fun games, right?); but if you can do that, then you need to ask yourself, well does it need the porn after all?

 

[shadow1029]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Any game made, whether it has NSFW content or not, should generally be something that people enjoy playing and want to keep playing until completion (some exceptions are done in interesting ways, but those require a lot more work,skill, and planning.) To me, it feels like a game has failed in some way if I keep playing for something that occurs later on, but am not enjoying what happens in the journey to that point. I admit that my standards for games are pretty high, since I don't consider a game good unless I enjoyed more than half of the time playing it and finished on a positive note (the ending can ruin a game pretty easily, Mass Effect 3 before the updated ending as an example.) The games I've found to be best are ones that I get a desire to play again after I've beaten them, even after 100% completion.

In the end though, a NSFW game should be good enough that you can remove the NSFW content and still have at least a decent game. Kyrieru's games are a good example of that. If the game absolutely needs the NSFW content to be considered playable (or worse, tolerable), you may want to look into other avenues to use the NSFW content instead of making it part of a game. A comic, a CG set, a visual novel, each of those would work to show the NSFW content in a way that will still sell if the content is good. It is possible to have a mediocre or even bad game sell decently if the NSFW content is exceptional, but I'd advise testing the responses and feedback with simple games, comics, or stories to feature the NSFW content and get an idea of where it stands quality and quantity wise. If the game is good enough that you believe it will sell well even without the NSFW content, you may have overshot the goal, but you should still consider whether adding the NSFW content will improve the game or not (how the content is added/introduced can change quite a lot for the game. Collecting pictures of NSFW content scattered throughout the game generally does not leave as good of an impact as earning them through a related portion of the game).

Side note: I don't consider visual novels as games if the player interaction is limited to only choosing one of several options at specific points. They can tell stories in a great way when done right, but it doesn't feel like a game when you read an epic fight scene, and your interaction is limited to choosing whether you say something nice or mean afterwards. Even having cues for directional input a few times would make it a game to me. I have enjoyed several visual novels and still replay some when in the mood, but not for game play.

For the game itself, the developers need to make it with the mentality of a player. The final product should be something the makers themselves would want to buy and play from a complete stranger (there's a bias on buying and playing the game if you know who made it, whether positive or negative). Questioning the game from the viewpoint of a player while making or play testing it is also necessary. Is this area too easy? Is this enemy outright impossible without memorization of patterns or ridiculous reflexes? Am I having fun even during a play test (as a player, not as a developer seeing the fruits of your labor. It is necessary to separate the mentalities for this portion.)?

The suitability of the game for its platform is also important, as some games simply do not work well when put on certain platforms. Games that require complex or multiple controls would generally not work well on mobile devices, for example. Making a game compatible for multiple platforms usually means changing or downgrading some qualities of the game to run on all the supported platforms, or making different "versions" of the game for each platform (like Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, or Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for the Wii and PS3. Not really a fair comparison to the end product of the game made with or ignoring these suggestions, but meant to show how much a game can change if put on multiple platforms in regards to graphics and controls.) Focusing on one platform and maximizing the benefits it brings makes the game better and more focused for that platform, but can lead to loss of sales if the game was good enough to have been released for more platforms. Though I don't believe it would be worth it to make games compatible for multiple platforms unless the quality of your previous games on one platform is exceptional enough for several people to look forward to your games.

This was a fairly long post, but I hope it's useful. There is a severe lack of good NSFW games that are worth their price (or even worth paying for. The quality can go that low) especially in English, so good luck.

 

[MrMe]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

What I foremost expect is a game that I can quickly get into and that stimulates me so I can have a wank in a sock.
Thats pretty much the main reason I play a hentai game, because I like my smut to have a bit of interaction with it. I don't really like thinking "Did I really just waste two hours to have a wank?"

What I see a lot of new hentai devs do though is get these grandiose ideas of making a 'great rpg' or a 'great platformer' but at most fart out a tech demo with maybe a single H scene (there's even one english RPG thats been in dev for over a year, has lots of followers, but is still yet to have a build of the game with a single h scene in it).
Or you have devs like Vosmog or Dirtyc101, who do manage to make a game with h content but then get burnt out before completion. (okay, not fair in Vosmog's case but if you read his blog he clearly doesn't enjoy what he's doing)

Much rather play a nice simple game like Jungle/Demon Girl, or JSK's flash games - the fighting ones are my favourite.


As for what else I expect.
Women not to have massives cocks and women to not enjoy getting raped.

I wish there was a game like Corruption of Champions that wasn't full of shebeasts and the fights were a struggle to avoid getting violated rather than who goes on top.


There's just something about a prideful pure woman getting pounded into the dirt regretting losing.
For people with my fetish its a bit of shame there aren't many games that cater to this at the moment.



Edit: Oh, and don't even think of mentioning the word 'patreon' until you have something substantial to show.
There's been far far too fucking many cunts coming around here, cup in hand, expecting people to throw money at them because they posted a white sheet and some rough concept art.

 

[Seis]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

I responded to the questionnaire but about the first question, what type of game: Honestly i don't think that matters very much. What matters is the execution of it. As long as the game ends up being good, people will play it regardless of what type of game it is. As an example, i had zero interest in a wrestling game and yet i'm really excited about Enlit3D's Heroine Rumble. You mentioned you worked on a bullet hell game that got canned. I don't like bullet hell games but if you made a good adult bullet hell, i'd end up playing it. Do what you're good at and do it well.

 

[Larcx]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

I'm not good with wall of text , I'm not a native english anyway~
So maybe I rather add some good game (IMO) instead

Spoiler

-Monster Girl Quest
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-Kurovadis
-Virgin Invader
-Umai Neko - Sakura/Mei
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-Shinobi Girl and any koooonsoft games
-LAB -Still Alive-
-Sword Hime - Sengoku Hime (Red Dragonfly)
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-UnHolY SaNctuaRy - UnHolY JaiL
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-Meijiroido last magic weapon
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- Succubus Heaven(not release yet)
-Raidy series
-Rance series
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Hmm , I guess the game itself should be good
And the H_Art also good , as long it has those combo
The game should've sell well~

 

[NLL]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

RPGmaker games with default assets and music outperform well designed action games in the sales department. So, just hire a talented artist and write some generic hentai story about some dude bedding monster girls, or a girl becoming a prostitute after reading one page of a smut magazine.

Or download Poser and make mad Patreon bucks. Just make sure it's a game about fucking your sister/mother, those are pretty rare.

As for action games, people really enjoy animated ingame rape (sprite sex). Gameplay, soundtrack, sound design, level design, whatever, don't bother with these.

Good luck with your game.

 

[tsuchinoko92]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Sprite sex, especially if it has transitions that show the character reacting to it as it goes further.
Personally, a background that can hide the characters at some points is good for letting the imagination fill in details as sprite sex occurs.

 

[dienow]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

Before you can know what kind of thing you want to appeal to, you need to know what kind of sexual activity you are trying to appeal to:

1) Plot with porn. (good reading story with porn as a component, even if tacked on) [Turkeyhandle, Grisaia]
2) Porn with plot. (fucking good porn with a plot added to give it that delicious plumber-to-fix-your-sink appeal) [Any nukige]
3) Actual game element well-made (so that, foremost, it's actually fun to play without the porn) and porn also. [Think Kyrieru's never-releasing stuff, or Lab game]
4) 10-minute whack material. [It's just porn.]
5) Any of the above, with an emphasis on being short. (run or rape, stage-based action, etc.)
6) Any of the above, with an emphasis on being long (trainer game, strategy, etc.).
7) ECCHI-STYLE!, rather than actual porn. (If you're going porn and not ecchi, go big or go home. Don't bother trying to be timid with a porn-FIRST game.)

What are you looking to make, rather than what are you looking to cater to? All of the above are fine options that will make you money if done right.

But whether or not you can do any or all of them is the question.

There is a huge technical difference between something like Himegari Dungeon Meister and Meet n Fuck trash, but both are equally valid options for different people.

Also: what are you looking to make starting off?

There's a big difference between starting off making a small game that you might make bigger later, or a big game that's intensive.

 

[juzotogo]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

See this is exactly what's wrong with the gaming market now a days.

When gaming first started it was a translation of tabletop games to computers, it had a natural transition and evolution to a certain point.

People who made games were gamers (tabletop) and nerds. Games by and for gamers. (not all, but mostly)
Now people get into creating games because theirs a big buck to make, they rely on statistics, reaching an audience, pleasing as much people as possible and all sorts of quantifiable data and end up being a soulless product constructed by a bunch of bullet points. And they can't understand why it fails when they hit all the points.

So I'm sorry, but asking people a few questions, and writing a shitty survey won't help you because your project is more about bullet points then actually creating some sort of art or erotica. Good luck friend, their is a soulless market out there, I suggest you tap into that one.

 

[Scherzo]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

I can't entirely agree with Juzo.

Fact of the matter is, there are passion projects where the creator did everything for the love of the game/genre... and it's still shit.

And then there are "soulless" corporate projects that are still good.

You think Nintendo isn't hitting the marketing research checkboxes HARD? Think again.

There is a balance here. Yeah, you definitely want to start with a passion, but there's nothing wrong with seeking out some second opinions and some advice and to try to find your audience/market.



Anyway, to actually answer the discussion at hand,

I think the best and most memorable H-games overall are the ones that truly aim to make the adult content part of the game. Where the adult content is actual integral to the game rather than tacked onto it. How you can actually go about doing that depends a bit on the genre.

CG hunt games where you just get some kind of picture for completing a task or a level as a reward don't actually feel that rewarding. Better for the porn to either be part of the gameplay itself or part of the story than to simply be a carrot you're chasing.

 

[marcus3708]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

I think he should be careful about using rpgmaker I personally tend to shy away from those copy and paste games that all look the same, probably monster girl quest paradox is the only exception since I can't wait for them to finish translating that. It's more exciting to see something new. Perhaps thinking about it like how an author writes a new book might be helpful like what inspires them to write a great story or where do they they get their ideas from since the story is kind of important for a hentai game.

What do I know though maybe it takes a certain amount of experience to make a good game that wont be lost and become a hidden gem somewhere that no one knows about or maybe something like clout but in the gaming profession.

I definitely think its helpful if you are a gamer yourself so you at least have your own experiences of what might make a good game or even just briefly browsing the content of other games for reference points. I Imagine it would take some stroke of genius to make a good game while having never touched a gamepad.

Oh and I dont think I've seen a single non japanese hentai game with actually decent art so you probably want to hire some Asians to do the drawing if you can't do it yourself. 90% of the time anything drawn by anyone else is just a pale imitation and please don't make some dull turn based fighting system like something from final fantasy where your position on the battle screen has no relevance. At least if your going to make some really long game where we get attached to the story for a short game that might be okay if we just get so attached to the story for some reason that we dont care like the first 2 monster girl quest that fighting system was horrid but no one cared.

 

[Yoshiiki]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

You have to sell people what they want - this one is true.
People don't know what they want - this is also true.
This is why marketing plays a huge role, to show people what they want even if they don't know themselves what they want.
This is pretty much how it works for big companies.

For rest, it's sometimes a gamble, sometimes perfectly executed plan.
Either way, you can't satisfy everyone, it's not possible.
Asking what people want is a good method to gather information... BUT how it's going to be used? Completely different story.

As for the question. What do I expect from an [adult] game?
I expect to enjoy it.

 

[Zepheral]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

I expect more yuri, I'm ok with futa...... but I WANT MORE YURI ACTION GAMES!!!!!

But as Yoshiiki said, you sell what people want and what they want depends. Like for me, I want more yuri in action games!!!

So always keep an ear out and listen to the people.


MORE YURI PLEASE!!!!!!

 

[marcus3708]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

It would be foolish to just completely ignore people when they tell you what they want but to some degree yes people don't really know what they want. People are fickle and will say they we want this but will then try something else and decide oh hey I like this better. It's really impossible for people to accurately say they like something if they've never experienced it before so its gonna be a bit of a gamble.

 

[Buffmuffin]

Re: What do you expect from a adult game? Help me understand!

The worst mistake any business can make is assuming they know best what their customers want.

That said, you can't just cobble together a whole bunch of wishes into a game and expect to have anything.

You have to start with an overall vision and incorporate the desires of your target groups into that. Don't try to mash together a vampire game, a monstergirl game, a slave trainer and a RPG...

Pick a platform, pick a genre, and include ideas that make sense in that scenario.