discussion What unsolicited advice would you give to porn game devs?

[IFF01]

If you are deflowering virgins show the evidence.

 

[LewisCarroll]

The better your animations and model work, the more streamlined your story will be because you won't have to explain the plot. Ergo, 'show, don't tell.'

 

[cuntsly]

1: periodically look at other dev studios, their fanbase, what their doing, and learn from their triumphs and mistakes. you learn a ton about game development just by lurking, it's incredible.

2: if you are already making a game, you have a story, and you are thinking of adding things that are contentious (rape, scat, NTR, etc) make them 100% optional. if you are curious for how to do it, look at a game called Fetish Locator. that game has so many precautions about that stuff, like a menu that simply enables the question to even be asked. this way, everyone is happy.

3: focus on writing a good story, using a functional engine, and making something that is easy to update, before the illustrations. games like Taffy Tales become the way they are because of the underlying frustration the fans get from the amount of time it takes for things to come out, and 90% of that games issues come from the fact that the art takes forever. granted, the style is unique and gives the game it's charm, but there are so many other issues with the game, that I'd take a hit to the art quality for a full year if it meant Uberpie just fixed the fuckin code. you can ALWAYS go back and redo art. but attempting to fix a broken engine while you are at update 2.1476v3 is absurdly stupid as it will either break the game, or take so much time to update, that your supporters see it as a waste of money.

4: please, for the love of god, when you start making a game, plan with the intention of making a gallery for all scenes and images. if you code things right, you should be able to rip specific scenes right into a gallery simply. i'm not saying it's not hard or complicated. i'm saying that if you plan ahead, it saves you a lot of headaches.

5: this is the MOST important one: focus on building a relationship with your fans. be honest. don't just tell us what we wanna hear. cultivating a genuine connection with your fans also cultivates a positive mindset response from them. ask us what we want, and tell us how the road is going. if you need to take a break, just say so. MITY is a great example of a dev studio with a fantastic fanbase. cuz they follow almost all the advice above, and they give reasonable updates. they talk about their life without giving too many specifics, and people are understanding. there was an entire 3 month period where game updates were slow, and instead of saying nothing, or making excuses, he literally just said "I hurt my hand, my mouse sucks, and I've lost motivation" and instead of getting upset at him, most of us wished him a swift recovery, gave some advice on how to help, and there was a thorough dialogue about the possibility of changing hardware. i don't see ANY toxic behaviour in that patreon, because the guys are just straightforward and solution-oriented. loyalty to your fans begets their loyalty to you.

6: if ya gotta ditch a game, or wanna quit being a game dev, just take a break for a while. go touch some grass, pick up another hobby, go on vacation, etc. just seperate yourself for a bit, then come back and try again. when ya come back, if you can continue, ya just need healthier habits, and to take a break more often. but if you open up that screen, and just don't feel it anymore, it might be time to switch projects, and work on something else.

 

[TH1987]

I would say...enough with the oversized body parts (i.e...big breasts)...natural size would be a better option...not everyone like big/oversize everything

 

[DirtyPaws]

Cut the grinding. No one likes it. It is better to have a shorter game than a long one that makes your players angry.

 

[elfieeven]

Ignore almost everything in here (including anything I've said) and just go make the game you want

 

[Vulky]

Don't masturbate while coding. Masturbate only when waiting for a long rendering to finish.

 

[MajinGuu]

If you're going to make your game a sandbox. Please use a menu displaying all the rooms you can enter instead of making people randomly click 50 different doors and guess which ones they can enter or not.

 

[pb8-1s]

Make a game you want, not specifically something others have asked for. You can take basic guidence, but if you don't enjoy the game you will burn out in a few versions and no one will be happy. At least if you make something you like, you are more likely to finish it which will at least make some people happy, even if it's not a popular genre.

 

[Kansasfarms]

It would be too much work but maybe have dick/tits/ass/etc sliders ? Make them bigger/smaller depending on fetish/preference of the player. Probably too many renders though

 

[entry1]

Cut the grinding. No one likes it. It is better to have a shorter game than a long one that makes your players angry.

a lot of grinding games can be fun but they have gameplay to support it, here it's just repeating the same boring action an arbitrary number of time

 

[fthegovernment]

please look up the definition of the word " unsolicited "

 

[Raodos455]

if you're a dev and finish your game, people will... you know... TRUST your work

 

[Storge_GameChanger]

Unsolicited advice #4: Finish your fucking game!

Unsolicited advice #5: In case of a non-VN especially, but also for some VNs, focus on developing the sequence from beginning to end of your game BEFORE getting bogged down with side-content.

Great Advice, and I would like to add for AVN devs, make your story well in advance, so that you would have clear path and destination in mind. This will help you from getting side-tracked and present the story you visualise...!

 

[grimsbysteve]

• Treat everything here as market research and take it with a big pinch of salt, unless it comes from someone with a genuine developer credit - they've been in those trenches and can give you far better advice than I can.
• Don't worry about making it perfect from the first release, I don't think anybody here would begrudge a work in progress.
• Communicate with your audience once you have one, on here, in Discord, a subscription platform of your choosing, etc. People won't mind waiting for the next release quite so much if they know how long they have to wait.
• Don't use copy/paste LIs and scenes, work in some variety, whether it's the looks, the relationship (friendly, hostile, dom/sub, parent/child, etc), their likes/dislikes, what you can do with them and when.
• As others have said, make a game YOU want to play, if you won't enjoy, you probably won't enjoy writing it, and quality will suffer.
  • If you do want to include things you don't have an interest in, ask around for help writing those bits.

 

[HentaiGalaxy]

Make pp hard

 

[Uthuriel]

Write your story before you write single line of code.

 

[Seo In-guk]

Don't abandon him and help the poor man by creating an alternate ending that has a harem since there are enough women and only to choose one is ugly xd

 

[abooksigun]

Don't try to do too much
Just try to focus on one thing at a time like one or a few fetishes.
And then expand gradually maybe even depending of the opinions of the players

 

[LewdVN111]

Write your story before you write single line of code.

This. Get the story solidified before you start spending the time to code it into life, and starting the arduous task of making good visuals. Trying to wing the story while you code and give out updates to the readers often leads to a story with a weird flow or gaping holes in the story line. Unless of course you just want to make straight spank material, then the story is likely getting skipped by the readers anyway to get to the next "fun" scene.