discussion Have you tried creating your own game and failed? Why?

[User_89876]

I guess it is the same with beeing a streemer or youtuber. Most people would like to create something, starting with a story or some artwork, but few realize that you need a team of people to accomplish something decent. No matter how good you are, you won't come too far in the long run. That does not mean that you cannot start small, but I think getting a team together on a fresh vision is one of the hardest parts.

 

[mrconeydog99]

Would be great for a general tutorial on how to get started for many people. Personally, I run into frequent issues with VNs where the lewd scenes are too easily obtainable or just downright unbelievable. Balancing plot and remembering to keep the game tastefully lewd must have a golden ratio somewhere.

 

[etrusmo]

Would be great for a general tutorial on how to get started for many people. Personally, I run into frequent issues with VNs where the lewd scenes are too easily obtainable or just downright unbelievable. Balancing plot and remembering to keep the game tastefully lewd must have a golden ratio somewhere.

I had this issue when I first started making my game, I didn't knew how to implement story branches without doing hundreds of extra renders or a bunch of extra text that nobody would read because it will be in the "bad ending" path, I have learned a lot now almost 2 years after I started it, I now have the knowledge of how to implement them but redoing the eraly stages of the game and story would be too much, I will instead implement it in a future game.

About balance and plot, if your game has a lot of dialog people might get bored, the same applies if it's endless sex without meaningful dialog, I believe a good balance is to have around three small conversations or one big ass conversation before a sex scene, and be sure to show something sexy in them or in between conversations, like a nip slip, upskirt shots, or just make the characters super lewd with skimpy clothes so players can focus on the sexy characters while they are reading, a handjob or some tit play during the dailog helps too, players get bored very easily.
I personally drop any game where I have like 10 minutes of dialog without anything sexy on it, just the main character and some love interest fully clothed talking for minutes isn't for me.

A good way to keep your lewd scenes reachable but not easily obtainable is to implement what a lot of devs do, a point system, you usually see it with corruption or love meters, but this can also become annoying if you need to farm too much to get that sexy scene and become easily repetitive, I will implement a conditional system in my next game, what's a conditional system you ask? see example below:

Player is in a situation where he can have a sex scene with character "Jane"
Player has two or more choices A,B,C,etc
Player can only choose one, lets say, A is blowjob, B is fingering Jane, and so on.
Player chose A, scene goes and ends, player has now a history of a blowjob with Jane, but no fingering history.
Player bumps into Jane again at a later stage in game is able to have a sexy time again.
Player has a few choices A2, B, C,etc
Where A2 is an even hardcore blowjob than before, B is the same fingering scene that was available before, etc.
Player will keep doing that until the full sex scene becomes available.

The downside of that system is that you have to keep the love interest in the same environment unless you do multiple scene with the same content on different backgrounds/environments, could be useful in a gem with a neighborhood where every character stays at home, school, etc.

In my case I have the idea to keep characters on two places only, their quarters and their working deck, it will be in a spaceship so everyone must be either working at a specific location on the ship or resting on their quarters.

 

[Chainedpanda]

I looked into it for a bit. Wrote out a few scenarios and ultimately formed a relatively decent plot outline. Things started to fall apart quickly once I realized my computer was too shitty to run any rendering engine for images.

 

[Dr@gon]

I looked into it for a bit. Wrote out a few scenarios and ultimately formed a relatively decent plot outline. Things started to fall apart quickly once I realized my computer was too shitty to run any rendering engine for images.

Yup, that’s how it goes. Except I personally mean to pick it up at some point, hopefully

 

[That One Guy]

I did and apparently nobody liked my idea. I wanted to make something different. I got tired of all the same old harem games or the cookie cuter games with 3 daughters/sisters or whatnot. I did the initial day one release and found out people really shit on a game if they don't like it immediately and I apparently was the only one that liked my idea so I didn't see the point in continuing it.

 

[hentai_acounts]

At the time, art. But now theres ai... hmm

 

[Skullpanda]

At the time, art. But now theres ai... hmm

Same issue here. I've started several twine games and got a ton done, but my artistic abilities are restricted to shitty stick figures. Text Only games can be awesome too but it's harder.

 

[Dr@gon]

Same issue here. I've started several twine games and got a ton done, but my artistic abilities are restricted to shitty stick figures. Text Only games can be awesome too but it's harder.

That’s what DAZ is for! You can find everything from poses to sets *somewhere*

 

[That One Guy]

That’s what DAZ is for! You can find everything from poses to sets *somewhere*

not everybody can run daz. Personally I think if I tried to run daz on my pc I think my gfx card would melt before I got the first render done.

 

[glewey15]

I have storyboarded and planned so many times, but I know I do not have the patience to deal with the slow development time of making a game. there are so many games that go on for years.

 

[Skullpanda]

That’s what DAZ is for! You can find everything from poses to sets *somewhere*

I hear what you're saying, but this is why i end up hating most daz games. Bleh. Half the time I feel like shaking the author and going "YOU DIDNT NEED GRAPHICS!"

 

[Doxxi]

i have never made one but one of my friends used to make them and his first one went alright, but his seconded got so bogged down because he had a bigger budget to work with that it sort of bit him in the ass and he ended up in idea hell, and it felt like no matter how much we tried to trim he always just had another idea he wanted to try and it basically worked itself into a infinite downward spiral of, story boarding and testing renders that got nowhere before he decided to stop working on it.

 

[AsuraEU]

Computer too potato to handle basic model rendering.

 

[Dr@gon]

I hear what you're saying, but this is why i end up hating most daz games. Bleh. Half the time I feel like shaking the author and going "YOU DIDNT NEED GRAPHICS!"

What do you mean, exactly?

 

[Skullpanda]

What do you mean, exactly?

I mean that half-assed daz graphics can very often be worse than no graphics at all, sorry i wasn't clear. I want to make a crude comparison to IRL sexual interest here about like "you dont have to be attractive, but it helps" but I can't find a way to say that and not sound like a complete asshole.

 

[Terrordoll]

Art was always the issue for me.

I worked as a systems designer in the industry for about 6 years. I went back to school after that to become a software engineer and have been doing that for the past 8 years. I'm capable of making a game, but wrangling an artist is difficult. Amateurs and hobbyists (I don't mean the derogatorily), generally don't get how much work it is going to take. They get bored or dislike it once it feels like work. The professionals are easier to handle but that comes with other issues. Expense is the biggest. They also expect you have your shit together as well.

 

[Skullpanda]

Art was always the issue for me.

I worked as a systems designer in the industry for about 6 years. I went back to school after that to become a software engineer and have been doing that for the past 8 years. I'm capable of making a game, but wrangling an artist is difficult. Amateurs and hobbyists (I don't mean the derogatorily), generally don't get how much work it is going to take. They get bored or dislike it once it feels like work. The professionals are easier to handle but that comes with other issues. Expense is the biggest. They also expect you have your shit together as well.

Speaking from experience, hiring or asking for help from volunteers almost always ends badly. Professionals are way better in that regard. Especially in the art space. It may just be my prejudice speaking but Coding and Writing for games is the easy part. Finding someone who wont bail when you ask them to draw something is hard AF. Even for DAZ stuff it can be difficult.

 

[Marcus_S]

I did and apparently nobody liked my idea. I wanted to make something different. I got tired of all the same old harem games or the cookie cuter games with 3 daughters/sisters or whatnot. I did the initial day one release and found out people really shit on a game if they don't like it immediately and I apparently was the only one that liked my idea so I didn't see the point in continuing it.

What was the game? Can it be downloaded from somewhere? I'd love to try something new.

 

[josemaloco]

I'm too damned ADHD; besides the programming I'd have to learn the biggest challenge would be keeping it updated - especially with the stress of expectations.

I feel you. I'm starting meds soon, maybe that will kick in enough discipline into me so I can start something.