discussion Pet peeves and notes to writers

[lewdfather]

I think being to creative with the interpretation of the tags can also ruin the game for me because it won’t match the expectations.

 

[Karamchad]

Sure the devs are going to change their games to fit your personal taste.

They should. It is the most basic requirement for a decent visual novel.

As a Developer, I actually support this. In fact, I encourage everyone who comes in here to actually lay down their thoughts. Developers are constantly trying to get better at what they do. You guys are the judges, the ones we try to please(in a way). Developers will always follow their own paths but learning a few key points from everyone will help us in the long run.

Please don't consider this as an actual complaint but as actual helpful tips for ALL Developers. We learn from the bad more than we do the good.

Criticism is always good when it comes from people that have love for the market, because you know they want to see more high quality content out there for a hobby they have passion.
"Oh but the haters and shit" yeah yeah, every space on the planet has people like that, but with a brain you can filter out.

 

[Mr. Tearson]

Criticism is always good when it comes from people that have love for the market, because you know they want to see more high quality content out there for a hobby they have passion.
"Oh but the haters and shit" yeah yeah, every space on the planet has people like that, but with a brain you can filter out.

Damn. Had completely forgotten I even replied in here.

But yeah, there are haters out there. Not much one can do about that. What matters is how you word it.

Do not:
"This game suck! I hate it!" (Hater comment)

Do:
"Okay, this game is not good because you added a banana to censor her pussy. You should consider removing that and you might gain more fans this way." and vice versa.

If a Dev knows what they are doing is wrong, it gives them options to try and fix it. Some Devs do not listen to their fans but there are still those who will. Asking cost nothing, harms nothing in sites like these.

 

[HandholdDegen]

Just in general, if I feel like an outsider playing your game then you're not trying hard enough to make your game immersive or inclusive.

• Don't litter the game with in-jokes from your discord group, or with pop culture references that only a specific subset of people from a specific area in the US, or Russia, or wherever you are from are going to get. We get it, you have a friend group, but you are making a game that will be played by hundreds of times more people who have never met you and never will meet you.
• Stop memeing with your characters. If your characters aren't being serious, then I can't take anything happening seriously. I am trying to play a game to experience a story, not follow along an improv night show.
• Don't include 'current day' references in your game. It dates your game very quickly and in just one or two updates people will wonder what that reference was about. This is especially true if you only update your game a few times a year.
• If you want to set a theme to your game, then stick to that theme! Don't cross themes, you will not pull it off. Is your game a future punk game? Stick to that, don't make it a zombie apocalypse or detective noir out of nowhere.
• Don't start side stories to pad out the run time of the game, you will fail to pull that off. A whole update dedicated to your loli love interest going to a CS:GO tournament will never be as satisfying as a whole update dedicated to advancing the relationship with the loli.
• Stop entirely with kidnapped love interest plots or blackmail plots, you will fail to pull that off. 'This week's villain' is the most annoying distraction there is. You are wasting time setting up a villain, and taking attention away from the story to build up to a victory against some loser no one cares about.
• STOP. FUCKING. STALLING. We know where the game is going, and you are not good enough at slow burn or tension building to pull off an edge sesh. Get people flirting early, and get people fucking not long after that. There is so much good you can do once people start fucking, but there is almost nothing good you can do before then except making the waster playtime feel a modicum less tedious - and that's not a good gamble.
• If you are going to play with taboos, make the taboos matter. If the reaction to taboo is just mild surprise, or intrigue, then it isn't a taboo at all. The whole point of taboo is that it isn't allowed and must be kept secret.
• OH! Important! You characters have to talk in a way that matches their age and background. Children don't talk like 20-year-old bachelors and bachelorettes. And when people speak in your native language that isn't english (because, let's face it, you're not going to google translate to a language you don't know), don't write out their speech in their native language and alphabet. Just leave it as a *speaking another language* or *speaking japanese* if the player character isn't meant to understand what is being said. Again, you are alienating the player here, not the player character.

 

[s3gfaul7]

From the top of my head, single-choice dialogue menus. They serve no purpose and just annoy me.

 

[MattShizzle]

Make it a GAME not a damn kinetic novel. If I wanted no choices in what happens, I'd watch porn. WAY better graphics (and games with real porn suck, especially using HTML. See next.)
DO NOT use HTML or rpgmaker as an engine. Both are horrible for adult games. Koikatsu graphics also suck ass.
Don't make holiday specials. They usually suck and delay the release for the next real update.

 

[SkyBright22]

Long waiting time between updates has to be the most frustrating thing ever

 

[Hongbottlo]

I find it quite anoying that every game has thrown in the tags "big tits" and "big ass" just for good measure.

 

[Gorden]

I think everyone has their own taste there is things you don't like others like it

 

[BananaPrincess]

Gigantic boobs and 20 inch penises.

 

[deathspawn246]

My biggest pet peeve is long pauses that require multiple clicks to get through. Also blank black screens between scenes that need to be clicked though to advance. It never adds any suspense to the game, nor does it add dramatic flare. It's just bothersome and unnecessary. I have played many games that suffer from this curse and have dropped them just because it was done often and was quite annoying.

 

[upbutte]

Light those sex scenes and stay around 5 LIs max.

 

[herelooking027]

Lack of a log of major choices the player made and recent actions taken. If I don't play a game for a few days or longer, I shouldn't feel like I need to load up a much older save file because I can't remember what my most recent choices and plans were.

The log should also explain what I need to do to complete quests and say what optional goals are available. If I have to wander around to figure out what I need to do so I can enjoy the game, the game sucks.

 

[MattShizzle]

College rarely, if ever, has students wear uniforms. We can tell which devs didn't go when they have students past high school wearing them. And in the US, it's quite rare outside private schools for kindergarten through 12th grade.

 

[Karamchad]

Know your audience
Don't censor

 

[Kaeru]

What are some of your pet peeves when it comes to adult VN/games? I'm hoping this thread becomes a useful guide to future creators.

Here are some of the things that have annoyed me recently:

• When the dev talks to the reader in an intro:
  • if you've done a good job creating the game, there is no need for an introduction.
  • nobody wants to hear from you
  • nobody thinks you're as funny as you think you are
  • people want to try the game, not try you.
• characters who repeatedly make decisions like they're complete fucking morons
  • you should give the character the choices that the player would make
  • if you need the MC to make ridiculous decisions to make the plot work, you have a bad plot.
• Don't have all your Love interests look exactly the same.
  • give the player some variety - not everyone likes grotesque ass/boobs.
• Story is the most important!
  • ren'py renders will never compete with an entire internet full of real women doing real things
  • people play these games to become immersed in the story and the world of the game
  • If the only thing you can say about your game is "har har, i made a naked lady", then you game is bad.

I'd be interested in what other people think and to debate this topic.

Thanks!

As a dev myself, those are some great points and I'll also add in another that has always bothered me in games.
Don't use one of your characters to introduce the player to the game.

 

[MattShizzle]

Also, no minigames. At best they're annoying. At worst they lock people out of content (sometimes even proceeding in the game) AND they lead to about 50,000+ posts in the game thread asking how to get past the goddamn motherfucking stupid minigame. Wait, that wasn't right - the goddamn GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHERFUCKING stupid minigame bullshit.

 

[elfieeven]

• When the dev talks to the reader in an intro:
• characters who repeatedly make decisions like they're complete fucking morons
• Don't have all your Love interests look exactly the same.
• Story is the most important!

Another soon to release DEV here and I like the list with a few alterations.

1. When the dev talks to the reader in an intro unless they have something REALLY important they need to say. You're right, 99% of the time it's not needed but there is the rare case where it has value.

2. Characters who make decisions that are inconsistent with how the character has acted within the world.
Having #4 (Story) is really difficult without a good character flaw or two and these usually require a character to make 'bad/dumb' decisions. I'm not saying they should be an idiot about EVERYTHING but it makes sense if they are an idiot in relation to whatever makes up their flaw. Maybe the character at the start is one of those people who has trouble with authority their entire life so every single time they have to interact with an authority figure they do something completely stupid. The worst possible thing you could do in whatever the situation is. This would be consistent and perfectly fine AS LONG AS THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES, because any other character in the story should also follow the same rule, which means cops should throw the idiot in handcuffs, principals should expel the idiot that caused property damage, etc.

3. This one is good since it specifically says ALL love interests and I agree 100%.
That said.. dear god people.. learn a tiny bit about genetics. Sisters SHOULD look somewhat similar..

4. Good story, that has proper grammar, word choices, etc for the language you are reading it in, is the most important!

You could write an amazing story, but if it's written in poorly translated Engrish/Frenchish/etc then it's not going to do well. Find someone who knows the target language well, who is willing to trade early access to your game for the small cost of validating your translated text. DeepL + one person can make ALL of the difference.

 

[elfieeven]

You want non-linear 'What does MC do next' functionality? Go play Desert Stalker and do exactly what it does... full stop.

- Pay special attention to how DS merges in house activities with travel based ones. The switch between House/Map is very clean and easy.
- I don't want to navigate through the house you spent time creating, it's cool, I'll see it in the renders. Yes, this is covered by 'Pay special attention to how DS..', but if I have to walk around another house one more f'n time..
- Also pay attention to how the house activities use a nice sub menu that doesn't require I rescan the entire screen to figure shit out. It opens a new menu close to where the last one was.

 

[AlBetGam]

And when people speak in your native language that isn't english (because, let's face it, you're not going to google translate to a language you don't know), don't write out their speech in their native language and alphabet. Just leave it as a *speaking another language* or *speaking japanese* if the player character isn't meant to understand what is being said. Again, you are alienating the player here, not the player character.

Personally I don't mind that one- if I don't understand what's being said, it doesn't make much difference whether the game shows "Ou est la fromage de ton pere?" or "[something French]". But if I'm really curious the first one gives me the option to look up what was said.

College rarely, if ever, has students wear uniforms. We can tell which devs didn't go when they have students past high school wearing them. And in the US, it's quite rare outside private schools for kindergarten through 12th grade.

I suspect this comes from devs who want to be making a story about high schoolers but don't want to say high school because that might imply the characters are underage (devs of actual high school games tend to start their story on the first day of senior year, but if you're worried about age that still locks you out from using characters in lower grades). That's also why you get so many "colleges" where the main character has a homeroom teacher who apparently teaches all his subjects, goes to eat in a grade school lunchroom every day, etc.

Still a sloppy and pointless workaround though.

Actually came here to add this as a corollary to the "choice screen with only one option" peeve:

Spoiler

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Look at that map. The game it comes from (some may recognize it) is otherwise a VN, one without all that much branching. There is exactly one location on this map. There is nowhere else the player can go, nothing else they can do, but click "Home". The entire screen is thus 100% pointless. The player isn't navigating anywhere; the only thing this screen does is add an extra mouse click to the player's life (and bloat the game's image folder a bit). Mathematically speaking, it's the intersection of "choices that aren't actually choices" and "sandbox elements that aren't needed and don't fit".

Don't do this.