discussion What do you think makes the most popular adult games stand out?

[descartes]

Story definitely. A good game has good quality in various elements mentioned; however, if the story is bad, it becomes very unpleasant to play. For example, having a good story can make a game enjoyable even with poor graphics, but the opposite is not necessarily true

 

[mccutch]

Of the options listed, I would have to say story. I'm OK with all the others being sub-par as long as it has a good narrative. Personally I like game that are interactive as well. Either not too grindy sandbox games or VNs with ample choices or paths.

 

[Sam1]

If we go by the games that were popular enough to spawn a franchise out of themselves (like f/e: fate), then I would say story. Followed very closely by graphics (the illusion inc. recipe).
Dialogue and character design are just a subset of story and part of it. Bad dialogue or bad character design will ruin a story, and it's rare for a bad story to have good dialogue and/or good character design.

 

[fullreview]

Competent writing, how the lewd scene are lead to. I think these two are most important for popular adult game.

 

[Bangcoaches]

It mainly comes down to overall quality. Good story, graphics and gameplay can go a long way.

 

[User_123383]

Story and graphics. Appropriate amount of realism and interesting gameplay.

 

[upbutte]

A well written MC with lots of good NPCs. Great LIs are great, but every story needs a Derek as a best bro.

 

[osiris789]

Story and graphics. Appropriate amount of realism and interesting gameplay.

Agreed, this is the difference.

 

[IFF01]

The poll pretty much says it all, a good story with good characters

 

[Gorden]

Story game play and character

 

[leodevin]

Character design is definately the most important. If the design looks strange I cant even get into the story to see if its good.

 

[herelooking027]

I'm curious what everyone here thinks contributes the most to why the most popular games are as popular as they are. Most of the games are probably a combination of these things but I want to know what aspects people think contribute the most to their popularities.

I would also appreciate if anyone would be willing to give more details on whatever aspect they think contributes the most. Such as what does a story need to do to help a game stand out more or what kinds of graphics help, like if they are 2d or 3d, or what they use to create the graphics such as Daz or Honey Select.

Also do you think a game's genre (VN, Sandbox, etc.) helps it stand out more and how the genre may affect the aspects that help it stand out the most?

Oh... I answered the poll by my own reason (dialog, because 98% of games are terrible at dialog). If a game has a turn-based-combat, text-only, RPG, sandbox, management, simulation, or HTML tag I am more likely to give it a try.

What makes a game popular to other people? If I believe what I have read on this site, it's 3D graphics. It seems like people here want Unity or RenPy.

 

[Val]

Story / relationships are the most important to me. If the story becomes too predictable, it gets stale really quick and its hard to recover from. Not every games has to have BADIK renders and frankly I rather they don't so the game runs smoothly haha. People can tell when a developer spent QUALITY time making the game instead of just trying to make money and they usually get rewarded for it with a strong following.

 

[User_98650]

Characters and story play a big role in me liking the game. We have a lot of games that will use the same models however they stand apart vastly due to the games story and the characters surrounding involved. This isn't to say that art is not important though I know I've never been able to maintain playing any games that were only riding on how nice the art was and didn't take care of anything else.

 

[Mr.Nobody]

a good story 110%

100% agree

 

[orphan]

probably graphics and immersion

 

[elfieeven]

The really popular ones? Most of the list is a requirement but here is my ordered list which is based off game popularity on another certain site (which is well known for skewing/cheating on the popularity of games BUT it's the only decent option we have).

• Dialogue aka proper Grammar and correctness in the language being used
  • There are some DAZ games with great renders that would do SO much better if the dev would just use DeepL + one fan who is good with English (in exchange for free beta access obviously). I'm pretty amazed at how close DeepL can get things with a bit of love and care. Just watch out for some of the archaic terms it uses, it was obviously trained on a lot of older books.
• Story
  • Every single extremely popular game has a decent/good story. The days are long gone when you can have a generic story about your MC who goes to college and gets all of the girls.
• Characters (Personalities and their designs)
  • Goes hand in hand with good to great stories. And here you're a lot more limited than in terms of your story. There are only so many different personality types/combinations you can come up with, whereas there are nearly an infinite variety in stories you can tell, thanks to the ability to change time period, characters, mix stories together, etc.
• Graphics
  • Katawa Shoujo, Light of my Life, Living with Sister: Monochrome. The fact games like these are so popular is the main reason why I personally feel that Characters > Graphics but it's a very tight race.
• Amount of time between scenes
  • It feels like there is more of an appetite for less scenes at the start, but once they get started then there is an expectation that they will occur at a regular pace.
• Diverse choice of love interests
  • There are some extremely popular games that only have 2 or 3 LIs.
• No Grind
  • I know it's not in the original list but this is a huge one. Enough people hate grind that you're really limiting your user base if you include it. Note I'm not saying that all game play mechanics are a problem (Being a DIK is very popular despite it's House cleanup/upgrading as an example)

 

[badburger]

Writing quality is what makes games stand out, this generally means dialog that is well done. A terrible premise can be completely carried by well written dialog, and the best premise in the world still isn't good if the dialog is bad. It's all about that dialog being well written.

 

[ghostwerx]

I will have to go with Story as the main point. Graphics will come after, but it all comes back to the story as without a compelling story and characters, it's just animated porn.

 

[na2]

to me it is a triangle. game-play, art, story. average games do one well, good games do 2 well, and the absolute best games do all 3