- Oct 1, 2021
- 54
- 136
Hi! New developer here, looking for any kind of advice. We are making our first game in renpy, and is a dark fantasy with male dom and kinky themes. Any advice is welcomed!
Advice for new developer
- Thread starter AsmodeusDen
- Start date
Hi, I'm very new at it too, but one important piece of advice which I can offer is something another dev told me: do not to release your game too soon. I'm following this advice myself religiously, and I aim to make sure that there is at least a couple of hours of content before I make the first public release. First impressions often leave a strong impact, and having more content available from the get-go can really show the potential your game has, and releasing 0.0.01 versions with only a couple of minutes of gameplay is often looked upon poorly.
I understand the appeal of getting it out fast and getting community feedback soon, but it's a fine balance I think.
Also, really make sure that you have a clear understanding of what your game is and what it isn't, and make sure to exemplify any way it distinguishes itself from other games. An interesting plot, captivating art, smooth gameplay, a killer UI, anything really that makes it stand out, you should make sure you highlight that well.
And lastly, advice which I'm not following: start small. Might by hypocritical of me to suggest this since I'm trying to tackle a large project from the start, but starting small is usually a good way to both get into the industry, make a name for yourself, and actually have a complete game now rather than a lumbering mess 2 years down the line that you're sick of but just won't be able to get done with.
I understand the appeal of getting it out fast and getting community feedback soon, but it's a fine balance I think.
Also, really make sure that you have a clear understanding of what your game is and what it isn't, and make sure to exemplify any way it distinguishes itself from other games. An interesting plot, captivating art, smooth gameplay, a killer UI, anything really that makes it stand out, you should make sure you highlight that well.
And lastly, advice which I'm not following: start small. Might by hypocritical of me to suggest this since I'm trying to tackle a large project from the start, but starting small is usually a good way to both get into the industry, make a name for yourself, and actually have a complete game now rather than a lumbering mess 2 years down the line that you're sick of but just won't be able to get done with.
- Oct 1, 2021
- 54
- 136
Thanks for answering! We took already the first advice. Took months to be happy with the state of the game to release it. Its already on my patreon and im trying to see wich forum im supposed to upload it to share it here too!
And we do try to follow the second but im having a lot problems with it. The ambition is always so tempting, to add one more scene, to try one more mechanic....
Hello, i'm a new dev in the world of +18VN, just about a month ago I release the first version of my game so here are some advices i can share with you:
A rule of thumb I have seen other devs give is that, if you think your initial release is not good enough, don't release it (Applies to any update). It must be a version you are proud of and have confidence in it. Also try to make it have a strong impression on the player,for example it can archived by having gorgeus model, quality sex scene, very well written characters, amazing UI, intereting stroyline, leaving it in a big cliffhanger or some other stuff.
If you are wondering about how long should you make your first release, I saw people asking the same question months ago, and people who answer the vast majority said that at least they expected to be half and hour, of course they expect a something good in that time, not a bunch of irrelevant text or only like 50 renders.
About the publishing part, try to publish your game in a lot of places, more exposure is always good, either way in a lot of cases once your game is in a +18 forum like this one, your game will start appearing in other pages without you knowing of.
And most importantly, something people have constantly reminded me of is “”Make the game you want”. A lot of people will want you to make changes or make you go into another direction with your game, but at the end of the day you are the developer and making something you like will help you to keep working on it, there's enough dead games in here anyways.
Maybe I'm missing some life saving advices but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, I hope I was able to help. And don't be afraid to ask any more questions, most of the devs here are very nice.
A rule of thumb I have seen other devs give is that, if you think your initial release is not good enough, don't release it (Applies to any update). It must be a version you are proud of and have confidence in it. Also try to make it have a strong impression on the player,for example it can archived by having gorgeus model, quality sex scene, very well written characters, amazing UI, intereting stroyline, leaving it in a big cliffhanger or some other stuff.
If you are wondering about how long should you make your first release, I saw people asking the same question months ago, and people who answer the vast majority said that at least they expected to be half and hour, of course they expect a something good in that time, not a bunch of irrelevant text or only like 50 renders.
About the publishing part, try to publish your game in a lot of places, more exposure is always good, either way in a lot of cases once your game is in a +18 forum like this one, your game will start appearing in other pages without you knowing of.
And most importantly, something people have constantly reminded me of is “”Make the game you want”. A lot of people will want you to make changes or make you go into another direction with your game, but at the end of the day you are the developer and making something you like will help you to keep working on it, there's enough dead games in here anyways.
Maybe I'm missing some life saving advices but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head, I hope I was able to help. And don't be afraid to ask any more questions, most of the devs here are very nice.
- Oct 24, 2018
- 5,406
- 10,107
I'm not a dev myself so take this what it's worth but I would advise you to write ahead. If you're releasing v0.0.1 then you should have already written up to v0.0.5 imo.
A second piece of advice is keep a strict limit on the branching paths and don't bow to pressure from players to add additional branches as this will stall story development and ultimately cause you to fall out of love with your project.
Thirdly, don't include a kink/fetish/flavour as a one-off, you'll alienate people who don't like it and anger those who do. Make it a major part of the game or don't bother.
A second piece of advice is keep a strict limit on the branching paths and don't bow to pressure from players to add additional branches as this will stall story development and ultimately cause you to fall out of love with your project.
Thirdly, don't include a kink/fetish/flavour as a one-off, you'll alienate people who don't like it and anger those who do. Make it a major part of the game or don't bother.
Last edited:
- Mar 15, 2020
- 571
- 1,111
First of all, make the game that you want to play.
Planning is one of the most important aspects of a project ime. Make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve, where the story ends and how it gets there, and what mechanics are in the game from start to finish. You should basically answer this question: What does the final chapter of your game look like and how did the player get here? Also take time to setup a good (or at least tolerable) workflow for the creating graphics, and revise it often as you gain more experience.
Lastly on this point, when you deviate from the plan you've made make sure it's for a good reason.
Feature creep is a bitch and a half, and you should fight that particular temptation. Adding things here and there that weren't originally intended will cause you headaches down the line. This kinda ties to my last point.
Good feedback is essential. Grab 5 to 30 of your closest friends that are both reasonable and brutally honest and have them play the game. Then ask them for their opinion and try to understand it, and most importantly don't take it personally.
Perfect is the enemy of good. If you have something that's reasonably good and it would it take you a lot of time to make it perfect, it's preferable most of the time to release it now and try to do better in the next update. It's one thing to be unhappy about something in your project, it's another thing to delay it for insignificant bullshit.
Good luck!
Planning is one of the most important aspects of a project ime. Make sure you know exactly what you want to achieve, where the story ends and how it gets there, and what mechanics are in the game from start to finish. You should basically answer this question: What does the final chapter of your game look like and how did the player get here? Also take time to setup a good (or at least tolerable) workflow for the creating graphics, and revise it often as you gain more experience.
Lastly on this point, when you deviate from the plan you've made make sure it's for a good reason.
Feature creep is a bitch and a half, and you should fight that particular temptation. Adding things here and there that weren't originally intended will cause you headaches down the line. This kinda ties to my last point.
Good feedback is essential. Grab 5 to 30 of your closest friends that are both reasonable and brutally honest and have them play the game. Then ask them for their opinion and try to understand it, and most importantly don't take it personally.
Perfect is the enemy of good. If you have something that's reasonably good and it would it take you a lot of time to make it perfect, it's preferable most of the time to release it now and try to do better in the next update. It's one thing to be unhappy about something in your project, it's another thing to delay it for insignificant bullshit.
Good luck!
- Aug 17, 2019
- 4,934
- 8,054
This is both right and wrong, and can contextually be both.
If you're making a game with necrophilia in it, then yeah, something like rape would fit in as a major part of the game. But let's use Parental Love as an example. If I'm not mistaken, there was a gay rape scene in an alley with a boy that was threatening the MC and Ada. That was a fetish/kink that showed up once and never again. It was never a part of the story beyond that scene. He didn't rape anyone else, male or female, at least in the traditional sense of the act. You can do this, you just have to do it right.
What a dev should do, if they choose to do this, is make it optional. If you want your MC to steal a dude's anal cherry, then do it, but give the option for a player to opt out. Thus not alienating anyone (though I'm sure the NTR crowd will still find something to whine about) and still doing what you want to do. Worst case is a few more renders or lines of text to waltz around it.
- Jul 7, 2021
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