Animations usually make the game worse

[recreation]

personally I think 1sec animations are fine if every now and then, as long as it's not every animation, and I also think that sex scene need an excessive dialogue, I mean, how much do you really talk when you have sex? I don't talk much whn I have sex...
Imo the biggest problem is that often the scene itself is rather uninteresting/uninspired or it's just the same animation you've seen 20 times already.

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

I mean, how much do you really talk when you have sex? I don't talk much whn I have sex...

The point wasn't that characters need to recite Shakespeare while they're fucking, the point is that it has to be well written and hotter than "oh baby, your vagina is so wet and warm." Also, if dirty talk isn't appropriate for the characters or you just don't want to write it, then you at least have to write something that describes the sex on a deeper level than "LOOK, TWO PEOPLE MASHING THEIR GENITALS TOGETHER! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?"

 

[recreation]

The point wasn't that characters need to recite Shakespeare while they're fucking, the point is that it has to be well written and hotter than "oh baby, your vagina is so wet and warm." Also, if dirty talk isn't appropriate for the characters or you just don't want to write it, then you at least have to write something that describes the sex on a deeper level than "LOOK, TWO PEOPLE MASHING THEIR GENITALS TOGETHER! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?"

I haven't played many games lately so I can't tell how it's done in recent games, but I can remember some cringe worthy dialogues during sex scenes... I can't say that was in all of the games I played though, and personally I think I've got some good sex scenes in my game/s and I'm not even good at dialogue in general, so I dunno what else to answer^^

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

I haven't played many games lately so I can't tell how it's done in recent games, but I can remember some cringe worthy dialogues during sex scenes... I can't say that was in all of the games I played though, and personally I think I've got some good sex scenes in my game/s and I'm not even good at dialogue in general, so I dunno what else to answer^^

I played Bad Memories a while ago but I can't really remember the sex scenes, but I didn't hate the game, so I think you do alright.

If anyone wants a case study in how not to write sex scenes and how not to use animations you should play Lancaster Boarding House. The cringe in that game was too strong. Also great example of "I have animations, why have text at all?"

 

[moskyx]

There's something called 'narration'. You don't need the characters talking, you can write an erotic scene without dialogs much easier than with dialogs... if you know how to write an erotic scene, that's it.

About the topic itself, I do prefer 20 different renders with good text (or even with no text at all) instead of a 3 sec gif. But others only ask for animations and won't even try a game if it doesn't have any. Also, you can't generalize and say animations are killing the erotic writing because they are 2 unrelated things. It's obvious that there's always a tradeoff between the time invested in creating an animation and all the other things you could do in that time. But that could be said about everything in a game. All in all, most devs are just learning and they have the right to experiment and try to improve their skills in their preferred areas

 

[desmosome]

I played Bad Memories a while ago but I can't really remember the sex scenes, but I didn't hate the game, so I think you do alright.

If anyone wants a case study in how not to write sex scenes and how not to use animations you should play Lancaster Boarding House. The cringe in that game was too strong. Also great example of "I have animations, why have text at all?"

Oh you mean the 2 frame animations that you cannot skip? The "animation" that you have to click through 30 times to get past? Yea. I remember that shit lol. I remember just tabbing out and letting it run it's course in the background.

 

[Paz]

The issue with animations is usually not in conjunction with the amount of accompanying text is or how good that is (games devoid of text entirely in sex scenes are very rare). The issue is, simply put, the atrocious return on investment.

Developers need to allocate a big chunk of time to create decent animations -I'm not talking those 2 keyframes alternating-, time that would be more beneficial to spend on expanding/polishing the rest of the game.
And if your game is based solely on animations to entice the player, you are probably doing something wrong.

Sure, there are creators who have the luxury and the skills to create animations and not sacrifice much, but in my opinion those are few and far between.

I also personally dislike a byproduct of the whole animation thing, which is that some players are accustomed so much to it that they instantly skip/badmouth a game if it doesn't contain any.

 

[desmosome]

I haven't played many games lately so I can't tell how it's done in recent games, but I can remember some cringe worthy dialogues during sex scenes... I can't say that was in all of the games I played though, and personally I think I've got some good sex scenes in my game/s and I'm not even good at dialogue in general, so I dunno what else to answer^^

There is certainly a subjective aspect to what one considers good writing in the sex scenes. If we are going fully realistic, most couples don't have too much talking during sex right? There is the totally mundane missionary sex of normal boring couples on one end of the spectrum and the extremely drawn out and outlandish sex scenes seen in many japanese games. I personally prefer the latter if I have to pick one extreme. The advantage of VNs over something like real porn videos when it comes to a sex scene is mostly in the dialogue. If you read out any of the more dialogue heavy sex scenes out loud, or imagine speaking those lines while you are having sex, it will almost certainly feel very cringy lol. Shying away from it too much for a "realistic" depiction of sex tends to lead to very bland scenes though.

There's something called 'narration'. You don't need the characters talking, you can write an erotic scene without dialogs much easier than with dialogs... if you know how to write an erotic scene, that's it.

About the topic itself, I do prefer 20 different renders with good text (or even with no text at all) instead of a 3 sec gif. But others only ask for animations and won't even try a game if it doesn't have any. Also, you can't generalize and say animations are killing the erotic writing because they are 2 unrelated things. It's obvious that there's always a tradeoff between the time invested in creating an animation and all the other things you could do in that time. But that could be said about everything in a game. All in all, most devs are just learning and they have the right to experiment and try to improve their skills in their preferred areas

Narration and descriptive text is great too. I said dialogues, but I should have said text to be more general. From what I've seen though, writing good narration is much harder than writing kinky dialogue. For one, you need to actually have good prose and experience in erotic writing to pull it off.

The issue with animations is usually not in conjunction with decent the accompanying text is or how good that is (games devoid of text entirely in sex scenes are very rare). The issue is, simply put, the atrocious return on investment.

Developers need to allocate a big chunk of time to create decent animations -I'm not talking those 2 keyframes alternating-, time that would be more beneficial to spend on expanding/polishing the rest of the game.
And if your game is based solely on animations to entice the player, you are probably doing something wrong.

Sure, there are creators who have the luxury and the skills to create animations and not sacrifice much, but in my opinion those are few and far between.

I also personally dislike a byproduct of the whole animation thing, which is that some players are accustomed so much to it that they instantly skip/badmouth a game if it doesn't contain any.

Indeed, that is the most objective criteria for this thread existing in the first place. It was my first point in the OP.

The second point was an observation. After the devs go through all the trouble of making this animation, they don't make it "stick." I want to raise the question on how many people actually pause for any length of time to admire a 2 second loop. I'm reading through the scene during the sex scene. If there is nothing to read, there is no stimulation. Even some throwaway lines like "Yea baby~ give it to me!" while the penis is going in and out would be an improvement.

The third point is quite subjective, but I do believe that a lot of devs (regardless of skill) rely on the animation too much to carry the scenes. The way I see it, the scene should be able to stand on it's own if the animation loop was turned into a single still frame, but many games would fail this test. It could certainly be bias talking here, but I honestly don't remember too many games without animation having such offensively short and bland scenes. Probably because they know that the writing has to carry the scene.

 

[recreation]

One thing I like to mention is that a lot of people think that animations are hard to make, and that's probably the case for some, but the actual reason why so many devs don't do them, or only make 1-2 sec animations, is time and effort.
Rendering an animation takes a lot of time, but creating the animation can take even more time, you have to test it, fix stuff, test again, fix again, test... etc. It's tedious, it can be annoying and you need a lot of patience and even sensivity.

As Paz mentioned a lot of people won't even touch a game without animations, so what happens? Right, devs who don't care for animations, or don't want to spend much time with them, or don't have as much patience, heck I could tell you 20 other reasons... anyway, they'll just do the most basic animations possible.
Personaly I prefer to do things right, even if it's annoying, but I can absolutely understand why some ppl don't want to spend much time with animations or are just doing a lackluster job there.

 

[Canade]

Animations are a lot of work and I respect the developers that take the time to add them, tho I have found myself not liking hyperactive camera movements during a scene. I don't need dialog during an animation, does nothing for me, tho I'd never complain about it. Animations enhance a scene for me.

 

[jamdan]

It depends on the animations whether they make the game better or worse, and even if they do make the game better...is it still worth it? What I mean by that is, let's say you have a few good animations per update, do those animations make the game better than having a few hundred more normal renders (thus progression) would? Maybe, maybe not.

I think in order to have making animations be worth it, you need to have the rendering power to create several good animations in a decent amount of time (thus not drawing the update out) and the animations not taking away time to do other things like making regular renders or wrting, thus making the update smaller. Let's say you have 750 renders in an update, but 400 of those are in animations...that update isn't actually that big since more than half of the renders are used in a few scenes.

So, really, making animations only makes sense for the top devs. They have the funds, the skill and rendering power to create good animations that do not take away from other aspects of the game and can be done in decent time. The return on investment, basically. It it worth it do make animations rather than doing other things?

Some examples...

BaDIK is made better because of animation. Dr.P probably has an army of computers and while the update take a while, they are huge and very well done. Philly, NLT etc....


MrDots games are probably better because of animations. They are stock, but he creates a lot of them in a good time (usually every month) and they are smooth....but are a lot of stock animations worth it? Maybe...maybe not.


There are too many games with janky animations to list, but they all make their games worse.

 

[SliveEmerald]

I would say animations don't directly make the games worse, but I don't think animations are worth the amount of work they take to make. I'd rather play a game with more scenes with only still images with accompanying dialogue rather than half the scenes with a few low quality animations thrown in.

 

[Fliptoynk]

some animations ain't that bad except for wifey's dilemma... 'made laugh instead.
as for the dialogues "yer so tight, baby(even though she cheated more than she can count)... can't blame me, your dick is sooo big"... yeah, that's cringy.

though, it's kinda ok in a gang bang... her pussy constricts tighter when we talk dirty

 

[woody554]

so many walls of text I didn't bother to read... anyway. I don't have a huge issue with animations in VNs, but the main beef I have is how they almost always take you out of the game. especially when the animations are GOOD and long. it just sticks out and breaks the pacing. when you first have a slideshow, then suddenly as OP said dialogue stops and there's an animation, it feels like a commercial break. it just doesn't fit stylistically, the change from static frames to smooth animation is too big.

not sure how to fix it though. sometimes a little jerky animation seems to fit better. 3-5 frames instead of 500. (another tiny beef, when people boast huge number of renders it's really just 5 keyframes or something interpolated. it doesn't take THAT much time, and you're not getting 500 renders of more content. you get 5 renders worth, or even just 1. the rest of the 495 frames are just the same thing ever so slightly moved. in a comic it would've been 1 frame, without losing any information. probably a far better quality frame as well.)

but I suspect it would also help if there were more nonessential movement outside the sex scenes? I say 'movement' because it doesn't necessarily have to be frame by frame animation, but for example slow zooming, panning, chars translating in front of background. you know, oldskool VN effects. just to make the overall visuals seem a little less static. small, subtle movement, nothing drastic. just a little to soften the difference between static and animated parts.

about the technical side, a lot of the clunkiness also comes from renpy being horribly bad at showing a lot of images in a row. it just can't do it, no matter what monster computer you're playing on. it can only do the sort of 'paper doll animation' where you move static images. there are tricks to make it less awful, the they usually require halting the user input for a moment, which brings up locking the user out until it's done its thing. the reality is it just can't do animation worth shit, and if you MUST have it you have to go outside renpy.

 

[Paz]

About the technical side, a lot of the clunkiness also comes from renpy being horribly bad at showing a lot of images in a row. it just can't do it, no matter what monster computer you're playing on. it can only do the sort of 'paper doll animation' where you move static images. there are tricks to make it less awful, the they usually require halting the user input for a moment, which brings up locking the user out until it's done its thing. the reality is it just can't do animation worth shit, and if you MUST have it you have to go outside renpy.

Just a note on this, RenPy is not that bad in that aspect as it's perceived to be. It can certainly show a lot of images in quick succession. You can see it when you hold down Ctrl to skip content, it goes blazing fast.
Now, if the creator does not take care to preload an animation consisting of a dozen 4k images it will probably lag, yeah. But then again if your animation is exported as a series of many looped images, you should probably consider exporting it as a movie.

 

[SpanishPlaya_Dev]

I'm going to release my game shortly.

And all I can say about animations is... I had to learn a lot of stuff the make them decent (at least minimally decent for me.)

A lot of time... So many tries... And so much editing!

Based on my experience, it depends on how much time the developer wants to spend rendering and if the animation created is good enough. Perhaps what I said is very obvious, but a good animation is really worth the investment of your time. As a developer, when you see your plot in motion, I feel like the player immersion has increased.

Anyway, it will never fix a bad writing.