That's pretty surprising to me, personally, as one who likes tech things. Luckily I am now at the stage of making lewd renders, so will adapt the posts. I go into details below.
Actually I can relate because I like the game making/development process more than the game itself
. I enjoy "The Making Of" slightly over the movie itself. But, overwhelmingly majority members here don't care or appreciate that kind of stuff. Bugs are treated like cardinal sin as if the developer is poisoning their food
( fortunately only very small minority are like this ).
Harem is implied, my miss.
Incest is one of my favorite kinks, but it is an absolute murder when it comes to monetizing - if I want to do this thing, some concessions must be made. The game will be focused to be released on Steam eventually - with a version available here, too. Knowing people who won't pay will get a copy anyways, at least you get some traction.
"Anarchy" type of content is something I've been a little confused about. I looked over the games, their popularity, etc., and noticed that most popular games tend to include it. Plus I am a fan myself when the option is presented in games, being a player myself. Maybe I will tone it down without slave tag, but I definitely want to have forced content. Some details here would help.
I looked a lot at games like Depraved Awakening in how far forced content goes. How common is virtue signaling here?
Regarding the tags, I personally don't care because I don't play games solely based on tags. I play well-mad game with good if not great story. But most members live by it. Unfortunately, the tags system on this site is mediocre, problematic and controversial at best. The tags system mandates that the tags should reflect the contents of the game, but there is no distinction of what are the main course and what not.
But in short, +harem +incest +milf +virgin -rape -prostitution -netorare is the common formula which appeals to the largest crowd, but not without its own complexity
. There are templates for such combo that developers should adhere to, according to the groups of people promoting it. Quick & short version: virgin girls ( no sloppy seconds ), almost no other males ( otherwise it will trigger the NTR alert ), submissive girl ( otherwise it will trigger femdom alert ), no lesbian or bi-sexual girls in the harem, and some more ( I am no expert on this so my knowledge is limited ). If the developers do not follow these strict templates, then they will most probably end up arguing with the 'fans' most of the time. If they adhere to it, their games will most likely become bland clone or copy of similar games but with different characters and settings. It's a catch 22.
Regarding virtue signaling, I don't really have numbers but I do see now and then posts about it, but I know that a handful of members pre-emptively filter out games with rape and/or prostitution tags. Perhaps slave too but I don't know much about such games to be honest. One thing for sure, there are audiences for such contents but their numbers are sketchy. Probably,
Raptus is a good baseline for such game?
Regarding
Depraved Awakening. That game was legendary to many here
. It contains controversial contents but those are very light and only side contents I say. The main theme is always incest ( and harem probably ), vanilla stuff. Also, this game was released back then where there aren't that many adult VN games, so players have limited choices. Fast forward to today, there are already 20K games on this site and every month there are like 10 - 20 new games release. The playerbase is diluted across so many games. What I mean to say is that
Depraved Awakening is not a good baseline suited for today social and economic climate. Might need to check out a few of those recently released games with 'controversial' contents for references
?
There is one recently release game,
Cyber Fuck Dolls which is very unique but I think share a similar core concept with your game, that is the characters can be on different 'routes'. It has over 40 tags and the receptions are positives. Mainly because the allows for customization that if the player like certain kinks then he can programmed the dolls for that kinks. Game does have ( smaller ) story elements to it and not just lewds non-stop.
I hope I shared enough ( not complete ) useful data regarding tags, games & community relationship with you ( based on my years of observations and interactions with the community ). Take it with a grain of salt since I am neither an expert nor spokeperson for the community.
Personally, I like developers who just make games that they like and passionate about, the way they want it, because I like playing different or unique games. On the contrary, developers who tries or even tries hard to please everyone above their passion or vision, usually end up failing big time.
I happen to be a descendant of apes as well, with some Neanderthal blood.
I've been thinking of keeping this thread detailed (basically to show I am not a hack - this has been the main motivator), and maybe making a second thread here where I post short lewd-focused posts about the game. "Ape thread". I wonder if it's a good approach.
Regarding the information organization and presentation, I have no idea how best to deal with it though. My first instinct is to suggest an in-game codex/library where players can access while playing i.e. all inclusive in the game but the biggest drawback is that it will take considerable amount of development time to get it right and its ongoing update. It helps to reduce a lot repeated questions from the players, but there will still be queries though because not everyone reads stuff. Every now and then there are still players who posted in game thread "aww I didn't see xyz tags before playing" etc. because there are quite a number ( minority ) of players who just looking at the pictures in the OP, like the girl or girls and just download, play without knowing
.
Super good renders are important to me, but at this point, I want to push the demo out, finish the code, so I can just do better rendering/writing. Things are all over the place with how much needs to get done, especially coding the damn UI and map.
That helps a big amount. Some extra details would help further. I come from a more standardized game background, so I need to restructure how I do & communicate things.
Take your time and don't rush the demo/first release. It is very important because it is the make or break moment for many developers on this site. It needs to hook, excite and incite interest without too much information, sprinkle with mysteries and probably end with a cliff-hanger or plot twist at the end
. Probaly you need to interact and/observe the community in general a little bit more before release as well, to familiar yourself with their lingo, nuance, idiosyncracy etc., to understand your potential audience better. You can't just take my words above to be fact. One thing I know, some factions in the community are really harsh most of the times even towards new developers and considering your account was made May 2020, you won't be spared because you are considered to be a zone veteran ( 2+ years ).
Lastly I forgot to mention before, regarding the
Redemption,
Corruption and
Anarchy routes. Typically, these 3 routes appeals to different types of players so it is advisable each updates/releases are planned structuredly. For example, you can do long cycle ( 3 months update ) which covers contents on all 3 routes. Alternatively, short cycle ( 1 month update ) which only cover 1 route per update. Without prior and clear communication, some players of specific route might get disappointed if there is no content for their route. It is not a big deal really but it is best not to disappoint the players because it can lead to other negativity outlook towards the game itself. This is based on my observation of mistakes some developers made.
