Currently making a game, need some pointers

[Anorak]

So I am currently in the process of making a game. I am the writer for the thing, and I have an artist, programmer & even composer on board. The pointers I need right now isn't in regards to developing the game, but rather how to publish it, benefit from it, where to post it, and all that.

Like, one of my questions would be in which forum to post it once I have the first playable version out? It looks to be a few months away yet since I do want there to be enough to do in it rather than like a 2 minute demo. Many of the games have a first reply saying 'moved to games', so I figure it's posted somewhere else first and a mod moves it there?

Another question would be, what are some reasonable patreon services, and when can I start it? I assume I'd start a patreon when the first version is out, but making it earlier could help a tiny bit (assuming I will even get any traction) to help paying my artist (who I am paying, no bullshit 'hopes of getting shared revenues in the future' which is essentially just working for free until then).

First time I've tried developing something like this, or even working with an artist. Any like step by step on things I should probably keep in mind would be greatly appreciated, and the general how-to.


Also, I am making something I feel is sorely lacking here: A Final Fantasy game (specifically FF7). So far there's some nude sprites made already of characters, and here's with the clothing sketches drawn over it.

 

[osanaiko]

It's a big topic and there's a lot to cover. I've been lurking and observing and offering advice (not always appreciated LOL) for a few years now, so hopefully you find some of this useful.

1. What's the most important thing?

Make a game! Release it! Nothing will matter unless you can get that part right. 90% of your effort should be on the creation, 10% on promotion.


2. What is your goal anyway?

- making a game with a specific kink/setting because you like it?
- making money?
- a bit of both?

While there are some creators that make money, it's a long road, and more competitive than ever. You need to be ready to make a consistent record of high quality releases over time, and in particular, target some market that is not well served already, if you want to make "good" money.
If you are paying someone for art, realistically you probably wont make that money back unless you keep going on the project for 2+ years.

It's really hard to maintain motivation, especially if you have other stuff in your life like a day job.


3. Can you make a patreon early?

Yes. But why would anyone support you if there is no reward yet?

Some patreons are successful because the creator spent time (possible without doing it intentionally) building up a group of "fans" on some venue. If you have "fans", it will generally lead to some percentage of fans becoming patrons even before game launch, particularly if you have some inexpensive tier.

So how do you build a fan group?
a- create content that people want to see (in this case sexy FF7 art and story/gameplay teases )
b- in some public forum, over time repeatedly make posts of samples of content, game story, discussion
c- promote your forum post in other places to bring in potential fans
d- interact with community to build trust
e- low key mention and invite people to support your patreon if they want more content

As with all things, it will take time and effort.

So, what's the alternative? Well, make a game as best you can, release it, keep updating with new content every month, invite patrons, repeat over time. To be honest, it's similar to above, except there is already a "reward" for patrons (early access to releases, private channels to interact with you, warm glow feeling of supporting something they like).


4. How does the F95 game thread creation/release process work?

Basically, you follow the guide here: https://f95zone.to/threads/how-to-post-content-under-games-comics-animations.50728/

Important note!!! If your game is already available somewhere (even a beta release on a dev progress thread on this forum) before you have your official thread, sometimes one of the F95 Mods might pre-empt you and make a Game release thread. (This happened to this thread https://f95zone.to/threads/a-long-journey-v0-2-1-marvellous-lunatic.80170/). It then took a few weeks for the dev to get control of the thread back from the Mods.


5. Where else can you promote your game?

UMLF forum, 4chan /h/WEG, reddit /r/lewdgames and similar, itch.io. There might be others but I don't know.

There are other scummy pay sites that also copy games and provide them for profit, but not sure if you can interact with fans in any of them. However, if your game is going to be out there "pirated" (lol), make sure your game has some (not too agressive) self promotion with links to your patreon and a friendly in-game request for support, so maybe some of those who get it from other sites you don't control will find their way back to your main thread here or on Patreon.


6. How to build your patreon page?

Just look at several of the popular games and model your stuff on that. I think NaughtyRoad's patreon is a perfect example.

3 tiers is enough:
- Entry/minimal: 1-2$, minimal access to rewards (just patron only posts)
- Standard: 5$, some goodies (early access, private discord, voting rights)
- High-roller: 20$, all the goodies (e.g. custom art, 4x voting rights, possibly contributing to game plot)

Make a mix of patron only and public posts - public to draw people in, patron only to give a reward to members.
Make sure you post regularly!! at least 2-weekly, ideally weekly or more.
Make sure you give progress updates.
You should expect that any early releases WILL be leaked to F95 or other places - you can't stop it so just go with the flow.


7. How to manage game dev process

- planning and organisation helps so much. make notes, summaries, work logs, regular interaction with your artist etc.
- MAKE SAFE BACKUPS (cloud based)
- make some progress EVERY DAY, even if its only a little
- have realistic expectations: top quality games with lots of content have literally 500-1000++ hours of creative effort over time (i.e. 2-4 hours per day for a whole year).


If you want to talk about anything in more detail just shout out. There's many other devs around who have walked the walk and know much more than I do. Maybe we can tag some in to see what they say.

Good luck!

 

[MissFortune]

1. What's the most important thing?

Make a game! Release it! Nothing will matter unless you can get that part right. 90% of your effort should be on the creation, 10% on promotion.

I agree with everything else you posted, more or less. But above is really idealistic. Speaking as someone who doesn't put as much effort into marketing/promoting, it helps. Promoting the fuck out of your VN/game, or even hyping it up a few weeks before release is something worth doing. It's more like 100% and 100% for both. If you aren't working on it, you should be promoting it anywhere you can (even if that's just discussing anything on a forum like this, people will see it in your signature/etc. and check it out.). If you aren't promoting, then you should be working on it. If you aren't doing either, then you should be getting better at whatever medium/tool you choose to create with (Blender, Daz, PS, etc.).

Just my two pennies.

 

[Anorak]

Wow, thank you both so much for this. For SOME reason I never got the messages that there were replies in my thread, so this response comes a bit late. The game is progressing nicely, have some more art done, got a second artist for the backgrounds exclusively, and even have some music for it. I'll be working on it steadily for probably a few months before putting up the first playable version anywhere. Though building that fangroup stuff sounds super cool, mostly because I am an attention seeking whore, but hearing feedback, people interested/disinterested in the game would be awesome.
IF I were to do something like that, is there a forum for that on f95? 'Programming, development & art' I would assume?

 

[osanaiko]

Wow, thank you both so much for this. For SOME reason I never got the messages that there were replies in my thread, so this response comes a bit late. The game is progressing nicely, have some more art done, got a second artist for the backgrounds exclusively, and even have some music for it. I'll be working on it steadily for probably a few months before putting up the first playable version anywhere. Though building that fangroup stuff sounds super cool, mostly because I am an attention seeking whore, but hearing feedback, people interested/disinterested in the game would be awesome.
IF I were to do something like that, is there a forum for that on f95? 'Programming, development & art' I would assume?

The place you see developers talking about their pre-released games is right here in https://f95zone.to/forums/programming-development-art.73/

- there's several active devlog threads already such as https://f95zone.to/threads/game-dev-journal-inner-demons-ch-2-progress.58720/ or https://f95zone.to/threads/devlog-posting-to-vent.92858/ or https://f95zone.to/threads/bad-bobby-saga-2-0-development-thread.83765/

As to building up a fan base: there's not necessarily a lot of F95 readers in this area, when compared to the main game releases threads, so it may make sense to try other ways to start advertising your stuff: you can make a patreon acct before release with public posts, you can have a twitter acct and post updates, you can make a discord. None of these will be visible to other people however - just one more site amongst thousands. The problem, as always, is discovery - finding places to advertise yourself.

If your game is some specific genre then you should find the gathering place for those weirdos *Ahem* fans - i.e. /r/nsfwgaming and similar for mainstream noobs, tfgamessite for transformation/sissyfication, some filthy sewer hole filled with mouthbreathing subhuman retards for NTR fans.

One way to get started if you've got some good art is to start posting in the https://f95zone.to/forums/artwork.112/ artworks forums/threads, or other sites which allow original posts and link back to your devlog / patreon.