Developers coming to f95 to "play nice" and just adver tise.

[Deleted member 167032]

And tehn a guy called Domiek offers to teach me how to use Octane in between our work load...

What a trooper...

Thanks for the kind words Ryan. I agree with most of what you say but do want to address a misconception regarding schedules. Release schedule has zero bearing on work ethic.

I've been releasing monthly since July and I know for a fact that I don't have a better work ethic than Hopes for example, who takes more than two months an update. One really needs to take into consideration the length and scope of work for the alloted development time. A game like Deluca or City of Broken Dreamers would be far less satisfying if the devs didnt have longer development cycles to ensure each chapter is fully realized.

Then you have monthly devs like me who fall into the same trap. Deadlines are so tight that I start to stagnate in my growth as a dev because rather than using some precious development time to learn new skills, I end up settling for "eh thats good enough" in order to push content. This is not a healthy habit.

Unfortunately, of course there are devs with poor work ethic, I just want to stress that release schedule is a poor indicator of this. Sorry for derailing the OP a bit.

 

[Winterfire]

I do absolutely take into account what you said, thats why I said I dont mind devs that sometimes get behind schedule for a week or two, or even three so long as they communicate that something is up and dont use excuses every month.

Lets take for example someone like Bluecat and his game Ecchi Sensei, if the dude released his game very two months I'd still stay patron'd to him, cause his updates are massive (I know some dont think so cause they hit the damn "ctrl" key skipping the story and say "it was too short"... But those people's opinions honestly shouldnt matter, I am a quick reader, but in these games I take my damn time reading the text, and looking at the render for easter eggs, or just how well the posing was done.

Than you have other devs like gumdrop who was making 12k a few months ago without releasing an update for more than a year !! Or devs that release a new version and it has 20 renders and 500 words... thats too small for a month, unless he is putting in mini-games that people arent going to care about anyway...or the last example, a dev that is at v0.5 and halfway done with his game by his own admission and releases v0.6 but its a start over... either a new engine, or a new interface that removes half the content of previous versions... thats just twisted...

I know how you feel, I think the same.
I feel bad about not making an update daily but there are days in which the stuff I do is not really worth a post (Bug fixes or minor stuff added) and I only have two patreons, those numbers are even more overwhelming to not make an update for so long (unless by update you meant releases).

I think a release a month is pretty standard, I am managing to do a release weekly for my current project but my updates are small, I guess it is a choice between big updates vs frequent updates, I prefer the latter, personally.

 

[Johnny-Doe]

There are a few developers here now that post their links to their websites, patreons, etc, and post their dog ass public releases and links to their patreon on their posts. This basically subverts what this site is made to do and they get a free pass to advertise their game and basically use a new platform to spread it and garner more pledges while we come here and don't get what this site is meant for.

I have my own personal reasons that I'd rather donate to f95 rather than these developers that I do not wish to spark debate on and derail the topic at hand, which I feel is very important to this site. More and more developers every passing day come here, post links to their patreons and post their public releases while basically guaranteeing that no one is going to post a link with their game's latest release.

I find this entirely ridiculous, personally.

Dunno what to say man. Have you ever considered some developers started as members of this community OR they wanna gather as much feedback as possible?
Being close with the players is not "playing nice" it's simply a way to thank everyone for enjoying your game and sharing their opinions be it is positive or negative...

 

[Domiek]

I do absolutely take into account what you said, thats why I said I dont mind devs that sometimes get behind schedule for a week or two, or even three so long as they communicate that something is up and dont use excuses every month.

Lets take for example someone like Bluecat and his game Ecchi Sensei, if the dude released his game very two months I'd still stay patron'd to him, cause his updates are massive (I know some dont think so cause they hit the damn "ctrl" key skipping the story and say "it was too short"... But those people's opinions honestly shouldnt matter, I am a quick reader, but in these games I take my damn time reading the text, and looking at the render for easter eggs, or just how well the posing was done.

Than you have other devs like gumdrop who was making 12k a few months ago without releasing an update for more than a year !! Or devs that release a new version and it has 20 renders and 500 words... thats too small for a month, unless he is putting in mini-games that people arent going to care about anyway...or the last example, a dev that is at v0.5 and halfway done with his game by his own admission and releases v0.6 but its a start over... either a new engine, or a new interface that removes half the content of previous versions... thats just twisted...

Fair enough point, especially those devs who are shamelessly shitty and just riding off of the goodwill of their patrons with excuses and delays. I just wanted to white knight for a bit and defend a few of the bimonthly+ devs who I know are ridiculously hardworking. And of course you have Pinkcake, who I'm still not entirely convinced that he's human but rathet a super computer with the amount of content he puts out.

 

[Canto Forte]

pink has alternate games in store ... so does tim and they soldier on with their respective current agenda by writing till fingers bleed or push bug-fixes with cosmetic ui improvements monthly to keep engaged.

This means they have not lost their artist touch (the one who colored/sketched all sorts of strange characters during boring algebra/chemistry/physics classes so they lived through 'em)

 

[Creiz]

Look. Piracy is something that WILL happen, like it or not. I can put ALL of the DRMs in my game, I can make it online only, I can fight you guys here with DMCAs or whatnot, but to be honest, it's way more trouble than it is. And to be perfectly frank, it's not worth it.

I'm going to go with delayed release because it's only fair to the patrons. In my case, I've set it up to one week. I give my patrons the build a week before everybody else can play. It does two things for me: They can find the most glaring bugs so I can fix them fast and they can suggest some minor changes. Which in turn gives the rest of the plebs a better version.

I know people like OP think that our work is useless, they'd rather have everything for free, because, you know, fuck us, we survive with water, air and the grace of our fan's hearts, anyway. If only.

I'd rather come here, knowing full well my game is going to be pirated and engage with you. Give you another direct line to me. Because I believe that for every OP-like person, there's two that appreciates our work. So yeah, I shill my game, in exchange for that right, I will do my best and utmost to support it, answer your questions, give you advice and generally just chill in here with those who would have me. I'm not just gonna drop my bomb and leave. I'm grinding for my friends, here.

Although, of course, you must understand that time is limited. When I'm working on my game, I'm working on my game, so unless someone pings me, I may appear here by myself for a couple days after every release, when I'm "on break". I hope you understand.

 

[Domiek]

And tehn a guy called Domiek offers to teach me how to use Octane in between our work load...

What a trooper...

Dont get me started on Mrknobb. Gets screwed with an unfortunate situation where he has to redo a large portion of his game. Does it quickly and without complaining and makes it better than before.

A lot of the devs here are active community members. We support F95 as we know we'd have essentially no success without it. It's a great community. Most of the good devs are also constantly in touch with one other, helping and sharing tips and skills. We can vouch for one other on work ethic and dedication. Most of the shady ones don't last long and no tears are shed.

 

[Winterfire]

I'm going to go with delayed release because it's only fair to the patrons. In my case, I've set it up to one week. I give my patrons the build a week before everybody else can play. It does two things for me: They can find the most glaring bugs so I can fix them fast and they can suggest some minor changes. Which in turn gives the rest of the plebs a better version.

Omg we think alike.
I went through an extra "layer" though: Public (Release 1), 1$ (Release 2), 5$ (Release 3) and each release I make makes the order shift (Release 2 becomes public, Release 3 goes to 1$ and 5$ gets the 4th), where the latest is considered the alpha version.

 

[obibobi]

Really? a thread exists to complain about devs doing something sensible.

If someone creates a product you want them to be nice to the customer, you want them to seek feedback.

What the hell do you want? That they hide themselves away and make rude remarks on twitter to show they are "real"

 

[Creiz]

Not only that, but since this site is also full of devs, hey, maybe we can help us out too. There's only good things about having us in here and honestly I can't think of any draw backs.

 

[Winterfire]

To be honest I have registered in many websites/forums to advertise my game but, as I always said, F95Zone seems to be the only community in which people actually give feedback or reply at all in my experience, hence why I stayed

 

[Akamari]

I've wondered where do devs market their games aside from the Zone? I don't think Patreon alone gives much visibility, so I'm curious what other places have you tried and what worked or what didn't? This is a question for anyone who wouldn't mind to answer. I understand if it's a trade secret.

 

[katmandomo]

I've wondered where do devs market their games aside from the Zone? I don't think Patreon alone gives much visibility, so I'm curious what other places have you tried and what worked or what didn't? This is a question for anyone who wouldn't mind to answer. I understand if it's a trade secret.

Making your advertising a trade secret seems counterproductive...

 

[Winterfire]

I've wondered where do devs market their games aside from the Zone? I don't think Patreon alone gives much visibility, so I'm curious what other places have you tried and what worked or what didn't? This is a question for anyone who wouldn't mind to answer. I understand if it's a trade secret.

r/AdultGamedev
r/lewdgames
r/nsfwdev
r/nsfwgaming
ULMF
Fenoxo
LoK Forums
Lemma Soft forums

There are a few places more that either I do not remember, have to yet try or they simply never got the confirmation email

-edit-
There was a thread somewhere in here with a lot of places where you can advertise, pretty useful if you want to know more.

 

[Akamari]

Making your advertising a trade secret seems counterproductive...

Well, someone might have tapped a vein others don't know. Less the people know your competitors, higher the chance they'll jump for you.

 

[HopesGaming]

I've wondered where do devs market their games aside from the Zone? I don't think Patreon alone gives much visibility, so I'm curious what other places have you tried and what worked or what didn't? This is a question for anyone who wouldn't mind to answer. I understand if it's a trade secret.

I tried itch.io, reddits and some other places. And you can gather a bit of exposure there for sure.
But the truth is. F95zone is the only real place for getting your game known and gaining proper growth and patrons.

This only applies to 3d games tho.
2DCG games are considered hentai and hence have a bit bigger reach. Even if it has a very western style to it.
2DCG is still what many of those sites prefer and in some case is the only accepted art style.
3DCG VN is on the rise, however.

Like another thread recently made where the OP ask about similar sites as f95. But there is none.
What separates this place from the rest is not only the amount of content the site has, rather that it focuses on content other sites doesn't. Which is our kind of games. Indie western adult games and the 3d still image art.
We see it with some members here too. Won't accept anything besides 2D. Some go a bit further and won't accept anything other than Japanese games.

The market is still very new for this. Sure there have been made some silly flash games before and those were posted on sites such as Newgrounds. But never really games such as these.

F95 did it smart. Instead of sticking with the Japanese style of VN only (hentai), he focused on this too.

The hentai sites/forums haven't really caught up yet, but with the success, f95zone has had - it would be foolish not to do so too.

I don't really consider the other 3d sites valid. As they mainly rip from f95 and upload on their own site.

 

[Dad of Boy]

Given my experience lurking here until recently, the Devs that post their games here are aware of a few very important things.

1. All publicity is good publicity.
2. Interacting with a community and increasing your visibility is good for your games.
3. Many pirates do so simply because of financial constraints. Not all people can afford 12 patreon subscriptions a month.
4. If you make quality content (even if it is for free), there are ALWAYS people willing to pay for your work. Especially if they know you from your forum posts and such.

 

[HopesGaming]

Given my experience lurking here until recently, the Devs that post their games here are aware of a few very important things.

1. All publicity is good publicity.
2. Interacting with a community and increasing your visibility is good for your games.
3. Many pirates do so simply because of financial constraints. Not all people can afford 12 patreon subscriptions a month.
4. If you make quality content (even if it is for free), there are ALWAYS people willing to pay for your work. Especially if they know you from your forum posts and such.

1. Usually, this is the case. And granted it can also work in some instances.
But this market is a bit different. We as devs are not selling products like other game devs normally are. Patreon is a place for people to show support by giving a bit of what they can spare as a sign of appreciation and wanting the game to survive. Be that 1$ or 1000$. Support is support. The rewards are merely a try from the devs side to say thank you. As the pledge amount will always surpass the value of the reward tiers themselves.
And the patrons know that. They also know they can get the game elsewhere. They choose to pledge with that knowledge.
Most of the high patrons I talk with always tell me that they do not really care for the tier rewards. As long as the game is quality they will support. The rewards are just a nice bonus.

Point is, since we want support this requires a good reputation. No one wants to support a dev that has a rep for doing sneaky stuff. Such as buying reviews, likes and so on.

Agree with your other points.
Granted that many do also pirate simply to see if the game is for them before patronaging. They do not want to blindly pledge to someone.

 

[Dad of Boy]

1. Usually, this is the case. And granted it can also work in some instances.
But this market is a bit different. We as devs are not selling products like other game devs normally are. Patreon is a place for people to show support by giving a bit of what they can spare as a sign of appreciation and wanting the game to survive. Be that 1$ or 1000$. Support is support. The rewards are merely a try from the devs side to say thank you. As the pledge amount will always surpass the value of the reward tiers themselves.
And the patrons know that. They also know they can get the game elsewhere. They choose to pledge with that knowledge.
Most of the high patrons I talk with always tell me that they do not really care for the tier rewards. As long as the game is quality they will support. The rewards are just a nice bonus.

Point is, since we want support this requires a good reputation. No one wants to support a dev that has a rep for doing sneaky stuff. Such as buying reviews, likes and so on.

Agree with your other points.
Granted that many do also pirate simply to see if the game is for them before patronaging. They do not want to blindly pledge to someone.

That's a super fair point tbh, and it hadn't crossed my mind. I don't do much in terms of original content so I wouldn't know that stuff. Sneaky devs are universally despised not just in adult games either. Nobody wants to be lied to.

And to the is it worth point I also agree with you. Everyone should have a right to see what a product has to offer before they commit hard earned money towards it, and I'm glad a lot of devs are aware of this.

 

[Creiz]

Well, someone might have tapped a vein others don't know. Less the people know your competitors, higher the chance they'll jump for you.

That would still be a bad idea, though. I can't make ALL the games. What HopesGaming is doing, what WinterFire is doing, etc. is completely different from what I'm doing. You also won't play a single game ALL the time, too. And if it's the only game available where you're at, this is going to backfire. Greed is always bad in regards to creators.

It's good for all of us to advertise as much as possible and to tell other creators where to go also as much as possible. Because if you don't like my game, you're gonna like the one from another guy. As long as you're playing, that's all that matters.