Developers Creating a VARIETY of Different Games: Too Risky?

[Freakbunny]

- Imagine if the developer of your favourite Koikatsu visual novel's newest project had Honey Select visuals.
- Picture a femdom game as the successor to one with a maledom harem.
- Or what if the creator of a straight-up pornfest suddenly delved into serious, story-rich themes?
- And, perhaps the riskiest of all; imagine if after making a fairly vanilla, heterosexual dating sim, a developer went on to experiment with, say, NTR, toilet play, futanari content, and furries?

I, a game developer myself, have a wide variety of interests that I'd love to explore across multiple projects - but I'm worried about how that might come across to the audience I build. If fans of a developer expect one thing, how will they react when they recieve another? This seems especially important when it comes to being marketable and maintaining a steady income, a begrudging necessity along the path of fully committing to a creative job.

How do you think a shift in style like this might go over?

 

[LS47]

There is a simple solution for that : Use different names for each of your works. Usually yeah, fans of a particual game genre won't stick around if you do a U-turn and try to do something else, unless your backers are very comprehensive (and that would be a really small minority).

I would just do multiple accounts, each doing their own thing and making sure none of them references the other, so that no one would attribute your lack of progress on one game to your focus on another (if you have multiple games in progress), or just to avoid unecessary spam from one of your communities begging for a sequel (if you've completed them).

 

[baloneysammich]

I'm just a pirate, but IMO the best course would be to finish any project you currently have in the works without splitting focus, maybe pause contributions for a month or so, then announce your intentions going forward. Don't ask for permission or pay too much attention to any weeping and gnashing of teeth that follows.

 

[Entropylol]

- Imagine if the developer of your favourite Koikatsu visual novel's newest project had Honey Select visuals.
- Picture a femdom game as the successor to one with a maledom harem.
- Or what if the creator of a straight-up pornfest suddenly delved into serious, story-rich themes?
- And, perhaps the riskiest of all; imagine if after making a fairly vanilla, heterosexual dating sim, a developer went on to experiment with, say, NTR, toilet play, futanari content, and furries?

I, a game developer myself, have a wide variety of interests that I'd love to explore across multiple projects - but I'm worried about how that might come across to the audience I build. If fans of a developer expect one thing, how will they react when they recieve another? This seems especially important when it comes to being marketable and maintaining a steady income, a begrudging necessity along the path of fully committing to a creative job.

How do you think a shift in style like this might go over?

The most easy thing to do is just use the community that you already have, some might have the same taste as you. But if someone subbed to you for Femdom, it's most likely that they dont like maledom. If you made a pure vanilla game, is probable that most of your followers aren't into futa/ntr and other fetiches.

In my opinion, if your page already have lots of supporters, the correct thing would be start over with a new patreon/subscribestar and dedicate that to the new audience that you want to focus on. Even if you have lots of kinks, if you dedicate the page and the game to all of those at the start, it would be better.

 

[Rintal]

To begin with, you need to have several works in a certain style in order to be able to change this style. Most "developers" in AVN industry don't have this in their portfolio. They have a problem with finishing even one game. So changing style doesn't really bother their patrons.

 

[Meaning Less]

Make the game you want, just avoid making false promises like "this is going to be a fully vanilla game" and change your mind later.

If you make it clear that your game is going to add lots of new kinks because you like that then you will avoid gathering a niche audience for your game that just wants to see one kink being explored.

Because the alternative is to keep working on something that you might get bored with and abandon, which is way worse than pissing off some fans.

 

[Catapo]

As long as the developer communicates properly about the content in their game, I wouldn't be bothered if they want to change their content style, who knows maybe it turns out they are better at it.
I may not like the new game, but I would respect the developer's decision.

BUT I wouldn't worry about something like this until you actually have at least one game completed.

 

[Rafster]

It's risky. Somehow I think that will happen to me, my first game is a RP with strong BDSM content and some weird kinks, and my second one will be more vanilla, TF based/furry game, using sims 4 as engine for visuals (Funny enough, both games are with Twine. I'm gonna reuse the code of the first one in the second). But I'm planning to put demos of the next game months before my first game ends, so patreons (and players) know the next game beforehand.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

How do you think a shift in style like this might go over?

Badly. If you pivot away from your core themes/kinks you'd probably lose whatever fanbase you'd managed to build up. People don't like change. Even moreso if it's tied to their sexual preferences (and erogames falls squarely within that). Obviously this only matters if you're trying to make money from your game(s)... if you're gonna dev for yourself and no one else, then by all means, experiment away.

 

[anne O'nymous]

It's risky. Somehow I think that will happen to me, [...]

You made me worry for a second, I almost expected to read "it will be straight"

More seriously, everything depend on what was appealing for the players/supporters. Of course, there's some genre or game mechanism that one can strongly dislike, but globally I think that if people goes as far as supporting a game, it's not just because they like the game. It need more to spare some bucks, it's the spirit behind the game, the writing (globally speaking so not just the dialogs but also the pace, the story evolution, etc.) and things like that. And even if you make a change on what will be shown in your game, those elements will stay the same.
Take Stephen King by example, would he suddenly write a romance, that most of his fans would probably still read it and appreciate it. It would still be his style, his writing, his way to write a romance, and it's precisely what fans like. They don't read his book because they are horror(-like), but because they have his style.

But regarding OP question, there's one thing that make me worry. He talk about a shift from porn driven to story driven. And this is without doubt the change that wouldn't pass. Both appeal to radically different public, and there isn't much that stand at the intersection.

 

[Rafster]

You made me worry for a second, I almost expected to read "it will be straight"

For a moment, I considered to make it a bisexual game. But no, I don't have energy to deal with lots of people asking "Gay avoidable?", or "Straight avaidable"? (Yeah, that one will come too), "There are other dicks in the game, so NTR, PASS" and the usual crazyness that others devs have to deal.

That, and the fact that I cannot appreciate women as you do, so the writing of those scenes would be sub-par. I'm not having that... so yeah, it will be another gay focused game.

 

[anne O'nymous]

But no, I don't have energy to deal with lots of people asking [...]

So much wisdom coming from a bear.
I wonder to what extend this shouldn't be the first answer to anyone asking what kink/fetish to put in his future game ; "it depend, how much are you ready to deal with idiots ?"

And this could also apply to OP. Change anything you want from one game to the other, as long as you are ready to deal with all those who will complain because it's not anymore like the previous game.

That, and the fact that I cannot appreciate women as you do, so the writing of those scenes would be sub-par.

Exactly, write what you know about, or don't write about it.

For a time I had the idea to let players decided what gender and sexual orientation would have the MC for my "one day I'll finally have the time to works on it" game. But then, thinking about the gay content it would imply, I often caught myself writing an introduction where I would apology in advance for how badly the gay parts are wrote... What make me obviously drop the idea, especially since it would also apply for the lesbian content.
Writing a solo male on male, or girl on girl, scene isn't the same than writing it as part of a threesome. The motives, desires and synergy aren't the same. And, as last resort, you can still present the threesome from a pure carnal lust angle, what would be quickly boring if all the solo male on male, or again girl on girl, scene were wrote that way.

 

[Chalker]

It all depends on how hard of a shift you take,
If you run a bakery that only makes bread and start making pastries, you won't lose that many clients, if any. You'll probably even gain some. same thing as if you run a bakery and turn it into a grocery store that sells freshly baked bread.

If you turn your bakery into a hamster toy and accessory store... you'll lose most of your clients.

 

[Icarus Media]

- And, perhaps the riskiest of all; imagine if a developer went on to experiment with, say, NTR, toilet play, futanari content, and furries?

Well I've got the NTR and Futanari content down.

...

Hey Chalksis Stella wanna collaborate and go for 4/4?

 

[Chalker]

Well I've got the NTR and Futanari content down.

...

Hey Chalksis Stella wanna collaborate and go for 4/4?

Sorry, I'm to busy collaborating my dong with your dad's lips.

 

[Icarus Media]

Sorry, I'm to busy collaborating my dong with your dad's lips.

Your material is so cliche and old you're basically a Macklemore song.

 

[Chalker]

Your material is so cliche and old you're basically a Macklemore song.

Dude your material is literally potty humor. Get real.

 

[Icarus Media]

Dude your material is literally potty humor. Get real.

Oh we're back to your fart fetish now huh?

 

[Chalker]

Oh we're back to your fart fetish now huh?

Man, with how often you mention that it honestly feels like projection.

 

[Icarus Media]

Man, with how often you mention that it honestly feels like projection.

If I blow a raspberry do you interpret it as a come on?