Developers Creating a VARIETY of Different Games: Too Risky?

[Chalker]

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

What's with you and blowing things?

 

[Icarus Media]

What's with you and blowing things?

I'm part Irish.

 

[Chalker]

I'm part Irish.

Ah, so being a pushover bottom is in your genes.

 

[Doorknob22]

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

It would go as smoothly as a rock band starting to play smooth Jazz, or vice versa. A lot of gnashing of teeth, massive loss of fans (assuming that "band" had a massive amount of fans to begin with...) but perhaps also gaining new ones.

 

[Icarus Media]

Ah, so being a pushover bottom is in your genes.

Oh we're bringing it back to bottoms are we? You just can't help yourself can you....

 

[Chalker]

Oh we're bringing it back to bottoms are we? You just can't help yourself can you....

I prefer it to topping.
But hey, atleast I'm not like you fantasizing about blowing me and projecting your weird fetishes.

 

[Icarus Media]

I prefer it to topping.
But hey, atleast I'm not like you fantasizing about blowing me and projecting your weird fetishes.

You started speaking about peoples bottoms!

 

[Freakbunny]

Get a room, you two

 

[AdventAnyx]

- 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.

Life's too short to care what other people expect you to make. Do what you find fun doing. NTR or not.
There are fans for everything, just might take some time (and talent) to switch one type of fans for another.
Unless you're super tight on money, and suddenly changing direction will ruin your life

 

[botc76]

Honestly, considering how little it takes for some people here to go after a dev like crazy, only stopping once the dev either gives in to their demands or either goes incommunicado or abandons their game in general, I would say that a radical shift in topic will probably either anger your supporters or be of absolutely no interest to them.

And people who support you or like your work, like it for the content, probably at least as much as for the quality, so a massive change in topics or kinks won't go down well with most of them.

I consider myself quite open and not everything has to be curtailed to my specific tastes, but if a game goes completely against my interests, why would I like that?
If any of my favourite devs suddenly started a new game which was NTR-centric, with lots of femdom and maybe even stuff like guro or scat, which I really can't deal with at all, I think I would probably stop supporting and let them know that this drastic shift in tone was not to my liking. Probably not exactly that neutral and polite.
Not like harassing or attacking them, I'd say my piece and leave for greener pastures.

Other changes like going from story-centric to porn centric, from serious to ridiculous, that I can go with. Of course, it still depends on the quality, but I can go for a game that's merely about porn, if it doesn't take itself too seriously and vice versa, if the story-centric game is well written and the story is interesting.

 

[Icarus Media]

Get a room, you two

Wanna join us?

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Or what if the creator of a straight-up pornfest suddenly delved into serious, story-rich themes?

I'd praise the sun.

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.

Everything will find its degenerate.

If fans of a developer expect one thing, how will they react when they recieve another?

They react like this usually:

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

Probably badly.
Finish what you promised/intended first, and only then start a new game and do that 'new thing' in that new game.

Or.. if you really can't fucking take it anymore and want to do that 'new thing' really really badly.. you can always abandon your current project. But this will be a hit to your reputation.
Creating positive reputation around your name is one of the most important things a developer must do, and you obviously won't be creating anything positive by abandoning your projects and disappointing your fans.