Do you create AVN's in hope's of making money or ok if not?

[WarpedGaming]

This might not be a too popular of post, especially on this forum "I don't know I'm fairly new", but I'll give it a go.

For those of create VN's and spend however much time, you spend on doing it, time in writing the script, creating the assets "purchasing them OR getting them off the pirate site and here", if is possible your game will end up on a pirate site. I know if could be looked at as a "badge of approval" in that someone thinks it's good enough to put up but is this a hobby for you? I don't think anyone is actually doing this as a full-time income paying their bills. Who knows maybe I'm wrong.

What's got me more interested is the asset creators on Daz, Renderosity, Renderotica, etc. If they spend time putting out good content it will eventually end up pirated. But I guess the question is are they selling enough from the people that don't know about pirate sites to make it worth their time?

I'm not against anything, hell I'm starting my own novel now "in writing the script phrase" and it will be up on Itch.io, Patreon, etc promoted on my YouTube channel and all, but I'm retired and already make money from affiliate websites I've had online for years that do quite well plus other avenues. So I'm not complaining and the novels give me something to do because I love modeling, animating, rigging, Blender, Daz, etc. As a retired person it's how I choose to spend my day instead of sitting on the couch ALL DAY watching TV "which is what my grandfather did when he was over 60" but that's what there really was to do back then. LOL.

Another thing is I'm writing an original script, "original idea", which is the movie "or Hollywood industry" is too big a risk and most production houses won't take a chance on it. They want adapted script because there already is a proven "paying" audience and I get it.

But also I want to get into this putting out novels and I'm going to take the assets from my novels and put them up for sale on the usual sites and I want to see how it all affects a developer. I might even make a video series of the journey so others can follow along that are interested. I'm basically just killing time. I literally sit at my computer all day then go do bed and get up the next day and do the same thing over again.

My wife and I aren't in the best of health so we sit all day, me on the computer doing 3D, writing my script, surfing YouTub; Facebook, etc. We get our groceries delivered about once a week. and that's about it. I know pretty boring this retirement life.

Hope you all don't mind my question, rant, what ever you want to call it, but just curious to hear from the game developers "hopefully it isn't too hard to get that tag after I publish my novel" on why you do this. Maybe it's just you like making them. I have watched more than a few to get an idea of the different styles, how different people make their's, etc and that is fun too. Again also passes time. I start a novel and before I know it 8 hours have passed by.

Anyway, can't wait to hear some replys. Thanks for you time in reading this far.

WarpedGaming.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

The only thing i can say, creating these kind of games or any other, is or should be a labor of love.
That term is really overused.
But the main point is, you probably don't make money.

From what i read here, it has a lot to do with timing and sheer luck. Maybe what you are creating get the interest of most people or they just like what you offer them.

There are indeed some that make ton's of money. But that is rather the exception than the norm.
On this subforum there are similar threads where you probably find the answer.

In todays world, your life starts with 60. Seriously, i will be going out more once i settle what i need to settle.

In any case, i am working on a pet project and i see it as something i like to share. No money involved. The majority more or less has Patreon. I am not planing in becoming an artist.
I do it for fun and my own enjoyment.

 

[WarpedGaming]

In any case, i am working on a pet project and i see it as something i like to share. No money involved. The majority more or less has Patreon. I am not planning in becoming an artist.
I do it for fun and my own enjoyment.

Pretty much same here. Except I spend 20+ years as an independent security researcher "reverse engineering malware and finding vulnerabilities in software" so I love researching things and that basically what this whole AVN thing is. What can one expect when getting started in this niche "knowing nothing about it." Now the wife reads all day when she's up but she reads Kindle, Amazon, and other book services or apps. She like the sexy novels that have dragons, vampires, werewolves, etc. I can dig it. I love creating wild Goth chicks with Daz but I would never put them in a novel or anything because I'm not Goth or familiar with the genre to write about it. I just love the look of them. The leather, latex, and all.

But it's nice to hear there at one other person that is just doing this because they love it. I'm basically been learning Daz. I already very familiar with Blender. Been using it since version 4.26. But I think Daz is great for creating characters but I'm going to try and do more with it.

I don't really want to invest into a whole powerhouse of a computer at the moment. I'm going to wait and see how creating a whole novel, from start to finish, goes before I decide to do so. I have decided to rent an IaaS Cloud machine (from irendering.net) which gives you a choice of computers that use RTX-3090 and RTX-4090 and you can get multiple cards "using NVLink" I used a 4 RTX-3090 machine once to do a long animation and it was done in no time at all. But it comes at $14.80/hour"

Anyway, sorry for the long post again. Good thing I like writing because I can put out scripts pretty quick. LOL

WarpedGaming.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

Retired and working on projects all day, sounds like the dream!

For me, I guess you could say I'm someone with the perspective that I'm serious about my hobbies (meaning I have mid to high standards for what I want to release), but I'm not 'serious' per say (aka I do not care about the money)

Now while I say I don't care about profit, I'm not promoting charity either. Over the past decade of working on simple game projects and ideas, I've gone from know nothing other than a bit of java, to learning several programming languages and engines, making my own at one point, developing my own language, learning 3D art and animation, and know starting to get comfortable with my 2D art enough to start to feel a bit proud of it. I've even invested a lot in making my own music... though I now need a refresher in basic music theory XD. All and all I'm more pro copyright and protecting what I made because its something I'm proud of.

The point is I have fun pushing myself, and wanting to show off all that effort by releasing a cool project, something I can be proud of and not cringe about, and I'm tired of calling myself a dev but not having a public project I can show off XP

I'm not the biggest fan of sharing resources, because while its totally awesome to find assets online and use it to get right to work, I personally couldn't ever take pride in a project that wasn't 100% mine (except maybe the music... I'm still years away from being comfortable making and releasing music), and I don't like the idea of using assets that would make my project look like other people's project. Despite how awesome 3D art can be, I decided I'm sticking with 2D because I like the style more and it would help make my work look unique rather than match everyone else using daz.

After a year of focusing on one project, and finaly locking down my art work flow, I can definitly see why most casual devs who are serious about game deving want to do it full time, much easier to just focus on one project than trying to balance life, work, and your hobby. Maybe then I'll worry about pirating and trying to ensure an income, but I'm more of the philosophy of getting my work out there, and once I have a specific style/niche that my work focuses on, its that niche that gets people to notice me and support me... but then idk because after making games I want to work on a lot of AI code and finish building my 1:1 size robots, but right now I need to find a bigger place/workshop for that.

 

[MissFortune]

TL;DR: Don't quit your job.

Largely echoing what's been said here, you shouldn't hope or expect to make a living off of this. The best you can hope is making enough to keep yourself out of the red asset-wise. That is, assuming you're actually buying them. That large pile of abandoned projects are basically exactly this. People who thought it was easy money, but don't have the passion and/or ethic to push through.

Is it possible to get rich doing this? Sure. Is it common? Not so much anymore. Do it for fun, because you want to do it. Not to make money. This is a passion project and nothing more, at least until your supporters say otherwise.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Pretty much same here. Except I spend 20+ years as an independent security researcher "reverse engineering malware and finding vulnerabilities in software" so I love researching things and that basically what this whole AVN thing is. What can one expect when getting started in this niche "knowing nothing about it." Now the wife reads all day when she's up but she reads Kindle, Amazon, and other book services or apps. She like the sexy novels that have dragons, vampires, werewolves, etc. I can dig it. I love creating wild Goth chicks with Daz but I would never put them in a novel or anything because I'm not Goth or familiar with the genre to write about it. I just love the look of them. The leather, latex, and all.

But it's nice to hear there at one other person that is just doing this because they love it. I'm basically been learning Daz. I already very familiar with Blender. Been using it since version 4.26. But I think Daz is great for creating characters but I'm going to try and do more with it.

I don't really want to invest into a whole powerhouse of a computer at the moment. I'm going to wait and see how creating a whole novel, from start to finish, goes before I decide to do so. I have decided to rent an IaaS Cloud machine (from irendering.net) which gives you a choice of computers that use RTX-3090 and RTX-4090 and you can get multiple cards "using NVLink" I used a 4 RTX-3090 machine once to do a long animation and it was done in no time at all. But it comes at $14.80/hour"

Anyway, sorry for the long post again. Good thing I like writing because I can put out scripts pretty quick. LOL

WarpedGaming.

When i was young, i was like most and played games that were cracked. But there were also games that were actually free to play. Now, everyone likes to make money with it.
Nothing wrong with that but i think the expectation is bigger than it probably will be.

There are some games that reward the developer really well but i think that these games probably hit a nerve or, as it was mentioned by Anne, were released at the right time and right place.

More over, there probably have a good story. I think that this is one of the key's.

Since i am old now, i am realistic. I do it mostly really because i just like to play around and learn a thing or two.
I am not really good at drawing, though not that bad either, and it takes a really long time to draw everything. So i use 3D models to make that happen.
DAZ took me a while to learn. Some maybe learn it quicker and get really good at it. To this day, i struggle with lights. Sounds simple but is actually to me the biggest challenge.
I always strive to make as real as possible. Like, when i would sit there, how would the lights affect me?
And then finding the right environment.
I am quite disappointing in the assets that are out there. Why? Because i like my story to be in the real world and not in a fantasy rich environment. So that is another challenge.

And while doing that, i never really thought about to make money from it. Well, i am financially ok but would welcome some income though what i lag is the commitment. I am not sure if i would do it for years. Some games are in development for over 5 years. Am i in for the long haul?
And, if you buy assets, it can add up pretty quickly in some serious cash. I do buy from time to time assets because i like them.
The biggest challenge is, to figure out which asset is actually worth it. That applies to me to clothing. Some clothing looks nice but is actually crap. They don't have the morphs or fall short otherwise.
And, if you want to make a game with lot's of people in it, just the figures with clothing, hair etc.. will add up.

Being an introvert, this kind of hobby is a trap. Where you find yourself (me) in a constant, let's just do a little more.

Anyway, learning DAZ is essential if you want to go that route. Or you want to do Blender. Some do that actually.

I wish i could create my own assets.

Programming is another challenge. If you like me (you probably not) this is a book with seven seals.
The good thing is, that RenPy is like Basic. Well, kind of. Many functions do work like Basic. The Basic of the past.
So that is another thing to learn.

I think if one wants to make things happen, it can happen. Determination, conviction and consistency are key. The rest is a gamble.
To me, i don't count on anything. For that reason i say that i do it for myself which is true. If i ever convinced that what i am making is good, i may release it. But i am very far away from that.
And, there are so many people that are more talented than me. Well, only can hope.

A big plus for DAZ is, that most assets are available for "free" so you can try them out since there are no demo versions.