Do you ever feel that good games are becoming less and less available?

[Joshua Tree]

Technically speaking you're right, but practically the scene isn't anymore designed for this kind of approach.

This thread wouldn't have existed if the scene weren't saturated by average games. And the fact that, like Crimson Delight Games said, those games are generally better than what we got in the past alas don't help. In the end, your first game will generally pass unnoticed, burning all your budget and hopes.
Of course, you'll become an established author and you'll have one finished game in your portfolio. This can help for the future, but what future do you have when you don't have anymore money to put on a game, and lost the most part of your passion releasing a game that no one played ?
It's the paradox of the scene nowadays. If you want a chance to standout and one day be successful enough to not lost money, you need to do something different and more ambitious. Or you need to pass more time advertising for your game than effectively working on it. But the last option is a trap, because once successful you'll want to finally works seriously on your game, what will mean more time between two releases and you'll be accused to milk your patrons...




And after starts threads to complain about the lack of creativity and quality in the scene...

What you said about portfolio, reminds me about what some indie dev said in a youtube video I watched a good while back. His income didn't reflect as much per game/creation, as his portfolio as whole. So making several smaller projects with each have trinkles of income over time, would be better than start on some giant magnum opus that take years to complete.

 

[Joshua Tree]

People develop their games with different attitudes - make money, want appreciation from others, or just simply love making games.

My story is that I hate regular jobs and don't want to live on things I don't like. then I saw some people made adult games and earned a lot.I wish I could be like them one day and I don't really need a lot of money as they do but just enough to support my daily life to keep on developing. So I'm making my own game now. But apparently, I'm too naive - the crowd reaction didn't grow as my expectation. And it takes tons of time and effort to develop a game, especially as I am working on everything by myself.

Now I am not sure whether it could even be finished and how long could I keep working on my game. Perhaps soon I need to go back to regular jobs.

And sorry for telling my off-topic story here. I simply want to say reality doesn't work the way we want it to. When a game doesn't result in the way the author wants, it could get abandoned. So do the passion of the developers.

(Well if you found my English weird, sorry...I'm not a native speaker)

Just because you see someone earn a lot, doesn't make it the norm. And these people who have it comfortable now, they didn't just quit their job/rl and went all into create their first games. You need a income to put bread on the table and roof over your head. Developing a game in a cardboard box under a bridge is never a good solution.

Chris Hunt made a lovely gem of a game. Kenshi. He worked solo on this game for 5-6 years, meanwhile supporting himself working as a bouncer. In 2013 the game got released on early access on steam and he could afford expand to a small team. In 2018 it went into full release.

There is a lot of indie devs out there that work crap jobs they don't like, to support the project they burn for in the hope they might strike gold in the end.

When you said the crowd didn't react as you expected? Where did you approach the crowd? Some of these that does good on Patreon isn't just necessary good at create a game, but to reach out to people and bring awareness to their cration. Like plaster their creation on every platform and soical media that can be done. Patreon doesn't advertise for you. You are just another number in the phone book that people will never come across unless you give them a reason to look it up.

 

[Raay_game]

Just because you see someone earn a lot, doesn't make it the norm. And these people who have it comfortable now, they didn't just quit their job/rl and went all into create their first games. You need a income to put bread on the table and roof over your head. Developing a game in a cardboard box under a bridge is never a good solution.

Chris Hunt made a lovely gem of a game. Kenshi. He worked solo on this game for 5-6 years, meanwhile supporting himself working as a bouncer. In 2013 the game got released on early access on steam and he could afford expand to a small team. In 2018 it went into full release.

There is a lot of indie devs out there that work crap jobs they don't like, to support the project they burn for in the hope they might strike gold in the end.

When you said the crowd didn't react as you expected? Where did you approach the crowd? Some of these that does good on Patreon isn't just necessary good at create a game, but to reach out to people and bring awareness to their cration. Like plaster their creation on every platform and soical media that can be done. Patreon doesn't advertise for you. You are just another number in the phone book that people will never come across unless you give them a reason to look it up.

Yep, You got the point. Most of the people who are earning a lot now did put much more effort and time into it while we couldn't see. That's why I said I was too naive. Basically, I'm spending 2 years on full-time development to try to make a little money which is just enough for my basic need. Then I could continue the development with it. But even short progress takes a lot of time. At the current pace, I'm not gonna reach the target in the time and my situation doesn't allow me to do it on a full-time basis in the future. Or actually, it does allow. All I need is to keep on developing while having a regular job, just like the guy you mentioned did. But the frequency of updates would be just terrible at that time. Or I should say I'm just not hard-working enough to be deserved a result of "dream come true".

Now I'm just continuing my work on the project and seeing how far I can reach.

And for the crowd reaction part, I agree that I need other than just game-making skills to promote my work. But in my case, the growth of my project is actually, quite a normal rate. It's just me being a dumbass, overestimating the quality of my product, and underestimating the time needed to make enough income.

 

[Meaning Less]

The Japanese games don't get abandoned because they're made by dedicated studios that don't release games in progress.

Most japaense games posted are also done by indie developers, especially rpgm ones. RPGM is the renpy from japan.

 

[Ragnar]

No. because everyday someone starts a new game. Sure most of them aren't the best but from time to time a new gem appears.
Also is not that hard to spot milkers once you have been playing these games for some time.

 

[nicod]

iam okay cause i have some rules for myself

rule number 1 : never play uncompleted game never ever
rule number 2 : when a game is completed if you loved it from your heart throw some money as for example 20 dollar
never donate monthly for something not even decently animated

 

[SecretSal]

Haven't noticed too much of a dropoff myself. There are probably a lot more games around today that I'd consider mediocre, but games I like are probably around the same. Once in a while, a game I like will get abandoned or have development stalled, but there are usually a few new ones come around that pick up the baton, so it's business as usual for now.

Don't mind playing incomplete games either. In an ideal world, the games would all be complete, but I've frequently gotten more enjoyment from certain incomplete game than from many complete games. Out of the 67 games I've kept on my PC so far, only 9 of them are complete. A few of them are even abandoned games, but I liked the scenes that were in there, so I kept it around in case I want to watch them again.

I think some games even go on too long and lose my interest when all the exciting stuff is already done and what's left is just filler to wrap up some overarching plot in which I only have tangential interest. And if a game gets abandoned before it reaches its peak, then I just move on. Life's too short to get hung up on all sorts of trivial shit.

 

[Leeduva]

also the amount of work is just guaranteed to surprise people. I've written 5-6 shitty books for my own entertainment, and writing a book is just nothing compared to making a VN. I've used more time making a single event than writing a book. VNs are exhausting to make even when you love what you do.

Out of curiosity,what your opinion on text adventure games?

 

[Leeduva]

Can hardly give the guys behind Wilf Life a "free pass" as just "indie devs" anylonger.. Team size and how much they rake in each month now doesn't really reflect progress of the project... They have a demo on steam, but I don't really see early access coming anytime soon. Of which I believe they to afraid of what that could do to their patreon income.. Also their failed kickstarter a while back which they argued was just to boost awareness about the game and not about the money? Really? To boost awareness about your kickstarter you need to work for it. People doesn't just stumble over it randomly.

No adult game will ever reach into an AAA state. Not even an AA with a decent publisher backing them. Project management and being structured is imho a key indigrent for success for just about anything you set out to do in life.

Hold up isn't Subverse can be considered Triple AAA?

 

[woody554]

Out of curiosity,what your opinion on text adventure games?

haven't really played them since the early 80s for some reason, but now that you made me think about it I probably should. I did use to love them. I think it might've even been the first game I made as a kid on c64 around 40 years ago. and I do like to read stories too. yeah. I don't know why I never even though about them like this? I think I've been preoccupied with the idea of seeing my kinks as images so that I've just ignored every text adventure game I've seen. thanks, man.

 

[Joshua Tree]

Hold up isn't Subverse can be considered Triple AAA?

No... AAA games is just a reflection of their budgets, and Subverse is not up there by far either.

On another note the guys in FOW been punching out the updates at the pace they stated they would after it hit steam though.

 

[Leeduva]

haven't really played them since the early 80s for some reason, but now that you made me think about it I probably should. I did use to love them. I think it might've even been the first game I made as a kid on c64 around 40 years ago. and I do like to read stories too. yeah. I don't know why I never even though about them like this? I think I've been preoccupied with the idea of seeing my kinks as images so that I've just ignored every text adventure game I've seen. thanks, man.

You might want to check out Champion of Curruption and Trial of Tainted Space. Both are lewd Text adventure games.

 

[Crazy_Chameleon]

There are good adult games out there. But the phenomena you mention is natural for any Industry. It's not actually the Industry, It's more likely you. The fact is there are only so many good games out there. When you first get into a medium there is a huge backlog of great games to play, books to read .. whatever. But eventually you run into the point where you have experienced everything you are interested in. And the fact is you never play or never really find the old junk .. it gets buried. SO it can be easy to look around and think .. man .. where's all the good new game? When really it's just business as usual.

Even back in the 80's There were a shitload of junk games those weird lcd ones the tiger games .. the multi game plug and play shitty consoles the LJN games. But we don't really remember them. We remember sonic the hedgehog and super mario bros.

 

[Leeduva]

No... AAA games is just a reflection of their budgets, and Subverse is not up there by far either.

On another note the guys in FOW been punching out the updates at the pace they stated they would after it hit steam though.

Out of curiosity,what is exactly a Triple A game? I thought Triple A is the amount of money it takes to make it.

 

[Joshua Tree]

Out of curiosity,what is exactly a Triple A game? I thought Triple A is the amount of money it takes to make it.

Imagine the budget that went into GTA5...... (265m USD)... then we talking AAA games -) Money alone isn't the sole thing though. Having a major publisher backing the game also a criteria... I don't see Activision, EA and similar start make lewd game anytime soon... Or well, Microsoft games being up there now as one of the giant ones.