Do you prefer story or game mechanics?

[Captain Ultra]

What type of visual novel do you prefer?

Do you prefer reading and clicking through to the porn, possibly with some choices that branch the story?

OR do you prefer game mechanics like exploration and minigames, possibly slice-of-life style?

 

[crnisl]

Visual novels are often either lazily written with not enough text - or written too thoroughly, making reading it boring. After all, if you have a text story, why not to give it like that, as a text story?

Then, so many sandboxes, and platformers, and point&clicks. But in most of them the gameplay feels tedious and somewhat unnecessary, not properly connected to the porn joy. Madeni recently touched a face of this problem in his request Corruption/Moral degeneracy game with good pacing of scenes.

As for gameplay, actually, I (and I'm sure many other people) would like to finally see something like this:

• some Tower Defense game. Not too complicated, but pleasant to play. Like Plants vs. Zombies stuff.
  Pyorgara tried to make smth primitive of this kind in Breaking the Princess, but not too successfully, alas. I mean, the hentai scenes are fine, but the gameplay itself is still boring.
• a Narrative Raising Sim. "Raising what? Princesses, politicians, nations, space ships, whatever" Text-based CYOA-type games where you control a person's life like The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante/Naked Ambition/Blue Swallow or something more political/economical like Queen in Deficit or
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  .

 

[Semetrika]

Neither. Depends how developer put it together. For example many visual novels try be game with sandbox, but most of time it not work and it's pain in ass for players navigate on map and find out game is actually kinetic novel, but developer market it as sandbox visual novel with choices which affect story.

 

[Noah Neim]

Lol why are those mutually exclusive, you can totally have both if developers actually you know, put effort into their game?
But that's rare, so i'll give a proper opinion now

It's a game, if you wanted to read, you couldd, go to good reads, select a book you read once in highschool and go to 'people also like' section and pick something from there, but this is a game, it's not meant just for reading.

Gameplay takes precedence, if a game is REALLY good then you could honeslty have no story, but for the sake of the game's survival, it's not a good idea.

People are naturally drawn by stories, a game like dead cells most certatinly is very fun and addicting to play, and catching the story is likely the least of people's interests, but it's story when you take the effort to understand it just makes the game feel more alive.

You give weight to the enviorment and the things you do, it flares up your imagination, gameplay is what we like to challenge oursself with, but just gameplay alone will not truly make the best game, a good game sure, but not the best.

And branching paths are also gameplay you know, not story, story is just writing, while branching paths ia gameplay mechanic,, and i think every single story based game should have multiple paths and endiings depending on your choices, otherwise, wth are you even doing making a game?


Most of the issues come with money problems, making branching paths requires more idk, va work, art, animation, sound design and a bunch of other shit.

As a result some devs might cut on every path and make it shorter and more boring to give the game more paths, which is also a bad idea.

So there needs to be a balance, or atleast great consideration that when making a story based game, you'll likely spend more money on it than making a management game or some shit.

On the other hand sometimes people just genuinely dont give a shit about a story, or dont want to spend the effort to dig it out and the devs didnt make it any easier.
An example i can use is shimmering horizon cursed blacksmith.
The gameplay is definitely one of the more entertaining ones, putting aside its unfairness sometimes its a genuinely one of the top 1 % of games in terms of gameplay, and it does have a story, but its story itself is a complete fucking mystery.
Some of the details are in events which are always fucking cryptic as shit, other details are revealed in your index through item. descriptions or just chapters you get from special enemies when you kill them.
This is far beyond the effort a normal player wants to do, a dev has to realize that players are LAZY and want things to be easy. So making a good game but making the story cryptic as shit may just be a waste of effort, atleast for a normal audience, until some actually dedicated people actually bother to pay attention and bring more deidcated people with them


It truly depends like the poll says, devs have to consider what kind of game they're making, which genres it's a part of, and what expectations are placed on the game by the people who consume those genres
Once they fulfill those minimums, then they can creatively branch out to the things they want to do, adding their own flair or interpretation after the minimum framework
If they want to add a story to it, they have to intergrate it properly, and obviously, write it well
There's alot of devs who are bad programmers with good ideas who manage to make a good game in the end anyways (undertale) but how many of them will also be good writers too? not alot, it can happen, but basing things off of success stories isnt how i interpret things

If they want to make a story based game, they have to give considerations to the budget they have, and how they can use it, so planning is infinitely more important here, and obviously, writing a good story too


TLDR: It's a game, make a game, if you want to make a story focused game, multiple choices are also a gameplay mechanic dingus, go write a book if you dont like either

a Narrative Raising Sim. "Raising what? Princesses

I see what you did there, but i agree, it's avery niche genre but i love everything about it

 

[kytee]

What type of visual novel do you prefer?

TLDR: It's a game, make a game, if you want to make a story focused game, multiple choices are also a gameplay mechanic dingus, go write a book if you dont like either

Tell me you didn't read the first post without telling me you didn't read the first post. Big difference in making a visual novel with gameplay elements than a game with story.

 

[lfgals1]

I'm the something else vote because I think the core premise here is wrong. My post assumes that most people come to porn games for the long form, interactive, erotic content. That niche is what porn games have that other forms of erotica can't do.

The trick to good longform erotic content is getting good at building tension and releasing it. You build erotic anticipation through regular use of "teasing" what is to come. This means when it hits the audience is already wound up and ready to get off. This is romance novel 101.

The trick to interactive content (of any type) is making sure the player 'feels' like they are in the captains seat. Choices that don't matter aren't choices. Which is not the same thing as saying "choices have to change the outcome of the story". The vast majority of video games don't have that and there are still many beloved stories among them. Interactivity works so long as people feel like they are in control. Gating story advancement behind player achievement creates that feeling of being in control even in a linear story.

The break down in porn games is that people lose sight of the connection between these two ideas. They include a bunch if minigames to gate progress, which do nothing to build up erotic tension. In fact, turning on your brain without erotic tension tends to kill whatever erotic tension has been built up. Porn games with grind are constantly restarting their build up from zero.

The trick to good gameplay in a porn game is tying it into the build up of tension and making sure that the payoff directly follows success in that gameplay.

The Headmaster's core gameplay loop is a great example of this done right. You move around the school getting to know the cute girls and seeing just enough skin to be enticing, then you find ways to shift the rules so the girls need to be punished via the spanking mini game where the trainer kink is centralized, and finally when the punishment is done the girl in question achieves a new level of obedience and depravity and you get a payoff scene. The Headmaster is grindy AF and almost no one complains about it.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Gameplay is more important than plot, but the general writing quality has to be at least passable for me to enjoy a game.

 

[woody554]

both? both.
both is good.

 

[Noah Neim]

Tell me you didn't read the first post without telling me you didn't read the first post. Big difference in making a visual novel with gameplay elements than a game with story.

No, those 2 are completely the same, a visual novel is a game with a story, assuming the dev doesnt just make a moving picture book
I did read, and think my overly long essay is applicable

 

[holounze]

If I had to absolutely choose, it would always be story

 

[desmosome]

Gameplay is hard and 99% of indie coomer devs have zero hope of making something playable. Writing is hard as well, but it's a porn story backed up by visuals. Many more devs are capable of writing something fappable, at least.

 

[amaranta]

I prefer gameplay, but most of time play for story. Because in most VNs the gameplay acts as filler and isn't even entertaining. Sometimes ppl try to make something interesting and/or tie it to story, but because everyone thinks it`s age of invention and make things from scrach the result is even below average. Never understand why ppl can`t look at least at narrative board RPG and take ideas and mechanics from it.

 

[..........t]

I prefer story. I'm not just looking to fap but get immersed into the worldbuilding.

 

[DuniX]

My post assumes that most people come to porn games for the long form, interactive, erotic content. That niche is what porn games have that other forms of erotica can't do.

Writing erotica still has the basics of "writing" as it's basis, something they have no competence in, boring characters, boring setting, boring plot.
Directing "movies" is something that is unique to "movies", doesn't mean anyone can do that.

Gameplay is hard and 99% of indie coomer devs have zero hope of making something playable. Writing is hard as well, but it's a porn story backed up by visuals. Many more devs are capable of writing something fappable, at least.

You don't need talent to make simple games, you just need to copy something that is already successful and just add porn to it.
Honestly developers that keep making "Adult Visual Novels" even when they have no talent for writing has to be some form of insanity.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Both.

 

[desmosome]

Writing erotica still has the basics of "writing" as it's basis, something they have no competence in, boring characters, boring setting, boring plot.
Directing "movies" is something that is unique to "movies", doesn't mean anyone can do that.


You don't need talent to make simple games, you just need to copy something that is already successful and just add porn to it.
Honestly developers that keep making "Adult Visual Novels" even when they have no talent for writing has to be some form of insanity.

We've been over this a million times. You fap to gameplay (somehow), I fap to a story (scenario, build up, fetish, sex dialogues, things that are lacking in other types of porn media). The bare minimum I wanna do when I open a porn game is be able to fap. Once in a blue moon, the writing is legitimately good. What a nice find. But most of the time, it's just serviceable enough, especially if it lines up with my preferred tags. It's much easier for devs to make something I can fap to than make something I would find fun to play.

I've never fapped to gameplay mechanics. Not once. I don't even know what you are talking about. The simplistic shit like chinese puzzle game shovelware and the shitload of horribly made platformers are not gonna hold my interest. I'm not getting horny playing these mechanics. Nor do I find it fun as a game. Then there are the absolutely convoluted management games. I can see some OCD appeal to these, for the right kind of player, but again, who the hell is getting aroused by crunching and optimizing numbers? Occasionally, there are games that have a great balance and sensible game deisgn which could be engaging enough, both from the writing department and the gameplay woven in. Great job. But again, the fappability is entirely gonna be tied to the writing. I don't give a fuck if you make an amazing brothel management game. Without some sort of character or story arc, I ain't fapping to it. It could be a fun distraction as a game, but I'm not fapping to random, compartmentalized animations without a story or character build up. I would just turn to better animated videos if that was all I needed. I don't edge by clicking buttons and "training" some whores in some simplistic management UI.

So again, gameplay in porn games is something extra. And if done well enough, it can be the main dish. But I'm only interested as long as it's legitimately fun to play, comparable to a normal game I would just play for fun.

You are probably capable of fapping to some pixels getting raped in a platformer. Good for you. That don't work for me, and it doesn't even build "intermittent reward" or whatever it was you, or the other gameplay fanatic, termed that kind of gameplay content.

A list of my favorite porn games include a lot of gameplay eroges from Japan. That's because these are legit fun to play. I don't even try to fap to a lot of them, so I treat it as a normal game with some adult themes. But Venus Blood series is one that has both top tier SRPG gameplay as well as nice scenes to fap to. And that is my favorite series.

Your absurdly naive notion that a dev with no talent in game design can just copy some popular game format and add some porn to create nice porn games is just laughable. Even if, by some stroke of luck or dormant skill, they make a clone of a game that is well balanced and enjoyable to play, there is no guarentee that the porn aspect will be any good. In fact, many such Slay the Spire porn clones lack any fappability. Yeah, Slay the Spire is badass, and a clone of it, despite being not as good as game, could still be enjoyable enough for a few runs. But for a fapping session? Get that shit out of here.

 

[DuniX]

You fap to gameplay (somehow), I fap to a story (scenario, build up, fetish, sex dialogues, things that are lacking in other types of porn media).

It's not about what you fap to, it's about what the developers fail at. I doubt you fap to all the shit that is released here.

 

[tanstaafl]

It's not about what you fap to, it's about what the developers fail at. I doubt you fap to all the shit that is released here.

Challenge accepted.

 

[desmosome]

It's not about what you fap to, it's about what the developers fail at. I doubt you fap to all the shit that is released here.

Right. And devs fail at gameplay MUCH more frequently than they fail at writing. Especially since the average dev's idea of gameplay is the dreaded "sandbox," most of which is linear and an utter waste of time.

Actual gameplay gameplay? Even the basic copy pasta games require some amount of coding knowledge. You think the average porn dev knows how to code? You suggest the average dev doesn't have anywhere near the required writing skills to write decent erotica. I can see why you might think that, but I say these devs lack even more in their ability to make an actual game. So I'll take the average porn writing over some shitty unfun time wasting attempt at a game.

 

[DuniX]

Especially since the average dev's idea of gameplay is the dreaded "sandbox," most of which is linear and an utter waste of time.

That's still part of the madness that infects this cottage industry. Visual Novels and Sandbox games are the only thing this developers seems to make.
Do you think even the most basic Indie Developers would have problems with that Gameplay?
How many thousands of Indie Developers languish on Steam?

Even the basic copy pasta games require some amount of coding knowledge. You think the average porn dev knows how to code?

Yes, better than they know how to write at least. You don't need that complex of a knowledge to make something on the level of a flash game.
There are many competitions you find where games that are made in just a week, and you don't need that much gameplay then that for a porn game.