Getting F95 and Patreon interest

[StudioBMK]

Hi all!

I'm a new developer with a game that's about 2 months old: Secrets in Focus

I'm trying to get some insight from players, instead of just developers here.

Even though my game is only about 2 months old, I think I'm off to a pretty good start, especially seeing my reviews here. I think I have a really good story to tell and the visuals are pretty good and consistent.

I have a few die-hard fans, but if I look at the amount of interest in my game on F95, it's actually quite slow. The same goes for my Patreon, another developer has even mentioned if there's something wrong with my Patreon, looking at how few members I have. If I compare to some other games, even the crappy AI slop NTR phone games, they seem to fly off to large numbers quite quickly.

So I'm trying to get a players perspective as to why this could be. I know there are a few things that might put some players off from trying the game, despite the other reviews:
* It's still quite new (should I wait for a snowball effect?)
* There's no NTR (that seems to be really popular compared to non-NTR games, especially in the AI realm recently)
* I'm using AI visuals (but with good and consistent work if I must say so myself)
* There's no animation yet
* It's a bit of a slow burner (although other slower games have done great)

What would be the reason for you or someone else to not try the game and/or becoming a member on Patreon? Is it one of the reasons above? Is it something else?

Any input is more than welcome!

 

[eaudecologne]

No offense, just looks boring? Why would I play this over any avg Japanese rpgmaker game? Atleast they have cute anime girls.

 

[StudioBMK]

None taken. Will it be more interesting with more sex scenes of is that irrelevant?

 

[desmosome]

When I read overview written by LLM, I just assume the game is gonna be written by LLM too. And while that doesn't automatically mean the writing will be shit, most devs using LLM to write don't really utilize it well.

 

[MrD812]

Jump on the bandwagon, make choice to follow the crowd 'if' this is Your intent.
Advice: adhere to the catalyst in Your desire to express things of ways You want ( not others ).
Or again, dance to the music of others spins on what they want You to do.

Your goals are Yours, stay true to You what ever You choose to do or... do not.

 

[Count Morado]

Hi all!

I'm a new developer with a game that's about 2 months old: Secrets in Focus

I'm trying to get some insight from players, instead of just developers here.

Even though my game is only about 2 months old, I think I'm off to a pretty good start, especially seeing my reviews here. I think I have a really good story to tell and the visuals are pretty good and consistent.

I have a few die-hard fans, but if I look at the amount of interest in my game on F95, it's actually quite slow. The same goes for my Patreon, another developer has even mentioned if there's something wrong with my Patreon, looking at how few members I have. If I compare to some other games, even the crappy AI slop NTR phone games, they seem to fly off to large numbers quite quickly.

So I'm trying to get a players perspective as to why this could be. I know there are a few things that might put some players off from trying the game, despite the other reviews:
* It's still quite new (should I wait for a snowball effect?)
* There's no NTR (that seems to be really popular compared to non-NTR games, especially in the AI realm recently)
* I'm using AI visuals (but with good and consistent work if I must say so myself)
* There's no animation yet
* It's a bit of a slow burner (although other slower games have done great)

What would be the reason for you or someone else to not try the game and/or becoming a member on Patreon? Is it one of the reasons above? Is it something else?

Any input is more than welcome!

First, let's manage expectations:
As you mentioned,
You only started your Patreon page 2 months ago.
Your game page on F95 started 2 months ago.

More,
You've had over 500 PC downloads from the GoFile link on F95 - meaning you probably have had 3000-5000 total downloads across OS's and different filehosts linked from F95. That's not bad for a start... but it is just a start.

90%+ of the millions who have accounts here are here to never subscribe or pay a dime, ever. This isn't hyperbole. Per

You must be registered to see the links

data, there are about 1.1 million paid subscriptions on Patreon for adult games, across 8,100 adult game developers. Even if you say that half hide their paid subscriber numbers (which is an exaggeration) - that's 2 million paid subscriptions, at most. The average paid adult game subscriber does so to more than 1 (but less than 2) adult game developers. Now we're down to about 1.5 million paid subscribers. Even if every single paid subscriber to adult game developers also had an account on F95Zone, that's 84%... so 90%+ as not paying to subscribe is within logic.

---------------------

This is not like "Field of Dreams" where If you build it, they will come.

It's going to take time and effort. Especially for what appears to be a new developer with little networking (here, or otherwise). And it will take a little luck.

I don't know who that other developer is who commented about if there is something wrong your Patreon, but it is obvious they aren't doing you any favors with an ill-informed comment.

To further manage expectations:
The median adult game developer on Patreon earns about $100 per month (after Patreon's fees are taken, but before credit card processing's cut)--- even after 4 years on Patreon.

You may "snowball" at some point, but you are just as likely to not.
From my research the previous 3 years (my research for this year will be sometime next month) - here is a graph on different earning potentials and how much of the bar they fill. Note, this is for only accounts that have paid subscribers, there are about 2000 developer accounts without any paid subs.

For the data, and to learn more:

UPDATED FOR 2024 DECEMBER
Data of the 8,685 adult game creators on Patreon used to create this analysis comes from:

You must be registered to see the links

Of the 8,685 creators, 6,650 have paid subscribers.
Of the 2,035 creators who do not have paid subscribers, 137 started in the past 365 days.
The 1,898 creators who do not have a paid subscriber and have had a Patreon creator account for longer than 365 are not included in this analysis.

This analysis is of the 6,787 creators who have paid subscribers or started in the previous 365 days.
Of those, 4,165 make their earning public (61.4%). Using their data, creators receive an average of $4.50 per paid subscriber each month (that's down 3-cents from last year).

Where monthly earnings are supplied, they are used. Where the earnings are not disclosed, the figure is determined by multiplying the number of paid memberships times the average monthly subscription as listed above (Monthly Earnings = # paid memberships X $4.50)

However, I am also including a figure that is half that. Again, if monthly earnings are supplied, they are used. However, based upon looking at various developers numbers prior to their decision to not disclose their earnings - it appears that the actual average is closer to $2-$3 per paid membership. This is comparable to paid memberships across the entire Patreon site.

$4.50 paid sub avg	$2.25 paid sub avg.
View attachment 4378154​	View attachment 4378156​
View attachment 4378163​	View attachment 4378158​
View attachment 5001420​

So, use this data with a grain of salt - this is for large data purposes - not to determine exact figures for any individual developer.

Spoiler: 2023 Post

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Spoiler: 2022 post

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So, yes, my original memory was slightly off on the upper end, but it still stands that "if you're doing this because you think this is going to be more lucrative than a traditional job in a brick-and-mortar business or a great way to earn extra money to supplement your current income or a rainmaker to get you to your first million" then a person is sadly mistaken.

If anyone is interested, attached is a CSV of the information I used (for 2022, 2023, and 2024).

I do find it interesting how you are using AI to generate art and writing, and summary, and your itch page (and perhaps your Patreon posts?) but then you take a shit on "the crappy AI slop NTR phone games" (which, I don't play nor have any feelings either way). Perhaps not talking ill about other games that may have potential cross-over in audiences (who enjoy AI generated content, netorare or not) is a first step in not alienating prospective fans and paid subscribers.

There are developers here who have put in thousands of work hours each year, as side gigs to their full time jobs, making the choice to develop over spending more time with family or other activities --- who still haven't seen their games "snowball."

Like I said earlier, you might see it "snowball" --- but until then, if it ever happens, hopefully you can find other things that keep your motivation, drive, and initiative up to keep developing your game. Make sure this is something you truly want to do and invest a huge chunk of your time in, if you are hoping for big numbers... numbers that may never come.

Good luck.

 

[HerbertIronsides]

I'm going to be very honest here as someone who has played 1000s of games on this site over the years and suported many artists and creators. Your game is very very easily overlooked, from what I can tell from the pictures, tags, and description it is the most milktoast boring game possible. There are 3 major reasons people get into porn games. I will explain why it fails at each one.

Art: AI art in general is usually a pass for many, but ai that looks like all other AI art is just a hard pass, at the very least when the ai art looks unique I can sometimes get into it.

Kinks/taboos: No interesting kinks besides incest patch (no I am not talking about the curse on this world that is ntr), judging from the tags and art there are no big sizes, no taboos, nothing that would give people with said kinks a reason to jump in.

Plot/story: Plot seems generic, living with your "friend/sister" that is a model and fucking other models working at a modeling agency is really really overdone and even though I have not played the game it seems generic af.

With more and more people getting into ai art, porn game creation, and nsfw content in general the amount of "slop", like you reference for the phone games, has gotten more and more out of control. And sorry to say it but even if your game doesnt fall into the ntr mobile game troup it still comes off as said slop.

If you would like an example of a game that usues AI art but at the very least it looks unique here is an example: https://f95zone.to/threads/doll-verse-v1-0-slooty-slots.202804/
And even here the creator got grilled to hell in back and many people dropped him due to the switch to ai.

If you want to make a good game that draws supporters to make you mone you need to go back to the drawing board and do the following,

-Find kinks/taboos that you enjoy in porn that you like and incorporate those into your story and sex scenes
-either work on your ai model to make something unique, learn blender or how to draw, or commission an artist or 3d porn maker to make your stuff.
-Try to be at least somewhat original in your plot. TBH most people dont even care about the plot of the characters are hot and the scenes are good but it doesnt hurt

You do this and come back here with something better and I assure you you will get more supporters.

 

[orellion]

The art is very good so don't think that would be the problem. Can't believe Steam didn't allow it, guess you have to be over the top cartoony to be safe with them anymore. The MC's profession is a bit too specific and skilled, maybe players would have a hard time identifying with that. You also have only posted in like 5 other threads outside your game one. If F95 is your main source of advertising, that's a problem. As the good Count said though, support tends to be very slow at first. Think of it like a locomotive though, once it gets big, it's also very hard to slow down–even if you stop doing regular updates.

 

[Goeffel]

i don't think the above-above post's critique is much valid. Count Morado could probably show lotsa examples with most original plot, most handmade art, biggest titties ever and yet no supporters on patreon.

starts with "there are 3 reasons for players", yet imo. misses the mark.
- getting entertained
- getting aroused
- seeing some sex scenes they like.

Overall I am convinced that plot is overrated - as long as characters and their interaction are good, that seems to be good enough to many who say they want "story". At least it is true for me.
After all, which sex-game-compatible plot exactly has not been over-done?

And for every player who won't play/ support because "no BIG titties!", it would be more or less the same the other way around. Everyone having monsterboobs is one of my skip reasons, no matter if AI art like yours or "cute anime girls".

No offense, just looks boring? Why would I play this over any avg Japanese rpgmaker game? Atleast they have cute anime girls.

yeah, well, that's just you and me, though.
And I find this AI art not too bad. like, at least they have "realistic" proportions, going by the preview pictures.

take this just as a heads up, maybe with time people WILL come. Would say take another look at it after full-on sex scenes are there. before then, nobody can know if they will like them or not.

--------------------
edit: oh, forgot:

This big update was done really fast because of a few weeks of 14 hours a day in my holiday. That will not be the norm though. I'm hoping for the future to have similar sized updates, I think I would aim at somewhere between 2,5 to 4 months per update.

well, for f95zone, half-the-size updates but twice as often will get your game twice as visible in the "Updated" list.

 

[anne O'nymous]

i don't think the above-above post's critique is much valid. Count Morado could probably show lotsa examples with most original plot, most handmade art, biggest titties ever and yet no supporters on patreon.

And in the same time a game like WVM still have 2,635 patrons. So, everything is fully relative.

Overall I am convinced that plot is overrated - as long as characters and their interaction are good, that seems to be good enough to many who say they want "story". At least it is true for me.
After all, which sex-game-compatible plot exactly has not been over-done?

It depend who you talk to. Globally there's two parts in the community, half care about the fapability before everything else, and the other half while not care too much about the possible lack of lewd as long as the story is interesting.
But this doesn't mean that a game with only sex would necessarily be successful, same for a game that would rely massively on its story.

And I find this AI art not too bad. like, at least they have "realistic" proportions, going by the preview pictures.

I took a quick look at the game, and I find them too blank and emotionless.

 

[StudioBMK]

Thanks everyone for the feedback so far, it's really appreciated!

So I guess the overall consensus here for now that's it's too bland or boring. To be honest, I am looking at my game as a slow burning realistic game with, at least I think, a really good story. The sex and visuals are a close second. Although the sex scenes will surely increase in volume of course. I understand that not everyone will be interested in that type of game, although the games that I like personally are similar and also really popular here. Like 'Leap of Faith' or 'Strangers on Paper'.

In regards to the AI art. I have worked quite hard on the consistency, but I still am a noob on many things. So for now, certain improvements are not attainable for me yet.

Maybe I'm a bit too rushed on this and I need to have more patience. For those interested in these type of games, they seem to really like it. Maybe it's worth trying to get more people to notice it.

I'm surely planning on adding some kinks, but realistic kinks. Plus I am now going to smaller updates, I'm aiming for about 45-75 minutes of gameplay to be released every 1 to 1,5 months.

 

[Count Morado]

I'm aiming for about 45-75 minutes of gameplay to be released every 1 to 1,5 months.

I think you need to have more realistic expectations. I don't know a single solo developer who has ever done that consistently... don't even know if one has done that at all.

That may be about 100 hours per week of work, every week - AI or not.

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

I think you need to have more realistic expectations. I don't know a single solo developer who has ever done that consistently... don't even know if one has done that at all.

Bullshit you don't, I am right here.

 

[Count Morado]

Bullshit you don't, I am right here.

Then, I'm wrong. Congrats.

Now tell them what they should expect in number of hours put in per week that you do to get that done.

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

Now tell them what they should expect in number of hours put in per week that you do to get that done.

I have put in 100 hour weeks many times before, you are correct.

 

[MissCougar]

Just going off of the page you set up, it looks very painfully generic and generic AI. It's like hitting that spot of "safe" that I'm not sure it will help or stand out any. The generated images scream generic AI prompt, unfortunately.

Not to say you need a kink to stand out, lots of slow burning generic games exist.

I hope you find an audience and have a lot of fun developing your game! <3

 

[anne O'nymous]

So I guess the overall consensus here for now that's it's too bland or boring. To be honest, I am looking at my game as a slow burning realistic game with, at least I think, a really good story. The sex and visuals are a close second.

Slow burn doesn't mean boring. Players have to be interested in the story, and it isn't really what happen with your game.

By example, those are the twelves first dialog lines of the game:

mc "Home sweet... half-empty energy drink cans. Ember's interior design strikes again."
mc "Ember? I'm back! I nearly tripped over your caffeine graveyard."
ember "{i}(from the kitchen){/i} Help! A robber is here! Who is it?"
ember "Help! My [MCtoEmberRel] [playerName] is here to rape me!"
narrator "She always thinks she's the funny one here..."
ember "Hold on, I'm making room for all the souvenirs you got."
mc "Souvenirs? Don't bother, I won't spoil you any more than you already are."
mc "Still allergic to wearing pants?"
ember "Stop whining, I'm the only pretty girl you've seen all year. At least one that's not online."
mc "You don't know what adventures I've just had on vacation."
ember "If I want to know, I'll just ask your sock."
mc "Missed you too..."

I felt like I was back in the 80's, watching the start of whatever generic sitcom. The only thing missing was the recorded laughs when Ember faked to fear that there were a robber.

It's not a book or a movie, players haven't payed and, therefore, do not feel the obligation to pursue their journey with your game, at least to not feel like they just wasted their money. This mean that you need to pique player's curiosity right from the starts, and this enough for them to want to understand what all this is about.
There's thousand of different way to do this, and "average Joe coming back to his average Jane sister" is not one of them.

There's an average of 10 new/updated games each day since the starts of this month, if the players aren't hooked, they'll not waste more time, it's not the competition that is lacking.
Oh, also, incest is a big "no" for Patreon, and the way you handled the patch is so basic that they'll strike you at the first report.

In regards to the AI art. I have worked quite hard on the consistency, but I still am a noob on many things. So for now, certain improvements are not attainable for me yet.

Just in case, when I talk about consistency, I don't mean from a CG to another. I'm referring to the accuracy between the context and the visual.
By example, a young women faking fear so not have an average smile. She starts looking shocked, then her face will turn in a big mischievous smile. And angry person have a tense pose, and happy one a relaxed one, and so on. And each time the CGs do not correspond to the situation, the consistency is broken.
This isn't a default limited to AI arts, it's way too present in adult games. But it's way more visible with AI arts, due to the neat appearance of the said art. You look at something that looks like it have been draw with a high attention to every details, and it doesn't match the context, as if the artist didn't cared.

 

[StudioBMK]

To be fair, I was born in the 80's and those were the first lines I've ever written

But I understand what you're saying

 

[olaf_yaddax]

To be honest, I haven’t played your game yet, but I just want to say this: if your goal is money or popularity (which isn’t a bad thing, most developers want that), I recommend being a bit more patient. ‘Two months’ is a very short time for a game. How many games manage to gain enough popularity and income in just two months? I’m sure a few exist, but they’re definitely the minority. Your game will also find success in time.

 

[desmosome]

To be honest, I haven’t played your game yet, but I just want to say this: if your goal is money or popularity (which isn’t a bad thing, most developers want that), I recommend being a bit more patient. ‘Two months’ is a very short time for a game. How many games manage to gain enough popularity and income in just two months? I’m sure a few exist, but they’re definitely the minority. Your game will also find success in time.

Not all games find success in time. Most actually just never make any money forever.