How and where to promote your adult games correctly?

[Viznity]

Hi!

I'm

You must be registered to see the links

. And I've been trying to develop adult games since about 2018. However, I couldn't focus on the marketing part because of trying to develop the game. This part requires a separate time and knowledge is also required.

I was able to develop a game which is my original idea, but since there was not enough support, I tried to develop new games to attract the attention of different users. It was "

You must be registered to see the links

". I made parody games of

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

in case the original idea might not work. The reason why they are short in content is that I could not create my own community. I really suck at this. When there was no community, I started to think that there was no interest in the games I made. Nevertheless, I continued this work on my own motivation. When I did not receive financial and moral support, I could not provide enough motivation and I had to stop the development of games before I could bring them to the development stage I wanted. Also I was alone from the beginning, still I am.

Check out my

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

. How do you think I should proceed? It was not a problem at first, but it cannot continue like this for many years. 2018 to 2023... this is not a little time. Because when there are no supporters or the community, I can't see any motivation to continue this job right now. My games have always been free to gather community. Yet, failed.

PS. I'm currently working on my new game "Linda and the Roommate" and that's the purpose of my asking this question.
Probably this game could be my last bullet. And I would like to promote this game correctly.


How and where to promote your adult games correctly?
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

 

[zilkin]

Well I also tried making a short game but it is not easy when you go on patreon, they will not promote your content if it is adult games and so it is not easy to gather a following. Maybe try selling your games on popular sites or game platforms such as steam, itch.io, or nutaku.
That is what I might try to do if I make another game.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Hi!

I'm

You must be registered to see the links

. And I've been trying to develop adult games since about 2018. However, I couldn't focus on the marketing part because of trying to develop the game. This part requires a separate time and knowledge is also required.

I was able to develop a game which is my original idea, but since there was not enough support, I tried to develop new games to attract the attention of different users. It was "

You must be registered to see the links

". I made parody games of

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

in case the original idea might not work. The reason why they are short in content is that I could not create my own community. I really suck at this. When there was no community, I started to think that there was no interest in the games I made. Nevertheless, I continued this work on my own motivation. When I did not receive financial and moral support, I could not provide enough motivation and I had to stop the development of games before I could bring them to the development stage I wanted. Also I was alone from the beginning, still I am.

Check out my

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

. How do you think I should proceed? It was not a problem at first, but it cannot continue like this for many years. 2018 to 2023... this is not a little time. Because when there are no supporters or the community, I can't see any motivation to continue this job right now. My games have always been free to gather community. Yet, failed.

PS. I'm currently working on my new game "Linda and the Roommate" and that's the purpose of my asking this question.
Probably this game could be my last bullet. And I would like to promote this game correctly.
View attachment 2617931

How and where to promote your adult games correctly?
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

In order from most to least effective:

1. Literally just start a Developer Thread on this forum. If someone else started the thread, claim ownership of it by submitting a support ticket at the top of this page. Link from the first post of your game's forum thread to your patreon, your ko-fi, your steam page, whatever. Link from your sig to your game's thread. When you update your game, update the pirated version of your game in your game's thread.
2. That's it. You're done. Congratulations, you just set up an entire marketing funnel that bypasses all currently-allergic-to-sex advertising and marketing channels. Discovery, Interest, Community Engagement, Call To Action. All taken care of in one convenient place. Eventually it slams face-first into payment processors at some point, but that's purchasing, not marketing.
   
   Want to add visitors to your funnel? Make posts on F95Zone that say things people want to hear. They'll see your sig, they might click through the link to your game. If they like the screenshots, they might download it. If they play it, they might choose to join your patreon or buy it on Steam or buy you a coffee.
   
   What's that? Well, yes, it's the stolen latest patrons-only build. They have literally bypassed the system they would normally use to pay you... only to occasionally turn around and go back and pay you voluntarily. You are literally pirating your own product to them. Doesn't matter. It works anyway. The people who have disposable income and play your game and like it will choose to pay you anyway. Your game just has to be worth their time, first. The only way they know that is if they play it. Think of piracy as your demo system. It'll happen in the background anyway as other people do it. You might as well get involved in the process so you can take control of the messaging.
   
   These people are your fans.
   
   (And don't try the Game Dev Tycoon gambit. That only worked because legitimate mainstream channels through which to market the game not only existed, they had a stranglehold on the developer's marketing options. But you're not some publisher's sock puppet. You're an indie. You can afford to work with the pirates rather than futilely fighting them.)
3. Other social media. Okay okay, maybe you could start posting screenshots and gifs on social media platforms that allow adult content. Your twitters, your reddits... that's... about it, last time I checked? Call-to-action in the first reply, NOT in the initial post, because calls-to-action are cringe. You want your posts to feel like free bonus porn in your viewers' feeds, and if they decide to go digging around to find out more about your project, that's their idea. But this costs time and energy and you need to observe different platform rules and nettiquite for each site, so it's usually best to just pick one with a lot of members and focus on that. The middle of your funnel is basically users searching that platform for more information about your free porn. Make this easy, but don't do it for them. Nobody likes getting ads in their feed. They like getting free porn.
4. Wait. Your gameplay is hard, right? If not, add some counter-intuitive choices and some navigation/inventory/relationship systems until it is. I'm joking, but there's a seed of truth in this: complex gameplay leads to word-of-mouth. This is the toughest pill to swallow, (and also the most work to implement, and you especially shouldn't do it after your game is already "done" and a finely-crafted, enjoyable experience without it,) but bear with me for when you start designing your next game:
   
   If your game is complex enough and deep enough that it would be worth it for players if your game had a GameFAQ? (Check the existing GameFAQs for popular adult games to see what fashionably-complex gameplay looks like.) Note that I am not telling youn to make a GameFAQ for your game. That's not the point. People will not download a GameFAQ, because everyone's on tiny rectangles and can't read for shit. But they will watch youtube videos explaining how to do it. Note that I am not telling you to make a walkthrough video, either. Other creators will make these videos, if your game is good enough and complex enough to warrant it. The rest of a grassroots community will emerge, too. People will ask each other how to unlock Girl X's route in the comments. It's insane how much literally organic word-of-mouth and community-building other people will literally do for you if they like your game but it's just too big for all of the choices to fit in their head at once.
   
   Don't fake it! It's important not to try and fake this level of complexity with cheap deaths, difficulty spikes, and especially don't tack it on to a functional, competent, finished visual novel that was more fun without it. But for your next project... maybe look at a walkthrough for one of the most popular games. See what the player has to do in order to clear a route. If adding to your new game is something you could do? Do it. It will literally print a fandom for you, just from players asking each other or their favorite sex-positive influencer, "How do I get that one ending?"
   
   Don't worry about trying to link it up to the rest of your marketing funnel. The viewers already know your game's name. They somehow already play it, whether it's a public demo or the pirated patreon version that's a month ahead of the public demo. Once they have disposable income, I'm sure they can google your patreon. Just include a discreet link in the corner of the title screen. Which reminds me:
5. Advertise your new games within the title screen of your old games. Just maintain a barebones "what's new" HTML page somewhere that you control, not indexed by search engines, and have your game attempt an http connection to it on bootup. The game contains a default ad for your patreon if connection fails. Plaintext, maybe one or two small images. Super cheap to host compared to the game itself.
6. Optimize your landing pages using platform-specific best-practices. For example, if you're on Steam, look for youtube videos on how to do better numbers on Steam. Explicitly state your core mechanics in the short description. Pretty graphics everywhere. Tag it correctly. Once you have more than one game, make a bundle, so players thinking about buying one game will see a great deal on offer. Now, a certain percentage of the time, the mental math magically shifts inside the gamer's mind from "should I buy this" to "which version should I buy?" Ride the sales ski slope correctly. Etc. This is your endgame. The bottom of your funnel. Make every view count.

We could go into reasons why MLs don't work with adult content, or the uncertain future of twitter, or the importance of staying on top of the latest platform rules changes, but most of that is other developer hats. For the purposes of marketing an adult game in the general case, you just need an F95Zone thread and one mainstream platform for the people who dont use F95Zone. (Probably reddit, since it has the most users.) Don't fight the pirates. Pirates are your fans! They actually want to pay you, if they can. Just not if they're broke or if your game is bad or if you're one of those dickheads who tries to single-handedly fight the entire concept of piracy.

So, yeah. You play your cards right, and an F95Zone thread will actually boost sales/patronage/tips. It's fucking weird, but this is the world we have.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Oh, shit... I just played the Rick & Morty one. Forget everything I just said. Marketing is not the answer.

Marketing is just a force mutiplier. It boosts the popularity of a product that is already somewhat popular. But 10 x 0 = 0. You can't make people care about something just by throwing more advertising at the problem. All marketing can do is tell people that already want to play your game but don't know it yet that your game exists.

You've watched Rick & Morty, right? I assume you're a fan? Okay. I want you to go play a version of Rick & Morty: A Way Back Home. That game was great because of two things: Writing and pacing. (Actually, even there, the opening sequence was kinda lame, but at least it introduced the stakes! And the game made up for it with all the Routes, each one both a coherent story and a comedy-of-errors, all before you get to the sex!)

That's how you do a Rick & Morty game. In fact, google Dan Harmon's Story Circle. Even though we already love Rick as a character, you need to get us invested in this Rick's journey.

Your game, conversely, looked like a flash cartoon from 2007. I hit the first blowjob scene and quit the game. (Let me know if there was actually a great story after the blowjob and I'll re-play the game and see what's there.) I know there's an expectation to put some sexual content upfront, but this is a little TOO upfront, even for porn-enjoyers. Rick didn't even say a line before Unity started working the shaft!

You already have the mechanics figured out. You have the little rectangle at the bottom of the screen with words on it. But that rectangle only works if you put words on it that players care about.

I would say "reuse the graphics you have, put a basic story in there before the BJ, and fans of A Way Back Home might like your game." But I suspect there's some reason why you won't do that. Or better yet, do it with your original IP games. But if all your games are just animation loops like this, nobody's going to be interested in that. You need either a story or else good gameplay to suck players in. Probably both.

If you refuse to add story to your game, (or can't, because of the language barrier,) then perhaps you could scoop the animation loops out of your existing games and sell them on DLSite or upload them to pornhub or something. Anything to make a tiny trickle of revenue to help staunch the bleeding until you can put together a proper game.

I hope Linda and the Roomate will be a game with a good story. The art looks very nice. But if it's just a straight line from the title screen to Linda sucking off her roomate, the same thing is going to keep happening.

Story or gameplay. Or sell the animations as an animation set. Even the flash games back in 2007 were free.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Also I can't figure out how to enter the discount code. There's no discount code field on the webpage.

Hmm.

You must be registered to see the links

might have potential. I wonder why it doesn't have a thread on this site yet. It's from 2020. You'd think someone else would have uploaded it by now.

Unless... does it just not have sex in it?

 

[TranscendentThots]

Hi!

I'm

You must be registered to see the links

. And I've been trying to develop adult games since about 2018. However, I couldn't focus on the marketing part because of trying to develop the game. This part requires a separate time and knowledge is also required.

I was able to develop a game which is my original idea, but since there was not enough support, I tried to develop new games to attract the attention of different users. It was "

You must be registered to see the links

". I made parody games of

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

in case the original idea might not work. The reason why they are short in content is that I could not create my own community. I really suck at this. When there was no community, I started to think that there was no interest in the games I made. Nevertheless, I continued this work on my own motivation. When I did not receive financial and moral support, I could not provide enough motivation and I had to stop the development of games before I could bring them to the development stage I wanted. Also I was alone from the beginning, still I am.

Check out my

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

. How do you think I should proceed? It was not a problem at first, but it cannot continue like this for many years. 2018 to 2023... this is not a little time. Because when there are no supporters or the community, I can't see any motivation to continue this job right now. My games have always been free to gather community. Yet, failed.

PS. I'm currently working on my new game "Linda and the Roommate" and that's the purpose of my asking this question.
Probably this game could be my last bullet. And I would like to promote this game correctly.
View attachment 2617931

How and where to promote your adult games correctly?
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Lord of the Elves definitely has potential. I was astonished at how dense the dialogue tree was at the begining. And the graphics are really good, too, (even though the composition is greatly harmed by your lighting.)

I think the main problem with Lord of the Elves isn't marketing, it's branding. Marketing is how you tell people that your product exists. Branding is what you make your product look like.

For example, this character should probably not be used on your Gumroad page:

The moment people land on your gumroad page, this image takes up half the screen. So people assume it's very important to the game. They assume he's a character you can pursue. So straight audiences go "Oh, okay, it's a gay game, I'll pass." Gay audiences might go "Oh, he looks fun." Then they read the description or even play the demo and suddenly realize "Oh, okay. It's a straight game. I'll pass."

The result? EVERYBODY skips your game.

Replace this image on the gumroad page with a picture of a girl. Or even all the girls bowing in supplication together to the camera. This tells people who visit your gumroad, in an instant: "You ARE the Elf Lord!" But if you can't do that, just remove this image. It's a distraction and it causes confusion. That's bad branding.

If you can fix your branding and get a proper English language version made, and start an F95Zone thread for it, I think you might see some interest from the people in the Story First Games thread.

What's your first language, if you don't mind my asking?

 

[TranscendentThots]

Another problem is this shaded valley the characters lie in for the opening scene. I assume this was because you started with the beautiful (incredible, frankly stunning and absolutely gorgeous) vista in the background and tried to make your 3D match. It's a clever trick, but it misses the point. Players need to see your characters. They're the whole reason people are here.

So change this:


to this:


I did this in about 2 minutes using Krita, a free open-source paint program. Is it 100% realistic? Hell no. But it's better than hiding the NPC from the player.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Hi!

I'm

You must be registered to see the links

. And I've been trying to develop adult games since about 2018. However, I couldn't focus on the marketing part because of trying to develop the game. This part requires a separate time and knowledge is also required.

I was able to develop a game which is my original idea, but since there was not enough support, I tried to develop new games to attract the attention of different users. It was "

You must be registered to see the links

". I made parody games of

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

in case the original idea might not work. The reason why they are short in content is that I could not create my own community. I really suck at this. When there was no community, I started to think that there was no interest in the games I made. Nevertheless, I continued this work on my own motivation. When I did not receive financial and moral support, I could not provide enough motivation and I had to stop the development of games before I could bring them to the development stage I wanted. Also I was alone from the beginning, still I am.

Check out my

You must be registered to see the links

,

You must be registered to see the links

and

You must be registered to see the links

. How do you think I should proceed? It was not a problem at first, but it cannot continue like this for many years. 2018 to 2023... this is not a little time. Because when there are no supporters or the community, I can't see any motivation to continue this job right now. My games have always been free to gather community. Yet, failed.

PS. I'm currently working on my new game "Linda and the Roommate" and that's the purpose of my asking this question.
Probably this game could be my last bullet. And I would like to promote this game correctly.
View attachment 2617931

How and where to promote your adult games correctly?
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Actually, this is a really good primer on the fundamentals of marketing:

You must be registered to see the links

You should NOT follow specific steps from this video. This video is talking about mainstream (non-sexual) games, not adult games. Especially don't create Mailing Lists. You WILL get banned from Gmail. Instead, follow the specific steps from my first post in this thread to do something vaguely analogous using only adult-friendly platforms. But if you read my first post, and you were asking "what's a funnel?" This video will explain what a funnel is.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Well I also tried making a short game but it is not easy when you go on patreon, they will not promote your content if it is adult games and so it is not easy to gather a following. Maybe try selling your games on popular sites or game platforms such as steam, itch.io, or nutaku.
That is what I might try to do if I make another game.

Patreon, Itch.io, youtube, and to a certain extent even Steam are not where traffic comes from. Think of those platforms as a shelf you can put your contents on while your product is for sale. You need your product to be on a shelf at the store in order to sell it. But the shelf doesn't "sell" your product for you.

You need to tell people that your product is on the shelf at the store, and they need to already want a product like the one you're selling, and you need to do a good job of communicating to them why your product is what they want. If any step of that process fails, you won't make a sale.

Doing all of this using The Internet is what I outlined in my first post. Patreon doesn't promote projects. Patreon isn't where sales leads come from. Patreon is just a shelf.

 

[zilkin]

Patreon, Itch.io, youtube, and to a certain extent even Steam are not where traffic comes from. Think of those platforms as a shelf you can put your contents on while your product is for sale. You need your product to be on a shelf at the store in order to sell it. But the shelf doesn't "sell" your product for you.

You need to tell people that your product is on the shelf at the store, and they need to already want a product like the one you're selling, and you need to do a good job of communicating to them why your product is what they want. If any step of that process fails, you won't make a sale.

Doing all of this using The Internet is what I outlined in my first post. Patreon doesn't promote projects. Patreon isn't where sales leads come from. Patreon is just a shelf.

It is just a shelf but steam has millions of users who actively search for games so your game is more likely to be seen.
Another way a game could be promoted is to find a blogger or youtuber who reviews hentai games with a nice following. You can show them your finished game and ask them to include it in a review so it gets noticed.
I think either way one will have to pay a certain amount of money for promotion that way and I think steam wants a 100 dollars for entry and 25 percent of the sales money.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Also, Level Up has a reputation as one of the

You must be registered to see the links

Just saying. Definitely use it on Linda and the Roomate, but I'll bet it could help you get a return on Lord of the Elves, too. At least reach out, see if they think they can help you and find out what their rates are for your situation.

 

[Viznity]

Oh, shit... I just played the Rick & Morty one. Forget everything I just said. Marketing is not the answer.

Marketing is just a force mutiplier. It boosts the popularity of a product that is already somewhat popular. But 10 x 0 = 0. You can't make people care about something just by throwing more advertising at the problem. All marketing can do is tell people that already want to play your game but don't know it yet that your game exists.

You've watched Rick & Morty, right? I assume you're a fan? Okay. I want you to go play a version of Rick & Morty: A Way Back Home. That game was great because of two things: Writing and pacing. (Actually, even there, the opening sequence was kinda lame, but at least it introduced the stakes! And the game made up for it with all the Routes, each one both a coherent story and a comedy-of-errors, all before you get to the sex!)

That's how you do a Rick & Morty game. In fact, google Dan Harmon's Story Circle. Even though we already love Rick as a character, you need to get us invested in this Rick's journey.

Your game, conversely, looked like a flash cartoon from 2007. I hit the first blowjob scene and quit the game. (Let me know if there was actually a great story after the blowjob and I'll re-play the game and see what's there.) I know there's an expectation to put some sexual content upfront, but this is a little TOO upfront, even for porn-enjoyers. Rick didn't even say a line before Unity started working the shaft!

You already have the mechanics figured out. You have the little rectangle at the bottom of the screen with words on it. But that rectangle only works if you put words on it that players care about.

I would say "reuse the graphics you have, put a basic story in there before the BJ, and fans of A Way Back Home might like your game." But I suspect there's some reason why you won't do that. Or better yet, do it with your original IP games. But if all your games are just animation loops like this, nobody's going to be interested in that. You need either a story or else good gameplay to suck players in. Probably both.

If you refuse to add story to your game, (or can't, because of the language barrier,) then perhaps you could scoop the animation loops out of your existing games and sell them on DLSite or upload them to pornhub or something. Anything to make a tiny trickle of revenue to help staunch the bleeding until you can put together a proper game.

I hope Linda and the Roomate will be a game with a good story. The art looks very nice. But if it's just a straight line from the title screen to Linda sucking off her roomate, the same thing is going to keep happening.

Story or gameplay. Or sell the animations as an animation set. Even the flash games back in 2007 were free.

First of all, I read all your posts and thank you very much for your interest. You made me happy! Now I will answer all of them in turn.

But without marketing "the existence of the game" is unknown. Yes, Rick and Morty is known for the TV series content. However, the game I made to that content is unknown. Actually, that's the problem. People who don't know the existence of this game can't play it, right?

I tried the first 20 minutes of the game "Rick & Morty: A Way Back Home". And it still didn't give me the content that was the reason to open this game, "porn". In fact, most games are like this nowadays, maybe I should do that too.

Some players don't even care about the story, they just want to reach the content. That's how I was in the past.

In my games, like the 2007 flash games, they have instant access to adult content. I already took flash games as an example. Since I spent time with them in the past, there was always a desire to do the same. For example, these adult flash games from Zone-tan are among the best in my opinion. Or 3-ways flash game is also my favourite. You should absolutely try it.

Since I make it like a flash game, it is short in content. Maybe you add new sex positions and animations, but when you suddenly reach the content, the game may be consumed too quickly and cause the player to lose interest because they have taken everything. Therefore, I completely agree with your idea of "add a story to the game" you mentioned above.

I know I have to pay attention to the story now. And that I shouldn't present adult content to players directly in front of them. They have to work to get it, right? That's where the fun of the game comes in.

You played the first scene of "Rick's Lewd Universe" and closed it. After the scene you played, there is one more adult scene. And then I tried to make a place where you can walk around, click on new places, even though it doesn't focus on the story. This game was made with reference to an episode of Rick and Morty. So we are on a different planet. But in the long run, there was always the idea to go back to Earth and make content similar to the one in the game you gave an example. You can also see this by playing the game, the contents of that place were not open yet because the development had not yet reached that stage. However, the World button was visible in the UI. You can think of it as showing players a preview of what content they might get next if they support me. It is clear from both the comments and the Patreon page of the creator that the game you gave is expected by many people. If I had even the slightest hint of it visible to the community, maybe that game would be in a much better shape right now.

For example, games that have this kind of interest need to do something to make their name heard. That's what I actually want to know. On Twitter, Patreon, Itch.io, Instagram etc... it doesn't work if you just share it. What should we do as an extra?

I'll check out "Dan Harmon's Story Circle", thanks for the advice!

 

[Viznity]

Also I can't figure out how to enter the discount code. There's no discount code field on the webpage.

Hmm.

You must be registered to see the links

might have potential. I wonder why it doesn't have a thread on this site yet. It's from 2020. You'd think someone else would have uploaded it by now.

Unless... does it just not have sex in it?

You can download it directly from

You must be registered to see the links

, but if you're talking about

You must be registered to see the links

, it is available for $1 before the checkout because Gumroad doesn't allow us to publish for free when it's a high file size, but luckily, you can have it for free when you buy it with a discount.



Once you've moved to the checkout area, you can redeem the code.

---

You can also access it from F95 (click here). All my games so far are on F95.

 

[zilkin]

Another way to promote your game and patreon is to upload the game yourself on sites for free that get lots of visits such as this one or svscomics, that way more people will see the game and maybe visit your patreon.
That doesn't guarantee any money though if it is for free, just you will be more known. But selling the game on steam or other platforms might get you more money that is guaranteed if it sells.

 

[Viznity]

Lord of the Elves definitely has potential. I was astonished at how dense the dialogue tree was at the begining. And the graphics are really good, too, (even though the composition is greatly harmed by your lighting.)

I think the main problem with Lord of the Elves isn't marketing, it's branding. Marketing is how you tell people that your product exists. Branding is what you make your product look like.

For example, this character should probably not be used on your Gumroad page: View attachment 2619137

The moment people land on your gumroad page, this image takes up half the screen. So people assume it's very important to the game. They assume he's a character you can pursue. So straight audiences go "Oh, okay, it's a gay game, I'll pass." Gay audiences might go "Oh, he looks fun." Then they read the description or even play the demo and suddenly realize "Oh, okay. It's a straight game. I'll pass."

The result? EVERYBODY skips your game.

Replace this image on the gumroad page with a picture of a girl. Or even all the girls bowing in supplication together to the camera. This tells people who visit your gumroad, in an instant: "You ARE the Elf Lord!" But if you can't do that, just remove this image. It's a distraction and it causes confusion. That's bad branding.

If you can fix your branding and get a proper English language version made, and start an F95Zone thread for it, I think you might see some interest from the people in the Story First Games thread.

What's your first language, if you don't mind my asking?

Thank you for your kind thoughts to Lord of the Elves! It has always been my favorite idea because it was the idea of turning my own world, a dream, into a game. It was my first game that I started on this path in 2018 without knowing anything about game development, and then I released the demo it in 2019.

Also, I didn't quite understand why we shouldn't use the image of our main character in the Gumroad image. Because this character is an important character, this character is the protagonist himself. If I understand it better, I will do my best to fix it.

But but, in the past, there were some shortcomings on my part in those years.
Aside from the lack of program information, it was also lacking in hardware. I was trying to get Iray (Nvidia technology) renders with an AMD RX 480 graphics card (today I have a RTX 3060 graphics card, still not the top one but it does the job). Every single one you saw there cost me an incredible hour back then. In addition, faulty renderings, program crashes, hours spent on exposures and camera angles, the demo game that you can play in a few minutes right now cost me a few months. Later on, I had to do some Photoshop fixing and post-process...


I could never bring that game to the level I wanted with slowness. So I had to stop. The game, which I had already been working on for several months, was only able to offer a few minutes of content. It's really sad, it was a pity for my passing time.

For this reason, I spent my education life on the Digital Games department to make games that can be played in real time instead of making rendered games. And now we have accumulated a total of 4 years of experience for Unity Engine on the 2D-side and for the Unreal Engine on the 3D-side.

Lord of the Elves is still one of the games I want to make. I still want to. But this time in Unreal Engine and in a way that will be in real time. Just because of its bigness, I think if I tried to continue on my own, I would be underneath. It wouldn't be bad if I had a serious interest in this, how to say it, and add new people to the team. I don't even have a team right now, I'm on my own :c

However, I still didn't stop! I'm doing my best to do this nice. Just, it takes enormous time to do. This is the minus for a being alone developer.

I would like to show you some screenshots of the UE version (developer side)

How does it look to you? I have not shared these screenshots anywhere until now.

And here we come again to the reason why I opened this topic. While dealing with all this, I can't spare time for marketing or promoting. Game development already takes up all my time. Or even if I do, I don't know exactly what to do. Think about it, you have university courses, you work at a job (I had to get a job after not getting much support from Patreon all these years..) and you don't spare your remaining time for yourself and try to make games again.

Thanks again for your advice!

 

[Viznity]

Well I also tried making a short game but it is not easy when you go on patreon, they will not promote your content if it is adult games and so it is not easy to gather a following. Maybe try selling your games on popular sites or game platforms such as steam, itch.io, or nutaku.
That is what I might try to do if I make another game.

Steam is a really good distributor, the leader of PC games by the number of current users.

There was always a plan to release my game on Steam, but I can't do that at this stage because I don't think I have enough content. Before releasing a game to Steam, developers usually develop their games for 1.5-2 years with support from the community (Patreon etc.) and funding. It both earns income while developing and can continue to develop the game thanks to this income. Then they release it to Steam.

This is what I always wanted, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

I'm already on Itch.io. But even though I've heard of nutaku, I've never uploaded my games there. Maybe I can try this, I wonder if it also allows us to upload free games like itch.io?

Another way to promote your game and patreon is to upload the game yourself on sites for free that get lots of visits such as this one or svscomics, that way more people will see the game and maybe visit your patreon.
That doesn't guarantee any money though if it is for free, just you will be more known. But selling the game on steam or other platforms might get you more money that is guaranteed if it sells.

I had never heard of svscomics before. I'm taking note of that too.

 

[zilkin]

I had never heard of svscomics before. I'm taking note of that too.

It is a site that has lots of visits, users upload links there to the file sharing sites. The content is usually adult comics or adult videogames.

 

[Viznity]

Another problem is this shaded valley the characters lie in for the opening scene. I assume this was because you started with the beautiful (incredible, frankly stunning and absolutely gorgeous) vista in the background and tried to make your 3D match. It's a clever trick, but it misses the point. Players need to see your characters. They're the whole reason people are here.

So change this:
View attachment 2619214

to this:
View attachment 2619215

I did this in about 2 minutes using Krita, a free open-source paint program. Is it 100% realistic? Hell no. But it's better than hiding the NPC from the player.

You are absolutely right! I have lots of mistakes in my first game and this was one of them. Well spotted!

Actually, this is a really good primer on the fundamentals of marketing:

You must be registered to see the links

You should NOT follow specific steps from this video. This video is talking about mainstream (non-sexual) games, not adult games. Especially don't create Mailing Lists. You WILL get banned from Gmail. Instead, follow the specific steps from my first post in this thread to do something vaguely analogous using only adult-friendly platforms. But if you read my first post, and you were asking "what's a funnel?" This video will explain what a funnel is.

I'll definitely check this out, but the fact that the adult games makes it even harder. Where should we share adult games outside of the F95Zone?

Patreon, Itch.io, youtube, and to a certain extent even Steam are not where traffic comes from. Think of those platforms as a shelf you can put your contents on while your product is for sale. You need your product to be on a shelf at the store in order to sell it. But the shelf doesn't "sell" your product for you.

You need to tell people that your product is on the shelf at the store, and they need to already want a product like the one you're selling, and you need to do a good job of communicating to them why your product is what they want. If any step of that process fails, you won't make a sale.

Doing all of this using The Internet is what I outlined in my first post. Patreon doesn't promote projects. Patreon isn't where sales leads come from. Patreon is just a shelf.

I really liked this post, but if we think about it like that, every platform is a shelf. What do we need to do other than share on platforms like this?

By the way, you can add me on Discord if you wish. I liked your advice and would like to hear your thoughts now and in the future (Viznity#2801).

 

[osanaiko]

TranscendentThots That's an amazing infodump and tons of actionable advice. Bravo!

 

[TranscendentThots]

TranscendentThots That's an amazing infodump and tons of actionable advice. Bravo!

That's kind of you to say. What little I know about marketing, I learned by watching GDC and GameDevUnderground videos on youtube.