How do games gain traction?

[LeSmudge]

Title.
I mean to ask, how the games gain new subscribers, people to pay/play.
If I were to become a developer where would I advertise my patreon page?

 

[Droid Productions]

Some common paths:
- Word of mouth. Your friends (one assumes online) play it, and rave about it. That could start as easily as posting your game in the F95 forum, and having a fun pick-up-and-play experience.
- Influencer pickup (some bigshot youtuber or twitch-streamer) plays it for their fans. To a lesser extent this is also true from getting a review in a big site, though there's not a lot of big editorial players in the adult industry.
- Platform feature (for example being the hot new game on somewhere like PlayForceOne or Nuntaku) or getting a feature from Patreon or itch.io (increasingly unlikely as they don't want to focus too much on adult games)
- Advertising. If you're doing F2P it's often valuable to pay for marketing, as long as you have a strong belief that if you can extract more from the 'free' gamer than you spend on marketing costs 'acquiring' that user.

 

[TrashBoss]

I whisper sweet, sweet nothings in their ear

 

[TrashBoss]

wait I misread that

 

[ThatOneLamp]

I don't know too much about it but just posting your game here and talking about what your game is would be a good start, maybe look around the threads and just talk to people. If you happen to find someone looking for a game on here than you can bring up your game, everyone here is pretty nice and there are a lot of people who do well thought out reviews that will help you out in the long run, I know its not much but I think its a good step 1

And if you post a game, i can guarantee that it will be played

 

[Gomly1980]

Word of mouth is your best bet.

One thing you need to avoid is the expectation of earning big money quickly, it won't happen.

People will tell you to post the first few updates for free and then start locking early access behind the patreon paywall to make paying attractive.

The problem with that line of thinking is some devs seem to forget we're on a piracy site and think everyone will suddenly throw money at them, it's never going to happen.

The first few updates will get a few people playing. Depending how good that game is they will rate and post in the thread. The more they post the more people notice it on the latest replies thread and the more people will check out the game depending what's being said.

I don't bother looking at reviews. We all like different things and personally i'm not interested in the opinion of random forum dweller no.287. What i'm interested in is if the thread is active and people are generally positive. That ranges from talking about the game to shitposting. I know some people hate shitposting but some do it to get the thread noticed because they think the game deserves attention.

If things are generally positive i'll check it out. If things are looking grim i'll usually pass unless it's a "so bad it's good" scenario.

As word of mouth spreads that game will appear on other sites.

The main thing you need to remember is no matter what you do piracy will happen. It happens to everything, there is no stopping it.

What you need to do is make sure your game is good enough that those people pirating it want to pay to see it continue development. It's just like the line from Field of Dreams ... if you build it, they will come. You do the best you can do and word of mouth does the rest.

If you can get advertising, that's great but it isn't cheap.

 

[DarthSeduction]

Title.
I mean to ask, how the games gain new subscribers, people to pay/play.
If I were to become a developer where would I advertise my patreon page?

Nice signatrue.

When we have a release for Game Legends I shop it around to a couple different subreddits and ofc it gets updated here, which helps. Networking with other developers is good too, as a lot of games survive on word of mouth. To quote another developer, the more places you share the game, the more money your patreon will get.

Our game isn't making much yet, but that's normal. It takes a few months to really get noticed. Once you have a following its easier to launch your next game, but you've gotta get there first. Really the best advice I can give you is to make something worth playing, share it in a few adult game related places, and network. Talk to people. Don't be afraid to self promote.

 

[toolkitxx]

These games are part of a very niche market to begin with and you are on a pirate site here. So do the math regarding 'potential market size' yourself.

As with any product there are things you can influence and a lot that you cant. If you create the shiny and perfectly working game you might just use the wrong colour scheme, have an emphasis on the not so en-vogue fetish and your game will dwindle in some dark corner.

You might just have something that bareley works but appeals to the right fetish, your game might end up on many sites at a time, you hit the right group at the right time with it ... - the list is endless.

You cant predict 'traction' - that is purely random. What you can control is 'sales' and 'marketing'. Both are active processes that require effort.

 

[LeSmudge]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.
I will surely let our community know when I release my game. :biggrin::eazyHype:

 

[Zippity]

Title.
I mean to ask, how the games gain new subscribers, people to pay/play.
If I were to become a developer where would I advertise my patreon page?

I see lots of good ideas already being thrown your way in this thread... Here is some more:

• Word of Mouth and Presence - The more places you post about your game, the more likely it is to be seen and tried... Below are just a few places to possibly post a game for viewing, etc:

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• Communication is Key - Communicating with your audience can show a willingness to engage with your fans, and is a great way to get some input (both bad and good) that might aid you on your current project or generate ideas for future projects... Plus fans like being able to have their thoughts heard by a creator, even if you don't bother actually using anything they had to say, because you don't agree... And never berate or engage in conversations with folks who leave negative comments, as that just tends to perpetuate the negativity and makes you look unprofessional and/or immature, depending on how you handle it... Best to either ignore, or just put on a smiley face and move on... Worse case scenario if it's getting out of hand, report it to the site authorities or place them on ignore... Some folks not only have a crowdfunding site, but also a personal website/blog for even more communication, perhaps even one with a forum... It really depends on how in depth you want to go with communication, but remember that ignoring your fans or lack of communication can be detrimental to a developing game and/or visual novel...

• The Public is Not Your Main Troubleshooting Team - Do not use the public as your main troubleshooting group to find all the bugs and proofreading issues, by releasing updates too early just to get it out there before doing your own in-house play testing... Sure, some bugs and proofreading may slip through the cracks, but if you are rushing out updates without going through the proper steps to ensure a good product is made publically available first, then you may just be shooting yourself in the foot... Nothing makes people more angry when trying a new release or downloading updates, to find the game is full of bugs and is almost impossible to read or understand... It also makes you look unprofessional, and almost like you don't care enough about your own product... By giving it as much attention as possible, you present yourself as a talented creator who cares... And this also comes back around to Communication, by speaking with folks when they report issues to work out some solutions together... And do not get upset with people reporting bugs that don't exist, because perhaps they were confused or didn't see something you thought was obvious... Again, professionalism...

 

[Kris Kross]

Nice signatrue.

When we have a release for Game Legends I shop it around to a couple different subreddits and ofc it gets updated here, which helps. Networking with other developers is good too, as a lot of games survive on word of mouth. To quote another developer, the more places you share the game, the more money your patreon will get.

Our game isn't making much yet, but that's normal. It takes a few months to really get noticed. Once you have a following its easier to launch your next game, but you've gotta get there first. Really the best advice I can give you is to make something worth playing, share it in a few adult game related places, and network. Talk to people. Don't be afraid to self promote.

hello, could you ,please, share these sabreddits if they are really good.
Thank you!

 

[Kris Kross]

Some common paths:
- Word of mouth. Your friends (one assumes online) play it, and rave about it. That could start as easily as posting your game in the F95 forum, and having a fun pick-up-and-play experience.
- Influencer pickup (some bigshot youtuber or twitch-streamer) plays it for their fans. To a lesser extent this is also true from getting a review in a big site, though there's not a lot of big editorial players in the adult industry.
- Platform feature (for example being the hot new game on somewhere like PlayForceOne or Nuntaku) or getting a feature from Patreon or itch.io (increasingly unlikely as they don't want to focus too much on adult games)
- Advertising. If you're doing F2P it's often valuable to pay for marketing, as long as you have a strong belief that if you can extract more from the 'free' gamer than you spend on marketing costs 'acquiring' that user.

I've run into the fact that I can't find where to advertise well.
Have you ever done this? can you recommend sites (for instance)?
Thanks.

 

[Carrera]

A game that is actually worth playing helps.

 

[Kris Kross]

A game that is actually worth playing helps.

for example?

 

[Buffalo Muff]

Great list of places one could post their game demo, or free versions.

 

[nulnil]

Porn videos. Hell, you can just record the gameplay of your own game.

...

Actually that's an intresting idea. You could record your gameplay, and do things like purposely avoid alot of H-scenes or not go down certain routes. Make people want to go play for themeselves.

Then again, this won't work for a visual novel.

 

[tanstaafl]

• Right time
• Right topically (I.E. don't be boring)
• Be good
• If previous conditions are met; a good dose of luck doesn't hurt.