How is the market for adult games?

[lucio_malfoy]

Hello friends, this is my first post here. Im a designer with a passion for game design, some illustration knowledge and learning python. I've been a fan of adult games for quite a while and I've been thinking about investing my time making my own.

I have to firstly admit my main motivation is money. I live in a country with a weak economy and after checking Patreon's must successful games that's what motivated me to give this a shot. Given my situation rn, If I can get 1k usd/mo from a project, this becomes my full time job and i love these kind of games.

My question is: How is the market for adult games? Do creators just start their own Patreon and put the latest release there (and other rewards) ? Or are there other channels and mediums to be activated? What is the endgame? Keep updating a game to your patrons until you have a final version and later sell it on steam and other app stores?

I also identified a few key differentials which are: good artwork, some well written not too long story and covering a few fetishes like incest/legalteens/bdsm/foot and a few commonly others. But what else? What makes a good adult game stand out?

Thank you very much for your time. I hope I can bring joy to this community in the future.

 

[DawnCry]

First of all I do recommend you take this as a hobby for starters, if you get something that's fine but the time when a new creator could reach the sky on money is kind of over, now people are more picky on that point.

The usual that I do recommend is what most do, having a version that you release sooner to patreons and 2 weeks-1 month later for the rest.

Depending on your experience related to making games I would recommend you different options, if you just suck at coding and have little knowledge it's better to go to visual novel style of games, if you are more experienced and up to the challenge you can try to make a sandbox or a RPG, the god tier would be having a strategy game which is the hardest to do as a one man army.

Overall the artwork is something that will catch your public, if you manage to make great and gorgeous models then you are for a good start. Most people on this site focus on two things before deciding to play a game:

1º Artwork
2º Fetishes

The conflicting one being the second, because you will literally find every single person asking for more stuff of what they like and making optional or not making at all what they dislike.

The recommendation I give you? try to be special and create your own public, to be fair most of the people that wanna try to make it big by copying others tend to fail. We all know that story of when the male MC lives with a big sister, a younger one and his mother as a model for an incest game, try something a bit different like 3 sisters and the mc and perhaps 2 of them are already in an incestuous lesbian relationship, I don't know, something more special than the usual.

But if you think about why top patreons make as much money as they do is simple, they did something unique or they were a lot better than the rest at doing the same.

If you ever think about transformations and body modification you always think about fenoxo and their games Tits and Coc.

If you think about visual novels you will tend to think about Summertime Saga, because while what it offers isn't special at all, it's very well done compared to the rest, you literally have very few clues to actually know what's the engine of the game while playing it!.

So yeah, either be the best at doing something common or do something unique, overall the most safe one is the first which only requires hardwork, while the second can be a big hit if you manage to find your public or be an epic failure if you don't.

 

[Kinderalpha]

I'd probably recommend just making something. It's definitely fun to think about what makes a game successful, and what your plan is, and I totally agree with that. But when it comes to actually making it, like.. yeah. I'd just make something, and then put it out there for everyone to see. Those that are interested are gonna donate toward your development process.

To envision a game in it's entirety is difficult. To translate that vision to a game is difficult. A lot of people on here make it look easy. That's called survivorship bias. You don't see all the failures unfortunately.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I don't want to keep away your motivation, but there's things that you have to understand before starting :

I have to firstly admit my main motivation is money.

Not really a good start.
Not that I have something against those who do it for money, but so far none of them have succeeded. This mostly because it's exceptional that a creator earn a lot right from the start.

It need passion to works on the indie scene.
Making a game is a long and consuming process, at least if you want to do it seriously enough to have a chance to earn some money. And doing it by, and with, passion is the only way to accept that, starting now, all your free time will be dedicated to this ; the only way to continue doing it despite it not paying back your expenses at first.
Then, perhaps, one day it will finally pay off ; but "one day" only.

I live in a country with a weak economy and after checking Patreon's must successful games that's what motivated me to give this a shot.

Also take a look at the other side of the Moon. Of course, looking a DarkCookie or AdeptusSteve make people dreams, but the top 100 is the exception, the 2.5% that really succeeded.

Given my situation rn, If I can get 1k usd/mo from a project, this becomes my full time job and i love these kind of games.

I really hope that you'll reach those 1k/month, but look closer at

You must be registered to see the links

. Among the more than 4,000 creators of adult games, less than 300, so less than 7.5%, earn at least that.

My question is: How is the market for adult games?

Overly saturated, but always open to novelty.

Do creators just start their own Patreon and put the latest release there (and other rewards) ?

Some do, other don't. There's no real recipe to have a successful and interesting Patreon account.

Or are there other channels and mediums to be activated?

There's always others channels and mediums that need to be activated.
Adult content is hidden on Patreon. You can access the page, you can see what's inside it (if it's not behind the paywall of course), but don't expect any help from Patreon, your page will never be promoted or randomly found by someone. One reach an adult Patreon page because he already knew that it exist and where to find it.
Therefore, your game will be known because you made it know, and only because of this.

What is the endgame?

Something yet to be made ?
It need to be fun, entertaining, sexy, and interesting. Easy to play, but also a little challenging. The story need to hook you, and to be of easy access while still keeping its mystery.
And obviously, every single player have its own definition of what all this mean.

Keep updating a game to your patrons until you have a final version and later sell it on steam and other app stores?

It totally depend of the game, your fame, and your ability to sell it. Not necessarily in this order.

I also identified a few key differentials which are: good artwork, some well written not too long story and covering a few fetishes like incest/legalteens/bdsm/foot and a few commonly others.

And you identified this because of ?
I mean, the game that stand out last year is clearly WVM, and it cross almost none of those cases. The story will clearly be long, isn't this well wrote, and the art is bellow average. As for the fetishes, except legalteens it have none of those you named ; well perhaps foot fetishes, but it's such a trope actually that I'm not sure.

What makes a good adult game stand out?

The hazard. Really.
There's exceptionally good games that struggles to reach their public. Art over the top that no one see. Stories that could be a NY best sellers than no one read. There's games updated very regularly that don't reach their public. There's... The list is long, for anything you can name, there's at least one game that did it right and have been abandoned by lack of public.

 

[Guntag]

I agree with DawnCry. I'll just add that, for a game to be really successful nowadays (and if you want to get $1000 per month it has to be really successful), it needs at least one outstanding strong feature. Exceptional artwork, story or maybe gameplay (and all other features being not bad). A few years ago, with less competition, it was much easier to get a strong player base.

 

[Vhaerun]

It need passion to works on the indie scene.
Making a game is a long and consuming process, at least if you want to do it seriously enough to have a chance to earn some money. And doing it by, and with, passion is the only way to accept that, starting now, all your free time will be dedicated to this ; the only way to continue doing it despite it not paying back your expenses at first.
Then, perhaps, one day it will finally pay off ; but "one day" only.

This is a huge point right here. Read this.

I'm just the writer, one part of a three-person team. We're not even at $100 per month each after four months. Granted, we all have other jobs, but if you're going to try and do it yourself, you're going to put in at least three times the work we are.

Nearly every free moment we have is spent working on our game. We do this for passion. If we make a little money from it, great. If not, we're okay. Passion is what makes games in this genre and niche profitable... but not every passionate dev is going to make a career out of this.

If you give it a shot, I wish you the best of luck and can't wait to see what you come up with.

 

[lucio_malfoy]

First of all I do recommend you take this as a hobby for starters, if you get something that's fine but the time when a new creator could reach the sky on money is kind of over, now people are more picky on that point.

I didn't know the market was that saturated, but I guess it is the natural way of any market. As more creators come in, the standards get higher due to competition. I wonder how much appeal one must have to raise above. But I thank you for this advice. I've put some thought and definitely taking this as a hobby might be the best approach at first.

The usual that I do recommend is what most do, having a version that you release sooner to patreons and 2 weeks-1 month later for the rest.

Thank you, I guess this is kind of the standard now a days. I was wondering if there were subreddits or other social medias that should be engaged.

Depending on your experience related to making games I would recommend you different options, if you just suck at coding and have little knowledge it's better to go to visual novel style of games, if you are more experienced and up to the challenge you can try to make a sandbox or a RPG, the god tier would be having a strategy game which is the hardest to do as a one man army.

Even though I have studied game design and a bit of development, I agree with you, I intend to take baby steps. More looking forward to a point-and-click kind of adventure. Mostly dealing with counters and conditions. I might try adding a couple of minigames which will definitely be challenging.

Overall the artwork is something that will catch your public, if you manage to make great and gorgeous models then you are for a good start. Most people on this site focus on two things before deciding to play a game:

1º Artwork
2º Fetishes

The conflicting one being the second, because you will literally find every single person asking for more stuff of what they like and making optional or not making at all what they dislike.

The recommendation I give you? try to be special and create your own public, to be fair most of the people that wanna try to make it big by copying others tend to fail. We all know that story of when the male MC lives with a big sister, a younger one and his mother as a model for an incest game, try something a bit different like 3 sisters and the mc and perhaps 2 of them are already in an incestuous lesbian relationship, I don't know, something more special than the usual.

Thank you once again, great advice. Yes, I have been dedicating most of my free time developing a visual style and figuring out how to make reusable models for now.

lol you just described that big brother series from sandlust. But I understand what you are saying about trying to come up with a unique setting rather then another step sister cliché. I totally agree with you. I look forward something with a lot more fantasy.

But if you think about why top patreons make as much money as they do is simple, they did something unique or they were a lot better than the rest at doing the same.

If you ever think about transformations and body modification you always think about fenoxo and their games Tits and Coc.

If you think about visual novels you will tend to think about Summertime Saga, because while what it offers isn't special at all, it's very well done compared to the rest, you literally have very few clues to actually know what's the engine of the game while playing it!.

So yeah, either be the best at doing something common or do something unique, overall the most safe one is the first which only requires hardwork, while the second can be a big hit if you manage to find your public or be an epic failure if you don't.

DawnCry, thank you very much for taking your time to answer these questions. You gave me a lot to think about and a really good perspective. It seems that this journey will be longer than I thought but it will be fun! I do have SummerTime Saga as one of my top references of a really well done work, I hope to achieve this kind of quality some day.

 

[lucio_malfoy]

I'd probably recommend just making something. It's definitely fun to think about what makes a game successful, and what your plan is, and I totally agree with that. But when it comes to actually making it, like.. yeah. I'd just make something, and then put it out there for everyone to see. Those that are interested are gonna donate toward your development process.

To envision a game in it's entirety is difficult. To translate that vision to a game is difficult. A lot of people on here make it look easy. That's called survivorship bias. You don't see all the failures unfortunately.

Great Insight, thank you! Yes, definitely making it is a LOT harder then envisioning it. I didn't put much thought on how to break a project into small evolving steps yet. But after reading replies in this thread I think I might take things a lot slower. Maybe for this year my goal will be to release a small prototype or two. Learn how to get comfortable with renpy and it's possibilities and polish my art style.

 

[lucio_malfoy]

Not really a good start.
Not that I have something against those who do it for money, but so far none of them have succeeded. This mostly because it's exceptional that a creator earn a lot right from the start.

It need passion to works on the indie scene.
Making a game is a long and consuming process, at least if you want to do it seriously enough to have a chance to earn some money. And doing it by, and with, passion is the only way to accept that, starting now, all your free time will be dedicated to this ; the only way to continue doing it despite it not paying back your expenses at first.
Then, perhaps, one day it will finally pay off ; but "one day" only.

I agree with you. I might have not expressed myself properly, I have no intention of walking in the scene right now and make it pour cash on me lol. But I do want to make an entertainment product that might turn in some profit eventually and my goal is quite low for what I've been seeing around. Reaching that 1k mark would enable me to dedicate full time if I can find an audience.

Also take a look at the other side of the Moon. Of course, looking a DarkCookie or AdeptusSteve make people dreams, but the top 100 is the exception, the 2.5% that really succeeded.

I really hope that you'll reach those 1k/month, but look closer at

You must be registered to see the links

. Among the more than 4,000 creators of adult games, less than 300, so less than 7.5%, earn at least that.

I kind of see a silver lining on this list. The names at the 3k monthly revenue are what I consider professional work (like Elana Champion of Lust and Caroo) and the kind of quality I am aiming at. I do not want to discredit other creators, but a lot of names at the 1k range are often very Amateurs. Now, I know I will also face challenges and develop a lot before I can get past them, but I think this might be quite achievable.

Overly saturated, but always open to novelty.

Saturation is what scares me the most. Makes it harder to get noticed.

Some do, other don't. There's no real recipe to have a successful and interesting Patreon account.

Yes, I think my question here was more like "Is this market centered at Patreon only?". Are there other relevant marketplaces or mediums?

There's always others channels and mediums that need to be activated. Adult content is hidden on Patreon. You can access the page, you can see what's inside it (if it's not behind the paywall of course), but don't expect any help from Patreon, your page will never be promoted or randomly found by someone. One reach an adult Patreon page because he already knew that it exist and where to find it.
Therefore, your game will be known because you made it know, and only because of this.

Interesting! So Patreon is a sort of point for conversion but not for reaching new audience. I see most of these creator engaging the audience on twitter, I wonder if this is the best place tho.

Something yet to be made ?
It need to be fun, entertaining, sexy, and interesting. Easy to play, but also a little challenging. The story need to hook you, and to be of easy access while still keeping its mystery.
And obviously, every single player have its own definition of what all this mean.

Great insight. Thank you. Yes balancing a game is the true challenge, an adult game might even be harder because there's a sexy variable to be considered.

And you identified this because of ?
I mean, the game that stand out last year is clearly WVM, and it cross almost none of those cases. The story will clearly be long, isn't this well wrote, and the art is bellow average. As for the fetishes, except legalteens it have none of those you named ; well perhaps foot fetishes, but it's such a trope actually that I'm not sure.

Very interesting take. I was not aware of this game and it's performance. I will certainly check it out. Thank you very much. Most of my assumptions are taken on benchmark of what I consider good games and where I aim to position the games I will develop. I usually try to identify what makes them stand out and what they all have in common. And something you said called my attention, a lot of fetishes are tropes, but most audiences like having them there in the first place. It's interesting to have an example of success going against the odds.

The hazard. Really.
There's exceptionally good games that struggles to reach their public. Art over the top that no one see. Stories that could be a NY best sellers than no one read. There's games updated very regularly that don't reach their public. There's... The list is long, for anything you can name, there's at least one game that did it right and have been abandoned by lack of public.

Truly my greatest fear, to dedicate a lot of time and go unnoticed. As others have said in this thread, I believe the best approach is to take it slow at first and build an audience before trying something bigger.

Thank you very much for taking your time to answer these questions anne O'nymous. I hope I can make something up to your expectations in the future.

 

[Tataro]

It will take time to start making money. Games are slow to make alone and what makes or breaks them is a single good release that either blows them up or sinks them. Look at the most succesful new releases like Radiant to see what you should do.

 

[lucio_malfoy]

I agree with DawnCry. I'll just add that, for a game to be really successful nowadays (and if you want to get $1000 per month it has to be really successful), it needs at least one outstanding strong feature. Exceptional artwork, story or maybe gameplay (and all other features being not bad). A few years ago, with less competition, it was much easier to get a strong player base.

Interesting! I didn't know there was a boom that recent in this niche. Thank you very much, I will try to focus more on art style and achieve an interesting visual.

 

[lucio_malfoy]

This is a huge point right here. Read this.

I'm just the writer, one part of a three-person team. We're not even at $100 per month each after four months. Granted, we all have other jobs, but if you're going to try and do it yourself, you're going to put in at least three times the work we are.

Nearly every free moment we have is spent working on our game. We do this for passion. If we make a little money from it, great. If not, we're okay. Passion is what makes games in this genre and niche profitable... but not every passionate dev is going to make a career out of this.

If you give it a shot, I wish you the best of luck and can't wait to see what you come up with.

Thank you very much for your reply! It's awesome to have a developer's take on this challenge. After reading this thread I've became a lot more aware that this might be a longer process then I thought. I've decided to take smaller steps, try to release only a couple of prototypes this year and maybe something bigger next year. Thank you very much an I hope you guys are successful too!

 

[lucio_malfoy]

It will take time to start making money. Games are slow to make alone and what makes or breaks them is a single good release that either blows them up or sinks them. Look at the most succesful new releases like Radiant to see what you should do.

I will definitely check it out! Thank you. I think the creator that most inspires me is AKABUR/RUBAKA. He has been building his audience a long way and his style is absolutely lovely. And it has been taking years for him to build up his audience and games.

 

[anne O'nymous]

I do not want to discredit other creators, but a lot of names at the 1k range are often very Amateurs.

And some bellow it are very professional.
After two years of existence of her game (Heavy Five), Nottravis reach the 1k/months few weeks before winning the Best NPC, Best Developer, Best Writing and Best Game 2020 awards. She deserve those four awards, due to the real quality of her creation, but still have to won the public support.

Yes, I think my question here was more like "Is this market centered at Patreon only?". Are there other relevant marketplaces or mediums?

Yes and no. There's others places, like itch.io and Steam, but their importance in the earnings vary from an author to another.

Interesting! So Patreon is a sort of point for conversion but not for reaching new audience. I see most of these creator engaging the audience on twitter, I wonder if this is the best place tho.

Hmm, how to say it ?
Patreon is kind of the center point of your communication, but more as a reply point than an effective center ; it's were people will go to be sure to find the last information, but not necessarily where the information itself start to spread.
As for Twitter, it's just one of the media. But is it's the most important or not, I'm not sure that someone know this.

And something you said called my attention, a lot of fetishes are tropes, but most audiences like having them there in the first place.

Is it really the audience that like to have them, or them that are present on the games liked by the audience ? Take incest, that you named first. There's more incest games that failed, than incest games that succeeded.
It remind me an audio story I heard few years ago, where they were painting every vehicle in red, because red is the color of the vehicles that go fast. But there's in fact no correlation between the two. Your car will not be faster because you paint it in red, and a Ferrari will not go slower if you paint it in any color except red.
And I'm pretty sure that it's the same for games.

It's interesting to have an example of success going against the odds.

The DeLuca Family. It's clearly the best example since it took two years and six release before the first sex scene. Yet it's without doubt a great success.

Truly my greatest fear, to dedicate a lot of time and go unnoticed.

I'll be direct to answer this: Your greatest fear will be true.
It doesn't mean that you'll stay unnoticed forever, but it's how it will start. Then a combination of chance and hard works, will perhaps change that.
But there's a reason why so many games are abandoned, and this reason is not always that it was a cheap game, sometimes it's just because the game stayed unnoticed too long for that its author could take.

As others have said in this thread, I believe the best approach is to take it slow at first and build an audience before trying something bigger.

Imagine your "big game", the project you dream of since years and that you can finally share with the public, that stay unnoticed for years... It need a strong will to not abandon. In fact, even with a strong will it would probably be tempting to do something else, mostly because what once was your dream is now the reason of your depression.
Therefore, yes, starting low, in order to build your fan base, is generally the way to go. The day you'll finally start your "big game", they'll be here. Perhaps that it will take years before this game is finally noticed by some new people, but at least you've your fan base to cheer you up.

I hope I can make something up to your expectations in the future.

Do something up to your own expectations, and take pleasure doing it. It's what my expectations are.

 

[The Dark Moonshine]

I can give you my very small experience, you can also take it as an example of what NOT to do.

Think about money (money IS important) but it can't be your goal because the workload you're going to face will never give you quick money and if you do it just for the money then you won't go beyond the first release.

In my case, I created my game because I like to tell stories, I have a story that I think is perfect for the medium and I want to tell it.

I also like to draw and I try to put some of my graphic styles into what I tell as well.

So you're thinking: my game is a huge success!

Not at all.

Months of work for just 1 patron (who I will never thank enough), can be discouraging...

My work is not perfect, it's not a AAA of porn games but I keep going, I try to improve with each new release, hoping that someone will notice what I'm doing and support me.

Will the money come? I don't think so, not enough for the time I put into it anyway, but I do it because I have something I want to communicate (and the porn, we all love porn!).

Actually, reading what I have written, maybe you should do the opposite of what I do...

 

[Tataro]

And some bellow it are very professional.
After two years of existence of her game (Heavy Five), Nottravis reach the 1k/months few weeks before winning the Best NPC, Best Developer, Best Writing and Best Game 2020 awards. She deserve those four awards, due to the real quality of her creation, but still have to won the public support.




Yes and no. There's others places, like itch.io and Steam, but their importance in the earnings vary from an author to another.




Hmm, how to say it ?
Patreon is kind of the center point of your communication, but more as a reply point than an effective center ; it's were people will go to be sure to find the last information, but not necessarily where the information itself start to spread.
As for Twitter, it's just one of the media. But is it's the most important or not, I'm not sure that someone know this.




Is it really the audience that like to have them, or them that are present on the games liked by the audience ? Take incest, that you named first. There's more incest games that failed, than incest games that succeeded.
It remind me an audio story I heard few years ago, where they were painting every vehicle in red, because red is the color of the vehicles that go fast. But there's in fact no correlation between the two. Your car will not be faster because you paint it in red, and a Ferrari will not go slower if you paint it in any color except red.
And I'm pretty sure that it's the same for games.




The DeLuca Family. It's clearly the best example since it took two years and six release before the first sex scene. Yet it's without doubt a great success.




I'll be direct to answer this: Your greatest fear will be true.
It doesn't mean that you'll stay unnoticed forever, but it's how it will start. Then a combination of chance and hard works, will perhaps change that.
But there's a reason why so many games are abandoned, and this reason is not always that it was a cheap game, sometimes it's just because the game stayed unnoticed too long for that its author could take.




Imagine your "big game", the project you dream of since years and that you can finally share with the public, that stay unnoticed for years... It need a strong will to not abandon. In fact, even with a strong will it would probably be tempting to do something else, mostly because what once was your dream is now the reason of your depression.
Therefore, yes, starting low, in order to build your fan base, is generally the way to go. The day you'll finally start your "big game", they'll be here. Perhaps that it will take years before this game is finally noticed by some new people, but at least you've your fan base to cheer you up.




Do something up to your own expectations, and take pleasure doing it. It's what my expectations are.

Heavy Five can have everything absolutely amazing and stunning but the moment you throw grind or puzzles, or searching of any kind to progress, or free roam of any kind the game just bleeds audience. I tried the game a year ago, maybe more, when it came out and the second release, just gave up when it started demanding go here, click this, go there click that, find this. F that. The most succesful early start games that I know of on the site are Wife and Mother, which still doesn't have a sex scene aside from the husband after 4 years of releases and Radiant which basically exploded to 7k a month after first release.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Heavy Five can have everything absolutely amazing and stunning but the moment you throw grind or puzzles, or searching of any kind to progress, or free roam of any kind the game just bleeds audience.

Yeah, that exactly what happened with The DeLuca Family...

Oh, wait...

 

[Tataro]

Yeah, that exactly what happened with The DeLuca Family...

Oh, wait...

I don't know what the game is like since I didn't play it, and I can't see patreon income but for a well known game like that 3 years into it to have 700 patreons isn't that great.

 

[Meushi]

Heavy Five can have everything absolutely amazing and stunning but the moment you throw grind or puzzles, or searching of any kind to progress, or free roam of any kind the game just bleeds audience.

Well I think Dr PinkCake would disagree, BaDIK has free roam, puzzles, hot-spot hunting etc. and continues to be enormously successful.

No doubt some will be put off by those elements, but obviously it's not a deal breaker if the complete package is appealing enough.

 

[Tataro]

Well I think Dr PinkCake would disagree, BaDIK has free roam, puzzles, hot-spot hunting etc. and continues to be enormously successful.

No doubt some will be put off by those elements, but obviously it's not a deal breaker if the complete package is appealing enough.

I tried it, reached that point, deleted it and unsubed from his patreon. Not into that. Again some people may be. But if money is the only reason you wanna make games then you want to avoid audience dropof. Pinkcake had sucess with Acting Lessons that carried over into audience.