- Aug 4, 2017
- 1,146
- 12,728
That speaks more to your preferences than the broader market, BaDIK has been many orders of magnitude more successful than AL, though obviously a successful previous game helps at the outset.
How is the market for adult games?
- Thread starter lucio_malfoy
- Start date
- Mar 27, 2018
- 1,106
- 1,615
It absolutely does, I'm a lazy fuck who doesn't wanna spend his time figuring out puzzles while trying to jerk. But lazy bastards like me are most customers. There are so many great and amazing games out there that get 0 support and recognition
- Jun 19, 2019
- 8,282
- 31,186
Congratulations on asking about taking that first step. To add to what others are saying, be careful about making money the motivator, passion is first. Have the passion to create and tell your story in game format and you will attract people to support it, build the house first and then you get tenants, same with games, videos, books or any other intellectual property.
As to the market well as you search on here you'll find a few thousand odd games, but there are many ways to stand out as a creator from the others:
* Build a rep. If you can be established for a long time, without abandoning projects, be active in the community and answering supporters it can help. At the extreme end it can retain or attract supporters who, while not overly enthusiastic will still with you because you have a reputation for always putting something out on time or with minimal delay.
* Go for a niche or sniper approach. When I started, I made videos and my first was parody, a resident evil parody....then I tried interracial....then I tried futa/dickgirl etc and that is what started to hit it for me, at the time I started some of the bigger names like Blacksheep or Terriblefairy hadn't started yet or hadn't become as well known (Yes I'm old! get off my lawn!). But as peers started to get into it I further sub niche'd and did futa/dickgirl NTR. These day my Happy Honeymoon series is the most popular, and that was originally a private video I wasn't going to publish! So do experiment around and find a middle ground between what size of the market there is in a particular niche and what you personally like. If it turned out to me that scat was the most popular I'm not going to because I wouldn't be comfortable doing it, so it's that happy medium.
* Go for mass market approach. Some devs will go instead for the shotgun approach and churn out game after game after game, often short ones in mass market mcdonalds conveyor belt fashion, this also can help make a dev known, as long as the games have basic quality. If this person can maintain a minimum standard and keep churning out games then people will go for it because they are reliable and the games are varied enough to keep their audience entertained.
*Have passion! Some devs, you can tell they are in it for the money from the get go, or later on they turn to the dark side and are tempted to milk their project to keep the funds going. Either way it backfires because eventually that passion that should have been there or isn't anymore will just mean people stop supporting. I've seen mediocre games still have supporters because they can sense this person really loves to tell their story, no matter what medium they have chosen to do so.
PRACTICAL STEPS
The next things I would advise you to do:
1) Evaluate your skills - I notice you say you have studied illustration and Python, this requires a very outer perspective moment where you have to ask yourself "At the level of Illustration and coding I am at, can I make something of decent quality, OR can I find funds to pay someone to do either one or both for me? OR have I the capacity to learn as I go?
* To learn more code - There is the Codeacademy site.
* Illustrations - Amazon does have some books that can help.
* What to make illustrations in (some examples):
* Honey Select.
* Daz Studio
* Blender (Very steep learning curve)
* Kiseakae Set System
* Draw your own
2) Look at game engines - There are plenty of game engines that you can use to tell your story, your creation. Since you have studied Python the one that stood out to me straight away was Renpy, since it is based on Python. It also has a lot of support and questions answered that you can find. Other engines to look at:
* Unreal Engine
* Unity
* RPGM
* Rags
* Sugarcube/Twine
Etc etc.
3) Brainstorm an idea - Take a walk or whatever give you inspiration and start to come up with an idea for a story you want to tell and then consider how you can put this down into the format of your selected game engine. A linear story, or one with a few diverging paths is great for Renpy, if your idea is a cyber fantasy or medieval setting then RPGM already has some materials already for you.
4) Start slow - At first you may just make an intro, maybe something with one scene. At first this may or may not be difficult, at this point, don't give up. This site has dev tips and resources and other sites also sometimes have questions already asked an answered. As long as you are moving forward it doesn't matter the pace. Eventually you will have the bare bones intro of a game, but this will have:
* A basic introduction of main characters.
* A few sex scenes so the audience can see what is coming and the quality.
* A basic storyline that we can see and understand.
Now you could carry on from this point until the end, but you asked about marketing and support options...
5) Building Marketing and Support:
* F95Zone - one of the biggest forums there is, being active on here (without being a nuisance and advertising in every sentence like "this game is good check mine out!") is a great way to build up traffic to you, especially if you have links in your signature or your own game page on here. You will also have resources and an 80% friendly group ofmaniacs lovely people.
* Patreon - The most obvious one, if your game has adult stuff in you will have an adult profile which stops your page appearing in searches. Note as well that certain niches are not allowed: Incest, Beastiality, Rape etc etc. Some try to get round this using the infamous 'This is my Landlady' introduction in games. If you are going into any of these areas be careful.
* Subscribestar - Another one, a bit smaller than patreon but less censorship.
* Ko-Fi - Not really designed for adult games, just the occasional tip.
From then on it's continuing with your game, keeping people informed on the above pages and establishing a reputation for yourself by being out there and communicating. and as a last tip, and this is WILL cause controversy here....
Don't worry too much about quality!
I can hear the furrowed eyebrows already...what I mean by that is the game is only 20% of the battle, the other 80% is making people aware that it exists. We all know someone who can cook a better burger than Mcdonalds, so what stops people? You can have a quality game, and that IS important. But that won't help if you no-one knows of it. Don't get so caught up working IN the game that you forget to work ON the game if you know what I mean...
So all in all becoming a dev is generally a road where you have to be open to learning new things and skills. So (at least the basics) depending on the format you choose:
* 3d animation or 2d animation.
* People Skills
* Marketing
* Photo or video editing
* Programming languages
* Story imagination
* Writing (grammar, structure etc etc)
* Legal (Protecting your games and other intellectual property)
* Camera angles
* Money Management/Cash flow (I know a dev who got their patron money and allegedly blew it all at the weekend in Hawaii snorting coke off a hookers arse. You don't want to be doing that when you get your first payment)
* Accounting (You will or should declare income you receive and learn how to fill in the forms for it)
Or being able to hire or motivate people to work for free initially/volunteer to fill in the gaps if and when you need them.
Good luck!
As to the market well as you search on here you'll find a few thousand odd games, but there are many ways to stand out as a creator from the others:
* Build a rep. If you can be established for a long time, without abandoning projects, be active in the community and answering supporters it can help. At the extreme end it can retain or attract supporters who, while not overly enthusiastic will still with you because you have a reputation for always putting something out on time or with minimal delay.
* Go for a niche or sniper approach. When I started, I made videos and my first was parody, a resident evil parody....then I tried interracial....then I tried futa/dickgirl etc and that is what started to hit it for me, at the time I started some of the bigger names like Blacksheep or Terriblefairy hadn't started yet or hadn't become as well known (Yes I'm old! get off my lawn!). But as peers started to get into it I further sub niche'd and did futa/dickgirl NTR. These day my Happy Honeymoon series is the most popular, and that was originally a private video I wasn't going to publish! So do experiment around and find a middle ground between what size of the market there is in a particular niche and what you personally like. If it turned out to me that scat was the most popular I'm not going to because I wouldn't be comfortable doing it, so it's that happy medium.
* Go for mass market approach. Some devs will go instead for the shotgun approach and churn out game after game after game, often short ones in mass market mcdonalds conveyor belt fashion, this also can help make a dev known, as long as the games have basic quality. If this person can maintain a minimum standard and keep churning out games then people will go for it because they are reliable and the games are varied enough to keep their audience entertained.
*Have passion! Some devs, you can tell they are in it for the money from the get go, or later on they turn to the dark side and are tempted to milk their project to keep the funds going. Either way it backfires because eventually that passion that should have been there or isn't anymore will just mean people stop supporting. I've seen mediocre games still have supporters because they can sense this person really loves to tell their story, no matter what medium they have chosen to do so.
PRACTICAL STEPS
The next things I would advise you to do:
1) Evaluate your skills - I notice you say you have studied illustration and Python, this requires a very outer perspective moment where you have to ask yourself "At the level of Illustration and coding I am at, can I make something of decent quality, OR can I find funds to pay someone to do either one or both for me? OR have I the capacity to learn as I go?
* To learn more code - There is the Codeacademy site.
* Illustrations - Amazon does have some books that can help.
* What to make illustrations in (some examples):
* Honey Select.
* Daz Studio
* Blender (Very steep learning curve)
* Kiseakae Set System
* Draw your own
2) Look at game engines - There are plenty of game engines that you can use to tell your story, your creation. Since you have studied Python the one that stood out to me straight away was Renpy, since it is based on Python. It also has a lot of support and questions answered that you can find. Other engines to look at:
* Unreal Engine
* Unity
* RPGM
* Rags
* Sugarcube/Twine
Etc etc.
3) Brainstorm an idea - Take a walk or whatever give you inspiration and start to come up with an idea for a story you want to tell and then consider how you can put this down into the format of your selected game engine. A linear story, or one with a few diverging paths is great for Renpy, if your idea is a cyber fantasy or medieval setting then RPGM already has some materials already for you.
4) Start slow - At first you may just make an intro, maybe something with one scene. At first this may or may not be difficult, at this point, don't give up. This site has dev tips and resources and other sites also sometimes have questions already asked an answered. As long as you are moving forward it doesn't matter the pace. Eventually you will have the bare bones intro of a game, but this will have:
* A basic introduction of main characters.
* A few sex scenes so the audience can see what is coming and the quality.
* A basic storyline that we can see and understand.
Now you could carry on from this point until the end, but you asked about marketing and support options...
5) Building Marketing and Support:
* F95Zone - one of the biggest forums there is, being active on here (without being a nuisance and advertising in every sentence like "this game is good check mine out!") is a great way to build up traffic to you, especially if you have links in your signature or your own game page on here. You will also have resources and an 80% friendly group of
* Patreon - The most obvious one, if your game has adult stuff in you will have an adult profile which stops your page appearing in searches. Note as well that certain niches are not allowed: Incest, Beastiality, Rape etc etc. Some try to get round this using the infamous 'This is my Landlady' introduction in games. If you are going into any of these areas be careful.
* Subscribestar - Another one, a bit smaller than patreon but less censorship.
* Ko-Fi - Not really designed for adult games, just the occasional tip.
From then on it's continuing with your game, keeping people informed on the above pages and establishing a reputation for yourself by being out there and communicating. and as a last tip, and this is WILL cause controversy here....
Don't worry too much about quality!
I can hear the furrowed eyebrows already...what I mean by that is the game is only 20% of the battle, the other 80% is making people aware that it exists. We all know someone who can cook a better burger than Mcdonalds, so what stops people? You can have a quality game, and that IS important. But that won't help if you no-one knows of it. Don't get so caught up working IN the game that you forget to work ON the game if you know what I mean...
So all in all becoming a dev is generally a road where you have to be open to learning new things and skills. So (at least the basics) depending on the format you choose:
* 3d animation or 2d animation.
* People Skills
* Marketing
* Photo or video editing
* Programming languages
* Story imagination
* Writing (grammar, structure etc etc)
* Legal (Protecting your games and other intellectual property)
* Camera angles
* Money Management/Cash flow (I know a dev who got their patron money and allegedly blew it all at the weekend in Hawaii snorting coke off a hookers arse. You don't want to be doing that when you get your first payment)
* Accounting (You will or should declare income you receive and learn how to fill in the forms for it)
Or being able to hire or motivate people to work for free initially/volunteer to fill in the gaps if and when you need them.
Good luck!
- Mar 27, 2018
- 1,106
- 1,615
Yeah keep in mind Patreons are supporting you because they want to see more game, not because they’re paying to play. If that was the case they can just join and pay out on release days and save on average around 30$ between releases. So don’t milk people, it’s not gonna give you more money, only sour people on you. And try not to get bogged down in adding new characters or new stuff every update, it burns people out or makes the game too large to manage and too slow to progress in development of.
This fucking needs to be set in stone!
Also:
- never look at what other people are earning, you will feel like shit, especially after the first few releases, where you are telling yourself "well, I've done the thingy thing, where's mah moneyz?"
- never check other people's work; if it's better than yours you will feel like shit, if it's worse and they earn more you will feel like shit
- never fap for more than 2 hours per day while making the next update, you will feel like shit
- make content, start at least something
- do what you like doing more, but
- make hardcore content. please
- like seriously, some fucked up stuff
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