Ren'Py How to release a Adult game?

[Aitha]

Hi everyone,
I just completed my first version of game. Just polishing is remaining.
So my questions to game devs,
1. How should i release my game (Which platforms should i go for)(I Planned to release first 2 versions of game as public the next release will be patreon release, is it okay? any feedback on this)?
2. How to reach my game for most of the players (A lot of players)? A list of adult game publishing websites like that?(puff....Marketing)
3. How to attract patreons? What is ideal optimal reward tries for patreons (Best reward tries like $2 or $5 rewards)(What reward I should give)?
4. Which is best patreon or subscribestar?
I am studying some game devs reward tries and there process, but still i want to hear from you guys.

P.S:- I know this is pirating website, but for me this website is more than a pirating website. This is the website, where I learned making games (especially adult games) is enjoyable.
Love U f95. Thanks to the all community members. Have a nice day.

 

[Rich]

Hi everyone,
I just completed my first version of game. Just polishing is remaining.
So my questions to game devs,
1. How should i release my game (Which platforms should i go for)

Well, PC/Linux and Mac are the obvious candidates, since you can do all of that with a couple of clicks in Ren'py. Whether it's worth doing an Android release really depends on you - frequently you have to make tweaks to your game to make it work well on Android, both because of the limitations of mobile platforms and also because of small screen sizes.

(I Planned to release first 2 versions of game as public the next release will be patreon release, is it okay? any feedback on this)?

Sounds like a very reasonable plan.

2. How to reach my game for most of the players (A lot of players)? A list of adult game publishing websites like that?(puff....Marketing)

There are a lot of forums out there for this kind of thing. Google Is Your Friend. Post in lots of places.

3. How to attract patreons?

It sounds silly, but have a good-quality game. And, yes, I know "quality is in the eye of the beholder." But expect that it's going to take a long time and many releases to build up a lot of patrons, because you have a LOT of competition and many, MANY games die after 2-3 releases. You'll probably have to demonstrate a track record of regular releases before you'll get much signup.

What is ideal optimal reward tries for patreons (Best reward tries like $2 or $5 rewards)

You might want to consider something like 1/2/5/10/20 or something like that. Don't discount $1 patrons - they can add up.

(What reward I should give)?

That is based somewhat on what you CAN give. In the case of one game I'm working on, we use 1/5/10/20. $5 patrons get status updates, $10 patrons get advance "teaser images" and $20 patrons get polls and other options to influence aspects of the game. But it's entirely up to you.

4. Which is best patreon or subscribestar?

Some of that depends on your game content - there is content you can probably get away with on SubscribeStar that will get you banned on Patreon, but it appears that Patreon has a bit more of a mature offering with more payment options for your patrons, ability to have multiple levels, etc. (Caveat: I've read up on SubscribeStar, but have not actually used it, so my information there may be off.)

 

[Deleted member 609064]

You might want to consider something like 1/2/5/10/20 or something like that. Don't discount $1 patrons - they can add up.

Great point. $1 Patrons can become $20 Patrons. Once someone has shown they are willing to patronize with $1, then it becomes that much more likely they can become a higher dollar value Patron as long as they are getting good value.

 

[CarbonBlue]

If your game is an adult game then you cannot even link to it on Patreon in a public post - it can only be linked to your paying patrons. That said, I released my first and I believe even my second update to the public. As a small fry you can get away with it, but you're gambling with someone reporting you. When I learned that no NSFW content is allowed for non-patrons I removed the links immediately.

When you are ready to release it I would recommend starting the F95zone thread yourself so that you have control of it. Once you post the thread make sure all the information is there (there's a handy template) and then report the thread to let the admins know there's a new game.

Before you release it, set up an avatar on F95. Make sure your Patreon looks professional. Link to your Patreon in your bio. Put your best face forward in all things immediately. Once the thread is done, request developer status from the admins.

Releasing the game on F95 will result in other sites picking it up.

Attract patrons by putting out high quality content and engaging with your audience. You probably won't get much support after your first update. People will often wait until the 2nd update to start supporting you.

Good luck!

 

[Aitha]

Good luck!

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Aitha]

Some of that depends on your game content - there is content you can probably get away with on SubscribeStar that will get you banned on Patreon, but it appears that Patreon has a bit more of a mature offering with more payment options for your patrons, ability to have multiple levels, etc. (Caveat: I've read up on SubscribeStar, but have not actually used it, so my information there may be off.)

Thanks, rich for helping me. I still have 2 questions.
1) Is $1 Patreons are good or I should start from $2 Patreons.
2) My game has incest and harem is it ok on Patreon and SubscribeStar.

 

[Porcus Dev]

Thanks, rich for helping me. I still have 2 questions.
1) Is $1 Patreons are good or I should start from $2 Patreons.
2) My game has incest and harem is it ok on Patreon and SubscribeStar.

1) Why not both?


As you've been told, it's very common for some of your supporters to start with $1; that usually gives them access to news of the game's evolution. If they think you deserve it, those patreons can then become higher tier patreons (5, 10, 20, ...).

2) Noooo... you're wrong, your game doesn't contain incest (At least in Patreon)
Now seriously, forget to put anything about this in Patreon, or make reference to mothers, sisters, aunts, etc ... also be careful to put school things and the issue of age limit, although you consider that your characters are adults (and so they are), patreon may not have the same opinion on the matter.

I don't think there's a problem with Harem (although I think relationships have to be consented to... so watch out for hypnosis, pills or magic potions or other brainwashing that tears women's will apart, patreon doesn't like this (Note: when I say patreon, we all know I mean the pressure that payment systems exert on it, like paypal, that's the reason for its censorship).

As for SubscribeStar, there's no problem with that, you can publish your game with the incest included without the need to put patches apart, but don't mention it cheerfully in the posts either (they allow it, but don't want to promote it).

 

[Aitha]

1) Why not both?
View attachment 409554

As you've been told, it's very common for some of your supporters to start with $1; that usually gives them access to news of the game's evolution. If they think you deserve it, those patreons can then become higher tier patreons (5, 10, 20, ...).

2) Noooo... you're wrong, your game doesn't contain incest (At least in Patreon)
Now seriously, forget to put anything about this in Patreon, or make reference to mothers, sisters, aunts, etc ... also be careful to put school things and the issue of age limit, although you consider that your characters are adults (and so they are), patreon may not have the same opinion on the matter.

Thanks for the reply. mgomez0077. (So in the game there will be incest but I should not mention it in pateron. Got it.)
And thanks to Linus.
Have a nice day.

 

[Porcus Dev]

Thanks for the reply. mgomez0077. (So in the game there will be incest but I should not mention it in pateron. Got it.)
And thanks to Linus.
Have a nice day.

Apart from not mentioning it, there can't be in the links of the game that you publish there; you have to incorporate it in some external way (through a patch)... Isn't the world of developers nice? They make it easy for us, huh?

 

[anne O'nymous]

Apart from not mentioning it, there can't be in the links of the game that you publish there; you have to incorporate it in some external way (through a patch)...

And for this he can take a look at this thread. It's one (if not the) most complete regarding this subject.

 

[Rich]

I think this has been pretty well covered, but...

Thanks, rich for helping me. I still have 2 questions.
1) Is $1 Patreons are good or I should start from $2 Patreons.

Obviously, this is up to you, but I think you'll find people who will donate $1 who won't (at least at first) donate $2. 1/5/10/20 is a pretty common set it tiers, but there's no reason you can't do 1/2/5/10/20 or any other combination you want.

2) My game has incest and harem is it ok on Patreon and SubscribeStar.

If your game has incest in it and is on Patreon, it will eventually get reported by someone, and they'll suspend you. So many Patreon games are released in a form without incest relationships, and then patches are provided via alternate channels (e.g. LewdPatcher) that restore the incest relationships. Patreon knows that this is going on, of course, but as long as they have "plausible deniability" (meaning that the links provided through their site don't have it and there's no link to the patch from their site) they kind of look the other way. (Essentially, the fiction that is maintained is that the patches are provided by someone other than the author.) BTW, this includes putting a link to, say, your blog on Patreon and then linking to the patch from there. Basically, you have to distribute the patch (or the awareness of it) through sites like this. (Separate emails to your patrons - not through Patreon - probably also would work.)

One new thing that's popped up recently is that they're now suspending people who write games where the players can enter "what is my relationship to her" type stuff if it allows the game to be set up incestuously. So that particular "dodge" is now off the table.

There are a variety of ways that patches can be set up. Some are really dirt simple - all the content is in the game, the patch just sets a variable that "turns it on." There are other ways of moving the offending content into the patch itself so that even if someone decodes the source code of the Patreon game, there's nothing to be found there. The link provided by anne O'nymous provides a good bit of discussion on some of the more advanced techniques.

Note that, to the best of anyone's knowledge, Patreon itself is not having its staff playing/decoding every game posted there themselves. Instead, they sit back and wait for someone to file a complaint on a game, then suspend you and make you justify why you shouldn't be suspended. But there are apparently enough people crawling around looking for games with non-Patreon-approved content that getting reported is a near certainty if you're violating their ToS. So even just avoiding all mention of it on Patreon isn't sufficient.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Note that, to the best of anyone's knowledge, Patreon itself is not having its staff playing/decoding every game posted there themselves.

The more the time pass, the more I think that themselves don't care at all. They were active at first as proof of good will, and now they're just waiting and seeing. But like you said, it isn't enough to avoid their hammer.

Instead, they sit back and wait for someone to file a complaint on a game, then suspend you and make you justify why you shouldn't be suspended. But there are apparently enough people crawling around looking for games with non-Patreon-approved content that getting reported is a near certainty if you're violating their ToS. So even just avoiding all mention of it on Patreon isn't sufficient.

More precisely, what the last hammer's hit to touch Mr.Dots taught us, is that you can NOT use Patreon to fund a game having banned content ; if my memory don't betray me it was stated as it in the mail they sent him.
Which imply that whatever how and where you release the game, if it have banned content without the need of a patch, you can't talk about it, name it, and obviously link to it, on your Patreon page, and you can't associate it, in anyway, with Patreon.
Or, what is better when you're not well know author with his own web site, there's a patch magically appearing ; but once again, never associate the patch with you.

 

[Rich]

The more the time pass, the more I think that themselves don't care at all. They were active at first as proof of good will, and now they're just waiting and seeing. But like you said, it isn't enough to avoid their hammer.

They are still definitely reacting to reports - the project John and I have been working on (Family, Friends and Strangers) got reported and suspended earlier this month. After a reasoned discussion, however, "they" decided that there was only one scene that needed alteration. (And I almost think that was a case of them having to find something to change, since otherwise they'd have had to admit that they knee-jerk suspended us without doing their own investigation to confirm the report.) So, they're still basically approaching things in a "guilty until proven innocent" manner.

More precisely, what the last hammer's hit to touch Mr.Dots taught us, is that you can NOT use Patreon to fund a game having banned content ; if my memory don't betray me it was stated as it in the mail they sent him.
Which imply that whatever how and where you release the game, if it have banned content without the need of a patch, you can't talk about it, name it, and obviously link to it, on your Patreon page, and you can't associate it, in anyway, with Patreon.
Or, what is better when you're not well know author with his own web site, there's a patch magically appearing ; but once again, never associate the patch with you.

Yes, quite. Does make it slightly trickier. Of course, if all you're doing is changing a few words in your text, then the techniques described elsewhere are reasonably straightforward, and are also plausibly deniable even if someone does start pointing at the patch. After all, there are tons of mods made for games. It's touchier when you're just skipping around content that is built into the game.

 

[anne O'nymous]

(And I almost think that was a case of them having to find something to change, since otherwise they'd have had to admit that they knee-jerk suspended us without doing their own investigation to confirm the report.) So, they're still basically approaching things in a "guilty until proven innocent" manner.

Firstly, glad to hear that it ended well for you.

This said, they alas can't do otherwise. I don't know how they ended (nor even if they've ended) but they were involved in at least two trials because they ignored reports. And you know better than me how some US citizens can be fast to pass from "hey, it's wrong", to "let's the justice tell you how much it's wrong".
This while the ban didn't came from PayPal (which still asked for it), but directly from MasterCard and I don't remember the second one. Therefore, they ended in a position where they were near to have a meaningless site offering the possibility to give money to creators, but deprived of the possibility to use the services of the three major payment processors. And despite the fact that it's now an almost two years old thing, I'm sure that they still feel their breath on their back.

As for the "something to change" part, it's probably both to save their face (hey, you're an US citizen, you can possibly ask Justice to tell them how much it's wrong to ban for no reason), and to have an answer for the person who reported the game. Which fall back on the trials they were involved in.
Twice they thought that there where nothing wrong and were hit. By finding something wrong and being able to prove it to the jerk who reported your game, it pass from "I shown them, they did nothing", to "they did something, but it wasn't the thing me, myself and I wanted to be done". The second having way less chance of success that the first.

After all, there are tons of mods made for games.

And, more importantly in this case, tons of mods adding adult content in games that aren't at all adult ones. If the girls can walk around naked in a Dragon Age title,or if you can transform a Fallout or The Elder Scrolls title into a porn simulator, by example, where's the surprise if there's a mod to turn a porn game into even more porn ?

It's touchier when you're just skipping around content that is built into the game.

Totally agree.

 

[Rich]

Firstly, glad to hear that it ended well for you.

This said, they alas can't do otherwise.

Yes, they're basically dealing with this the way that web sites deal with DCMA complaints - if you get a complaint, take the content down and only THEN contact the owner and let them explain why the complaint wasn't accurate. Certainly, it's the safe approach for the site, just a little harsh on the people providing content. But I completely understand why the don't want to risk their relationship with the major money processors.

That being said, John and I had a pretty good experience with the person assigned to our case. Turnaround wasn't lightning fast, but they explained the accusations they'd received, allowed us to make reasoned arguments as to why they were unfounded, asked a couple of questions about the characters and the story line and then sided with us on all but one small issue. As I said, that one area was probably a "just so that we can say we had changes made" thing, since I don't really think it crossed the line (we've tried to be very careful, since we know we're dancing near the edge) but in a situation where they say "just make this one change and we'll turn you back on," you obviously say "sure" and go along with it. And they did explain why, in their judgment, it needed to be changed. So the experience could have been a lot worse. Probably didn't hurt that we tried to take a cooperative and rational attitude with them, as opposed to saying "no, you're wrong, you idiots!" LOL

 

[Basilicata]

That been correctly written, if I may add something: We all love F95zone. We all started here more or less. But Be Very Careful when you release your first version here. There are users here who enjoy crushing your game. You only see them writing one star reviews and trash talking about 0.1 versions. Still, they monitor it, so you might find their bitter comments in later versions of your game. Don't worry. If this is something you really love doing, they cannot hurt your feelings. It might make you stronger. (Personal Experience). Long story short, Try to release a version as good as possible (Don't rush it). Good luck.

 

[Deleted member 3679762]

Thanks for this thread and all the replies - it really helped me as I am currently asking similar questions!

Is there anything that's changed these past years about Patreon or Subscribestar that might be worth adding to this list? I'm thinking Patreon's take on "incest" content, for instance?

Anyway, I'm about to release the initial version of a VN I've been working on. It's a love story involving a stepdad and his adult stepdaughter, so it doesn't really qualify as incest per se... but would Subscribestar still be the safest bet for me?

 

[LightmanP]

Thanks for this thread and all the replies - it really helped me as I am currently asking similar questions!

Is there anything that's changed these past years about Patreon or Subscribestar that might be worth adding to this list? I'm thinking Patreon's take on "incest" content, for instance?

Anyway, I'm about to release the initial version of a VN I've been working on. It's a love story involving a stepdad and his adult stepdaughter, so it doesn't really qualify as incest per se... but would Subscribestar still be the safest bet for me?

I'd say so, as far as I know and read here, step-cest is still considered incest by Patreon. They do say that cases would be considered on an individual basis, so you could try checking it with them or something. There are games on Patreon that feature an adoptive daughter, some even with straight-up incest, but I think it could be a case of flying low so to say.

A "fan-made" patch could always appear, though...

 

[anne O'nymous]

I'd say so, as far as I know and read here, step-cest is still considered incest by Patreon. They do say that cases would be considered on an individual basis, so you could try checking it with them or something.

Patreon's definition of incest is "sex between persons who grew up together as a family". Therefore, the usual "my mother died years ago and my father immediately remarried" would be seen as incest, as well as the (also usual), "my parents died when I was young, I now live with the woman who adopted me and her daughters".
But a son coming back home after his college graduation, and going after the woman his father married less than four years ago could pass.