Japanese company「ILLUSION」dies. They are ceasing game development and publishing.

[PhoenixChampion]

Okay so basically, if I'm getting things right, the results of this will be the following.
If no-one buys Illusions rights, anyone planning to use Koikatsu for hentai games will be at the mercy of Modders for anything to do with the engine- But anyone using it for Ren'Py H-Games should still be able to use it to make games since they already have it.

If someone in the west buys Illusions Rights... RIP a large chunk of the Patreon H-Games.

And anyone who wants Koikatsu, Honey Select, Etc. after August will need to resort to downloading the Better Repack or other forms of Piracy found here.

That about the gist of things?

 

[Artemissu]

Okay so basically, if I'm getting things right, the results of this will be the following.
If no-one buys Illusions rights, anyone planning to use Koikatsu for hentai games will be at the mercy of Modders for anything to do with the engine- But anyone using it for Ren'Py H-Games should still be able to use it to make games since they already have it.

If someone in the west buys Illusions Rights... RIP a large chunk of the Patreon H-Games.

And anyone who wants Koikatsu, Honey Select, Etc. after August will need to resort to downloading the Better Repack or other forms of Piracy found here.

That about the gist of things?

Yes

ILLUSION dying won't change anything about Koikatsu and Honey Select as they are. Modders have been keeping them alive for years, and they'll continue to do so. Worst that might happen is that modders will eventually mod these games to their very limits, at which point the games will join the museum, and BetterRepacks will be nothing more than a giant museum... But the games will still be there for us to download and play anytime.

There's also the possilibity that BetterRepacks might eventually die, as with the death of ILLUSION, the website might stagnate at some point... But i assume it'll take some years before that happen

 

[Bababuz]

I think the switch to Unity was the beginning of the end for them.

100% True, i find sad that they went down. If they wanted use another engine they needed use Unreal Engine.

Japan is a weird and crazy country with crazy behavior censor everything but in the same time want a boom in birth rate.
Anyway someone know a game company that think take the torch ? Surely would be a usa or eu company

 

[DuniX]

I was really hoping for Honey Select 3. RIP.

Do we really need anything more than Modded Honey Select 2?
It is already something completely unrecognizable from the original and the plugin support is incredibly good.

 

[TheodorSid]

This hit me hard. The fact there will be no next AI, no next HS, no next AA. That's just sad.
Dear Illusion, you will be always my heroes.

 

[Shiny Milotic]

Aw man, that's sad...

 

[Spillthebeans]

This hit me hard. The fact there will be no next AI, no next HS, no next AA. That's just sad.
Dear Illusion, you will be always my heroes.

I don't think AA3 had a chance either way. They fucked around too much with unity and making the same two games over and over, namely honey select and honey select anime edition (koikatsu). Besides that they never sold their games outside japan and when they finally got around to doing so they released them for, what was it, 70 dollars?

 

[squiddysquidsquid]

Look, I'll be the one to say that not even Artificial Academy 2 was for its own sake, "Good" on a scale of real videogames, but when your alternative is something like a bunch of downloaded porn stars images poorly cropped, stolen manga drawings, or worse yet, Daz poser porn renders (No offense to any creators on this board), the "barely tolerable" adult games rise to the top in most people's heads.

Oddly enough, when I threw a bunch of adult mods on one of my favorite games (Fallout NV) it just threw me deep into uncanny valley and made me feel sick inside that i was doing it.

I think adult gaming is such a toxic wasteland for companies to put any real interest in aside from some cheeky newgrounds-style porn games for 5-10 bucks on steam, and we're in an era where one's innate sexuality is celebrated (bi/gay/straight/ace/pan/etc), capitalizing on one's attractiveness is considered almost defacto acceptance in mainstream society (OnlyFans), but actually acting upon that sexuality in any way is considered so completely radioactive. What happened to that space game that was supposed to have h-scenes that got a lot of press a while back?

IDK, I know that running your own GPT AI system has absolutely taken off and I believe if some fledgling company wanted to make some money, some sort of subscription NSFW AI that loads Booru cards would be the way to go, not just making another Artificial Academy or continuing down the dead end path Illusion was going. Make it web based only so you can avoid the pratfalls of the app stores and get a good legal team.

 

[Droid Productions]

What happened to that space game that was supposed to have h-scenes that got a lot of press a while back?

https://f95zone.to/threads/subverse-v0-8-0-studio-fow.77900/

Got released, and did major numbers on Steam.

I think adult gaming is such a toxic wasteland for companies to put any real interest in aside from some cheeky newgrounds-style porn games for 5-10 bucks on steam

I develop adult games, both as a personal hobby (Love of Magic, Morningstar) and as part of a company (Paradise Lust); it's actually a really nice niche, the fans are by and large great, and financially it's working out better than our last non-NSFW game.

Losing Illusion sucks, and not in a happy ending kind of way. I know some people weren't into their games, but they've been super kind to the community, openly welcoming fan-art, which has given us great games like Eternum, Pale Carnations and Harem Hotel. Their games were one of my inspirations for creating adult games in the first place, and I'm sure the same is true for a lot of other developers here.

 

[Dukez]

The saddest part about this to me is that RoomGirl won't get improved upon since I feel like they did up the quality a bit compared to baseline HS2. (Not so much the studio side though..)

 

[oren yang gemok]

Guess them dilly-dallying their AI rework since AA2~AI shoujo~Room girl has finally led to their downfall. They can just focus on releasing a newer, unity version of artificial academy/girl but nope. Instead we got:

HS2: HS1 but with Ai Shoujo visuals

KK Sunshine: KK but different map and more girls, even neutered AI since koikatsu where they completely removed anger from all girls. The only upgrade it gets is the improvement on the bones of the 3dmodels for modders to play around (better penetration mod for example)

Room girl: Ai Shoujo but with even more neutered AI and map scale. It was very unappealing that no one bothered to port even quarter of the mods from HS2 into that

It's a shame that it comes to this point but very expected

 

[taler]

Do we really need anything more than Modded Honey Select 2?
It is already something completely unrecognizable from the original and the plugin support is incredibly good.

Are the mods actually able to incorporate the latest graphics technologies and push forward the state of the art or just add more content?

 

[Artemissu]

Anyway someone know a game company that think take the torch ? Surely would be a usa or eu company

People are praying for KISS to take over the spot left by ILLUSION. Problem is, KISS has been real quiet ever since Custom Order Maid 3D 2, or at least i have never heard from them ever since.

Seems like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, The Sims and Conan Exiles will be our main "AAA hentai" from now on. And if the rumours about Starfield and GTA 6 being modder's paradise turn out to be true, those ones too.

 

[Lucius Darkmaar]

After watching the announcement all I can say is this: Thank you ILLUSION for giving us good games like Koikatsu, Honey Select and others. You are LEGENDS of eroge entertainment.

 

[DuniX]

Are the mods actually able to incorporate the latest graphics technologies and push forward the state of the art or just add more content?

Yes we already have a pretty good Graphics Mod. Hooh might also be working on one but don't quote me on that.
There is also Hanmen that has been working on the Shaders like the Skin Shaders.

People complain about Illusion using Unity but in terms of Mod support the only limit is the gameplay itself.

 

[Bababuz]

People are praying for KISS to take over the spot left by ILLUSION. Problem is, KISS has been real quiet ever since Custom Order Maid 3D 2, or at least i have never heard from them ever since.

Seems like Fallout, Elder Scrolls, The Sims and Conan Exiles will be our main "AAA hentai" from now on. And if the rumours about Starfield and GTA 6 being modder's paradise turn out to be true, those ones too.

If i remember well 2 years ago someone try made a Conan Exile but Porn Game instead with Scalie and Furry and normal, i remember saw a video of trailer but it was all, remember what it was the name ?

 

[JupitersSon]

Yes we already have a pretty good Graphics Mod. Hooh might also be working on one but don't quote me on that.
There is also Hanmen that has been working on the Shaders like the Skin Shaders.

People complain about Illusion using Unity but in terms of Mod support the only limit is the gameplay itself.

Except for new animations. I've seen a few community made animations added to one of the versions. They're just terrible. If it's one thing that will absolutely be a massive blow are the great animations and sex positions we get.

Man. I wish I was a billionaire. I'd buy up Illusion myself and bring it back.

 

[harry_cox]

Do we really need anything more than Modded Honey Select 2?
It is already something completely unrecognizable from the original and the plugin support is incredibly good.

Yes, I would love a Honey Select using Koikatsu Sunshine gameplay and animations. KKS has so many more sex positions and voices. I wish they went this route instead of the disappointing room girl.

 

[skinnywomenmustdie]

I think mostly because people don't have money, most of the people who got their games wasn't paying for it. This is natural within the nsfw sphere naturally for obvious reasons. (It's self explanatory.)
Too painful to admit it.

 

[RaSSS]

This is a huge blow... They made some crappy games and were stagnating over the years, but it's undeniable that their games were and still are the backbone of many games here in F95.