I dont know if Rem had a budget on advertising, but he put the game as "finished" and "completed" (arguably) right at that time, helped it quickly gained attraction and attention over other many "ongoing" projects, which been quite awhile, since the world began, been known as lackluster money scams (many of them at least), as you know it. I remember woke up that morning and Karryn's Prison was everywhere.
I don't really see the problem with that? The game was a complete experience back in 2021, even with the cut content.
Now, of course, I'm not a fan of how much content they've cut, especially for floor 4 (IIRC), but a lot of games release with cut content that never sees the day, especially Hgames. Is it bad? Maybe.
You are comparing Karryn Prison to other low tier weaker quicker buck bowrser VNs. Proper Corruption mechanics, multiple endings, RPG mechanics and all wasnt new, it's wasnt uncommon, it's been done before. and any decent games do build it properly, Let's not pretend Karryn is the only one.
I'm not comparing Karryn's Prison to "low tier weaker quicker buck browser VNs", I literally said "most corruption games".
Also, no, unique mechanics was, and still is, a rare occurrence, look at actually released RPG Maker games for example, there's like 80% of them that are either the classic RPG Maker gameplay, battle fuck that works exactly like the classic RPG Maker gameplay, or simple CG galleries.
Karryn Prison wouldnt survive with that triple A price tag if it was released last year. You have to admit it there are objectively way better things to spend 30 bucks (40 with dlcs) and 500 hours now, on steam at least, moving on from 2020, not talking only about hgame, or adult products in general.
30 bucks isn't a AAA price tag, what are you even talking about?
Most big indie games are around 20-40 bucks, AAA price tag is 60-70 bucks, sometimes even more, and let's not talk about DLCs, or else we could easily go to 100 bucks or more.
If you want some comparison, you could go to DLsite and filter by pricetag between 3001-5000 JPY,
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Also, Karryn's Prison doesn't need 500 hours to clear, most people would probably do only one ending, maybe two.
Meltys Quest was a way smaller and less popular game, Dev team would get experience from it to make a better game, but not the preference of wider audiences, also the market is no longer like what it was at Karryn's release.
Even if the market "changed", like you said, Karryn's Prison would still sell, it's a big polished game with unique mechanics, a good artstyle, and a lot of content.
Also, Meltys Quest is very different, yes, but it still helps with their popularity. People who liked Meltys Quest would very likely want to try out their next game, it's the same with literally every game company.
Since we're talking about sales, might as well include numbers.
According to DLsite, which have the highest confirmed sales for both games (by that I mean that it's the only place we have actual numbers, since Steam doesn't show sales numbers afaik) :
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sold at least 19,619 copies
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sold at least 45,521 copies