I'd like to offer a set of guidelines on what, as a player, I find unpleasant or frustrating when playing porn games. I find that there are common mistakes that are made again and again that take an otherwise decent or even good game and drag it into the mud. I'm not talking about fetishes, or plot preferences, or anything that is obviously subjective, I'm mainly concerned with non-technical issues that come about as a result of poor design choices.
I'm not a game designer, though I have a basic programming background and I have played a LOT of porn games, so I understand that creative and time-consuming works like making games should not be bound by rigid rules. It should be understood that these guidelines are not applicable in every case. So please treat what I say here as suggestions for improvement that apply to general cases instead.
I also understand everyone here has an opinion, and I respect that. However if nothing else a set of some kind of basic guidelines we, as a community, can mostly agree on should help improve overall quality and give some ideas on improvement to developers. I won't be posting more after this, so please add your own thoughts and make any collective changes or additions if desired.
TL;DR: Even people who make porn games should know that some things suck, and not in the good way. Here's a list to make porn games suck less.
Non-Technical Guidelines for Making Better Porn Games
1. RESPECT THE PLAYER'S TIME.
2. Minimize trivial tasks, mechanics, choices, and scenes.
3. Provide feedback to player's actions.
4. Provide context for scenes, not necessarily plot.
5. Provide easily accessible guidance for all major tasks.
6. Minimize actions, environments, and options which do nothing.
7. Saving should be quick, unlimited, and available anywhere.
8. When deciding game difficulty, lean towards easier.
9. The final version of scenes should be repeatable or rewatchable.
10. Add a sense of progression to scenes, particularly for corruption.
Note on Terms:
Skippable - Either an actual skip function, disabling function, or fast-forwarding in seconds, with less seconds being better.
Minimizing - Reduce to the bare minimum. Some things, like day progression in games with days, are necessary, just minimize the negative impact.
VNs - Visual Novels, mostly based on text and story, usually with branching paths. Most of these guidelines don't really apply to these, because these are barely games to begin with.
Plot - A long-term series of separate but connected events that describe what is happening to the characters and/or the world.
Guideline Breakdown
1) RESPECT THE PLAYER'S TIME.
If there was a prime directive for any game, this would be it. Many of the items in this list can be traced back to respecting the player's time in some form or fashion. The worst thing a game maker can do is creating a feeling in the player of having wasted their time playing.
Some signs that a maker is not respecting the player's time includes, but is not limited to: breakable quests, overly large environments compared to content, time-consuming user interface, excessive grinding without adequate reward, unavoidable progression rollbacks, inability to skip text or make it appear faster, non-obvious gameover traps and choices, unskippable mini-games, unskippable "cut-scenes" with slow movement and action, slow movement speed in general, unskippable intro scenes, and more. Most of these will be covered in the other sections.
2) Minimize trivial tasks, mechanics, choices, and scenes.
Closely related to respecting the player's time, is minimizing trivial content. Trivial meaning the content is of little consequence from the player's perspective. Use common sense here. No one plays a game to watch characters interact with generic NPCs, look at loading screens, buy groceries, walk around as chibi sprites for hours, eat dinner everyday, crap in a toilet, or basically any mundane task that doesn't get back to either the plot, banging or perving on someone or something, or directly contributing to core gameplay.
There are many little events like these that provide, at best, a small amount of immersion but far more annoyance. Provide a skippable or fast-forwardable means that glosses over these events, or cheats that eliminate them. Note that all such trivial content becomes MUCH better when the player is allowed to choose for themselves whether to participate, even mundane stuff.
3) Provide feedback to player's actions.
When a player performs an action, there should be feedback given for that action. If a player's character talks to someone, there should be some indication of the impact that has. If the game has stats, then the increase and decrease of such stats should be visible, though not necessarily the exact numbers. When given a choice between being generous with information, or restrictive, lean towards generous. A player has to have knowledge of what's going on to make decisions, without knowledge he's just randomly choosing options.
4) Provide context for scenes, not necessarily plot.
Allow me to explain what context means. Context means the circumstances that are happening around a particular scene. Basically who, what, when, where, why, and how it is happening. Context can be visual as well as in text, though purely visual context tends to leave out important details. Context can also include progression, like showing how someone becomes more lewd. Context is NOT dependent on plot, though plot can enhance it.
Some examples of context: background images, 'effects' like sound bubbles and hearts, facial expressions, descriptions of what is happening and what the characters are saying, sense of progression to an event through changes to art and animation, etc.
If I could use an analogy here for what context, plot, and porn are, then basic porn images, animations, and text are like a slice of bread. Context is like putting something inside the bread to make a sandwich. Plot is like making a sub stuffed to the brim and cooking it. Context is then necessary because plain bread is too boring for most people and that little extra almost always makes things better. Plot however depends heavily on the skill of the person, as too many flavors and ingredients can just make the thing a mess and ruin what was good in the first place. It also takes time to cook, so the enjoyment may be lessened by the waiting.
In fact, plot is over-emphasized in many porn games. Plot is not a bad thing, and in the cases of VNs, it is essential. However its important to understand that there's an opportunity cost with more focus on plot because the player spends more time watching and reading plot scenes then playing the game. If given a choice between devoting more time to the plot, or writing more context for existing scenes, lean towards more context. Plot may not work out well, but effort on context is rarely wasted.
5) Provide easily accessible guidance for all major tasks.
There are many, many porn games that require walkthroughs to be enjoyable or to see large chunks of content. If there is one thing porn should be, its easy to understand. If the player is required to do an event or task to progress, make a note for the player of that thing and save the note for the player to look at any time. This note should tell the player everything he needs to know to reach and start that event or task. An event should then give further instructions as needed. In other words, a spoiler-free walkthrough should be provided for every game, the player should never have to ask "What am I supposed to be doing?".
As an alternative, the game setup can be so simple or consistent that progression always occurs the same way. If the player always goes to a character's door to see the next event for example, then a walkthrough is not needed. Another option is to give visual clues, or even force the player to do the task by restricting all other options.
6) Minimize actions, environments, and options which do nothing.
I like to call these 'doors to nowhere'. If a player can't do ANYTHING with something, then either remove that thing, or make it obvious that thing goes nowhere or does nothing. This doesn't need to be immersion breaking, but it does need to be consistent. Having a closed door in the entrance of a unfinished area, or obvious barriers like road cones, would be an example. An open door, on the other hand, can show accessible content. Buttons can be greyed out for games with those. Players can end up wasting an enormous amount of time with these, so please don't mess this up, especially considering how many unfinished games are out there.
7) Saving should be quick, unlimited, and available anywhere.
As a general rule, frustration is pretty much the exact opposite of the feeling that a person should get from porn. Lack of saving ability tends to correspond directly with frustration. A player may wish to save for many reasons. Some of those might include re-watching scenes, or before taking on a difficult area. Sometimes they run out of time to play. Sometimes they just feel like it. Since no one knows but the player when he needs to save, the assumption should be the player might need to save anywhere, at any time, and should be accommodated. There are reasons to limit saves, like survival horror situations, but this is highly uncommon, and even then its debatable whether the game is actually made any better.
8) When deciding game difficulty, lean towards easier.
Difficulty is a hard thing to balance, because no matter what some folks will find a game too easy, and some will find it too hard. That said, when it comes to porn games, the reason people tend to play these is for the scenes. If the player can't GET to most of the scenes though, then there is a real question as to whether there is a point to the game at all.
9) The final version of scenes should be repeatable or rewatchable.
One of the reasons why I'm not particularly fond of VNs and heavy use of plot is the tendency of scenes to be one-time only affairs. There are some really, really great scenes out there embedded in plot but they can't be properly enjoyed because its too difficult or time-consuming to rewatch them. One way to fix this issue to make all scenes, or at least the final versions, watchable either in a gallery mode, or even better in-game, with appropriate context.
10) Add a sense of progression to scenes, particularly for corruption.
One of the great uses of context is to provide some sense that time is passing and change is occuring. A static image, as nicely done as it might be, isn't as sexy as that same image in motion. Animations obviously add a lot here, but even with just writing and effects the maker can impart the sense that something is changing and the scene is moving towards a climax. This is pretty much exactly what happens in real life with sex, so any scene that feels too static will end up feeling less life-like by comparison.
I'm not a game designer, though I have a basic programming background and I have played a LOT of porn games, so I understand that creative and time-consuming works like making games should not be bound by rigid rules. It should be understood that these guidelines are not applicable in every case. So please treat what I say here as suggestions for improvement that apply to general cases instead.
I also understand everyone here has an opinion, and I respect that. However if nothing else a set of some kind of basic guidelines we, as a community, can mostly agree on should help improve overall quality and give some ideas on improvement to developers. I won't be posting more after this, so please add your own thoughts and make any collective changes or additions if desired.
TL;DR: Even people who make porn games should know that some things suck, and not in the good way. Here's a list to make porn games suck less.
Non-Technical Guidelines for Making Better Porn Games
1. RESPECT THE PLAYER'S TIME.
2. Minimize trivial tasks, mechanics, choices, and scenes.
3. Provide feedback to player's actions.
4. Provide context for scenes, not necessarily plot.
5. Provide easily accessible guidance for all major tasks.
6. Minimize actions, environments, and options which do nothing.
7. Saving should be quick, unlimited, and available anywhere.
8. When deciding game difficulty, lean towards easier.
9. The final version of scenes should be repeatable or rewatchable.
10. Add a sense of progression to scenes, particularly for corruption.
Note on Terms:
Skippable - Either an actual skip function, disabling function, or fast-forwarding in seconds, with less seconds being better.
Minimizing - Reduce to the bare minimum. Some things, like day progression in games with days, are necessary, just minimize the negative impact.
VNs - Visual Novels, mostly based on text and story, usually with branching paths. Most of these guidelines don't really apply to these, because these are barely games to begin with.
Plot - A long-term series of separate but connected events that describe what is happening to the characters and/or the world.
Guideline Breakdown
1) RESPECT THE PLAYER'S TIME.
If there was a prime directive for any game, this would be it. Many of the items in this list can be traced back to respecting the player's time in some form or fashion. The worst thing a game maker can do is creating a feeling in the player of having wasted their time playing.
Some signs that a maker is not respecting the player's time includes, but is not limited to: breakable quests, overly large environments compared to content, time-consuming user interface, excessive grinding without adequate reward, unavoidable progression rollbacks, inability to skip text or make it appear faster, non-obvious gameover traps and choices, unskippable mini-games, unskippable "cut-scenes" with slow movement and action, slow movement speed in general, unskippable intro scenes, and more. Most of these will be covered in the other sections.
2) Minimize trivial tasks, mechanics, choices, and scenes.
Closely related to respecting the player's time, is minimizing trivial content. Trivial meaning the content is of little consequence from the player's perspective. Use common sense here. No one plays a game to watch characters interact with generic NPCs, look at loading screens, buy groceries, walk around as chibi sprites for hours, eat dinner everyday, crap in a toilet, or basically any mundane task that doesn't get back to either the plot, banging or perving on someone or something, or directly contributing to core gameplay.
There are many little events like these that provide, at best, a small amount of immersion but far more annoyance. Provide a skippable or fast-forwardable means that glosses over these events, or cheats that eliminate them. Note that all such trivial content becomes MUCH better when the player is allowed to choose for themselves whether to participate, even mundane stuff.
3) Provide feedback to player's actions.
When a player performs an action, there should be feedback given for that action. If a player's character talks to someone, there should be some indication of the impact that has. If the game has stats, then the increase and decrease of such stats should be visible, though not necessarily the exact numbers. When given a choice between being generous with information, or restrictive, lean towards generous. A player has to have knowledge of what's going on to make decisions, without knowledge he's just randomly choosing options.
4) Provide context for scenes, not necessarily plot.
Allow me to explain what context means. Context means the circumstances that are happening around a particular scene. Basically who, what, when, where, why, and how it is happening. Context can be visual as well as in text, though purely visual context tends to leave out important details. Context can also include progression, like showing how someone becomes more lewd. Context is NOT dependent on plot, though plot can enhance it.
Some examples of context: background images, 'effects' like sound bubbles and hearts, facial expressions, descriptions of what is happening and what the characters are saying, sense of progression to an event through changes to art and animation, etc.
If I could use an analogy here for what context, plot, and porn are, then basic porn images, animations, and text are like a slice of bread. Context is like putting something inside the bread to make a sandwich. Plot is like making a sub stuffed to the brim and cooking it. Context is then necessary because plain bread is too boring for most people and that little extra almost always makes things better. Plot however depends heavily on the skill of the person, as too many flavors and ingredients can just make the thing a mess and ruin what was good in the first place. It also takes time to cook, so the enjoyment may be lessened by the waiting.
In fact, plot is over-emphasized in many porn games. Plot is not a bad thing, and in the cases of VNs, it is essential. However its important to understand that there's an opportunity cost with more focus on plot because the player spends more time watching and reading plot scenes then playing the game. If given a choice between devoting more time to the plot, or writing more context for existing scenes, lean towards more context. Plot may not work out well, but effort on context is rarely wasted.
5) Provide easily accessible guidance for all major tasks.
There are many, many porn games that require walkthroughs to be enjoyable or to see large chunks of content. If there is one thing porn should be, its easy to understand. If the player is required to do an event or task to progress, make a note for the player of that thing and save the note for the player to look at any time. This note should tell the player everything he needs to know to reach and start that event or task. An event should then give further instructions as needed. In other words, a spoiler-free walkthrough should be provided for every game, the player should never have to ask "What am I supposed to be doing?".
As an alternative, the game setup can be so simple or consistent that progression always occurs the same way. If the player always goes to a character's door to see the next event for example, then a walkthrough is not needed. Another option is to give visual clues, or even force the player to do the task by restricting all other options.
6) Minimize actions, environments, and options which do nothing.
I like to call these 'doors to nowhere'. If a player can't do ANYTHING with something, then either remove that thing, or make it obvious that thing goes nowhere or does nothing. This doesn't need to be immersion breaking, but it does need to be consistent. Having a closed door in the entrance of a unfinished area, or obvious barriers like road cones, would be an example. An open door, on the other hand, can show accessible content. Buttons can be greyed out for games with those. Players can end up wasting an enormous amount of time with these, so please don't mess this up, especially considering how many unfinished games are out there.
7) Saving should be quick, unlimited, and available anywhere.
As a general rule, frustration is pretty much the exact opposite of the feeling that a person should get from porn. Lack of saving ability tends to correspond directly with frustration. A player may wish to save for many reasons. Some of those might include re-watching scenes, or before taking on a difficult area. Sometimes they run out of time to play. Sometimes they just feel like it. Since no one knows but the player when he needs to save, the assumption should be the player might need to save anywhere, at any time, and should be accommodated. There are reasons to limit saves, like survival horror situations, but this is highly uncommon, and even then its debatable whether the game is actually made any better.
8) When deciding game difficulty, lean towards easier.
Difficulty is a hard thing to balance, because no matter what some folks will find a game too easy, and some will find it too hard. That said, when it comes to porn games, the reason people tend to play these is for the scenes. If the player can't GET to most of the scenes though, then there is a real question as to whether there is a point to the game at all.
9) The final version of scenes should be repeatable or rewatchable.
One of the reasons why I'm not particularly fond of VNs and heavy use of plot is the tendency of scenes to be one-time only affairs. There are some really, really great scenes out there embedded in plot but they can't be properly enjoyed because its too difficult or time-consuming to rewatch them. One way to fix this issue to make all scenes, or at least the final versions, watchable either in a gallery mode, or even better in-game, with appropriate context.
10) Add a sense of progression to scenes, particularly for corruption.
One of the great uses of context is to provide some sense that time is passing and change is occuring. A static image, as nicely done as it might be, isn't as sexy as that same image in motion. Animations obviously add a lot here, but even with just writing and effects the maker can impart the sense that something is changing and the scene is moving towards a climax. This is pretty much exactly what happens in real life with sex, so any scene that feels too static will end up feeling less life-like by comparison.
