One Year of being NSFW game developer. Documentary/Learnings/Advices

[ViNovella]

Hi everyone! I'm Vinovella and it has been a year since I started working as an adult game developer. Here https://f95zone.to/threads/from-zero-to-nsfw-developer-in-3-weeks-my-story.29794/ you can see my first post on this forum about my progress just after 3 weeks of learning 3D rendering. Now I want to do the same but after a year.
What was my plan and how did it go? My plan was to go step by step. As you can see from the previous post I was just testing my skills by making a single playable scene. (Unfortunately, the link to download this old version is dead by now, reach me on the discord if you want to see it, I might be able to find this old build on a hard drive.) After having positive feedback for this single scene (and thanks to everyone for providing it) I continued to work on the next scene and scene after that… Until I had 5 full scenes ready. That took me another 2-3 months. With 5 scenes I had the content of one story day. I made the release and created a Patreon page and a page on F95.

At this point it was not about learning anymore, but about creating a project. During the learning time this test project formed in my head into a story with a long plan and lots of characters. My project didn't explode as some other projects do, but it was getting some support. At first, it was around $20-30, and after I made another release in a month and it increased to $100. At that point, I already met a partner to help me with writing and right after that, I invested in getting a proper rendering PC.

I established a 5-week working cycle that allows me to bring enough content and my supporters are getting something every month. I managed to keep the release rate and not breaking my schedule. We plan the story in advance so that when one release goes out we already have a story skeleton for the next one. We write a draft for every scene so that I can start rendering it, and the writer can already start working on detailed dialog. I prepare renders every day and my PC is busy with rendering fo 12-16 hours a day. In half a year I already busted one video card(cooler vent just broke off), but I got it replaced by the guarantee. Most of the time I render all five weeks, but last week is more intense with coding everything that was rendered and written together.

Main learning and advice for those who want to start doing this:

1. Figure out what is that you want to bring to this market. There are so many games out there, that you need to deliver something special. If you like some game it is not enough to make just something like it. You also need to deliver something new.
2. You need to have a lot of time and patience. It took me several months to learn and several more months before I got real support from people.
3. It is an extremely low chance to deliver something successful on your first attempt. I was lucky to have experience delivering(and failing) with common(non-adult) games, so I knew how to approach development.
4. Don't count on getting a quick buck. With ~240 patrons I'm in the top 500 adult games on Patreon. For now, considering the purchase of the computer, assets, and all the taxes I'm still in the minus. I'm counting to return my investments in 3-4 months. But considering that I'm spending all my free time on this is hard to call it a profit. If you would spend the same time working for someone coding, you would make 10 times that.
5. Yea about free time. To make it work I had to give up all the other hobbies and things I would like to do. I mean it is a hobby as well and I love doing it. But it leaves no free time for other stuff. It is literally a second job. And to make it work you need to treat it like that.

On the positive side, I do enjoy a lot working on my story and being able to deliver something new and make some people happy. It feels great to hear positive feedback and to hear how people are discovering things in themself by playing the game. I also like a lot working with a team as discussing ideas about the story and our characters and future plans. And compared to my "real" job I love the feel of ownership and I'm proud to be able to do something on my own, that does not belong to my boss.

At the moment I'm working on release 0.09 that would be the ninth release of the content and right now I have 240 patrons on Patreon and 3 subscribers on SubscribeStar. On itch.io my game was sold ~20 times for a total of ~$50. This way Patreon is still the only way to earn something. I consider my project a success and I'm going to work on it further and develop myself as a professional. Still, to be able to replace my day-time job it would need to grow 5-10 times.

COVID-19. On the topic of the situation in the world. My project is not affected that much by me sitting more at home. It also not helps as well, since I was using the time that I spent outside to render things. What is affected is my "main" job that brings real income. I will only have it till the end of May, and so far I wasn't able to find the new one… But I hope to find one and at the same time to grow FL.

I hope this would be interesting for those who want to start working as a developer and also for those who play our game, to have insights on the process. Ask me anything or share your thoughts!

 

[MangoMeta]

Yeah here's a question, why is your game called fetish locator when you made the MC the biggest cuck you could? Just with that you blocked off so many fetishes, that and all the girls being complete whores.

 

[ViNovella]

Yeah here's a question, why is your game called fetish locator when you made the MC the biggest cuck you could? Just with that you blocked off so many fetishes, that and all the girls being complete whores.

I don't think you actually need an answer since you already made up your mind about the game. There is no NTR in the game as of yet, there is Netori where MC has sex with someone's girlfriend.
But I don't want to have a discussion here about the fetishes. There are many people like you, who go very far to show much they hate a certain fetish. I get it. I hear you. Anyway, there will be NTR in the game among other fetishes. But the game is not about it at all.

 

[lcp]

Thanks for telling that story! It's motivating and real.

 

[Selek]

Ask me anything

Thanks for taking the time to post this; I found it very informative. I've been messing around with Daz, ZBrush and Renpy, but I'm not sure I have the time to follow in your footsteps, fun as it sounds. I hope you don't mind, but I do have a lot of questions:
1. Do you make your own art assets, or download free ones, or some combination of both? I confess I haven't played your game, but it does look interesting -- well-illustrated and well-written, judging by the previews and your writing here.
2. How much VRAM do you have on your new graphics card, may I ask? I have only 4G VRAM on mine, although so far it seems to render in Daz well enough...
3. I'm guessing modeling, posing and rendering are the biggest time sinks -- more than writing and coding?
4. Should one consider having a dedicated rendering PC so that one could do "regular stuff" with another PC? Or is it feasible to minimize Daz and do other things (work, games, email) while things render? So far I do the latter, but I'm not sure if multitasking slows down renders more.
5. Is there anything you would have done differently? (Apart from starting with a faster video card, lol.)
6. Finally, is it a challenge to stay anonymous? Does Patreon make it easy to stay anonymous?
Thanks in advance!

 

[MangoMeta]

I don't think you actually need an answer since you already made up your mind about the game. There is no NTR in the game as of yet, there is Netorare where MC has sex with someone's girlfriend.
But I don't want to have a discussion here about the fetishes. There are many people like you, who go very far to show much they hate a certain fetish. I get it. I hear you. Anyway, there will be NTR in the game among other fetishes. But the game is not about it at all.

There's no"I made up my mind," its you made up my mind with the horrific start with the way you made the MC. You don't honestly believe you couldn't of made the MC less of a cuck do you?

 

[ViNovella]

Thanks for taking the time to post this; I found it very informative. I've been messing around with Daz, ZBrush and Renpy, but I'm not sure I have the time to follow in your footsteps, fun as it sounds. I hope you don't mind, but I do have a lot of questions:
1. Do you make your own art assets, or download free ones, or some combination of both? I confess I haven't played your game, but it does look interesting -- well-illustrated and well-written, judging by the previews and your writing here.
2. How much VRAM do you have on your new graphics card, may I ask? I have only 4G VRAM on mine, although so far it seems to render in Daz well enough...
3. I'm guessing modeling, posing and rendering are the biggest time sinks -- more than writing and coding?
4. Should one consider having a dedicated rendering PC so that one could do "regular stuff" with another PC? Or is it feasible to minimize Daz and do other things (work, games, email) while things render? So far I do the latter, but I'm not sure if multitasking slows down renders more.
5. Is there anything you would have done differently? (Apart from starting with a faster video card, lol.)
6. Finally, is it a challenge to stay anonymous? Does Patreon make it easy to stay anonymous?
Thanks in advance!

Hey, sure I don't mind answering! I got a lot of help myself when I was starting! Also, drop by at my Discord, I'm always answering there.
1. Assets. Yes, when I was just starting I had the same problem. I had no idea where to get them. There are some free tools that would let you create basic surroundings for free. For example here is one tutorial - https://f95zone.to/threads/creating-custom-rooms-for-daz3d.27389/. Also myself I first get an asset in a pirated version before I buy it. I have probably around a terabyte of assets, but I use only a portion of that.
2. When I started I was working on a laptop with 6GB VRAM. I made the first two days of the game on it. It was not possible to use it while it was rendering. Well maybe read an email, but not watching youtube. Now I have 2080TI with 12GB of VRAM.
3. Well actually I suck at writing, I have someone who is helping me with that. I'm not a native English speaker and I do a ton of stupid mistakes. But yes I render for all 5 weeks. Coding is a small part, but still also an important one. For my current usual work, I create 8-15 scenes in a day and they are all rendered during the night.
4. With My current PC I can do stuff during rendering (like watch youtube), but not play games that use video card heavily. I still prefer to render during the night. Sometimes some operation can cause an error in Daz and kill a long-running render...
5. I probably would create fewer characters in the begging. Now I'm much better at creating a new model, but still, the most important characters are the oldest models. And I had to recreate a couple of them.
6. That is not a problem. You just need to be careful.

 

[Selek]

ViNovella , thanks for taking the time to reply. Thanks also for the link to that room tutorial. I appreciate it, because I'm interested in making mostly my own assets: not only surroundings, but also body and face shapes (morphs), clothes, poses, animations. I have experience with making many of those things. And I think I write reasonably well. I'd need to buy things like fancy shaders, though; I have no idea how to create those. I don't have a lot of experience making normal maps for skins etc either.

Wow, congratulations on your new video card. If I pursue this seriously, that will have to be an early upgrade for me.

I assume you use a batch-render script at night; I see some for sale at Renderosity etc. If, as you mentioned, Daz encounters a problem, I assume you'd still salvage whatever renders the script managed to work through?

 

[ViNovella]

ViNovella , thanks for taking the time to reply. Thanks also for the link to that room tutorial. I appreciate it, because I'm interested in making mostly my own assets: not only surroundings, but also body and face shapes (morphs), clothes, poses, animations. I have experience with making many of those things. And I think I write reasonably well. I'd need to buy things like fancy shaders, though; I have no idea how to create those. I don't have a lot of experience making normal maps for skins etc either.

Wow, congratulations on your new video card. If I pursue this seriously, that will have to be an early upgrade for me.

I assume you use a batch-render script at night; I see some for sale at Renderosity etc. If, as you mentioned, Daz encounters a problem, I assume you'd still salvage whatever renders the script managed to work through?

Sure if render is finished is it saved on your hard drive. But some images can take up to 2 hours to render. Like the one, you can see at the top of this post. This was created very recently and it took 2 hours. On the assets matter, it is very cool if you can create your own assets, I would love to be able to do something like that, but I only use now assets made by other people. I would not be able to release my amount of content if I would create all assets manually. I can imagine that big projects might be able to have several people in the rendering team, where one can be focused on just creating assets...
Also, you need to figure out what do you want to create, maybe you want to focus on making and selling assets. That is also a cool thing. If you want to make a game, I don't believe you can't do it by only using your own assets. You have to find a compromise here.

 

[Honey Tales]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Selek]

If you want to make a game, I don't believe you can't do it by only using your own assets. You have to find a compromise here.

Yep, I can already see that. I've spent a couple of days trying to build a presentable female character from scratch, just using the Genesis 8 female, morphing her with ZBrush, creating hair in Daz, and posing and lighting her in Daz. Lots of work. Also, she looks good in a standing pose -- but if I lie her down, say, I need to change her hair and body shape, as her boobs hang to the side, etc. Do you have dozens of different shapes for each one of your characters?

Anyway, building a character alone seems like a lot of work. And I haven't even begun to think about clothing for her. Still, each of these tasks is very fun, at least to me. As you say, I'll have to find a compromise if I pursue this.

 

[GNVE]

Hey thanks for your story. Bit of a cautionary tale while also inspiring.

 

[mommysboiii]

Thank I love your game. I know there are some haters but keep up the good work hope this project is long that we get a lot of content and even if guys will hate me for this I love lydia and I cant wait how many mens want her and get cucked

 

[Krynh]

Yeah here's a question, why is your game called fetish locator when you made the MC the biggest cuck you could? Just with that you blocked off so many fetishes, that and all the girls being complete whores.

If you don't like the game, why are you on a thread about it?

 

[PJWhoopie]

This is very ironic... because I just got around to trying your game out... I have downloaded a few versions... I had .15, 7 something, and I got 8.

I REALLY like the game. Hats off for coming up with something unique and keeps the interest going (just like you say in you OP above).

Keep up the good work... it is getting better with every release!