You keep saying I need to do what I want to do, not what people prefer.
What mean the story
you want, the way
you want, in the style
you want, with the elements
you want, on the engine
you want, and with the game mechanics
you want.
But what I want to do is create a game based on people's preferences so I can learn from the experience.
And, from my decades of experience in software development, I'm really not sure that you'll learn much that way.
Like you said that, for you, whatever the game engine, it would be the same, it mean that you don't have much to learn on the coding side. You also said that you've already made few games for yourself, so you already have a relatively good view regarding the development process. You still haven't done it with a deadline to respect, and the pressure coming from the public, but this is a small issue in regard of the rest.
This mean that what you've to learn regarding game making regard the artistic part. Therefore, according to the questions in your poll, all the points that will not be fully on your hand. This will prevent you to find your own style, both for the story pacing, the writing and the visual.
Worse, whatever you can say, you'll feel in the obligation to fulfill those inputs, what will add more pressure, and the chances are high that you'll end like any devs who relied too much on their patrons input, abandoning your game after a burnout.
Nobody wakes up and creates their dream game without experience.
~95% of the devs on the adult gaming scene started with absolutely no experience. Around half of them started with the game they dreamed about, and the quasi totality of them didn't studied the market prior to their first release. And yes, this include DrPinkCake, HopesGaming and PhillyGames. Three devs who raised the bar with their games.
Of course, those three are an exception, they have an artistic talent, it help. But that talent is what make them stand out, not what made them successful. It's their dedication to their dream, their obvious care and love for the game they are making, that made their success. Two things that can only come from a story and style that is yours from starts to stop.
So, if I already know my first game is going to be a shithole, at least I'll try to make one that a lot of people will play so I get a lot of feedback.
Feedback that will have near to no value.
Not only the number of peoples that will give you a complete feedback (something more than "it's shit" or "it's good") is relatively low. But in top of that they'll talk about something that will not fully be yours, since your game, writing and style will change depending on the demand you'll get from your patrons. This simply because you'll never be in position to know if the error come from what was asked to you, or from the way you did it.
Incidentally, if you starts with the idea that what you'll do will be a shithole, why even starts ?
Even the guy who made the cheapest shitty game that can be available here thought that he was going to do something at least average. Even the guy who made the most hated game available here thought that the public would like it.
And the fact is that both were right. There's people who see the cheapest shitty game as being something good, and people who like the most hated one.
Making a game is a creation process, and no one starts a creation thinking that it will be shit, while no one can achieve a creation if he think that it's shit. You embark for a journey that will need months, be exhausting, and cut off a big part of your social life. If you don't believe in it, you'll never find the moral strength needed to go to the end of that journey.
Hope now you understand better my point of view and the reason.
Where you're the more wrong is in believing that I haven't understood both right from the starts.
