With you mentioning how the cg is kicking your butt, in the past month I've accepted defeat regarding something I thought would be easy. I've given up on drawing background art for my own projects. I just can't enjoy it or put the time in it like I can with characters... not that I put as much time into character art as I should. I've tried different ideas, renders or other assets, but just putting in the time to make cohesive set of background is too much effort and time for me, but that's not what made me drop background art. Now that I've gotten to the point that I'm comfortable with coding and character art I will say I have shifted more of my focus into having a good 'workflow' as my priority, being able to be productive rather than just experiment with quality/skill. Avoiding background art may not be the best design choice for the type of project I'm working on (like many games, it has a story with scenes), but I don't think I could continue the project if I have to keep slowing down my workflow every time I need to make background art (as I want lots of locations). I have ideas on how I could still solve my background art need... but I've design my game so I can work on that at a later time, and what I've got now is good enough. tbd when I have to do more dynamic cg scenes with more poses in the future however.
As for the sex scene being boring, it reminds me why I actually got into adult game making. Trainer games, while they pose questions regarding morality, the fact that sex is their main game mechanic, and this is what really got me interested in adult games, and game making. For me, its hard for games to make sex interesting without what would basically be a trainer mechanic, which tends to introduce the morality issues that often don't fit the narrative of many games. As a result I've explored many options, complex to simple, and am currently exploring more of an roleplaying system... but due to how it is still similar to many trainer mechanics, requiring multiple sessions and character growth, something having a story will already have solved. so my system isn't a plug and play solution... unless you want you characters to be AI driven rather than story driven.
What I have been experimenting with is skill mechanics. Not quick reflex skill mechanics, just mechanics that require some extra effort from the player, effort that can be minimized by being efficient (finding efficient solutions being the skill). The more efficient (skilled) the player is (while still putting in effort), the more fun the game mechanic can feel (being in the zone) and if this matches up with the sex scene and the character's perception (ie reacting to things), the two concepts reinforce one another, positive feedback. The only issue is that the only mechanics (in my 2D game) I can think of tend to give off minigame vibes, so still not a plug and play solution. I'm actually using it to substitute for walking around the game world (and other mechanics) as a way of breaking up the story points, but that's because i'm trying to go for an rpg like world, not a vn.
Just thoughts, though may not be applicable to yourself. I just like hearing similar struggles to my own.
