Others RPGM Should I start over or contunie ?

[Warthief]

Hello everyone, i am not sure if this the best place to post this,
anyway i am making this game Flames of Desire and i feel like people didn't like the game so much, this is my 1st project, the game still early in development but my plans for the project are big that why i am confused about should i cnotunie, stop and start over with small project or maybe find some people to help me because the project feel huge for singel dev tbh.

if anyone here is dev with experiance i will appreciate any adviace .

 

[Synx]

Thats completely up to you, we cant decide for you.

First off if your main plan is to make a living, thats a bit the wrong mindset. Making a porn game is a massive gamble if it will take of or not. Secondly if money is your biggest drive you will lose motivation fast when the game doesn't take off or isn't getting enough support.

If you want to make a game you should make one you want to make, and not try to please everyone. You can ofc listing to feedback, but dont make feedback your main drive.

For now I would just look at your own game; Do you think its going well, or have you learned a lot and see a lot of mistakes you have made? Or do you still got a ton to learn? If the game is overwhelming you (which sounds like it is), it might be a good idea to start over fresh with a much smaller premise.

But in the end its up to you. We cannot decide for you.

 

[Warthief]

Thats completely up to you, we cant decide for you.

First off if your main plan is to make a living, thats a bit the wrong mindset. Making a porn game is a massive gamble if it will take of or not. Secondly if money is your biggest drive you will lose motivation fast when the game doesn't take off or isn't getting enough support.

If you want to make a game you should make one you want to make, and not try to please everyone. You can ofc listing to feedback, but dont make feedback your main drive.

For now I would just look at your own game; Do you think its going well, or have you learned a lot and see a lot of mistakes you have made? Or do you still got a ton to learn? If the game is overwhelming you (which sounds like it is), it might be a good idea to start over fresh with a much smaller premise.

But in the end its up to you. We cannot decide for you.

Thank for feedback, well you right in the end is up to me but i aske because i fread this can go to nowhere, after all i am not making a game to play it myself its for the people,
if you see the game post here it didn't get so much attention and many of the feedback talk about the game feel kinda anoying,

so i want to know if it possible to fix this mess and keep working on it or i should start over with simpler game, other option is to have people help me if the game promising but that can change the vision i have but it help alot cause i am working on many things like story, art, development ... and my time is limited, i am progressing slowly but i can't reach my goals in time, nut like you said i start to feel the game is overwhelming still i can keep up if people are interested or the game have chance to succes else i am getting myself tired for nothing.

for money well i will lie if i say i don't want to make money from it but you can see at least for now in early development i don't really care about money because it clear the game is not in good state and i understand that no one will support a game in this current state, also you can see i am not even working in my patreon, i am sharing the game here, the game is free in the patreon, and overall i am really trying to have money support right now i need just to have more feedback about the game,
i am fan of video games and if i was very interested in money i could have walked very easy path but if you try to play the game you can see that i am trying to walk the hard path to make a good playable game.

 

[MidnightArrow]

I think you should spend a bit of time learning about lighting and postworking a scene. I took a stab at fixing one of your event stills, but there's only so much I can do since the original wasn't lit well.

Spoiler: Original

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Spoiler: Adjusted

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If you still have the scene files I recommend rerendering them with spotlights on the figures and the exposure value turned up (or down, can't remember which) to a good level. Then take the renders into Photoshop, Gimp, whatever and postwork them to give them that hazy, sandy vibe.

 

[Warthief]

I think you should spend a bit of time learning about lighting and postworking a scene. I took a stab at fixing one of your event stills, but there's only so much I can do since the original wasn't lit well.

Spoiler: Original

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Spoiler: Adjusted

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If you still have the scene files I recommend rerendering them with spotlights on the figures and the exposure value turned up (or down, can't remember which) to a good level. Then take the renders into Photoshop, Gimp, whatever and postwork them to give them that hazy, sandy vibe.

My rendering quality is not good i am still learning but yes i start to understand the more light the better, att he start i wanted to make day/night and the environment light but as someone who not very used to rendering i start to evoid that and focus ony on making the renders look good with light.

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[Klauw1988]

I've learned a few things in my life. Many people have different taste and preferences and you can't satisfy everyone. Maybe the idea you had, was just only for a selective of people and not the majority. Is this a bad thing? Well, it depends. Does it affect you? Brings it down the moral to continue? Like Synx said, if money is the biggest drive, then you can lose very fast your motivation.

Money should also be a secondary thing. First you need to build up a fanbase, something that people want to play and want to have. If people doesn't like your game, ask them why with arguments. Only this way you can learn from it.

As for the renders, they look fine in my opinion. They aren't great but also not ugly to look at. Many games use the same quality renders as you did, which is fine. We are all hobbyist and not some triple AAA developers with a big budget. But to be honest, when I create renders, I also think it's not good enough.

I also want to start with a novel, for almost a year now. I haven't started yet, because i'm still learning and I also think that my renders aren't good enough. I also have the feeling that people might not like what I want to make. So, I also invested a lot of time in improving my renders. It's always easy to give some good advice and say "Oh, your renders looks fine" and meanwhile i'm not proud of what I made myself.

Everyone has this kind of unsecured feeling in their life and we can't do anything about it, so it shouldn't demotivate us. If I was in your shoes right now, I would ask the opinions from people who played your game, put all the feedback together and then decide if you wanna start all over or continue your work. You can also give your whole work a overhaul, that could also work. So you don't have to start from scratch.

Here is one of my most recent render. It cost me months to get to this point and I still think it isn't good enough. But it shouldn't demotivate me. Two of my characters i've created.

Spoiler: My render

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Here are more, i'm going to post some more renders soon. Give it a look, and see how even I can improve with renders without any expierence in gaming development.

https://f95zone.to/threads/what-do-you-guys-think-about-my-renders.110866/#post-8124357

You could also make more "cartoony" renders, which also kinda looks cool. I'm also experimenting and it seems that many people do like it.

Spoiler: Render cartoonish 1

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Spoiler: Render cartoonish 2

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[Warthief]

I've learned a few things in my life. Many people have different taste and preferences and you can't satisfy everyone. Maybe the idea you had, was just only for a selective of people and not the majority. Is this a bad thing? Well, it depends. Does it affect you? Brings it down the moral to continue? Like Synx said, if money is the biggest drive, then you can lose very fast your motivation.

Money should also be a secondary thing. First you need to build up a fanbase, something that people want to play and want to have. If people doesn't like your game, ask them why with arguments. Only this way you can learn from it.

As for the renders, they look fine in my opinion. They aren't great but also not ugly to look at. Many games use the same quality renders as you did, which is fine. We are all hobbyist and not some triple AAA developers with a big budget. But to be honest, when I create renders, I also think it's not good enough.

I also want to start with a novel, for almost a year now. I haven't started yet, because i'm still learning and I also think that my renders aren't good enough. I also have the feeling that people might not like what I want to make. So, I also invested a lot of time in improving my renders. It's always easy to give some good advice and say "Oh, your renders looks fine" and meanwhile i'm not proud of what I made myself.

Everyone has this kind of unsecured feeling in their life and we can't do anything about it, so it shouldn't demotivate us. If I was in your shoes right now, I would ask the opinions from people who played your game, put all the feedback together and then decide if you wanna start all over or continue your work. You can also give your whole work a overhaul, that could also work. So you don't have to start from scratch.

Here is one of my most recent render. It cost me months to get to this point and I still think it isn't good enough. But it shouldn't demotivate me. Two of my characters i've created.

Spoiler: My render

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Here are more, i'm going to post some more renders soon. Give it a look, and see how even I can improve with renders without any expierence in gaming development.

https://f95zone.to/threads/what-do-you-guys-think-about-my-renders.110866/#post-8124357

Yes one of my problem i didn't have so much feedback, most of the feedback is in the game post here, my problem is not money like i said before is like you said the game didn't hook so much people, i know everyone have his taste of games and i am not trying to make everyone like the game i am just trying to make good playable game but with no feedback it hard to know how i move what i should maybe change or even find things like bugs because i can't make and teste the game.
after i end and release the next update i will see more people reaction here,
about renders yes my skills are bad but i hope i can improve over the time .

 

[Klauw1988]

Yes one of my problem i didn't have so much feedback, most of the feedback is in the game post here, my problem is not money like i said before is like you said the game didn't hook so much people, i know everyone have his taste of games and i am not trying to make everyone like the game i am just trying to make good playable game but with no feedback it hard to know how i move what i should maybe change or even find things like bugs because i can't make and teste the game.
after i end and release the next update i will see more people reaction here,
about renders yes my skills are bad but i hope i can improve over the time .

Then I would say, continue with the game. Release updates on regular bases and be active on the forums. Build up a name first, this is your first novel. If it isn't perfect, then so be it. This is just a learning progress, build up a name first and then collect feedback. And then start with your second novel.

Your game needs to be more "populair", this can only be achieved by updating your game on regular bases and promote your game.

Also don't make your project to complicated, start small. You said that you have big plans, well maybe you should start small and put some idea's you have in your second novel.

 

[Warthief]

Then I would say, continue with the game. Release updates on regular bases and be active on the forums. Build up a name first, this is your first novel. If it isn't perfect, then so be it. This is just a learning progress, build up a name first and then collect feedback. And then start with your second novel.

Your game needs to be more "populair", this can only be achieved by updating your game on regular bases and promote your game.

Right here you hit the point that confuses me, i made big plans for this game and it need so much time and it gonna be very hard to do, imagine the city map i am working on right now is just the start, i plan for big world many other big citiesn dungeons and huge story (i know this is dumb for first project),
that the main reason i start to think of making other simple game while i work slowly on this on the background but with limited time this is hard.
making simple game will not be fun for me because that not what i want even if it the easy path to build fan base ...
contunie makingt this game will somehow make me feel like i am wasting my time especialy if the game don't have fan base.
anyway thank you for the advice !

 

[Klauw1988]

Well, it depends how you look at it. If you start with a "small" novel, you gain expierence, gain feedback and even make a fanbase. Which will give you even more motivation to make a bigger novel, or even find people that are willing to help you.

I have exactly the same issue as you, I also have big idea's for my novel but I don't have the experience yet for some idea's that I want. I'm going to build my novel in Ren'py and I also want to have a "sandbox" expierence, different locations, different story lines (based on choices) and a complete stat system. For example, you can only unlock a certain part of a story if the character have a certain shyness or exhibitism level, which unlocks new choices and story lines.

But I have zero expierence in Ren'py. So, many of my idea's are just to much for me to code, so I will lose very fast my motivation.

But everyone thinks different about it. Well, hopefully you will make it. I'm going to follow your novel, so I can follow all the updates. I'm also going to try out your novel soon. I don't know when, hopefully this week and I will give you some feedback.

 

[Warthief]

Well, it depends how you look at it. If you start with a "small" novel, you gain expierence, gain feedback and even make a fanbase. Which will give you even more motivation to make a bigger novel, or even find people that are willing to help you.

I have exactly the same issue as you, I also have big idea's for my novel but I don't have the experience yet for some idea's that I want. I'm going to build my novel in Ren'py and I also want to have a "sandbox" expierence, different locations, different story lines (based on choices) and a complete stat system. For example, you can only unlock a certain part of a story if the character have less shyness or made certain choices.

But I have zero expierence in Ren'py. So, many of my idea's are just to much for me to code, so I will lose very fast my motivation.

My advice will be start small don't fall in the trap i fall into and now i am stuck in losing everything i made and start new or keep going, i am not so bad with RPG Maker yet because i added all this many stupid mechanics that work on eachother and because i made sstupid mini game people didn't enjoy it,
if you have story do it small simple and clean so you could finish it and move to thenext bigger projects.

 

[XforU]

I tried your game.

There are some issues you need to address but I don't think you should start over.
There are somethings you should rework and polish in 0.1 before you move onto 0.2 though.
Imo you should reduce the scope of the game, adding big cities that are as empty as the current one isn't a good idea..
Scrapping a project when it's a 0.1 is a bad look so I'd advise you to continue.

Good luck!

 

[rayminator]

more light the better

wrong more light is not the right answer

the right answer is balance the lights and darkness

example of this image that MidnightArrow did



she/he put too much light in it cancelled out the blue sky that you had in place she/he had turn it to a white sky

here is mine

 

[anne O'nymous]

anyway i am making this game Flames of Desire and i feel like people didn't like the game so much,

Well, no rating and just a three pages thread in one and half year, even for a RPG maker game it don't feel good effectively. But...

[...] the game still early in development [...]

Precisely it's still in "0.0.1 test", after one and half year. And during this time you haven't said a word or whatever. You disappeared from the thread in September 2020, to reappear only in February 2022. What were you expecting in between ?
RPG Maker is an unliked engine, the game at this time was in version 0.0.09, and you disappeared, not giving news regarding the development for a really long time. For 99% of the persons who past through the thread after october 2020, it was probably seen as yet another abandoned game, something that don't worse even being tried.

But look at what happened when you started being involved in the thread. Half a page in more than one year, then two pages since February, a compressed version (not really needed since the game is below 1GB) and even a translation. Still no rating and few comments, but except one idiot who believe he's everyone, people were mostly positive.


What you need is to be more involved and let the time do its job.
If a month pass without a new comment on the thread, post one, saying that you did this, finished that, are working on that thing, whatever show that you're still here and still working on the game. And do not let pass again one and half year between two updates. It's something that even the biggest hit can't afford to do. So, a nearly starting game...
And be patient. Not this many people play a game at such early stage, especially when it feel like the game was abandoned once. It will need time, a lot of time, before more people try it, start to talk about it together, and the game grow in popularity.

 

[Warthief]

Well, no rating and just a three pages thread in one and half year, even for a RPG maker game it don't feel good effectively. But...




Precisely it's still in "0.0.1 test", after one and half year. And during this time you haven't said a word or whatever. You disappeared from the thread in September 2020, to reappear only in February 2022. What were you expecting in between ?
RPG Maker is an unliked engine, the game at this time was in version 0.0.09, and you disappeared, not giving news regarding the development for a really long time. For 99% of the persons who past through the thread after october 2020, it was probably seen as yet another abandoned game, something that don't worse even being tried.

But look at what happened when you started being involved in the thread. Half a page in more than one year, then two pages since February, a compressed version (not really needed since the game is below 1GB) and even a translation. Still no rating and few comments, but except one idiot who believe he's everyone, people were mostly positive.


What you need is to be more involved and let the time do its job.
If a month pass without a new comment on the thread, post one, saying that you did this, finished that, are working on that thing, whatever show that you're still here and still working on the game. And do not let pass again one and half year between two updates. It's something that even the biggest hit can't afford to do. So, a nearly starting game...
And be patient. Not this many people play a game at such early stage, especially when it feel like the game was abandoned once. It will need time, a lot of time, before more people try it, start to talk about it together, and the game grow in popularity.

Thanks for the positive replay, yes i agree that i did some mistakes, i had some RL problems with covid so i needed to look for new job ..., and after evrything start to work again i get new PC because my old one was not good for rendering at all,
but my new job consume so much time and energy so i still don't have so much time, it hard to post updates and stuff like that because i prefare to use my free time working on the game and many things could change in developments, but i agree having this dev notes and updates are very importint to keep the thread alive and more people can see it, i even notice that there is no many people have seen the game, i also think the title banner is very generic no one will open it if they see it in last updates .

 

[Eezergoode]

As was stated above, if you are already having problems, you may want to dial back the scope a bit. Many people fail at this simply because they take on too large and complex a project for someone relatively new to the field.

Also keep in mind, that success for even a good game is not guaranteed. Even the best games sometimes need a little luck to get rolling.

Very few devs make an instant hit with their first game. I'm not saying it never happens, bit it is extremely rare. BUT if you can complete a game, and stay in communication with the players, that buys a lot of goodwill and builds your reputation as reliable. Even if your first game is horrible (I'm not saying it is, I have not looked at it yet) just completing a game is farther than many, maybe even most, do. And that can impress some people enough that they may take a look, and might even help or support a second game.

This is not something to get into if you are after quick or easy money. There is nothing quick or easy about making a game, even the shorter ones can take a ton of time and work.

Many of us have never released a game, although a lot of us have MADE them. I've made several over the years, but I haven't made anything for RELEASE since.. well, a long damn time ago, I think it was um... 1987 maybe? '88? And never anything like a visual novel or narrative driven adventure game.

My advice? Stick to it, try to stay in touch with your audience, and take what you learn making this game and come back stronger on your next.

 

[Warthief]

I tried your game.

There are some issues you need to address but I don't think you should start over.
There are somethings you should rework and polish in 0.1 before you move onto 0.2 though.
Imo you should reduce the scope of the game, adding big cities that are as empty as the current one isn't a good idea..
Scrapping a project when it's a 0.1 is a bad look so I'd advise you to continue.

Good luck!

That the plan for now, i will countine developing the game and after i finish act1 i will see the result.
at the start i plan for like 3/5 acts and every act will have big capital city like the one i am making now with like 5 villages and 2 smaller cities in the same kingdom than move to the next one in act2, with dungeons and open areas.
but from what i seen act1 alone will take me at least 4 years so, yes i will reduce the scope of the game.
i didn't want to fill the maps with decoration and npc with no interaction because there is some things i am not sure of like npc movment and things could be added in the future, but after i finish the city and the storyline there i will fill the empty spaces and make the city feel alive.

 

[Warthief]

As was stated above, if you are already having problems, you may want to dial back the scope a bit. Many people fail at this simply because they take on too large and complex a project for someone relatively new to the field.

Also keep in mind, that success for even a good game is not guaranteed. Even the best games sometimes need a little luck to get rolling.

Very few devs make an instant hit with their first game. I'm not saying it never happens, bit it is extremely rare. BUT if you can complete a game, and stay in communication with the players, that buys a lot of goodwill and builds your reputation as reliable. Even if your first game is horrible (I'm not saying it is, I have not looked at it yet) just completing a game is farther than many, maybe even most, do. And that can impress some people enough that they may take a look, and might even help or support a second game.

This is not something to get into if you are after quick or easy money. There is nothing quick or easy about making a game, even the shorter ones can take a ton of time and work.

Many of us have never released a game, although a lot of us have MADE them. I've made several over the years, but I haven't made anything for RELEASE since.. well, a long damn time ago, I think it was um... 1987 maybe? '88? And never anything like a visual novel or narrative driven adventure game.

My advice? Stick to it, try to stay in touch with your audience, and take what you learn making this game and come back stronger on your next.

Its not about success or hit, like i said i am very early in devlopment so for sure i don't expect such thing to happen,
my problem so far that the game didn't get so much attention and i am afraid if all the effort i am making for it will be wasted, so it could be much better if i start over with something new and easy for me because the path i am walking with this project is very hard,
i try to make many systems and activities in the game, and making maps, characters sprites and battelers with Daz also consume so much time.
but like you said and many others in this thread i should contunie what i started but also reduce the scope of it and see the result.

 

[Eezergoode]

Well, I played the game, and while I am not a huge fan of RPGM games, I did like a lot of what I have seen so far. My biggest recommendations are:

1) Work on your lighting in your renders. The models aren't bad, and the posing isn't bad, you just need to fix your lighting. ITRoy and several others have some great lighting tutorials on YouTube, you may want to start there. This is something I still struggle with, but I'm a little... non-gifted... in the visual arts.

2) Find a native English speaker to fix/adjust your dialogue. While it is mostly understandable, the flow is very off from the way the language is actually spoken in most English speaking countries.

3) Work on your pacing. Some story elements seem to come a little fast, and other times it seems to drag a bit compared to other parts of the story. It's not a huge issue, by any means, but it can feel a little jarring. This is just my opinion, of course, but i feel things should start a little slower, and build towards a faster pace as you progress through the story, or that part of the story. "Fluffing in" a little extra dialogue would fix a lot of the pacing issues i think, for example, when your father confronts you the morning after the wedding party, it goes by very fast. I myself would have made that conversation last a little longer, with more back-and-forth between father and son, but again, that is just my opinion.

 

[Warthief]

Well, I played the game, and while I am not a huge fan of RPGM games, I did like a lot of what I have seen so far. My biggest recommendations are:

1) Work on your lighting in your renders. The models aren't bad, and the posing isn't bad, you just need to fix your lighting. ITRoy and several others have some great lighting tutorials on YouTube, you may want to start there. This is something I still struggle with, but I'm a little... non-gifted... in the visual arts.

2) Find a native English speaker to fix/adjust your dialogue. While it is mostly understandable, the flow is very off from the way the language is actually spoken in most English speaking countries.

3) Work on your pacing. Some story elements seem to come a little fast, and other times it seems to drag a bit compared to other parts of the story. It's not a huge issue, by any means, but it can feel a little jarring. This is just my opinion, of course, but i feel things should start a little slower, and build towards a faster pace as you progress through the story, or that part of the story. "Fluffing in" a little extra dialogue would fix a lot of the pacing issues i think, for example, when your father confronts you the morning after the wedding party, it goes by very fast. I myself would have made that conversation last a little longer, with more back-and-forth between father and son, but again, that is just my opinion.

Thank you for trying the game,
1- yes i am noob with Daz overall, still trying to learn, i will try to see the youtube channel your recommend .
2-Still hard now for me to manage having other team members but if the game start to make money, i will need to have team members because the project plans are so huge and i can't finish it without team members, especialy a writer, almost all of my sex scene have 2 version of 1st time and the next, and every scene have chance to fail so i need to write 4 dialogues for every scene with my bad english ...
3-The pacing is very hard to work on because i am making open game not linear one,
i try to fill the world of many events and every event have it own story line, some can connect other don't so it depend on how the player play the game .