Recommending Story-first games

[yossa999]

I want to present a hypothesis and see if anyone else feels that that connection has merit.

We have a number of people who find sex scene animation to be critical to the games they like. I was thinking today:
Is the emphasis on such animations likely to be a product of the immersive fappers (who play "porn games")?

Someone had made an observation this week that a great animation is not worth it if it delays progress in the story.

This got me to thinking--perhaps developers of good story based AVNs have less need to spend the time and effort on animations, choosing instead to do the still renders to advance the story rather than slowing down the process.

I know there are a number of story based AVNs that also put a lot of effort in animation, but perhaps they could be considered outliers.

Thoughts?

One reason I'm curious is that since I'm writing projects that are heavily story based, do I really need to perfect my animation skills at this point or can I pretty much ignore that expectation because my intended audience will be less attached to that aspect?

Although my opinion may be biased here (yes, I'm a Summer's Gone fan), I dare say that the story-related animations, if done well, give the game a unique charm and look and and also brings the story to life.
I really like the cinematics in Summer's Gone. Many of them are very erotic, but they don't have to be. What I think is more important, they are ideally suited to a certain points in the game's plot, some of them increase immersion in the current scene, add emotion to it, or focus the viewer's attention on a certain aspect that the author would like to highlight. Some, on the contrary, are finalizing a certain part of the story, leaving the player on an emotional cliffhanger. And some of them serve as an interlude between different parts of the story. Many of them are built around songs, and when the song matches the story, it's the perfect combination of song, animation, story, and emotional message.
Is it possible to do without such animation? There is no doubt. But the game will lose some of its charm and beauty. The next compromise will be rendering quality and scene composition. 3D design software doesn't work well with multiple characters at the same time, let's make the scene less crowded. And in the end, you will have lifeless empty streets on your screen, as if there is a post-apocalypse. I'm sure we've seen this many times in many games. After all if the story is the only thing that matters in the game, why bother with graphics at all, maybe it's better to write a novel Or to make something like text-based The Higher Society.
And yeah, I think if you care to attract this "immersive" part of the audience, the story alone won't be enough, even if it's a damn good story. You have to give them something animated and exciting to lure them into the story and make them love it. “came for the fap, stayed for the story” is a very common statement in BaDIK reviews on Steam.

 

[Dragon59]

9 out of 10 dentists f95ers here will disagree with you Man, I've lost count of how many times I've been told that this is a porn site, and that complaining about a certain game sacrificing story for the sake of porn is like complaining about the violence of Mortal Kombat. With this mindset of the audience, sex scenes will certainly benefit any story-based game, and their absence will lose you a part of the audience. Sad but true.

Probably not 9 out of 10 in this thread, though.

 

[bacienvu88]

9 out of 10 dentists f95ers here will disagree with you Man, I've lost count of how many times I've been told that this is a porn site, and that complaining about a certain game sacrificing story for the sake of porn is like complaining about the violence of Mortal Kombat.

Fortunately there is a rather big audience outside of f95. Unfortunately it is much harder to get noticed in the flood of games coming to Steam etc. Is there some site similar to f95 but dedicated to story-first games (sex or no sex)?

With this mindset of the audience, sex scenes will certainly benefit any story-based game, and their absence will lose you a part of the audience. Sad but true.

Most certainly not true. Almost every game thread has lots of posts of the "is kink X optional?" variety or "is LI Y optional?" and of course the feared dicks that doesn't belong to MC. There should be lots of sex scenes; but only of the kind *I* like.

 

[yossa999]

Fortunately there is a rather big audience outside of f95. Unfortunately it is much harder to get noticed in the flood of games coming to Steam etc. Is there some site similar to f95 but dedicated to story-first games (sex or no sex)?

Not that I know of. Single topics pop up occasionally here and there on itch or reddit, but I wouldn't compare them to f95, it's much bigger and more community-like.

Most certainly not true. Almost every game thread has lots of posts of the "is kink X optional?" variety or "is LI Y optional?" and of course the feared dicks that doesn't belong to MC. There should be lots of sex scenes; but only of the kind *I* like.

Yeah, it seems that those who almost have a panic attack when another man enters the room are the most demanding and loud. But there are also vanilla sex scenes that will be to liking of the majority. And the lack of even a few of those scenes in the game will likely push off some of that majority before they get hooked on the story. I've been following the Summer's Gone and Hillside threads long enough to be sure about this.

 

[Michelangelo da Mouso]

if you don't care about getting paid, you can do whatever type of game you ideally want. It's your game/creation.
But if you want to get paid to create, there are factors to consider probably.

I was wondering about that a moment ago in another thread.

What factors/elements do you think a game should have to become successful in Patreon?

I see a lot of games in this list that are abandoned, or the dev is barely making money while producing what it seems a good quality game

 

[Dragon59]

Not that I know of. Single topics pop up occasionally here and there on itch or reddit, but I wouldn't compare them to f95, it's much bigger and more community-like.


Yeah, it seems that those who almost have a panic attack when another man enters the room are the most demanding and loud. But there are also vanilla sex scenes that will be to liking of the majority. And the lack of even a few of those scenes in the game will likely push off some of that majority before they get hooked on the story. I've been following the Summer's Gone and Hillside threads long enough to be sure about this.

Or two women look at each other more than 3 seconds.

 

[camube]

I was wondering about that a moment ago in another thread.

What factors/elements do you think a game should have to become successful in Patreon?

I see a lot of games in this list that are abandoned, or the dev is barely making money while producing what it seems a good quality game

i'm baffled with Summer Heat's success on patreon. so whatever they're doing
it has no story, so far

 

[jamdan]

I was wondering about that a moment ago in another thread.

What factors/elements do you think a game should have to become successful in Patreon?

I see a lot of games in this list that are abandoned, or the dev is barely making money while producing what it seems a good quality game

Most people play games for porn content. See all the harem games that are very successful, loli/shota too. It's one of the main reasons that many games are more or less copies of the same tropes. Once you've played one, you've played them all.

So I think the general formula is good art + good porn content = more likely to be successful. Sometimes games don't even need good art if they have certain fetishes (again, mostly harem + loli/shota).

On animations, I've mentioned it previously on other threads, but I think they're almost always a waste of time. The time it takes to make good animations is better used on more story/renders. Even for sex scenes, I think more renders would make them better than short looping animations assuming the developer knows how to compose the scene properly.

 

[Michelangelo da Mouso]

i'm baffled with Summer Heat's success on patreon. so whatever they're doing
it has no story, so far

Haven't played it, but will do.

Most people play games for porn content. See all the harem games that are very successful, loli/shota too. It's one of the main reasons that many games are more or less copies of the same tropes. Once you've played one, you've played them all.

So I think the general formula is good art + good porn content = more likely to be successful. Sometimes games don't even need good art if they have certain fetishes (again, mostly harem + loli/shota).

On animations, I've mentioned it previously on other threads, but I think they're almost always a waste of time. The time it takes to make good animations is better used on more story/renders. Even for sex scenes, I think more renders would make them better than short looping animations assuming the developer knows how to compose the scene properly.

By harem you mean "let's get all girls fuckable in one seasonplay?" or could baDIK be considered harem too, even if it's in many gameplays?

About animations, i'm starting to believe that even if the "time invested on animations" vs. "value added to the story" may be a controversial topic, I also notice that pornhub and porn video portals tend to feature these animations. some pornhub baDIK videos have over +100k views. Summer over +1M. That's a lot of exposure for game developed by a single person. And may bring potential patreons that are not that into the plot/story, but into the visual aspect.

Thinking outloud: maybe animations are a decisive feature of the success of a game when you contemplate the full picture?

 

[Mravac Kid]

Thinking outloud: maybe animations are a decisive feature of the success of a game when you contemplate the full picture?

I'd say animations bring production value up, and that translates to more attention from a wider audience. After that, it's a cost-benefit situation, can the developer do animations quickly enough and in sufficient numbers to keep it going. I would rather have quicker updates without animations.

 

[turbojoe]

It's already listed, as are all Tora games

Oh man - should have looked at your list before

 

[Hildegardt]

Fortunately there is a rather big audience outside of f95. Unfortunately it is much harder to get noticed in the flood of games coming to Steam etc. Is there some site similar to f95 but dedicated to story-first games (sex or no sex)?

Discussion forums in general have been dead since forever. Piracy is their last remaining niche and forums in turn their refuge, because piracy is generally forbidden in the centralized internet. Add to this that porn games are a bubble, in which people are much more accepting of the Patreon model and drip-fed updates. Outside of this bubble people are looking to pirate specific (fully finished) games, instead of keeping up with recent updates.

In terms of non-porn choice based games, I'd hope that all of them are story-first, because they wouldn't have much else going for them, right? There are tons of free ones on the Play store. For low budget choice games I'd recommend Delight Games (their app is even conveniently called "Choice Games"), "Game of the Gods", "Magium" and "A Void Society" (but I'm not sure how free this one is anymore).
Choice based games are pretty mainstream, though, so any place that discusses games in general will include them. If they're text based, VNs, fully rendered or real time rendered is probably more a function of their budget than anything else. Disco Elysium for example, the absolute pinnacle even if you include oldschool table top inspired CRPGs, could have been a VN for all intents and purposes.

 

[bacienvu88]

Disco Elysium for example, the absolute pinnacle even if you include oldschool table top inspired CRPGs, could have been a VN for all intents and purposes.

Disco Elysium is one of those games that have all the things I want in a good RPG-ish game. But somehow I can never finish it. One thing I like about (A)VNs is that the narrative structure of the game is fairly fixed. In almost all RPGs the focus is mostly on exploration and combat. This makes pacing and lots of stuff needs to be in order (e.g. all dialog trees are mostly independent).

By the way, another game that is very story focused but in a more free form format is

You must be registered to see the links

. It is sort of a Hogwarts simulator. It is a shame that it hasn't garnered more interest. And if you don't want to play I recommend this

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. And the author of that, Bobbin Threadbare has a pretty good

You must be registered to see the links

where he alternates doing let's plays, reviewing old movies and books and he also has a lot of discussion on story-telling from an author point of view.

A Father's Sins has been added to the OP. I've been enjoying it for a long time, just forgot to add it, I guess.

If you're not familiar with the game, it's heavily story-driven with little to no choices or sex. It's great

Thank you very much for the recommendation. It is indeed great. I love the story-telling toward the end with the switching perspectives. It is pretty intense.

 

[jufot]

Thank you very much for the recommendation. It is indeed great. I love the story-telling toward the end with the switching perspectives. It is pretty intense.

I'm glad you liked it! It is indeed quite intense. I love the fact that I can't tell what'll happen next.

 

[kataris]

Hey there! Thanks for the awesome list.

I was wondering, if this list is still being maintained, would it be possible for it to be split into Complete and Incomplete games?

 

[Tlaero]

Quite often, I'll come up with a story either while I'm asleep dreaming, or in those moments before I fall asleep. My brain starts coming up with stories.

For me, the absolute best time for creativity is when I first wake up, but I don't have to get out of bed yet.

The moments before I fall asleep could be good, but if I think about a story I'm working on, it keeps me awake.

As for animations or not, I suggest making the game you want to play. Hopefully you'll find like-minded souls who like the same kind of thing you do and will enjoy your work. But, in the end, the most important fan of yours should be you.

(Unless you want to make a lot of money. For that, do incestuous tentacle rape of teenage high school students or something...)

Tlaero

 

[jufot]

Hey there! Thanks for the awesome list.

I was wondering, if this list is still being maintained, would it be possible for it to be split into Complete and Incomplete games?

I'm glad you like it! Over the years, there have been requests to change the list one way or the other, but I'd rather keep it simple like this. I'm afraid you'll just have to click through the links

 

[Dragon59]

For me, the absolute best time for creativity is when I first wake up, but I don't have to get out of bed yet.

The moments before I fall asleep could be good, but if I think about a story I'm working on, it keeps me awake.

As for animations or not, I suggest making the game you want to play. Hopefully you'll find like-minded souls who like the same kind of thing you do and will enjoy your work. But, in the end, the most important fan of yours should be you.

(Unless you want to make a lot of money. For that, do incestuous tentacle rape of teenage high school students or something...)

Tlaero

That reminds me of the combination of popular comic book genres that gave us the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Seriously, thanks again.

 

[jufot]

OP-listed Short Sad Stories has its fourth chapter out on F95! Patreon is on chapter 5

 

[noping123]

You know, I was thinking about this thread today as I was writing. I thought to myself "You know, I bet jufot would play the first release of my new game and go 'Yea, ok, maybe. I'll have to see more' and then play the 2nd and go 'Oh fuck that, I'm out!' "

Anyway, I'm looking to take a short break tomorrow and play *one* game through (God knows my backlog is big enough), but I decided I wanted something very story heavy. So if you (You being anyone who reads this really) had to recommend just *ONE* game, what would it be?