SURVIVAL JOURNEY of a H game DEV

[polkaStudio]

SURVIVAL JOURNEY of a H game DEV

What is this thread?
I am a unimployed broke H game developer.
This is my journey trying to survive as a H game dev.


Why share this story? What for?
I know that there are a lot of H game devs.
Tons and Tons pop out daily.

For some it's for money, others for fun, or they just feel kinky.
For me, it was all three.
Anyways reasons aside...

What I have wished was that there to be more people sharing their story.
I did publish my first game. but I had gone through so much trouble.
And I still can't grasp a clue.

Problems I had
* Always having doubts that I can make any money
* Got banned on pixiv fanbox
* Got banned on gumroad
* Took 2 months to get my game on DLSite
* Had no clue how to market
* Still not making any money

H game dev is a shit show.

I just wish that someone would lay a road for others.
Share how they market, share how much revenue they make.
All I want is somebody to share the shit we go through.


What will I share?
* My survival as a H game dev
* Marketing tactics
* Revenue
* Thoughts
* Anything Helpful

This thread will not include game devlogs or links of my game. Nor is this for marketing my game.
I will make a game devlog on another thread. Check that if you are interested.
But this thread is not for marketing my game.

I am thinking of sharing my revenue and marketing of my first game as my next post.
I am still a noob. and know nothing worth sharing. but still it might be a guiding light for some.

Good luck for all the H game devs out there. Godspeed!

 

[bethrezen0]

 

[AlternateDreams]

If you're interested in marketing/revenue and that sort of thing and your game is posted on F95, you should ask for a developer badge to access the private forum.
There are lots of developers sharing information about these subjects.

 

[Pitrik]

You're in the right place to have some fans and maybe success

 

[polkaStudio]

HAHaHa!!! XDXD What makes this funny is that you are absolutely right.
I was actually a backend developer. Worked there a year, but did not work out.
I also wanted to be self imployed and make games in the side of my head.. so here we are.
I have a bit of money to pour down the drain. XD

If you're interested in marketing/revenue and that sort of thing and your game is posted on F95, you should ask for a developer badge to access the private forum.
There are lots of developers sharing information about these subjects.

Never knew that there were private forums in this place.
Thanks, will ask one day, I am still a noob here testing out the ropes.

You're in the right place to have some fans and maybe success

Thanks mate! Wish that was the case.

 

[polkaStudio]

Progress Report
Disclaimer : I do not claim that I am a good game creator that knows better.
I just want to share information to help others and get information too.
My sales is shit anyways XD

Product
The first game I have made is a BDSM, Kink game.
I grew up playing skyrim sanguine debauchery... so you get where this is coming from.

I would say that quality is "Meh".


It took me
1 month to create the game.
1 month to market the game.


Marketing
I have tried multiple channels of marketing.


Channels that I have tired
xvideo
eporner
iwara
motherless
pixiv
deviantArt
twitter
rule34video

Regulations

• Most do not like links.
• Some have more regulations on bdsm than others.
• Some do not want the video to be like a "gameplay".
• Some do not want watermarks.

I can get much more deep on what I have learned trying these channels.
Ill share that another day.

Profit

84$ (itch.io)

426$ (61000 yen) (dlsite)

Total of 510$

What worked?
I wouldn't call this as "worked".
But it did give me a glimpse of hope.

Pixiv + itch/gumorad

In pixiv, you can link your own website.
I have linked directly to my itch.io game.
If you post gifs, do post it like a gameplay.
They convert way better and lead the viewer curious.

DLsite
I see a lot of potential in DLsite itself.
Even when days that I have done almost no marketing,
DLsite would sell my product at least once a day.
I believe that with enough rating, the algorithm will boost the product.

No luck with major porn sites
Most of the major porn sites did not work at all.
If you see in the screenshot above, the views were like 3~5k.
But no conversions was made.
Ill have to try this out again another day.

Not worth the hassle?
You would say that 510$ for all this work is not worth the hassle.
You are absolutely true. I doubt myself in the daily.

But if you check out DLsite, there is money on the line for lewd games.

This game (one of my favorates) has sold over 68000 copies on dlsite.
You might say that this is a one of a kind "Unicorn".
But I know that there are tons and tons of these games that gets sold over the thousonds.
Even with shit quality.

Believe me, there is money flowing here.

Currently
I am currently busy creating my second game.
I have some plans that I hope will work.

Plans

1. Finish my second game
2. Try out f95zone to advertise
3. Try out Ci-en to advertise
4. Try out Reddit to advertise
5. Try out Twitter with a different strategy
6. Try out more aggresive advertisement on pixiv, deviantart

I will talk about the plans and the game I am working on next post.

Good luck.
Enjoy life.
GodSpeed.

 

[polkaStudio]

Progress Report
Disclaimer : I do not claim that I am a good game creator that knows better.
I just want to share information to help others and get information too.
My sales is shit anyways XD

My new game

slaves of Nautika
https://f95zone.to/threads/slaves-of-nautica-hardcore-bdsm-spank-whip-slave-devlog.227001/

Also follow me on Ci-en if you are interested.

• You must be registered to see the links

I will let you know when the demo is out.


Currently
Currently writing devlogs on f95 and on ci-en.
Not having good results so far, but I will keep consistent.

Plans

1. Finish my second game
2. Try out f95zone to advertise O
3. Try out Ci-en to advertise O
4. Try out Reddit to advertise
5. Try out Twitter with a different strategy
6. Try out more aggresive advertisement on pixiv, deviantart

Next post
Next time, I will try to share my marketing plans for this game.
Wish me best of luck.

 

[polkaStudio]

Progress Report

Previous Marketing
I have been thinking of how to market games.
And have came up with a idea on how to get mass visibility.

itch.io visits

Now this is the graph of my itch io account.
When I did advertise on pixiv, I have got about 100 visits per day.
I had a 1% buy rate so 1 buyer per day.

Pixiv views

This is my pixiv posts.
Now, pixiv has some fluctuation.
Averages about 4000 views per post.
I have done 1 post per day.

So the numbers would be
1 pixiv post

• pixiv : 4000 views
• itch : 100 views
• purchase : 1 game

This is how my previous marketing went.


New Marketing Plans
These are my new plans to market "Slaves of Nautika".

1. Mass posting on pixiv
Now, if 1 pixiv post = 1 purchase,
why not post 10 posts per day?
This is a stretch, but you get the idea.

Q. won't pixiv ban you?
Now, pixiv will have algorithms that detect mass spamming,
but I can create multiple accounts if that comes to my attention.
I will start small just to be safe. And I wish this was not the case.

Q. But how will I create good content (gif) in mass?
If I do not create good content (fappable), the view of each post will drop drastically.
For this I will use 3d magic.
Same animation. Change the cosmetics. Change the camera angle. Record again. Now you have infinite content.

So the plan would be

• Create 60 animations (2 per day for 1 month)
• Create 10 pixiv gif posts per animation (600 posts)
• Post 3 posts per day (200 day worth content)
• Automate posts with pixiv premium

2. Obtain Fanbase
While watching others make a living on dlsite, I have stubled on multiple twitter accs.


Q. Why do we need a following? Cant we just make gud games?
Peole simply do not care about me or you.
But for the few "fans" that do care about my product is much more valuable then the mass public.

If I can keep contact with the "fans",
they will come back when I create the next game and the game after that.

And I hope that way, I can make a consistent living and survive.
It is also great to have a boost of sales for the dlsite algorithm.

Q. How will you get a following? Just showing others does not make you one.
At one point, I will have a playable demo of my game.
Now if you know twitter, I can firewall people to follow me in order to see my tweets.

Protected posts on twitter / ci-en / discord


So in order to play my free demo,
customers will be forced to follow me on twitter, ci-en or discord.
I am hoping this gets powerful with the combination of pixiv mass posting.

Plans

1. Finish my second game △
2. Try out f95zone to advertise △
3. Try out Ci-en to advertise △
4. Try out Reddit to advertise
5. Try out Twitter with a different strategy X
6. Try out more aggresive advertisement
   1. Create 60 animations in game
   2. Create 10 pixiv gif posts per animation
   3. Mass auto post on pixiv, deviantart
   4. Firewall demo on twitter / ci-en / discord

△ : Currently working
X : Failed


We can do this H game devs.
Don't give up.
GodSpeed.