The state of porn games

[zeref2211]

Feels like it's extremely rare for any good quality 2d games to show up here anymore compared to 5 years ago. Used to find at least 2-3 good games back then but now it feels like I can go an entire week without something good enough pops up that isn't just an update.

I feel like the ease of use of Illusion games studio mode to pose characters and make animations has made devs that would have made a game with drawn 2d images and animations use that instead and personally, I just find them to be low quality because they almost always have very stiff and robotic animations combined with the fact that anime characters don't translate to 3d well without looking weird.

 

[sanahtlig]

Most of the popular titles relying on pre-rendered 3D assets are using Daz3D, not Illusion studio mode. Steam won't even allow games using assets from Illusion games because those assets are unlicensed; they're for individual not commercial use.

You're basically comparing games made for free with commercial titles that are using licensed assets and/or commissioned artists. Of course there will be a difference in quality. I actually welcome tools like Daz3D because they outsource many of the technical aspects and allow games to have many, many more unique CG than equivalent games relying on 2D art.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

2d art is a bitch to produce. It's difficult, time-consuming, and expensive (via opportunity cost for the artist(s)).

And water is wet. But OP didn't get that memo apparently.

 

[Belphegor007]

Feels like it's extremely rare for any good quality 2d games to show up here anymore compared to 5 years ago. Used to find at least 2-3 good games back then but now it feels like I can go an entire week without something good enough pops up that isn't just an update.

I feel like the ease of use of Illusion games studio mode to pose characters and make animations has made devs that would have made a game with drawn 2d images and animations use that instead and personally, I just find them to be low quality because they almost always have very stiff and robotic animations combined with the fact that anime characters don't translate to 3d well without looking weird.

If someone is capable of drawing 2D art isn't going to waste time learning how to render 3D models or use models they can't put on steam.

You can't blame the art style, game engine, or lack of animations for the lack of good games.
Here's a thought experiment and let's say AI art is actually good in this scenario, theoretically with AI art there should be a deluge of well written or programmed games now that the most time consuming and costly part can be handled by AI.
However in reality all the AI art games are extremely low quality and are no better than the normal low effort content that usually shows up.

The boom of adult games is kind of just over.
Covid gave people more free time so more people supported games or tried to make one.
Also in the early days a lot of porn games were from Russia and Eastern Europe and right now they are too busy dying in a war.
Also extremely long dev cycles with small updates have been normalized by the largest and most profitable games so there is no real incentive to grind out quality content when you hooked in customers.

Finally games are much harder to make then they look.

 

[Crimson Delight Games]

The boom of adult games is kind of just over.

Respectfully, I would disagree. There's a thriving indie scene that's only getting bigger with time.

Finally games are much harder to make then they look.

Yup, that's true. Even the simplest kinetic AVN takes time to design + build + test.

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

Feels like it's extremely rare for any good quality 2d games to show up here anymore compared to 5 years ago. Used to find at least 2-3 good games back then but now it feels like I can go an entire week without something good enough pops up that isn't just an update.

Not my impression, TBH. Games made by (teams with) capable 2D artists are not a rarity.

Good games are a rarity, because it seems for every 10 capable artists we have maybe 2 good writers and less than one capable gamedev.

 

[Belphegor007]

Another thing wrong with game devs are they are extremely bad game designers.
I imagine almost none of them created a game design document or hell even a basic outline.
Far too often do you see devs remake their game, encounter issues because the engine they chose can't do what they want, or even switching concepts mid development.
This is less being an amateur and more an act of willing not bothering to even look at the game design process.

Another thing wrong with developers is the expectations of instant success and the unwillingness to invest in your concept.
So many games get cancelled because the first several updates didn't create a large influx of patrons or they didn't except how much money upfront you might have to pay to get things done.
Shit isn't cheap and sometimes a worse game then yours will be seen and make money while yours is obscure.
Also I would say a lot of version 1 of games released here should have never been done so.
You get one first impression a lot of times and if your game has a poor translation, bugs, and no content people will ignore it. Sadly sometimes people will just not see your game if it's launched on a day filled with a bunch of popular updates.

The expectations of porn games being profitable can also be hurt even more based where you live.
If you live in a Western nation you need to make way more money to make it a full time gig especially if you also pay other people.
People from South/Central America, SEA, and Easter Europe can get by with less.
There is also the expectation of the audience in how frequent and large and update should be.
There a quote a few well paid devs who will rarely update and give small amounts of content and those people can poison the well for those who might have an emergency and not be able to keep their usual schedule and people might begin to stop funding you from mistrust.

Honestly there a lot of reasons why games fail and why people might not even want to attempt to be a dev or just quit.

 

[Count Morado]

99.9% of the time, the problem of "the state of porn games" is not the porn games, but because the player has been playing in the genre so long, they require more simply to get the same feeling of satisfaction they did when they first started.

 

[Belphegor007]

99.9% of the time, the problem of "the state of porn games" is not the porn games, but because the player has been playing in the genre so long, they require more simply to get the same feeling of satisfaction they did when they first started.

I disagree, but I still believe there is still some truth to what you say.
So when I was young porn games were the rare translated Japanese h game or VN.
On the Western side it was a hobbyist hobby.
You had flash games, RPG Maker games that used porn from random images, html games/rags games using real porn, or text based inform games.
Back then the two big standouts were Legend of Opala which looking back is a very bad RPG as you didn't even have multi enemy hitting attacks, Princess Trainer, and eventually unamed text adventure which would later be called Corruption of Champions.
Most games were on blogs, legend of Krystal forums, or hongfire.

I would say porn games have came a long way since then, but I would say a lot of the random porn games that were hobby projects lost to time had some more passion then a lot of these games making much more money.
I do think people shouldn't be expecting an award winning story, complex game systems, or AAA graphics but people should expect more than the same exact incest game, same ntr game, same harem game that all use basically the same models and plot.

If you believe mediocrity and trash should be the standard then why would devs ever bother to improve or hell why would a dev who is actually talented want to receive less money and recognition than harem incest game #1006 that requires less effort then what they do.

 

[Geigi]

Oversaturation.

 

[AlternateDreams]

Feels like it's extremely rare for any good quality 2d games to show up here anymore compared to 5 years ago. Used to find at least 2-3 good games back then but now it feels like I can go an entire week without something good enough pops up that isn't just an update.

I feel like the ease of use of Illusion games studio mode to pose characters and make animations has made devs that would have made a game with drawn 2d images and animations use that instead and personally, I just find them to be low quality because they almost always have very stiff and robotic animations combined with the fact that anime characters don't translate to 3d well without looking weird.

I'm not sure there are fewer good 2D games now.
When you started getting interested in this kind of game, you had plenty of games to play. Those created the same year, but also those created all the years before.
Now, since you've already played most of the games you were interested in, you have to wait for new ones to come out.
That's why you have the impression that there are fewer games, when in fact it's always been like that: game development takes time, and not all the games that come out are good ones.

 

[Droid Productions]

Feels like it's extremely rare for any good quality 2d games to show up here anymore compared to 5 years ago. Used to find at least 2-3 good games back then but now it feels like I can go an entire week without something good enough pops up that isn't just an update.

If you're just using the Latest Updates, that's gotten gamified and flooded; a game going live there now is seen for ~3 hrs, after which is sinks into obscurity on the second page; you need to find a better way of finding the games you like