The way of the NSFW Game Developer (?

[Sole]

Arcade, 3D RPG, and platformers ARE popular but arcade/platformers tend to be small in scale therefore done quickly, on this site that tends to mean they disappear from the radar(the updated section is the lifeblood of visibility on this site) fairly fast, 3D RPGs on the other hand I have no idea how you haven't come across a ton of these yet they're easy to find under the 3D CG tag.

As for FPS and TPS they're quite hard to make "good" not from a narrative/art standpoint but from a gameplay standpoint because trying to balance gameplay, avoid ending up with giant file size, and trying to prevent lagginess to the point of not being fun without a proper budget is a really massive time investment that'll probably never pay off. Plus yeah, they require a different not as relaxed mindset to play which can really reduce your player base, especially in the case of a full blown FPS title(I've seen a couple of popular completed TPS games in the past but no FPS games).

 

[Asukaki]

Where the money is going? That is an odd thing to ask.
It doesn't matter if the assets are expensive or if they are pirated.
Patreon is NOT kickstarter. Patreon is a way for people saying 'thanks' or 'keep doing what you are doing' kind of things. There are of course tiers and a few other reasons but that is basically it.
So, the money is like a thank you har for a dev in which the dev hopes it gets big enough to become a salary. And you are basically asking what they are doing with their salary.

Secondly, it is a VERY demanding 'hobby'. You're asking why someone who makes 2k can abandon his game? Because in most modern countries 2k is way below the minimum wage yet with 2k (which is only a few that get so high) it means you got a big following. Which in turn means a lot of demands, pressure, rage, negativity and so on.
So someone who went into this with high dreams suddenly realizing you are basically getting minimum wage, have to work MORE than a real-life work plus having your own real-life work to focus on and other obligations- will buckle under the pressure and abandon the meager 2k and go back to focus on his real-life work.
It has been seen many times now.

About your view on assets. You are simply being a bit naive and perhaps a tad arrogant.
First of all, no one can simply learn to sculpt, model and all those things. It takes a lot of time. And not everyone going to study several months (or even years) before they start on a journey that has less than 1% chance to become something big.
And what about when you get lucky and make the big bucks? Why not learn then? Because with big bucks comes a huge playerbase and a huge following. You won't have time to do stuff like that. EVEN if you already know how to make all those things from scratch it is not something you will do as it is time-consuming and it is better to get a ready-made object.
Sure spend a few days to make a tv. I will just buy the asset.

I feel like most of the things being told will simply be ignored.
A lot of new devs (hell, probably 99% of new devs) get into this business because they see it from the outside and think to themselves- "Damn, I can do that 100% better", "Why is he doing it like that?", "If he just did that or this.", "I would never do that or this.", and so on.
Reality will hit once you start your journey.
I wish you luck.

You are right in something, I am threating this as a paid hobby more than a job. that is why it seems to me that alot of the devs out there, are making waaay to much for what they do. (and yes, I am looking forward to do this as a paid hobby because I like naughty games)
but at the same time, that doesn't make sense. If anyone want to work in this "industry" you constantly need to be searching ways to optimize your workflow (You don't want tricky deadlines) because making games is time consuming (I mean actual games, sorry, not trying to be arrogant). So, with more reason if they are doing this for a live, they need to optimize their workflow.
As I said up there, Freebies are not meant to be used "as it is" and neither those cool looking morphs that daz market (and renderosity) sells, thinking about daz3d or any other program as a "plug and play" is just unprofessional.
don't know if you actually know those programs I mention before, but Makehuman, Mixamo Fuse, MB lab, and VRoid studio, are like daz3d, but without the paid part (no, they don't sell morphs, They only facilitate the creation of the character. adding genitalia and other things, would be on the devs part, and here you can say "that is alot of work/that doesn't looks suitable" well for a free program what else you want?)

And what about when you get lucky and make the big bucks? Why not learn then? Because with big bucks comes a huge playerbase and a huge following. You won't have time to do stuff like that. EVEN if you already know how to make all those things from scratch it is not something you will do as it is time-consuming and it is better to get a ready-made object.
Sure spend a few days to make a tv. I will just buy the asset.

If this is somewhat how most naughty games devs think, It may be why alot of them fail.
You first off learn how to kick the ball to make the professional shot, not viceversa. Because if you are lucky and you succeed, how are you going to maintain the standard without knowing the basics?, you will end up drowing yourself in stress for not knowing how to do things right. Forcing the developer to rely more and more on paid assets, and this is how they end up without making a profit, going nuts.

There is no short way to achived success, with what you said, you are somewhat implying that there is no need to learn about 3d to make games, at the same time that you are somewhat trying to justify most of the devs failures due to not having time for not knowing how to model a simple chair in 3Ds, Maya or blender. That is just nonsense, excuseme :|

 

[Asukaki]

I'm dropping in my personal experience as a newbie, not yet dev: I'm a decent writer with a lot of ideas in mind. I've written a couple short stories in the past but the time I tried to write a full on book, long story short, I gave up after a bit because I wasn't really feeling the "novel" medium (I'm more of comic book guy: a picture is worth a thousand words).

After playing a lot of the games around here and looking into how they were made, I finally decided to bite the bullet and I feel like I've found an interesting way to "give life" to my stories (I suck at drawing). I have 0 experience with modelling and image editing and am a broke ass college student, so yeah, I'm working with Daz 3d, pirated assets, GIMP and Ren'py since they have the friendliest learning curve for someone like me. Having to focus on college, I don't think I can afford the time to learn how to make everything from scratch. However, what I think I can do, and what I've been doing for a month since I've started is learn the ins and outs of Daz Studio and how to tweak and combine different assets and morphs to create unique characters and poses so as to not become another copycat with "Max from Big Brother" as protag and the daughter from DMD but with different makeup and height.

I already have a pretty solid storyline and characters planned out, their archetypes and traits, etc., so all I need is some time to slowly implement them into renders and a game. Time that would probably double or triple if I had to learn how to sculpt and model from scratch all while taking Engineering.

I'll see where this takes me and I don't plan on monetizing it if I ever release it, because I don't think it would be fair on the asset creators I pirated from. Yes I'm still diverting my time to it and time is money, but I'm loving working on this so I don't think I'll regret taking on this endeavour as long as I don't overwork myself on it. I'm treating it as a passion project. Most new devs may have something different in mind, though. Either looking to make a quick buck or in it for the long haul, the reality is a lot of people don't have the time and/or the money to do everything themselves out of nothing. Some go full on "rip-off, no effort" mode, others strike a good balance between using something made by someone else and giving it their own flavour.

There is a world outside daz. And you don't need to do everything for scratch. If you are using daz pirated models as a reference, i don't see the harm going commercial. But if you still feel somewhat bad about it, then, give a look at MB lab, Mixamo Fuse or Makehuman, they are just like daz. but without the morph market place.
Although Makehuman have free assets (Makehuman is 100% free, even a little bit of opensource) everything from clothes, moprhs, targets and tons and tons of tools to make your own things (from targets/proxies/morphs to clothes)

this is why I think most people need to know, there are good alternatives to daz. No need to pirate things, either need to make everything from scratch.

 

[Deleted member 78983]

You are missing my point, I guess.
Not that I want games for free, but just asking where does all that money, some of them make, go. you know, just for being curious and wanting to know if there is any other factor to be aware of before even starting to make a game.
It catched my attention seeing some of them making more than 20k per month while dropping updates between MONTHS.
If you ask me, that is alot of time for the conent in each update, so I thought I was missing some external factor but no, is just a poorly workflow or lack of knowledge (in most cases).

They use it for anything they want. Rent, new equipment or whatever. Why does it matter to you? You sound like you think developers are robots who sacrifice their free time just to make us games.

 

[Asukaki]

Arcade, 3D RPG, and platformers ARE popular but arcade/platformers tend to be small in scale therefore done quickly, on this site that tends to mean they disappear from the radar(the updated section is the lifeblood of visibility on this site) fairly fast, 3D RPGs on the other hand I have no idea how you haven't come across a ton of these yet they're easy to find under the 3D CG tag.

As for FPS and TPS they're quite hard to make "good" not from a narrative/art standpoint but from a gameplay standpoint because trying to balance gameplay, avoid ending up with giant file size, and trying to prevent lagginess to the point of not being fun without a proper budget is a really massive time investment that'll probably never pay off. Plus yeah, they require a different not as relaxed mindset to play which can really reduce your player base, especially in the case of a full blown FPS title(I've seen a couple of popular completed TPS games in the past but no FPS games).

Well, maybe this is the final nail in the coffin of my dream. ):
I have already a FPS rig mobile compatible that I can take from one of my prototypes (I am actually a game dev, I just looking for a paid hobby to spend more hours pooling my skills).
I can add it a dialog system on top to simulate a visual novel when interacting with npcs.
The FPS as it is, will have a less than a 30mb weight. I was considering in-game lewd cut scenes to avoid going nuts with compression and so on. but my main concern was how welcome the game mechanics would be.
And you are mentioning one of my worst fears Players not playing it just because is FPS.

Oh well, thank you.

Edit: Oh, for 3dRPG I meant something like zelda from the N64, or something like that, you get the idea.

 

[Asukaki]

They use it for anything they want. Rent, new equipment or whatever. Why does it matter to you? You sound like you think developers are robots who sacrifice their free time just to make us games.

omg chill lol

 

[DoomedForever]

There is a world outside daz. And you don't need to do everything for scratch. You are using daz pirated models as a reference, i don't see the harm going commercial. But if you still feel somewhat bad about it, then, give a look at MB lab, Mixamo Fuse or Makehuman, they are just like daz. but without the morph market place.
Although Makehuman have free assets (Makehuman is 100% free, even a little bit of opensource) everything from clothes, moprhs, targets and tons and tons of tools to make your own things (from targets/proxies/morphs to clothes)

this is why I think most people need to know, there are good alternatives to daz. No need to pirate things, either need to make everything from scratch.

I'll make sure to check those out, I went with Daz because of the popularity. Yes I'm using pirated morphs as a base to create unique characters, but I still wouln't have made it without them and the default Genesis characters don't offer as much creative freedom so I still feel like monetizing it would be a slight dick move.

 

[Asukaki]

I'll make sure to check those out, I went with Daz because of the popularity. Yes I'm using pirated morphs as a base to create unique characters, but I still wouln't have made it without them and the default Genesis characters don't offer as much creative freedom so I still feel like monetizing it would be a slight dick move.

Oh, I thought you were using them as a base for drawing reference.
But if you actually are using them for renders, then you will have the same problem with all those programs I mentioned, that with the default genesis daz3d.

 

[HopesGaming]

You are right in something, I am threating this as a paid hobby more than a job. that is why it seems to me that alot of the devs out there, are making waaay to much for what they do. (and yes, I am looking forward to do this as a paid hobby because I like naughty games)
As I said up there, Freebies are not meant to be used "as it is" and neither those cool looking morphs that daz market (and renderosity) sells, thinking about daz3d or any other program as a "plug and play" is just unprofessional.

You're saying 'waay too much money' yet how much should they make?
Do you know how the entertainment business work? This has been something that has always been the case since the beginning of the entertainment world.
Actors do not get paid millions due to a malfunctioned calculator. They get paid by millions because they are liked by millions.
Same with entrainment games. It is not by how much it cost to make the game but rather how many enjoy the game.

But out of curiosity. What is the limit a dev (or anyone for that matter) should have? I noticed people who dislike the amount of money someone makes always freeze with that question and say 'I mean, I don't care how much they make but..."

If this is somewhat how most naughty games devs think, It may be why alot of them fail.
You first off learn how to kick the ball to make the professional shot, not viceversa. Because if you are lucky and you succeed, how are you going to maintain the standard without knowing the basics?, you will end up drowing yourself in stress for not knowing how to do things right.

Indeed, you are actually somewhat right. People need to study a bit up before jumping into it. But you are way overshooting it. Your method will only lead to abandonment of a dream before it even gets realized.
People should learn how to write stories, composition, lighting work, coding, etc. (depends on what their project ofc.)
But what you are saying can be kind of like saying "If I want to make a living as a track runner, I have to learn how to make shoes." when in reality you should focus on learning proper running techniques and wearing proper shoes. No need to waste time on manufacturing the shoes.
Choose your battles.

don't know if you actually know those programs I mention before, but Makehuman, Mixamo Fuse, MB lab, and VRoid studio, are like daz3d, but without the paid part (no, they don't sell morphs, They only facilitate the creation of the character. adding genitalia and other things, would be on the devs part, and here you can say "that is a lot of work/that doesn't look suitable" well for a free program what else you want?)

I know some of those programs (other I had to google) and I can say to you this- use makehuman or any other programs that are designed for a game which require low poly characters on any of the current visual novels and you game will be mocked due to the graphics. For a game created for actual games then those are fine and actually required. Won't be able to get Daz high poly character to work on games that require real-time rendering. But for visual novels in which it is renders, you be a fool to use those. Not to add all the time it will take to create environments, poses, clothes, and whatnot.
"and here you can say "that is a lot of work/that doesn't look suitable" well for a free program what else you want?"

Yes, that is what I will and let me answer you what else I want;
Something that actually non-time consuming, looks suitable and works- Daz3d.
There is a reason why everyone is using daz3d. And it's not because people are mindless zombies that haven't gotten the realization you had, it because they already experimented and found out what works and what don't.

There is no short way to achived success, with what you said, you are somewhat implying that there is no need to learn about 3d to make games, at the same time that you are somewhat trying to justify most of the devs failures due to not having time for not knowing how to model a simple chair in 3Ds, Maya or blender. That is just nonsense, excuseme :|

There is no shortcut to success, that is true, but if you take it too literally and never go the smart ways you will forever be stuck in a road that only has the promise of success.

All major devs improve as they go. I personally and the ones I know.
But why waste time on learning to make a chair when you can get the assets. Change the texture of it easily. Change the shaders etc.
No reasons to go overboard learning stuff that takes away from the project.

 

[khumak]

There is no short way to achived success, with what you said, you are somewhat implying that there is no need to learn about 3d to make games, at the same time that you are somewhat trying to justify most of the devs failures due to not having time for not knowing how to model a simple chair in 3Ds, Maya or blender. That is just nonsense, excuseme :|

There's a reason software like Daz is so popular among adult indie devs. You don't have to be an artist to use it. This is also probably a big part of the reason that RenPy is popular among small time devs. It's free and easy to learn. A lot of people who try their hand at making these games have zero relevant experience when they start off so the learning curve is steep even with free, reasonably easy to learn tools.

Making a game takes a lot of work and requires skill in multiple unrelated disciplines (writing, graphics, and coding mostly). Making your own assets from scratch would add a 4th specialty as a requirement to that mix (artist). I'm sure there are plenty of artists who do try their hand at developing and they likely do either make some of their own assets or modify something made by someone else to suit their tastes, but people who don't have a talent for that are probably better off sticking to what they do well and buying assets from someone who is good at making them.

I've done enough rendering in Daz that I can usually achieve the result I want, but I definitely know where my weaknesses are. When I find a game I like, once I've done however many playthroughs I want purely for enjoyment, I will typically do another with more of a critical "development" perspective and ask myself if that scene I really liked is something I personally could replicate if I put my mind to it. Could I write a story as compelling as this? Could I create a render of comparable quality to this? Do I have any idea how the dev achieved these visual effects? Could I do an animation as convincing as this? Could I code an event of this complexity? Some of the time I can answer yes to those questions but some of those scenes I have to admit, I just don't currently have the skills to do that.

A game made by someone with a legit writing background is probably going to have a better story and dialog than an amateur like me could come up with. A guy with a background in photography and animation is probably going to be able to make much more impressive animations than I could ever come up with. A guy who actually has a real job as a software dev in the gaming industry is probably going to be able to create a game that requires more coding skill than what I could muster.

If I'm developing a game I'm going after the low hanging fruit first. What's the easiest way to shore up my weaknesses? Well I could buy assets made by an actual artist for starters... I could use a plugin with preset animation poses to create an animation that actually looks decent from someone with minimal skill at animations. If writing is your weakness that's harder to fix, you pretty much have to hire a writer to get around that. I think it's easier to get "good enough" at Daz and coding, but someone who is truely exceptional at those will still stand noticeably above an amateur.

 

[Deleted member 78983]

omg chill lol

Do you by any chance have Asperger's?

 

[215303j]

Like I said, I am really curious to know, where does all that money go. I even have seen some pretty good games, with huge support (+2k per month on patreon) going abandoned. why?

Where does it go? I suppose sometimes it goes into additional / better hardware, sometimes in hiring assistance. But I think most of the time it just goes into the guys pocket. But whether +2k on Patreon is good for you or not that is another question. In e.g. Russia it is a shitload lot of money. In Norway you can maybe buy your food for a month, or pay the rent, but not both. It also depends if you are living with your parents or if you need to support a family.

And why projects get abandoned, I think a lot of people underestimate the pressure and get burn-out or just get fed up with it.

In your opinion, why do you think, genre games like FPS, TPS, Arcades, 3D RPG, platformers are basiclly not that popular in the NSFW gaming community?, Is because you need a hand to fap? or because those type of game mechanics aren't that neccesary for the stories?

All of the above, adding any of those things would not make the payoff (adult story leading to, or including, sex) any better. If anything it would really distract from the experience.

 

[215303j]

I see, I just wanted to know if there was something I was missing (like external fees, taxes, investment in marketing or something like that). But good to know isn't the case.

Tax laws different between countries.
But I assume that in most cases, you'd be seen as a small business owner and get taxed accordingly.
That means you pay tax for the total income of your company (turnover) and then pay income tax over the salary which your company pays to you privately. Alternatively you could choose to give the shareholders (yourself) a divident instead of a salary, which is then subject to divident tax. What works best is up to you. Likely there are thresholds for all of the above and maybe as a small indie dev, you stay below the threshold and don't have to pay tax at all.

Well yeah you can make NSFW games for free. But the thing is they cost time for the developer they wont get back. I think it's only fair that they get some compensation for their work which we are enjoying for FREE on this site.

By that logic, contributors to this forum should also be paid by the devs for their "free" advice.
The financial advice I gave above cost me about 15 minutes, so 0.25 x $200 = $50. I'll send my Paypal via PM.

 

[215303j]

But out of curiosity. What is the limit a dev (or anyone for that matter) should have? I noticed people who dislike the amount of money someone makes always freeze with that question and say 'I mean, I don't care how much they make but..."

Personally I don't understand why e.g. Icstor makes the amount that they make. I mean, Milfy City is ok, but not ground breaking in any respect. Some other devs on the other hand make great innovative games, like Bright Sun Studios (IMHO), but are somehow unable to make it really profitable and eventually quit. This seems unfair and therefore makes some people dislike these bigger devs.

 

[khumak]

But out of curiosity. What is the limit a dev (or anyone for that matter) should have? I noticed people who dislike the amount of money someone makes always freeze with that question and say 'I mean, I don't care how much they make but..."

To me the more the better. If devs were making millions for adult games then we'd start getting AAA game studio caliber adult games. So while I might be a bit envious if I saw a game making $50k a month that I didn't think was very good, I say good for them. Obviously $50k per month worth of people out there disagree with me so apparently the game IS that good. I just don't personally like it. If I think I can do better then there's my incentive to try...

 

[Deleted member 78983]

Tax laws different between countries.
But I assume that in most cases, you'd be seen as a small business owner and get taxed accordingly.
That means you pay tax for the total income of your company (turnover) and then pay income tax over the salary which your company pays to you privately. Alternatively you could choose to give the shareholders (yourself) a divident instead of a salary, which is then subject to divident tax. What works best is up to you. Likely there are thresholds for all of the above and maybe as a small indie dev, you stay below the threshold and don't have to pay tax at all.

By that logic, contributors to this forum should also be paid by the devs for their "free" advice.
The financial advice I gave above cost me about 15 minutes, so 0.25 x $200 = $50. I'll send my Paypal via PM.

>donate to the dev of a free NSFW game requiring hours of work
>donate to some dude on the forums giving advice
I can't even believe you compared those two things. Your comment is clearly driven by emotion instead of rationality. Don't bother with trying to argue with me again. You embarrass yourself.

 

[215303j]

>donate to the dev of a free NSFW game requiring hours of work
>donate to some dude on the forums giving advice
I can't even believe you compared those two things. Your comment is clearly driven by emotion instead of rationality. Don't bother with trying to argue with me again. You embarrass yourself.

No need to get upset mate... Did you miss the ?

Obviously I'm here on the forum as a kind of hobby. I don't expect payment, even though I do think the advice given here for free on the forums (including, but not only, mine) is actually worth something.

If a dev starts out developing a game as hobby (which I think is healthy, especially if you happen to live in an expensive country) then maybe you shouldn't calculate how much money you should make based on an hourly rate either, because you'll likely be disappointed.

 

[Asukaki]

You're saying 'waay too much money' yet how much should they make?
Do you know how the entertainment business work? This has been something that has always been the case since the beginning of the entertainment world.
Actors do not get paid millions due to a malfunctioned calculator. They get paid by millions because they are liked by millions.
Same with entrainment games. It is not by how much it cost to make the game but rather how many enjoy the game.

But out of curiosity. What is the limit a dev (or anyone for that matter) should have? I noticed people who dislike the amount of money someone makes always freeze with that question and say 'I mean, I don't care how much they make but..."

don't know, you name it, I was looking at this as a paid hobby (That is what patreon is for, doesnt? excuseme if not, like I said, I am new to this). So, for a hobby I would say no more than 2k per month should do the cut, but looking at all responses, looks like you guys look at this as a way to make a living, so I would say, more than 4k would be fine (I am not from the US, with 2k is more than enough to live comfy in Japan, so, sorry I am wrong)

As for limits? threating this as a hobby and with the current situations (considering the content per update, the gap between updates and the income) I would say no more than 10k.
I mean, I have done complete games with 5k dollars Lol. So, yeah you can see why I am like WOW, this dudes make alot!!. the one game with most budget in which I have been part of. Had a budget of 50k So... yeah... you have an idea now why i am going nuts with how much resources some NSFW game devs seems to waste. (Disclamer, I DO NOT LIKE, bring that up on sites like this, because this leads to the "show me or you are lying" path, and I don't like it, and no I will not show you my "portfolio". sorry. Also, This info is based on personal experience when I worked in Japan, that may vary to anyone else expectations/experience).

Althought I never said that I am hating or complaining how much they make, I said (And keep saying) I was just curious to know if there was a special factor for the particular way this works for lewd games (Dude, I just saw a very suspicious behavior among most successful lewd devs, obviously I was going to ask, You know, asking for advice before diving in, I repeat I am new to this, I didn't know if there was a special tax for developing +18 games) Which turns out to be 'no'. Just a poorly workflow. I mean, cmon you have to admit, some devs look like they are actually milking their patreons, and read again, I said and quote the devs which patreons are higher than 20k per month.
For some reason, I've only had answers from developers (you guys) whose earnings are soooo much lower than what I originally quoted (no, I'm not trying to belittle you guys, you do a good job. it's just that seems I did touch a sensitive nerve with this issue and now everyone is jumping at me with what it seems to be, excuses. this is slowly getting out of control lol).
Just today, I realized this is a pirate site, my bad, I thought It was an Actual Forum for developers (I came here from Gamejotl, so I thought this was a forum for developers, I guess is not, lol, sorry my bad also for threating this site as a forum of NSFW game developers, I mean it kinda is, but it's not).

Indeed, you are actually somewhat right. People need to study a bit up before jumping into it. But you are way overshooting it. Your method will only lead to abandonment of a dream before it even gets realized.
People should learn how to write stories, composition, lighting work, coding, etc. (depends on what their project ofc.)
But what you are saying can be kind of like saying "If I want to make a living as a track runner, I have to learn how to make shoes." when in reality you should focus on learning proper running techniques and wearing proper shoes. No need to waste time on manufacturing the shoes.
Choose your battles.

This reminds me the old good one all devs some day use. No, you don't need to make your own engine, lol. Sorry for the laugh, is just that, I have been hear that ALOT (more in the recent years)
I said and you can quote me, "knowing the basics" referring to, there is no need to KNOW all about 3d to produce a pixar movie, but at least the basics outside Daz3d, will come handy. and also you can quote me saying "I don't blame if the devs are newbies, is okay". But when the guy/girl is making more than 20K? going for his 3rd 4th game? I mean Cmooooon lol.

I know some of those programs (other I had to google) and I can say to you this- use makehuman or any other programs that are designed for a game which require low poly characters on any of the current visual novels and you game will be mocked due to the graphics. For a game created for actual games then those are fine and actually required. Won't be able to get Daz high poly character to work on games that require real-time rendering. But for visual novels in which it is renders, you be a fool to use those. Not to add all the time it will take to create environments, poses, clothes, and whatnot.
"and here you can say "that is a lot of work/that doesn't look suitable" well for a free program what else you want?"

Yes, that is what I will and let me answer you what else I want;
Something that actually non-time consuming, looks suitable and works- Daz3d.
There is a reason why everyone is using daz3d. And it's not because people are mindless zombies that haven't gotten the realization you had, it because they already experimented and found out what works and what don't.

HA Gotcha!, you don't know those programs. They all have their base community in which they share props for the models. (for some of the programs, not so much but this is where those "basic knowledge" I talk about will come in handy. you can perfectly fit any 3d mesh "cloth" into any 3d model if you know what are you doing)
Makehuman goes a step futher and gives you the tools to make your own clothes, morphs, targets, proxies (All for free) the learning curve is easy. If not, then there is TONS of addons in blender to make cloths for any mesh. If not, then marvelous designer.
As for the poses and environments. Idk, be honest here, That what you said, makes me think you know little outside daz. Because I mean, is not like daz invented those concepts.
poses? sure, easy piece of cake, in a couple of clicks I can rig any humanoid character with blender, for free. (Even free and online with Mixamo). doing poses is just a matter of knowing how to move the mouse.
Enviroments? Speedtree for trees, Unity or Unreal have their own terrain tools to make stunish enviroments. You mean props?, pff, m8 welcome to internet, there are tons and tons adn tons of meshes (Free, not even the need to go the paid way) to design everything. You just need a minimun of knowledge of level design, no well, Not even that, you just need a reference or just having a good taste to place things, since you aren't doing an actual level for a game.

As for the "low poly not suitable", meh... No, on both.
higher poly count on a mesh is not synonimus of quality, yes this don't apply to ps1 graphics, obviously duh. But to make things look fancy, you don't need a higher poly count. If you were referring to smoothness and detail, well I present you something called subdivision surface and smooth shading. (You don't believe me? lol look the poly count of the models of Toy Story had back in 1995, maybe shaders are a little bit outdated, but sure the movie looks great).
remember Makehuman (and programs alike) gives you a base to work on, a starting point, I not mean any of this programs outputs (models) to be used as it is. but For the price of $0.00 Is not bad at all. And Even so, they (Makehuman) also give you for free, the tools to make morphs, proxies and targets (means more poly and details for your characters)

For how I write, looks like I am here to preach about the good news about makehuman and anyother software outhere to make characters LOL.

There is no shortcut to success, that is true, but if you take it too literally and never go the smart ways you will forever be stuck in a road that only has the promise of success.

All major devs improve as they go. I personally and the ones I know.
But why waste time on learning to make a chair when you can get the assets. Change the texture of it easily. Change the shaders etc.
No reasons to go overboard learning stuff that takes away from the project.

Oh no, you did not say that... did you read what you just wrote?. "There is no shortcut to sucess, that is true, BUT... why waste time on learning to make the assets? when you can get the assets. Change the texture of it easily. Change the shaders etc.".
That is just unprofessional. (...)
Okay, stopping being sarcastic; Knowing how things work does not mean that you always have to do them from scratch. I know how cars work, yet, I do not make my own car everytime I need to go to a far place. I just call an uber.
Knowing alot of different things about game dev, doesn't mean I must make my own game engine from scratch everytime I start a new project. But guess what, That does help me to be more productive.
you are saying that "... if you take it too literally and never go the smart ways you will forever be stuck in a road..." at the same time you are is somewhat way trying to justify why most of the NSFW game devs barely make a profit out of their "long hours" of work. hmmm... just to remind you, I was the one that bring that up, and i said "they need to optimaze their workflow". also, high poly meshes increase the time of renders unnecesary. that is all I gonna say. :|

 

[Winterfire]

My bad, I should say they are relatively cheap, I mean, outside "premium" daz3d assets, everything is cheap. I have even seen games with anime like characters from Vroid studio (which is free) doing great on Patreon (+2k per month).
Is up to the developer (and his/her skills) to decide if going the lazy-pay-for-everything plug and play way or the blender is my best friend way.

It is not about being lazy.
If you do not want to take forever, you cannot expect a solo developer to model, texture, rig, (...) each and every thing.
Some have tried successfully, but most just end up as abandoned projects.

Development alone is expensive, but I would not be surprised if they also consider it as their job.
At that point 2k would be your job pay + money to spend on assets.
If you start hiring or some of your hardware breaks up, that's even more money to spend.

 

[Deleted member 78983]

No need to get upset mate... Did you miss the ?

Obviously I'm here on the forum as a kind of hobby. I don't expect payment, even though I do think the advice given here for free on the forums (including, but not only, mine) is actually worth something.

If a dev starts out developing a game as hobby (which I think is healthy, especially if you happen to live in an expensive country) then maybe you shouldn't calculate how much money you should make based on an hourly rate either, because you'll likely be disappointed.

I don't understand what that has to do with anything I said. My point was that devs use their free time to provide FREE games for us and this guy is basically shitting on them for getting money as compensation for that free time.