To all my fellow devs who are brave enough -what grinds your gears?

[HopesGaming]

So we hear a lot of complains and discussions from players (as there should be, of course)
But it would be fun to hear a bit from a different perspective so any, (brave enough) devs on what grinds their gears.

What grinds my gears:

When people blindly download a game without reading tags, reviews or comments and then complain that the game is not how they dreamed of it being. (NTR devs have the hardest time here)

When people still have no idea what the purpose of patreon is and think it is some kind of Kickstarter site and start making accusations towards anyone making some earnings.


This is not a flame thread btw and anyone is allowed to share their thoughts.
Just a fun little thing to see things from a different angle.

 

[Winterfire]

patreon's guidelines being vague

 

[Domiek]

People using their own definitions for widely accepted terms.

OMG wife fucked her husband, NTR alert!!!

 

[HopesGaming]

People using their own definitions for widely accepted terms.

OMG wife fucked her husband, NTR alert!!!

I had a guy complaining that my game was turning into NTR because the MC had a colored friend.

 

[BeCe]

The only people who annoy me are those who think I can deliver a 100,000 word epic every month by myself... as a hobby. Even then that's relatively rare.

 

[HopesGaming]

patreon's guidelines being vague

Honestly, I've seen that a couple of times too but never understood it.
Bestiality, incest, and rape.

Granted, they are too fast on closing down a patreon account.
Remember someone reported phillys game (didn't break any rules what so ever) and they blocked his patreon page. Probably without even looking if the reports were valid.

The only people who annoy me are those who think I can deliver a 100,000 word epic every month by myself... as a hobby. Even then that's relatively rare.

The moment you release a game. In the mind of some players- there is nothing called a hobby, free time, a real-life work, real-life responsibility.

You are expected to work and release updates at the same rate as the devs who are now doing this full time with top hardware.
Just part of the dev life, haha.

 

[FFCreations]

Yeah blindly downloading my game and not realizing what they’re downloading. I.e not reading tags or anything.

Another one is Patreons hatred towards NSFW creators. I mean why even bother marking yourself as NSFW when they’re still gonna give you shit for it.

And lastly is when people expect our LINEAR visual novel to have hundreds upon hundreds of different routes that players can take. I don’t think they realize how much extra work can go into a single additional route. And most of those complaints come from non-Patrons, so they’re not even financially supporting the game in order to make that become a reality.

 

[HopesGaming]

Yeah blindly downloading my game and not realizing what they’re downloading. I.e not reading tags or anything.

Another one is Patreons hatred towards NSFW creators. I mean why even bother marking yourself as NSFW when they’re still gonna give you shit for it.

And lastly is when people expect our LINEAR visual novel to have hundreds upon hundreds of different routes that players can take. I don’t think they realize how much extra work can go into a single additional route. And most of those complaints come from non-Patrons, so they’re not even financially supporting the game in order to make that become a reality.

The problem with the last one is that new devs tend to take it at heart.
Since at the start it is easy to create choices and paths they then make a ton. But later when the content is needed for those paths it gets chaotic.
Each path needs proper content.

 

[DarthSeduction]

Commenting on a thread for a game you don't intend to play to let everyone know you don't like, female protagonists, NTR, or any other tag. Dear players, not every product is meant specifically for you.

Use of homophobic or otherwise derogatory language to refer to any protagonist who isn't John Rambo.

 

[FFCreations]

Commenting on a thread for a game you don't intend to play to let everyone know you don't like, female protagonists, NTR, or any other tag. Dear players, not every product is meant specifically for you.

Use of homophobic or otherwise derogatory language to refer to any protagonist who isn't John Rambo.

Oh god yes this. Some people comment simply to trash on the game even though they haven’t played it. Simply because it’s not catered towards them.

Almost like how people expect the developers to change some huge aspect of the game (say removing a gay scene if the game had one), to please this one person.

 

[DarthSeduction]

Oh god yes this. Some people comment simply to trash on the game even though they haven’t played it. Simply because it’s not catered towards them.

Almost like how people expect the developers to change some huge aspect of the game (say removing a gay scene if the game had one), to please this one person.

Hey, off topic, but did funfiction ever get ahold of you? He was asking if I knew how to a little while back.

 

[FFCreations]

Hey, off topic, but did funfiction ever get ahold of you? He was asking if I knew how to a little while back.

Yeah he did.

 

[DarthSeduction]

 

[Sumodeine]

And lastly is when people expect our LINEAR visual novel to have hundreds upon hundreds of different routes that players can take. I don’t think they realize how much extra work can go into a single additional route. And most of those complaints come from non-Patrons, so they’re not even financially supporting the game in order to make that become a reality.

Oh man. This one is one of my favorites! I have a few different branches in my game, but I had some guy complaining that since the branches eventually meet back up and players will see some of the same scenes no matter what, that the choices in my game don't even matter. According to him, each choice should lead to a completely different path with no overlap whatsoever.

I also like: "Is there any way to avoid content with this character?". Ummmm... No. She's kind of important to the plot of the story I'm telling here.

And that leads me to a post I saw on here a couple weeks ago from a guy basically telling devs that "No one reads the story anyway", so don't put time into it. If that were true, I know I'd be done for. My writing is what keeps my patrons coming back month after month.

And finally, my absolutely favorite: "Is there a walkthrough?" - Have you even tried to play the game? My choices pretty much consist of "Do you want to go on a date with girl A or girl B?" Guess what - it's a porn game, there's probably going to be sex at the end of either path. How exactly are you in need of a walkthrough for this?

 

[FFCreations]

Oh man. This one is one of my favorites! I have a few different branches in my game, but I had some guy complaining that since the branches eventually meet back up and players will see some of the same scenes no matter what, that the choices in my game don't even matter. According to him, each choice should lead to a completely different path with no overlap whatsoever.

I also like: "Is there any way to avoid content with this character?". Ummmm... No. She's kind of important to the plot of the story I'm telling here.

And that leads me to a post I saw on here a couple weeks ago from a guy basically telling devs that "No one reads the story anyway", so don't put time into it. If that were true, I know I'd be done for. My writing is what keeps my patrons coming back month after month.

And finally, my absolutely favorite: "Is there a walkthrough?" - Have you even tried to play the game? My choices pretty much consist of "Do you want to go on a date with girl A or girl B?" Guess what - it's a porn game, there's probably going to be sex at the end of either path. How exactly are you in need of a walkthrough for this?

Yeah, I especially agree with the part of “can we avoid this character?”. I have 5 main girls in the game, so of course each are gonna get sex scenes. But some people want to skip over one character or maybe all except one. How would we even be able to make a story like that.

 

[DarthSeduction]

Yeah, I especially agree with the part of “can we avoid this character?”. I have 5 main girls in the game, so of course each are gonna get sex scenes. But some people want to skip over one character or maybe all except one. How would we even be able to make a story like that.

Well, it's totally possible, if that's the story you're trying to tell. The Things We Do For Love, you can absolutely avoid the other options. Seraphim Academy, just not gonna be possible. People need to know that VN, especially, aren't designed in a way that we can cater to everyone.

 

[EpicLust]

Walkthrough.
Cheat.

And not a word on the game, nada.

 

[Conviction07]

Well, one thing I don't take at face value anymore since becoming a developer myself, is when an update for a game is released and some people complain about how short it. Like I get that the amount of hours I put into writing the story is gonna be exponentially longer than it takes to read it, but moaning how it took you only five minutes to play through an update that's script was 12,000 words is just bullshit. But I suppose those are the people who just hold down the ctrl button in between sex scenes.

 

[Conviction07]

Oh man. This one is one of my favorites! I have a few different branches in my game, but I had some guy complaining that since the branches eventually meet back up and players will see some of the same scenes no matter what, that the choices in my game don't even matter. According to him, each choice should lead to a completely different path with no overlap whatsoever.

I also like: "Is there any way to avoid content with this character?". Ummmm... No. She's kind of important to the plot of the story I'm telling here.

And that leads me to a post I saw on here a couple weeks ago from a guy basically telling devs that "No one reads the story anyway", so don't put time into it. If that were true, I know I'd be done for. My writing is what keeps my patrons coming back month after month.

And finally, my absolutely favorite: "Is there a walkthrough?" - Have you even tried to play the game? My choices pretty much consist of "Do you want to go on a date with girl A or girl B?" Guess what - it's a porn game, there's probably going to be sex at the end of either path. How exactly are you in need of a walkthrough for this?

I literally came from the thread of a game that just had it's first release, and someone actually asked for a walkthrough. Christ, how do some of these people even function...

 

[Akamari]

I also like: "Is there any way to avoid content with this character?". Ummmm... No. She's kind of important to the plot of the story I'm telling here.

Yeah, I especially agree with the part of “can we avoid this character?”. I have 5 main girls in the game, so of course each are gonna get sex scenes. But some people want to skip over one character or maybe all except one. How would we even be able to make a story like that.

I'll have a bit of an opposing post here, if you don't mind, for this is a pet peeve of mine.

We'll all agree that sex is the main driving force in adult games. Therefore, I consider a possibility to choose with whom my character would have sex with a basic human right. It's the barest minimum in terms of gameplay and player interaction a visual novel can have.

If it's important for your story and you can't do without it, that's fine, but in my opinion the information that there is forced sexual content should either be a tag, or part of the description. This is almost always a major negative point for me as a player.

So, I disagree. These are perfectly valid questions if there are no answers present for the players beforehand.