Hello everyone, I've been lurking this forum for years, and finally decided to join. My girlfriend and I are both into erotica and/or porn VNs, and decided to start working on our own project. We are somewhat tired of seeing always the same assets in so many novels, and we started creating our own environment, mostly architectures. We are putting a lot of efforts in our VN, and would love to publish it at some point. So, want to ask this community if creating brand new environments for an adult VN is worth the effort, or if it's just a waste of time, considering that the main focus cannot be but sex. What's better, in your opinion? Thank you everyone
- Jun 3, 2021
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You could create a thread poll here to see what are the community's preferences with their votes.
In my opinion, environments or backgrounds are at the very bottom of the list of things that I want in a quality VN. If your VN doesn't have good writing, sex scenes, sound design or interesting characters and plot, then why the hell would I even care for unique backdrops?
I'm not saying that I particularly enjoy seeing low quality or repeated locations in VN's, or even locations that don't match the mood or theme of the scene/story etc, all I'm saying is that this is something of very low priority when I'm judging a game.
Then again, regardless of the community's opinion, you could simply go ahead and do what you think is best. If you like creating lots of unique and high quality environments, hey go for it. Maybe make a VN story centered around architects or something so that you can wove that element naturally into the plot, rather than them being simple backdrops.
Wether all that time and effort to create those enviroments will be worth in the end, it's anyone's guess at this point.
In my opinion, environments or backgrounds are at the very bottom of the list of things that I want in a quality VN. If your VN doesn't have good writing, sex scenes, sound design or interesting characters and plot, then why the hell would I even care for unique backdrops?
I'm not saying that I particularly enjoy seeing low quality or repeated locations in VN's, or even locations that don't match the mood or theme of the scene/story etc, all I'm saying is that this is something of very low priority when I'm judging a game.
Then again, regardless of the community's opinion, you could simply go ahead and do what you think is best. If you like creating lots of unique and high quality environments, hey go for it. Maybe make a VN story centered around architects or something so that you can wove that element naturally into the plot, rather than them being simple backdrops.
Wether all that time and effort to create those enviroments will be worth in the end, it's anyone's guess at this point.
- Nov 21, 2020
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As a player, I don't really mind reused locations.
As a developer who is currently working on a game, I'm following this logic:
1. If the environment is too frequently used, I try to diversify it. For instance, I'll remove the furniture and replace it with different ones. I'll plant a tree or a bench in an appropriate spot. And so on. This is also situational - sometimes I entirely build it from scratch to fit my vision.
2. If the environment is sometimes used, then I can safely implement it. Chances are not that many people will realize and I doubt most people care about it that much.
3. A part of my environments have to be custom. Or, at least, I want them to be. Since my game is a sandbox, exploration and interacting with the world is very important. As a result, introducing new areas and surprising players in a good way is what I aim for.
For point 3, if you're working on a Visual Novel (not sandbox), you probably don't need custom environments that much. However, if you really want to add them (which I probably would since I'm a perfectionist), I suggest making important environments custom. That means the main character's home or apartment, the villain's lair, places where the player goes the most. However, if you feel like your work is subpar compared to the reused assets, you should just use those instead. Quality is more important than originality I'd wager. As for a bathroom, an office, some random girl's apartment (or even an important character's apartment if you only go there 2-3 times), don't waste your time on making custom things. That time would be better spent building the story and making renders.
That's my two cents on it. Don't trust me completely, just think what you want from your game and what a player would want. Study other games (more popular and less popular) and look at how the audience reacts to certain elements. Look for flaws you don't consider flaws, look for things that you consider flaws and others don't. And then adapt that to your project for the best outcome.
As a developer who is currently working on a game, I'm following this logic:
1. If the environment is too frequently used, I try to diversify it. For instance, I'll remove the furniture and replace it with different ones. I'll plant a tree or a bench in an appropriate spot. And so on. This is also situational - sometimes I entirely build it from scratch to fit my vision.
2. If the environment is sometimes used, then I can safely implement it. Chances are not that many people will realize and I doubt most people care about it that much.
3. A part of my environments have to be custom. Or, at least, I want them to be. Since my game is a sandbox, exploration and interacting with the world is very important. As a result, introducing new areas and surprising players in a good way is what I aim for.
For point 3, if you're working on a Visual Novel (not sandbox), you probably don't need custom environments that much. However, if you really want to add them (which I probably would since I'm a perfectionist), I suggest making important environments custom. That means the main character's home or apartment, the villain's lair, places where the player goes the most. However, if you feel like your work is subpar compared to the reused assets, you should just use those instead. Quality is more important than originality I'd wager. As for a bathroom, an office, some random girl's apartment (or even an important character's apartment if you only go there 2-3 times), don't waste your time on making custom things. That time would be better spent building the story and making renders.
That's my two cents on it. Don't trust me completely, just think what you want from your game and what a player would want. Study other games (more popular and less popular) and look at how the audience reacts to certain elements. Look for flaws you don't consider flaws, look for things that you consider flaws and others don't. And then adapt that to your project for the best outcome.
- Dec 17, 2018
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I think custom environments help in a sandbox but are just icing on the cake in a VN. That is unless you have actual uses for your environment beyond it just being an area. For example, if you had a parkour VN and you need to show a difficult environment to move through, you kinda have to have a custom environment for that unless you can find one specifically for your use. If you're just making a custom environment because you want to stand out from the other VN's reusing assets, it can only help so much.
- Apr 18, 2021
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Is growing your own tomatoes to make pasta sauce a waste of time? That is totally up to you. Will your guests notice the difference between Ragu or home made? Maybe not but you never know.
The environment and architecture of most 3D VNs look so similar because many of them they take place in the same city: DAZington near Ren'py Falls in Patreon County.
- Jun 24, 2018
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In my opinion, I'm here for treesome with the unrealisticly hot MILF mother and hot sister, but I notice when I see the same fucking gym, MC room, bathroom, clothes store, school, etc for the 47th time in a row.
Most people will care about how hot the women and the sexy situations are, but personally I'll notice that gym, MC room, bathroom, clothes store, school or whatever place that I never saw before and think "Wow, this dev is really putting a work here. Good job." and remember that when I write a review.
Most people will care about how hot the women and the sexy situations are, but personally I'll notice that gym, MC room, bathroom, clothes store, school or whatever place that I never saw before and think "Wow, this dev is really putting a work here. Good job." and remember that when I write a review.
Reading some comments here feels like I'm wasting time on building environments, changing texture, importing and paying hundreds $ for new objects, etc... 
Personally, I'd feel like shitty dev if I just load the same environment everyone uses and stick with it without modifying to offer a somewhat more unique experience. It would just be lazy. It's not hard, it is just some extra effort. Same for the characters. So many devs do not even bother to play with hundreds of facial sliders to make unique characters.
You're making a game, just spend 1-2 hours on the characters you make... Whenever I see the same blond girl with puffy cheeks in every third VN it tells me how much effort dev putting into his game. And it's not good...
But hey, maybe it's me that's not the smartest TOOL in the shed for spending extra time on such things if people don't care. But I can't help myself... I couldn't be proud and happy with my work if I did otherwise. I just think if people chose to play my game and spend their precious time on it, as a show of gratitude, I need to do my best on things I do and backgrounds are one of those things.
So...
Personally, I'd feel like shitty dev if I just load the same environment everyone uses and stick with it without modifying to offer a somewhat more unique experience. It would just be lazy. It's not hard, it is just some extra effort. Same for the characters. So many devs do not even bother to play with hundreds of facial sliders to make unique characters.
You're making a game, just spend 1-2 hours on the characters you make... Whenever I see the same blond girl with puffy cheeks in every third VN it tells me how much effort dev putting into his game. And it's not good...
But hey, maybe it's me that's not the smartest TOOL in the shed for spending extra time on such things if people don't care. But I can't help myself... I couldn't be proud and happy with my work if I did otherwise. I just think if people chose to play my game and spend their precious time on it, as a show of gratitude, I need to do my best on things I do and backgrounds are one of those things.
So...
Whatever it's worth or not, I'd like to believe that people take notice of such things. And it makes you happy about yourself that you put effort into it and your game is not just a copy of someone's else game, isn't that right?
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Thank you guys for your replies.
In general, I found that creating new assets is a boost for creating the story, which is not bad. Of course one has to find the balance between perfectionism and being lazy. I'm quite perfectionist myself, so, I need my characters to have sex in fancy places
Yeah, it's exactly like that for me. I can't just use the use assets over and over, I'd feel terribly lazy. Sometimes I just change the textures, sometimes I build the environment from scracth, usually taking inspiration from real pictures and so on.
This is a very good point. So far I've been working on the main environments, but I'll definetely pay less attention to those I'm going to use for a few renders only.
In general, I found that creating new assets is a boost for creating the story, which is not bad. Of course one has to find the balance between perfectionism and being lazy. I'm quite perfectionist myself, so, I need my characters to have sex in fancy places
I totally agree with this. My VN has sandbox elements, even though it is not entirely sandbox (it won't fit the story). However, I think I can say that if you have a good plot and good characters, then creating new environments add to the overall quality, otherwise it won't be of much help
Создание это тоже часть творчества. Если есть возможность создать собственную обстановку в квартире или на природе то это только плюс.
Creation is also part of creativity. If there is an opportunity to create your own atmosphere in an apartment or outdoors, then this is only a plus.
Creation is also part of creativity. If there is an opportunity to create your own atmosphere in an apartment or outdoors, then this is only a plus.
It's always about balance. Every hour you're creating custom environments you're not coding, writing dialogs, rendering etc. Is it good ROI? To put it bluntly, in my opinion, no. For two reasons.
1. People don't become engaged in a game because of a single feature: beautiful graphics, animation, speech or dialogs. It's always a combination of several aspects, the sum is greater than the parts and all that. Whenever I encounter this
2. This is you first game. Just try to have a project you can start and finish, a story with a start and an end. If you start developing assets on your first game, you're likely to bite more than you can chew and eventually will despair of the game.
If you want to break the Deja Vu of players seeing the same sets reused, it's suffice to change them a little. Personally, for example, in hair and clothes I try never to use the default material, even if I like it. But creating assets from scratch on your first project? Seems like a huge waste of time to me.
1. People don't become engaged in a game because of a single feature: beautiful graphics, animation, speech or dialogs. It's always a combination of several aspects, the sum is greater than the parts and all that. Whenever I encounter this
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in a game or encounter yet another sexy-black-girl-with-a-
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I groan loudly and roll my eyes but it is not going to be a deal breaker for me. 2. This is you first game. Just try to have a project you can start and finish, a story with a start and an end. If you start developing assets on your first game, you're likely to bite more than you can chew and eventually will despair of the game.
If you want to break the Deja Vu of players seeing the same sets reused, it's suffice to change them a little. Personally, for example, in hair and clothes I try never to use the default material, even if I like it. But creating assets from scratch on your first project? Seems like a huge waste of time to me.
- May 11, 2021
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VNs` using the same environments a lot? I'm developing a sci-fi themed VN, tell me about how few and far between a good variets of available assets are. To me it just doesn't feel right to just plug it in and call it a day. Lighting and applaing shaders can make a big difference, if the sculptor of an environment or clothing asset actually implements enough differnet material zones on which I can apply a shader.
- Oct 29, 2018
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$$ for a capable computer + render time + need to live life + need to feed self.
The above overly simplistic formula is the reason most VN devs use repeat locals and people like ICSTOR can make completely custom environments and then use them to scam the crap out of his fans. It's a harsh reality, but that's how it works.
The above overly simplistic formula is the reason most VN devs use repeat locals and people like ICSTOR can make completely custom environments and then use them to scam the crap out of his fans. It's a harsh reality, but that's how it works.
Personally I don't mind the reuse of assets in game but what does bother me is that those reused assets are of million dollar houses. You end up with bizarre scenarios with characters living in penthouses and then talking about how the character needs a job tutoring or whatever, as if that's gonna even pay for their power bill.
- Jun 10, 2017
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They'll not notice that you grown you own tomatoes, but they'll notice it if you use the same cheap tomatoes than anyone else. It's the downside of customized assets, no one will notice them and praise you for the week of works you put into them. But use the same clothing stores than anyone else, and you'll hear about it for years.
- Oct 10, 2021
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I would say that it's worth it as long as you enjoy doing it. The feeling of using self-created things can, for example, be a driving force in the project. It can also provide much-needed breaks from everything else required to make a visual novel.
Another positive thing about custom things is that you can adjust/minimize the polygon count so that your computer does not have to go on its knees in the viewport.
Another positive thing about custom things is that you can adjust/minimize the polygon count so that your computer does not have to go on its knees in the viewport.
- Mar 3, 2018
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Personally, I don't really care all that much. I would rather see the efforts being put into a good story/characters. I think a good compromise would be to use an existing asset, but changing it to fit your own style. Colour the walls, change the furniture, put in a nice rug. Just do something to separate it from the original.
- Jun 19, 2019
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- Mar 3, 2018
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OBSERVATION: Even the slowest of droids often puts most of the "intelligent" meatbags to shame, when it comes to simple logic.