What are the three most important things in a H-Game

[NotVil12]

Hello everyone!

We're a small team of four experienced game developers with backgrounds in both AAA and indie development. We've decided to create an ero/hentai game because, quite frankly, the current state of the game industry quite sucks for the developers.
We’d love to know what you typically look for in a game. More importantly, when it comes to H-games, do you play them purely for the adult content, or do you also seek out quality gameplay? Personally, I’ve played a ton of these games, and while I’m all about the H content, I’m curious to hear what matters most to you.
Feel free to share your favorite and least favorite fetishes as well.

Thaaanks! C:

 

[Ecchi-san]

Okay, I'll bite.

1. Gameplay balance. Despite being hentai game or 'normal' game there is a rule of thumb, there needed a balance between actual gameplay and social activities. From Persona series to Trails in the Sky - to make games engaging you need to give both. Hentai games where you walk around from events to events with almost non-existent basic combat still could be nice if there is heavy focus on dialogues and easily achievable lively hentai events (Princess go round and Hitozuma Elf no Orusuban - both from the same developer). But for most hentai games it won't work, gamers tend to look for some challenge. On other hand nobody really likes grindy hentai games since people want hentai games for, well, hentai but some nice combat like in Ariadne people still like. Ideally, the hentai game should have some mini-games directly affiliated with hentai and main gameplay should have at least indirect affiliation with hentai too. Because it's hentai game, yes.
2. Variety and quality, there are some nicely done hentai games which the same mistake - they use some common style for all of characters, in some hentai games we have all girls with huge tits so it gets old very fast, or they could look the same in terms of body shapes and even faces. Also there is huge gap in quality between how nicely done bodies and how utterly awful and basic faces with lack of facial expressions. Ahegao and all these deformed faces look pretty ugly if default face doesn't look nice.
3. How about a fun and comedy? All these dark themed hentai games, all these rapes, humiliation, corruption and other NTR crap became so basic and nu-vanilla that I want to see some silly comedy in my hentai game, honestly. I want to have good mood and be happy instead of watching some sexual torture 101 once again to spit on it and return to JAV or roleplay with LLM.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

1. General writing quality. If I don't care about the characters, dialogue etc., I'll go watch some animations instead.
2. How well my fetishes are done (corruption, domination etc.). They need to be present and handled with some finesse. They generally don't work well in short-form content, so I look for them in games.
3. Gameplay. Doesn't have to be great gameplay, but it should be meaningful and engaging. I don't like reading for extended periods, so VNs don't hold my attention.

 

[AdventAnyx]

1. Being able to play with 1 hand ;
2. Focus, not "a little bit of everything for everyone" (also goes for clear end-state direction - not forever-milking and expanding for years);
3. Depth, not width (having 1-3 characters with a lot of interactions, rather than 20 with the samey limited set)

And regarding fetishes.
I think you're gonna be trapped from the start, since you are a team.
Having a team means you're gonna have to aim for a certain income from the start. Which means aiming for a bigger audience, and wider platform selection (like releasing on Steam). This means a lot of fetishes go right through the window. And point 2 above is no longer an option: you'll HAVE to do "a little bit of everything for everyone" to make money for the team. But that's just my opinion.

 

[ps5029]

1.
Something that shouldn't require too much work. An exception is made if the work itself is purely fun.
Adult content and games both seek to relieve stress. However, if it requires work, stress builds up.

2.
Provide sufficient immersion and maintain it. What sets the game apart from other adult content is that it provides a sense of immersion in that you can directly decide on the elements and what the main character will do.
And if the tempo slows down too much during the game, or there are repetitive tasks or stressful elements, the sense of immersion can quickly disappear.

3.
Adult content helps people express desires that cannot be met in reality. Therefore, adult content must have a lot of content for a variety of choices and tastes.

 

[nulnil]

1.
No matter what, art is always the most important factor when it comes to a porn game. Yes, some people can get off with purely text-based descriptions, but that's not everyone and definitely not the majority.

2.
Then comes gameplay. Every game needs a lure of some kind to bring in players, and pornography will be what's bringing the players in, not the gameplay. Don't worry about making something revolutionary gameplay-wise, just make something interesting enough to keep the players entertained.

3.
In gameplay-intensive games (aka non-VNs), have sexual content appear DURING gameplay frequently. Don't make a game where the main gameplay loop is a generic shooter, but all the sex scenes are just flipping through a miniture VN. If you're not going to use gameplay aspects to enhance the erotic content, you're probably better off making a webcomic or something.