What is the secrets of a good and successful project

[VMiller]

For me a good game is first of all a good story and memorable characters.
Cool sex scenes we can get in porn where they are of much higher quality, and for gameplay there are non porn games, from indie to AAA.

 

[DynamiteJoe/RenMan3DX]

For me a good game is first of all a good story and memorable characters.
Cool sex scenes we can get in porn where they are of much higher quality, and for gameplay there are non porn games, from indie to AAA.

I mean, by that logic you can also get good story and memorable characters from non porn games, books, movies, tv shows, etc, leaving no reason to play porn games. Personally, I think a good porn game is a good mix of everything, with how much gameplay being a matter of preference.

 

[VMiller]

I mean, by that logic you can also get good story and memorable characters from non porn games, books, movies, tv shows, etc,

They are all bound by considerations of censorship and sanctimonious morality, which deprives them of the ability to depict the full range of human relationships.

 

[Droid Productions]

They are all bound by considerations of censorship and sanctimonious morality, which deprives them of the ability to depict the full range of human relationships.

I think one thing that's attractive is you can make games for adults, and as an indie you can say that it's okay if you're not pushing the lowest common denominator. You can write stories with love, and lust, and loss and heroism, that would have absolutely zero chance of getting greenlit in mass-media today. And you can chose to *not* fade to black when the hero and heroine embrace.

This is just one aspect of adult games, but it's the part I love making

 

[SOULCOOM]

It boils down to outreach and time spent marketing your product. Not everyone takes the time to do all of this.

 

[morihaza]

Accurate tags of main content?

 

[tanstaafl]

Accurate tags of main content?

This one is a gray area. I mean, I agree that a dev (or modder) can shoot a game in the foot by not getting accurate info on the game which will probably result in the game being downloaded by people the game isn't aimed at, but that really doesn't affect the quality of the game overall. I would call this a periphery to the main topic of this post.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

This one is a gray area. I mean, I agree that a dev (or modder) can shoot a game in the foot by not getting accurate info on the game which will probably result in the game being downloaded by people the game isn't aimed at, but that really doesn't affect the quality of the game overall. I would call this a periphery to the main topic of this post.

I see your point if one only sees the headline, but the initial post was actually rather about: "What makes a game successful, if quality is not a main criteria?".

 

[obibobi]

There are 3 types of successful games, there are the Being a Dik, where you are the best in this community at delivering a product, if you're at this level you probably don't need to ask how to be successful.

Then you have 2 others, the slow burns, this requires you be a good writer and by that, it means could you write a normal story that would actually hold people's interest.

Last but not least is the sex game logic story, the readers interest is kept with at the very least, your knowledge of what people find sexually appealing, now this doesn't automatically mean sex scenes, it can be teasing, perversion, be creative with this at the bare minimum. On this point, don't make the amateur mistake of adding in story elements you can't maintain, this site is littered with games where the dev inserts a long and boring sub plot where the protagonist become a member of a crime family

 

[gunderson]

The secret to making a good game is to work hard, have spent a long time designing your game and building up your skills, and to pay attention to what works and what doesn't based on feedback without actually turning over your major decisions to your fans. Then, if your game does succeed, you need to improve your game by reinvesting in it (either with more time and effort or more team members or buying stuff that helps you make the game good/well). If you stick with it and you're successful, hopefully a good game results.

The secret to making a successful game is lots of other people deciding to fund your project. It would be cool if this was related to your game's quality, but it isn't always. Sometimes it's dumb luck.

Still, I never recommend that people just throw shit at a wall and see if it sticks, because I don't want to play shitty games. Learn first, get feedback, and don't try to sell anything until it's worth buying.

 

[Allard]

I think the most important thing about the success of a porn game, is the porn.

Sure, nice renders, a good story, a clear ui, marketing, luck, etc. are nice to have and can be important. Bust most and foremost you need to have good porn that caters to your audience. Hot characters in dirty situations to stimulate your players naughty mind. That's what all this is about.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

I think the most important thing about the success of a porn game, is the porn.

Sure, nice renders, a good story, a clear ui, marketing, luck, etc. are nice to have and can be important. Bust most and foremost you need to have good porn that caters to your audience. Hot characters in dirty situations to stimulate your players naughty mind. That's what all this is about.

But how do you convey a situation as dirty if not by telling a good story to show this (surely mostly told through images and only secondary through words, but it is still a good story).
And what characters are seen as hot is unfortunately quite subjective. Some people like girls with big breasts and big butts, others rather petite ones. Some prefer 2DCG, some 3DCG, some real porn. I think, many people don't even make a difference between "good renders" and "hot girls". It's just the same for them.

From what I have personally witnessed, there are projects, that totally cater my personal porn-aesthetics regarding girls and situations and have even quite aesthetic sex scenes, that have rather few success, while others have rather standard sex scenes and worse aesthetics have a lot more success. There are even quite successful projects, that basically blueball the player to death but cater with the outlook to see sex scenes with an interesting, good looking character. In the absolute worst case, one might be even able to blueball the player til the end of a game and just leave with the money one got and still have a game, that was comparatively monetary successful. But this will definitely draw the hate of many players in the end.

Success is a quite complex thing and having at least decent porn is not unimportant, but still only one aspect of many. I think, good porn is just too easily available to invest much money in a game that caters only this.

 

[tanstaafl]

I think the most important thing about the success of a porn game, is the porn.

Sure, nice renders, a good story, a clear ui, marketing, luck, etc. are nice to have and can be important. Bust most and foremost you need to have good porn that caters to your audience. Hot characters in dirty situations to stimulate your players naughty mind. That's what all this is about.

Truth. This is quite possibly the most important part. There have been some very well made games that I've quit because either they bored me or the scenarios were too contrary to my particular kinks. I may be old and jaded, but I really don't get my rocks off to irl porn much anymore unless there is something special about it either setup wise or the people in it catch my attention.

An example: Just starting a random porn vid with sex in progress. The lady might be the most beautiful girl in porn but if they're just fucking I click off. But toss in an actress like Tory Lane (may be before some people's time here) or Gianna Michaels and I'm into it. Why? Because they liked it (or were very good actresses) and they took a way more than participatory role in the action. That, and they were dirty, dirty girls, lol.

The same goes for the porn in games. It's gotta tickle the fancy more than just "hey look, boobs".

 

[HenriBoy]

The most important thing to have in mind, and yes, it is also a advise for the devs. Make a porn game is not just simple and easy like many thinking. So, I can't assure what's exactly the secrets or what leads a game to be a sucess but I can point out what make a lot games to failure, mainly in VN's genrer:

- lots of repetion either plots, visual's characters mainly. Many games just look like a bad copy of other games that also no so good, either characters look like a copy. The reason most of time is the Devs don't actually care about work properly and just copy and paste or don't have skill enough to modelling their character's visual. The same happens with the characters developement itself as a whole, a lot has less empathy than a real porn actor. All this contributes to "Oh not again" sensation...

Make a porn game is like make any other games, is hard work. And porn games can easily fall on the gap of ridiculous, if the Dev don't give attetion to their characters mainly to have a decent story and consequently a worthy game to give attention and $$.

So, IMO this is the mainly issue with many VNs porn games, and as I said can't point out what made a successful game but I can help with what make a lot of them go to failure.