What makes a good adult VN/Game?

[SISIMEN]

PREFACE:
This is not a discussion about kinks or fetishes - I am not looking for civil discourse on whether NTR is good or bad or why Futa content is weird or sexy. What I am looking for is an honest cogent dialogue on what makes an adult VN/Game good and why certain VNs/Games are more seuccessful (depending on your definition of success). I will start with a bit of rant and see where that takes us:

For those that are making the claim of a "slow burn" or story development...that might be fine for you, I don't frequent adult sites to solve puzzles or read pages of dialogue (although there are those rare VN/Games that have decent story-lines) - I came here to get a basic story about fantasy scenarios that will not happen in everyday life and FAP!

Please stop trying to convince everyone that the grind is worth it and that you are somehow smarter because you figured it out "without a walkthrough". I reiterate, there is no point in creating a game that requires more time to be spent figuring out patterns (that repeat so many times it feels like some sort of bizarre time loop), than you spend looking at attractive character models that result in carpal tunnel syndrome from all of the clicking just on the off chance that the next time you go through the SAME scenario and something new will appear on the screen...it's mind-numbing.

Think I am wrong? The ratings on EVERY adult VN/Game site say otherwise. People create adult VNs/Games for a few reasons.

1. They have a fantasy in their mind they want to share with the world.
2. They know perverts like me want to indulge in fantasies that take them far away from their everyday lives.
3. They want to make money creating adult VNs/Games and know they can entice people to pay them for their creations.
4. Or a combination of any of these...

No one sets out to create something unplayable or so bad no one will pay money to play it.

If a creator is doing it for reason one and just wants to share it, then they should make it free to everyone (there are a few of these out there).

If you are creating them for people like me AND you expect to make money doing it, then it is highly recommended you research what VNs/Games are the most popular, why they are popular and what makes them successful. Every VN/Game created will have an aspect that people will complain about, that is just the nature of humanity - you can't satisfy everyone. The idea, however, that when the complaints are equivalent or more than the positive responses, you probably haven't done your due diligence and need to rethink your project.

 

[woody554]

ratings don't mean shit on any of these pages. the most successful games measured in donations are the exact opposite of what you claim 'everybody likes'. grindy, cliche story with gameplay. yes people shit on them in comments, yet they rack up by far the biggest donations.

while 'original games' are invariably supported by only a tiny audience.

 

[Cosy Creator]

To answer the question posed in the title: I would say a good adult game is one that evokes some kind of feeling, emotion, or desire in the reader/player. This can take many forms, depending on the type of game. For a grindy game it can come as a sense of achievement that you have really earned the payoff (sex scene). For a story driven game it can be an emotional attachment to the characters. For a hardcore fetish game it can be the sense of excitement that comes with breaking taboos. It can be pure wish fulfilment in a harem game, or it can be nothing more than lust satisfied by pretty erotic pictures.

The fact that different feelings/emotions/desires appeal to different people is why there is no single formula for "good" adult games, despite what some people seem to think.

 

[JasonsGranpa]

[your signature]

the difference is that using the word kink makes one sound like growing up on reddit or reading too much cosmopolitan, while using the word fetish doesn't

otherwise i agree with your post. grinding sex scenes is shit

 

[Rafster]

For me, it's simple: I'm NOT looking to do a "good" adult VN/game. I'm looking to make the game I WANT to do. It happens that I love grinding in any games (heh, since the days I played in my NES), so I don't mind grinding to reach X stage of a game.

I also didn't look to the cookie-cutter, most successful/high rated games here. I just took my three favorite games as guidance, and start making my game with that general idea (In my case, my inspiration came from Hornstown, Young Marcus and Shameless impurity) the 3 of them being sandbox, and two of them HTML real porn games.

Now, having said that, I made the grinding very light on my game on purpose, maybe extremely easy, because I know that not everybody is a fan of repeating 1000 times X action.

To answer the question posed in the title: I would say a good adult game is one that evokes some kind of feeling, emotion, or desire in the reader/player.

I agree with this, and it's one of my cardinal rules. For me it's enough with this (well, besides filling my most basic requirements on having a gay storyline or a gay MC). I'm not looking for a quick fap, for that I have porn saved in my PC or lots of sites to watch clips.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

what makes X good

The effort, the skill, the dedication.

I came here to get a basic story about fantasy scenarios that will not happen in everyday life and FAP!

You came here to fap, and i came here to play games with porn on the side.

Please stop trying to convince everyone that the grind is worth it

What you view as "grind" may not be quite the same for someone else 'kay?
So, can we stop trying to convince people that porn is all everyone comes here for? Because this is false.

and that you are somehow smarter because you figured it out "without a walkthrough".

But i am obviously smarter if i can do what you can't, namely play games without taking a look at the cheat sheet.

Think I am wrong? The ratings on EVERY adult VN/Game site say otherwise.

No i don't think they do.
Anyway, there's probably more to be said but i really can't be arsed wasting anymore of my time on this troll thread.
So, bye.

 

[SISIMEN]

The effort, the skill, the dedication.

You came here to fap, and i came here to play games with porn on the side.

What you view as "grind" may not be quite the same for someone else 'kay?
So, can we stop trying to convince people that porn is all everyone comes here for? Because this is false.

But i am obviously smarter if i can do what you can't, namely play games without taking a look at the cheat sheet.

No i don't think they do.
Anyway, there's probably more to be said but i really can't be arsed wasting anymore of my time on this troll thread.
So, bye.

Thank you for your responses.

 

[SISIMEN]

To answer the question posed in the title: I would say a good adult game is one that evokes some kind of feeling, emotion, or desire in the reader/player. This can take many forms, depending on the type of game. For a grindy game it can come as a sense of achievement that you have really earned the payoff (sex scene). For a story driven game it can be an emotional attachment to the characters. For a hardcore fetish game it can be the sense of excitement that comes with breaking taboos. It can be pure wish fulfilment in a harem game, or it can be nothing more than lust satisfied by pretty erotic pictures.

The fact that different feelings/emotions/desires appeal to different people is why there is no single formula for "good" adult games, despite what some people seem to think.

I appreciate your response on the "grind" - I guess if I think about it, the idea of an adult VN/Game should have a progression with a sense of accomplishment so in this, at least, I agree. My thought process was geared around those games that have the same event repeated so many times it becomes almost unbearable and then there is very little, if any, reward to be had.

I also agree that the emotional investment in the story, characters or some connection with the material, has an impact on whether the player views it as a "good game" or worth their time.

I would add that wanting a good story doesn't lead me here (or any other adult VN/Game site), I look to literature for that, so while there are VNs/Games here with better stories than others, I am not convinced that is the measure by which an adult VN/Game should be judged...thoughts?

 

[SISIMEN]

For me, it's simple: I'm NOT looking to do a "good" adult VN/game. I'm looking to make the game I WANT to do. It happens that I love grinding in any games (heh, since the days I played in my NES), so I don't mind grinding to reach X stage of a game.

I also didn't look to the cookie-cutter, most successful/high rated games here. I just took my three favorite games as guidance, and start making my game with that general idea (In my case, my inspiration came from Hornstown, Young Marcus and Shameless impurity) the 3 of them being sandbox, and two of them HTML real porn games.

Now, having said that, I made the grinding very light on my game on purpose, maybe extremely easy, because I know that not everybody is a fan of repeating 1000 times X action.



I agree with this, and it's one of my cardinal rules. For me it's enough with this (well, besides filling my most basic requirements on having a gay storyline or a gay MC). I'm not looking for a quick fap, for that I have porn saved in my PC or lots of sites to watch clips.

Thank you for this response.

I think creating a game for your own purposes is great and now that I think about my years gaming on the older systems (I go back to the Atari 2600 ) grinding can be a rewarding part of the process, although there NEEDS to be a solid reward for the time spent.

I re-read what I posted and while I agree that the highest rated games here aren't necessarily the best (IMO) I look at the universally poorly rated games and it could be argued that they are not good because, objectively, they are just not well planned or executed.

 

[SISIMEN]

ratings don't mean shit on any of these pages. the most successful games measured in donations are the exact opposite of what you claim 'everybody likes'. grindy, cliche story with gameplay. yes people shit on them in comments, yet they rack up by far the biggest donations.

while 'original games' are invariably supported by only a tiny audience.

Thought about your response and I probably should have worded my post a bit different where ratings and "grinding" are concerned. A better way might have been for me to point out there are VNs/Games that have received poor ratings because there is an element that nearly everyone agrees has been so poorly planned and/or executed it makes it damn near unplayable and sometimes the grind leads to nothing worthwhile (a time-suck instead of actual development). I don't know if this clarifies my point or not...

 

[Meaning Less]

I don't know if this clarifies my point or not...

Your point was already clear, however you are still conflating bad with poorly rated, I agree tons of "grindy" games get a lot of hate here, but you are missing that those ratings do not represent "everyone", probably don't represent even the majority, it is just that those games attract tons of haters that love to complain...

But you know what those grindy games often also have aside from haters? Tons of views and tons of supporters. Because what you might call "unplayable" is probably exactly the kind of game that others would call "worth playing".

That's why there is no good or bad, there is simply different.

 

[cohenber101]

[Complete]

 

[Deleted member 2282952]

Lots of good info here for a game Dev to learn from. I dislike the mind-numbing mini-games like click on that and that number, or flip a card, but some grind in games to build up expectations works pretty well, if done right.

Management and simulation aspects are much more interesting to me, especially when you have to choose an action that unlocks something, but blocks something else, creating the replay value. Same goes for various morality systems that block or allow certain playthroughs, and force you to actually think about a choice because the plot will develop differently.

But the main driver of everything, obviously, sex scenes and sexy/exciting characters. Animations are also a must, at least for the most exciting parts.

I tend to enjoy playing the game blind, and then with a walkthrough to see what I missed, but if the game is so convoluted it can't be played without a walkthrough, you would miss out on the audience looking to get a grasp of the story, meet cool characters, and fuck them in different ways, as a love partner, or corrupting them. That freedom is certainly exciting, and why I like these games.

And why I shifted from developing mainstream to adult games recently (shameless plug).

 

[ImariKurumi]

The story.

I mean for fucks sake, its in the naming itself. VN = visual NOVEL. NOVEL!?!?!

Also the other is creativity and uniqueness. I'm not a fan of devs that try to go mainstream and make what the audience wants. I mean this AVN industry itself is pretty indie and its an outlet for creative minds and passionate storytellers. Make the story that YOU want to tell.
If not then you're no different from any media out there, they're not trying to sell a story, its even worse, they're trying to milk the cow.

 

[Deleted member 6149291]

As ImariKurumi said earlier, the story is what makes some of these AVN's great. It greatly enhances the experience and remembrance of said games for me.

 

[Mark17]

Not be Abandoned is a great started, if you ask me!

 

[Droid Productions]

Characters I can fall in love with, and a story that tries something new and interesting.