What makes some games so successful while others are not?

[Raw Magic]

Lately, i have been playing a lot of games and followed patreons and i noticed that games have a big range between patreons. Some great games have 1000 ~ 2000 patreons. Others have crazy amounts like drpinkcake and NLT and darkcookie is the king with 24k patreons but most of it barely scratch the 100 ~ 1000 mark.

What do you think are the keys that make a game so successful? I've played some mind blowing games like Broken Dreamers that have 2k patreons and other like Fenoxo fenfen's games that are only text based and have 5k ( i ain't saiyng that the game is bad, just not my style ). So, what is your opinions ?

 

[Lerd0]

Timing, Promotion, luck, frequent updates or hype train infrequent updates, cross-promotion with the correct people, knowing who ur audience is....
...and a bunch of other shit......

 

[Doorknob22]

Big boobs.

 

[Lerd0]

Big boobs.

Flat is justice though.....

 

[j4yj4m]

Well, by now there are so many games around that you either have to have a name and a following, like some of the devs who were among the first in their niche or that you have to produce something that actually sticks out greatly in one way or the other.

Else it's certainly true that the number of patrons can be missleading. In case of darkcookie for example, the game is free and most patrons are in the $1 to 5$ max tiers. So while he has the most patrons, there are certainly devs who make quite a bit more money with way fewer patrons. And the same will be true for some smaller devs.

 

[AdventAnyx]

Once you find out, message me, k? thanks
ps. I'm working, alright!

 

[Raven Hex]

Honesty towards yourself and your audience + luck...

PS. Do not repeat some dev(RoyalCandy, SerialNumberComics...) mistakes, who spat in the face their patrons
Or some 'Russian'(Dark-Silver, Slonique...) dev who like to spoil games with NTR rubbish content.

 

[Rafster]

I guess it's a combination on luck+quality content+not pissing off your audience.

 

[Staimh]

How are you measuring successful ?
Downloads, good reviews, developer's feeling of achievement on completion of project well done, games I like ?

 

[yihman1]

There are many metrics to judge success. From enjoyment of creating it, to feedback in the form of comments, and reviews, to money, and fan art, and making people addicted to your game like it's crack cocaine.

It's never just one thing that make a game more or less successful. I'm going to break it down part by part, and I'll probably miss some stuff, but I'll be a bit in depth.

1) Quality visuals. First thing first. They see those visuals, and they like them. Are there animations? They become interested in the game.

2) Quality writing. Once they get past just looking at the game and actually play it how much does the writing draw them in or push them away? Can they relate to the characters? Do the characters feel realistic enough?

3) Quality of Coding: Is it streamlined and efficient and bug free? Does it have special features like a gallery or walkthrough mod? Is it an unbearable grind or can you flow forward nicely in your play?

4) Quality of other: This is things like music, or voice acting, or photoshop, a good GUI or other minor little things that give it that extra touch.

5) Familiarity: Is this the first time you have played the game? Have you seen cameos of the game in other games? is it new to you, or something you have enjoyed for a while now?

6) Marketing: Was the game released only on patreon by a silent developer, only under a paywall, or was it publicly released on patreon and other sites and the game has twitter and instagram and discord and the creator comes to forums and talks to the people.

7) Ability to read the room: If the game has 9 comments that say "It's nice but, there is grain on a lot of the images..." Well, maybe time to fix that with Photoshop or render them a little longer or do something to fix that issue. Did you write a scene and it was overwhelmingly reached with criticism. It may or may need to be rewritten, or possibly expanded on later to make it more clear that it makes sense now. Is the main criticism "Too much grind" and a lot of it if it's a sandbox game... Well maybe the fans would like it if you made the protagonist earn $100 a day in game instead of $5 so they don't need to do the same repeated thing 20 times as much when you want to save up for the $200 item.

8) Trust in the developer: Does the developer seem like an honest guy or a con man? If they set a deadline do they hit it? Do they just make a bunch of excuses? Are they keeping active and such? Do you feel this game will go the distance or be abandoned? People are more likely to support a game they think has a good shot of going the distance than one they feel will be given up on.

9) Frequency of releases: Did you play a copy of the game in the past couple of months, or has it a been a good 8-9 months or longer? As scope creep climbs and a game gets more complex a release may take longer as there are more paths in this increasing complexity.

10) Size of releases: Did you get 200 renders after a month wait? That's not bad. Still fresh on the mind. Did you wait 10 months for those 200 renders... Not gonna as enthusiastic about it.

11) Consistency & Improvement: Is quality going up or staying at high quality or on the decline?

12) Special Boosts: Such as being "Featured" on f95zone or given cross promotions by other developers or cameos. These things add up and grow the audience.

13) Kinks: If you go after "Incest Bucks" you are more likely to get some bank than if you go after "Scat Bucks" regardless of other content. More people want to fantasize about banging the sister, not so much about a girl dropping a deuce on your chest. There are niche fetishes that can gain big bucks, but it won't be as appealing to mainstream.

TLDR In summary:

A more popular game will be well rendered, written, and coded that is marketed well with popular fetishes in large and frequent high quality releases from trustful developer that is constant and active in the community and trustworthy having been featured and cross promoted.

A less popular game will be poorly rendered, poorly written, badly coded that is poorly marketed with unpopular fetishes that has infrequent low quality releases from an untrustworthy or unknown developer that is inconsistent and has never been featured or cross promoted.

 

[Staimh]

There are many metrics to judge success. From enjoyment of creating it, to feedback in the form of comments, and reviews, to money, and fan art, and making people addicted to your game like it's crack cocaine.
...

Interesting, hadn't really thought about it till I read it in your list, 3) Quality of Coding: , but the one thing that would make me abandon any attempt to play a game very quickly would be obvious coding errors early in the game.

Edit: subsequent thought, why was I playing the game, probably a mix of visuals and tags.

 

[Raw Magic]

There are many metrics to judge success. From enjoyment of creating it, to feedback in the form of comments, and reviews, to money, and fan art, and making people addicted to your game like it's crack cocaine.

It's never just one thing that make a game more or less successful. I'm going to break it down part by part, and I'll probably miss some stuff, but I'll be a bit in depth.

1) Quality visuals. First thing first. They see those visuals, and they like them. Are there animations? They become interested in the game.

2) Quality writing. Once they get past just looking at the game and actually play it how much does the writing draw them in or push them away? Can they relate to the characters? Do the characters feel realistic enough?

3) Quality of Coding: Is it streamlined and efficient and bug free? Does it have special features like a gallery or walkthrough mod? Is it an unbearable grind or can you flow forward nicely in your play?

4) Quality of other: This is things like music, or voice acting, or photoshop, a good GUI or other minor little things that give it that extra touch.

5) Familiarity: Is this the first time you have played the game? Have you seen cameos of the game in other games? is it new to you, or something you have enjoyed for a while now?

6) Marketing: Was the game released only on patreon by a silent developer, only under a paywall, or was it publicly released on patreon and other sites and the game has twitter and instagram and discord and the creator comes to forums and talks to the people.

7) Ability to read the room: If the game has 9 comments that say "It's nice but, there is grain on a lot of the images..." Well, maybe time to fix that with Photoshop or render them a little longer or do something to fix that issue. Did you write a scene and it was overwhelmingly reached with criticism. It may or may need to be rewritten, or possibly expanded on later to make it more clear that it makes sense now. Is the main criticism "Too much grind" and a lot of it if it's a sandbox game... Well maybe the fans would like it if you made the protagonist earn $100 a day in game instead of $5 so they don't need to do the same repeated thing 20 times as much when you want to save up for the $200 item.

8) Trust in the developer: Does the developer seem like an honest guy or a con man? If they set a deadline do they hit it? Do they just make a bunch of excuses? Are they keeping active and such? Do you feel this game will go the distance or be abandoned? People are more likely to support a game they think has a good shot of going the distance than one they feel will be given up on.

9) Frequency of releases: Did you play a copy of the game in the past couple of months, or has it a been a good 8-9 months or longer? As scope creep climbs and a game gets more complex a release may take longer as there are more paths in this increasing complexity.

10) Size of releases: Did you get 200 renders after a month wait? That's not bad. Still fresh on the mind. Did you wait 10 months for those 200 renders... Not gonna as enthusiastic about it.

11) Consistency & Improvement: Is quality going up or staying at high quality or on the decline?

12) Special Boosts: Such as being "Featured" on f95zone or given cross promotions by other developers or cameos. These things add up and grow the audience.

13) Kinks: If you go after "Incest Bucks" you are more likely to get some bank than if you go after "Scat Bucks" regardless of other content. More people want to fantasize about banging the sister, not so much about a girl dropping a deuce on your chest. There are niche fetishes that can gain big bucks, but it won't be as appealing to mainstream.

TLDR In summary:

A more popular game will be well rendered, written, and coded that is marketed well with popular fetishes in large and frequent high quality releases from trustful developer that is constant and active in the community and trustworthy having been featured and cross promoted.

A less popular game will be poorly rendered, poorly written, badly coded that is poorly marketed with unpopular fetishes that has infrequent low quality releases from an untrustworthy or unknown developer that is inconsistent and has never been featured or cross promoted.

Yes, I think you managed to unravel several factors right here. One thing that i noticed is that story timing has an impact on making good games.
drPinkCake is very good at this, his stories manage to keep you engaged making a mix of feelings between drama moments, comedy moments and lewd moments, even though that acting lessons got a little heavy at the end.

 

[yihman1]

Yes, I think you managed to unravel several factors right here. One thing that i noticed is that story timing has an impact on making good games.
drPinkCake is very good at this, his stories manage to keep you engaged making a mix of feelings between drama moments, comedy moments and lewd moments, even though that acting lessons got a little heavy at the end.

As for acting lessons. I loved that game. I wish for that game to have one final ending...I'm okay with there being the 2 dark endings. No matter what there are 2 girls you love, and 1 of them dies. Crazy stalker girl does kill them. No matter what you do, no matter what you say this is inevitable and unavoidable.

The ending I wanted but never got was a big "What if?" what if you never showed all that much love to either girl, but instead gave your heart fully to the crazy psycho stalker girl? Then got her some help and medication for her mental disorders, and have a happy ending with her saving the other two girls in the process.

Sometimes it is the most fun to stick your dick in crazy. That's the missing ending I wanted to round it out fully.

 

[Fearless13]

nice faces milf city is example for this /sorry for my english

 

[sexypeanut]

There are many metrics to judge success. From enjoyment of creating it, to feedback in the form of comments, and reviews, to money, and fan art, and making people addicted to your game like it's crack cocaine.

It's never just one thing that make a game more or less successful. I'm going to break it down part by part, and I'll probably miss some stuff, but I'll be a bit in depth.

1) Quality visuals. First thing first. They see those visuals, and they like them. Are there animations? They become interested in the game.

2) Quality writing. Once they get past just looking at the game and actually play it how much does the writing draw them in or push them away? Can they relate to the characters? Do the characters feel realistic enough?

3) Quality of Coding: Is it streamlined and efficient and bug free? Does it have special features like a gallery or walkthrough mod? Is it an unbearable grind or can you flow forward nicely in your play?

4) Quality of other: This is things like music, or voice acting, or photoshop, a good GUI or other minor little things that give it that extra touch.

5) Familiarity: Is this the first time you have played the game? Have you seen cameos of the game in other games? is it new to you, or something you have enjoyed for a while now?

6) Marketing: Was the game released only on patreon by a silent developer, only under a paywall, or was it publicly released on patreon and other sites and the game has twitter and instagram and discord and the creator comes to forums and talks to the people.

7) Ability to read the room: If the game has 9 comments that say "It's nice but, there is grain on a lot of the images..." Well, maybe time to fix that with Photoshop or render them a little longer or do something to fix that issue. Did you write a scene and it was overwhelmingly reached with criticism. It may or may need to be rewritten, or possibly expanded on later to make it more clear that it makes sense now. Is the main criticism "Too much grind" and a lot of it if it's a sandbox game... Well maybe the fans would like it if you made the protagonist earn $100 a day in game instead of $5 so they don't need to do the same repeated thing 20 times as much when you want to save up for the $200 item.

8) Trust in the developer: Does the developer seem like an honest guy or a con man? If they set a deadline do they hit it? Do they just make a bunch of excuses? Are they keeping active and such? Do you feel this game will go the distance or be abandoned? People are more likely to support a game they think has a good shot of going the distance than one they feel will be given up on.

9) Frequency of releases: Did you play a copy of the game in the past couple of months, or has it a been a good 8-9 months or longer? As scope creep climbs and a game gets more complex a release may take longer as there are more paths in this increasing complexity.

10) Size of releases: Did you get 200 renders after a month wait? That's not bad. Still fresh on the mind. Did you wait 10 months for those 200 renders... Not gonna as enthusiastic about it.

11) Consistency & Improvement: Is quality going up or staying at high quality or on the decline?

12) Special Boosts: Such as being "Featured" on f95zone or given cross promotions by other developers or cameos. These things add up and grow the audience.

13) Kinks: If you go after "Incest Bucks" you are more likely to get some bank than if you go after "Scat Bucks" regardless of other content. More people want to fantasize about banging the sister, not so much about a girl dropping a deuce on your chest. There are niche fetishes that can gain big bucks, but it won't be as appealing to mainstream.

TLDR In summary:

A more popular game will be well rendered, written, and coded that is marketed well with popular fetishes in large and frequent high quality releases from trustful developer that is constant and active in the community and trustworthy having been featured and cross promoted.

A less popular game will be poorly rendered, poorly written, badly coded that is poorly marketed with unpopular fetishes that has infrequent low quality releases from an untrustworthy or unknown developer that is inconsistent and has never been featured or cross promoted.

This is a great guide not only for porn games, but game dev in general

 

[anne O'nymous]

A more popular game will be well rendered, written, and coded that is marketed well with popular fetishes in large and frequent high quality releases from trustful developer that is constant and active in the community and trustworthy having been featured and cross promoted.

A game like WVM is undeniably popular, but the renders are at most average (why, here), the writing is average, and the story rely (too much) on Deus Ex Machina. In the same time, a game like Summertime Saga is even more popular, but the release are far to be frequent or big enough to compensate the wait, and DarkCookie isn't really active in the community.
At the opposite you've game with amazing render, great writing, fetishes that will offend no one, and that are cross promoted, but that are less popular than they should, like by example City of Broken Dreamers, or the four time awarded Heavy Five.

This don't left much of your list as effective reason why a game will be popular. Not that you are wrong, all this can help, but it's not the initial reason, nor the main one, why a game will be popular.

 

[FeropsisFenarue]

A game like WVM is undeniably popular, but the renders are at most average (why, here), the writing is average, and the story rely (too much) on Deus Ex Machina. In the same time, a game like Summertime Saga is even more popular, but the release are far to be frequent or big enough to compensate the wait, and DarkCookie isn't really active in the community.
At the opposite you've game with amazing render, great writing, fetishes that will offend no one, and that are cross promoted, but that are less popular than they should, like by example City of Broken Dreamers, or the four time awarded Heavy Five.

This don't left much of your list as effective reason why a game will be popular. Not that you are wrong, all this can help, but it's not the initial reason, nor the main one, why a game will be popular.

Dark Cookie is extremely active in his own community though. The first few years of dev he'd spend 3-4 hours a day streaming on Picarto. He became popular because of his engagement, and because there was little else in the field of 'good' hand drawn art. He's still very active on Picarto (almost every day, save for end of release pushes) and chats/shoots the shit with people on the stream. There are characters in the game that are pretty much some of his most loyal fans.

I'm not sure what other community you expect him to be active in, because chatting here is pretty much a waste of his time.

 

[gunderson]

It's marketing 101: be the first to market with a product that satisfies your customer base's minimum requirements, and you'll be at a huge advantage even over smaller operations that come later that might technically have a better product by some set of metrics.

Beyond that, make sure that the people you're selling to can and will pay enough to keep your operation going, whether individually they pay a bunch or simply by the sheer scale of your customer base.

Of course, celebrity or having a huge base of capital (or both!) can make inroads, but this idea that having a better product somehow 'deserves' a bigger marketshare is ludicrous. Especially since a lot of what makes a video game a better product is just having gotten further in development than your competitor, and the whole point of making a Patreon for a porn game is that you haven't finished making it yet. By that logic, Summertime Saga IS a better game than most of its competitors by the simple virtue of it being more complete than most of its competitors.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Dark Cookie is extremely active in his own community though.

Yeah, "his own community". It's how you keep the link living, not how you create it.

 

[j4yj4m]

Yeah, "his own community". It's how you keep the link living, not how you create it.

It's something every popular dev will have to deal with eventually. DC said himself a long time ago that he gets so many mails, questions, suggestions, etc. on his own patreon/discord channels, that he can hardly reply to all of them in person, without spending the whole day on nothing but writing. If you have troubles serving the people who actually pay you, it's really hard to justify going on adventures somewhere else.

The situation is just really different compared a somebody who is creating his first game and has a few 100 patreons or so at best.