What type of adult game would gather the biggest audience?

Type of game

  • Pixelart Platformer

  • Visual Novel (2D)

  • Visual Novel (3D)


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Crimson Delight Games

Active Member
Game Developer
Nov 20, 2020
764
1,828
Any devs here that could give me some pros and cons for those two types of games? Any type of game that I didn't think of that would work well?
You should probably do a 3D VN for your first project (2D takes waaay too long, and I'm speaking from experience here). Design and build something you can finish within 6 months. Since you're a 3D modeler by profession, the art itself will be a piece of cake. Consider maybe importing DAZ assets and tweaking them heavily, you'll probably save a lot of time by doing that instead of building everything from scratch. Try to implement animations if you can, that will elevate your entire project. Writing you can probably pull off yourself, or outsource to someone who's willing to work on commission (just make sure they can produce at least passable erotica).

I'd stay away from platformers because they're very niche, the art is a bitch to get right, and most of them tend to feature fem-MCs, with the gameplay loop itself hinging on the whole lose-to-get-raped dynamic. Not saying that's a bad thing, but you'll be competing with mature projects years in the making with dedicated fanbases. This itself isn't much of a problem if you're making a VN due to its wide appeal, but going with a platformer means you'll spend months just on assets, and there's no guarantee of payoff in the end. Either put together a team if you're dead set on making a platformer, or come to terms with the fact you may not see much financial support regardless of how many hours you sink into the project. Keep in mind this is all conjecture and you could make it big if your project is good enough, but I'm trying to keep things realistic given what the market has expressed so far.

If I were you, I'd do a 6-month 3D VN as a first project, then use the same characters and setting for a 3D pseudo-RPG (not completely open-world, but still non-linear via use of interconnected maps/areas/zones). If you're into the cyberpunk aesthetic, then something like (not as mechanically complex, but you get the gist of it) - futuristic settings are incredibly popular in adult games, and there's still plenty of room to grow within it. You'll build a community this way, and get them invested in your characters and setting. You'll also be able to scale up production as you go from a one-person project to a potentially much larger one. You can still have platform-like minigames in a pseudo-RPG, but you avoid the pitfalls of cookie-cutter design that have plagued the genre since the days of Mario and Mega Man.

Good luck! ;)

P.S./EDIT: Character body-modding makes perfect sense in cyberpunk games, and you could make it one of the game's pillars (basically do what Cyberpunk failed to deliver). If you're able to somehow tie player mods into the whole thing (like you mentioned above), then you could have a hit on your hands.
 
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Diagnosed

Newbie
Game Developer
May 12, 2022
31
47
IMO the best thing to do is find a niche and own it. It helps if you have an obscure fetish lol. You only need a hundred or two diehard fans to have a financial success.