Would you rather have Chara/story development in a game or full content?

[Sylkevon_5]

In a adult game would rather have well written story with development of all character including mc, even it means less content porn/hentai wise at the start and updates with a lot of story (a bit like watching in anime/show or playing an eroge like kamidori), or the content is more important even if there is no feelings developed as long as the quality is good.
Both can be good, but let's say that there is a game, this game will be awesome but you have to choose one of the above, what type will it be? And why?

Feel free to come by and share your opinion,

Ps: Sorry if my English is approximate.

 

[morphnet]

In a adult game would rather have well written story with development of all character including mc, even it means less content porn/hentai wise at the start and updates with a lot of story (a bit like watching in anime/show or playing an eroge like kamidori), or the content is more important even if there is no feelings developed as long as the quality is good.
Both can be good, but let's say that there is a game, this game will be awesome but you have to choose one of the above, what type will it be? And why?

Feel free to come by and share your opinion,

Ps: Sorry if my English is approximate.

Generalized questions like this will not really give you a good over all view or answer.

On the one hand if you go with content over story, you will get people complaining about it being a pointless over sexed game and players might as well go watch porn. They will complain if you have or don't have animations and they will complain there is not enough / good enough story.

On the other hand if you go the character / story development route, you will get people complaining about "the dev is blue balling us", "we're 5 updates in I want titties!" and "when do we get to bang X or Y, dev is just milking now". You will also get flak for text during sex scenes, "too much text", "too little text".

..and of course once players have a favorite character, you'll get flak for updating other characters.

IMHO it would be best to find a few semi/popular games fitting both types and read through their threads. That way you will see the rough spots they run into but you will also see what feedback fans gives. This will give you a much clearer picture / answer and you can see what changes, if any the dev's made, giving you a rough idea of what is ahead of you.

The most important thing is, if you are thinking of making a game, make the game YOU want, in the way YOU want. You are never going to please everyone and you are going to get complaints but you will also get fans and get to see your story come to life.

 

[Sylkevon_5]

Generalized questions like this will not really give you a good over all view or answer.

On the one hand if you go with content over story, you will get people complaining about it being a pointless over sexed game and players might as well go watch porn. They will complain if you have or don't have animations and they will complain there is not enough / good enough story.

On the other hand if you go the character / story development route, you will get people complaining about "the dev is blue balling us", "we're 5 updates in I want titties!" and "when do we get to bang X or Y, dev is just milking now". You will also get flak for text during sex scenes, "too much text", "too little text".

..and of course once players have a favorite character, you'll get flak for updating other characters.

IMHO it would be best to find a few semi/popular games fitting both types and read through their threads. That way you will see the rough spots they run into but you will also see what feedback fans gives. This will give you a much clearer picture / answer and you can see what changes, if any the dev's made, giving you a rough idea of what is ahead of you.

The most important thing is, if you are thinking of making a game, make the game YOU want, in the way YOU want. You are never going to please everyone and you are going to get complaints but you will also get fans and get to see your story come to life.

The generalized question is to give me food for thought rather than an answer to blindly follow^^ Which is why the more details the better.

I take the general advise, whatever you do there will be complaining, do what you want, if I succeed with that in mind, good for me but if I fail at least I tried.

For the story I had 2 possibilities, but thinking about what you said the adventure type with a story that slowly unfold as you meet different people and observe different event seems more fitted to have a good content/chara writing while following the story.

Also, I think that a story too dark might be a bit off with the adventure/chill vibe.

For the characters it will be more a shonen vibe, all chars are made to be liked in a way because of their stories and development, so of course there will be chars more liked than others but I will reduce the impact (no forced, uninteresting new chars).

A lot of games that I liked in those types don't have much complains, that may be due to the devs sticking to the initial fetish/idea rather than trying to please everyone.

And of course in the end I'm planning to do what I like, I already know what I will, may or won't do in term of content.

Thank you for your answer if you have any other thought on this feel free^^

 

[Lun@]

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I go for the story/characters in the games on here. The lewd stuff doesn't interest me.

For me it really is more about enjoying a visual novel that has drama and interesting characters. Horror/Apocalyse VNs are my favourite genres and unfortunately there are few really good ones around.

 

[Sylkevon_5]

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I go for the story/characters in the games on here. The lewd stuff doesn't interest me.

For me it really is more about enjoying a visual novel that has drama and interesting characters. Horror/Apocalyse VNs are my favourite genres and unfortunately there are few really good ones around.

In term of story/chars I don't think it's the minority, I saw a lot of project that dosn't work well even with the lewd stuf because the story is just to bland, and just as morphnet said only lewd without attach to characters, the player might as well just watch porn.

With your two answers I guess that only porn/erotic content might be for creators that only work on thoses stuffs (animators, drawings, etc) but when it come to a game you need at least gameplay or story or both, if those are badly done/boring, even if the animations and/or models are good, the players will drop at some point.

I should probably just make a way for people that enjoy the story to be able to skip the lewd part, this way it would be possible for players to enjoy my story in both cases (even if the story development will be slower because of the work on the lewd stuff I will work on^^)

Horror/Apocalypse VN are indeed rares, even in games in general it's a genre that was more popular in the late 90s/ early 2000.

As for my plans I don't think my game will be for you^^, I can only hope for you that a good Horror/Apocalypse creator will rise, but thanks for your opinion on the matter.

 

[Lun@]

In term of story/chars I don't think it's the minority, I saw a lot of project that dosn't work well even with the lewd stuf because the story is just to bland, and just as morphnet said only lewd without attach to characters, the player might as well just watch porn.

With your two answers I guess that only porn/erotic content might be for creators that only work on thoses stuffs (animators, drawings, etc) but when it come to a game you need at least gameplay or story or both, if those are badly done/boring, even if the animations and/or models are good, the players will drop at some point.

I should probably just make a way for people that enjoy the story to be able to skip the lewd part, this way it would be possible for players to enjoy my story in both cases (even if the story development will be slower because of the work on the lewd stuff I will work on^^)

Horror/Apocalypse VN are indeed rares, even in games in general it's a genre that was more popular in the late 90s/ early 2000.

As for my plans I don't think my game will be for you^^, I can only hope for you that a good Horror/Apocalypse creator will rise, but thanks for your opinion on the matter.

True. Some of the top games on here have pretty substantial story arcs and interesting characters like in Eternum, Ripples, Artemis etc. I tend to forget not everyone is on here for the lewds

I wouldn't bother with including options to skip lewd parts as I doubt many would feel that strong about missing those scenes.

Although I'm not interested in the lewd stuff personally, it doesn't bother me if I like the characters and it's not just lewd heavy in balance. The College type fuckfests I just find boring to be honest.

There are a couple of good Supernatural ones at the moment that I came across, so my ghoulish tastes are being drip fed

Thank you and good luck with your game

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

In term of story/chars I don't think it's the minority, I saw a lot of project that dosn't work well even with the lewd stuf because the story is just to bland, and just as morphnet said only lewd without attach to characters, the player might as well just watch porn.

Globally, it is a minority. The majority does just watch porn. But these people also don't wind up here. Why would they if they are fully satisfied with opening pornhub or whatever and finding a porn video there.

So yes, people playing adult games want either strong interactivity, or emphasis on storytelling, or both.

I should probably just make a way for people that enjoy the story to be able to skip the lewd part, this way it would be possible for players to enjoy my story in both cases (even if the story development will be slower because of the work on the lewd stuff I will work on^^)

That seems unwise. From the description that sounds like a bad case of fanservice. If you can skip a part of the story without much trouble, then you should. And if you can't, then you shouldn't skip it. So you either write a story where sex is contributing to the story (and vice versa, sex is better because of the story), or you don't bring sex at all.

 

[HarveyD]

Uh, the story IS the content?

 

[Sylkevon_5]

Globally, it is a minority. The majority does just watch porn. But these people also don't wind up here. Why would they if they are fully satisfied with opening pornhub or whatever and finding a porn video there.

So yes, people playing adult games want either strong interactivity, or emphasis on storytelling, or both.


That seems unwise. From the description that sounds like a bad case of fanservice. If you can skip a part of the story without much trouble, then you should. And if you can't, then you shouldn't skip it. So you either write a story where sex is contributing to the story (and vice versa, sex is better because of the story), or you don't bring sex at all.

Story and character wise it seems that I had a good 1rst idea, I think it will work well with the game I wanted to make.

About the skip part, I think I get it, It's not exactly a VN you have more liberty and with game element too, if you want to advance the main story or see the relationships with the current chars it up to the player and more event with chars will be available while the story progresses (I need it to be that way because it also come with some mechanics the world is evolving with the player, the player needs to be able to come back to a specific character if he wants to).

Skipping a scene in particular is fine in itself but doesn't make sense, as if you want to see the relation progress between two chars then why skip it?
And why play the game at all if you skip the content because you don't like it?
Skipping option would be in that case a bit pointless and would probably be badly seen as an attempt to please everyone, which, in the end isn't what I want to do.

So yeah, I should really focus on my story,place models, charas(models and writing), animations and well a nice UI is always a good thing^^

Thanks for the reply

 

[Sylkevon_5]

Uh, the story IS the content?

When is say content I mean everything about the chars (relationship, animation/cg, etc),
but yeah story as well as gameplay and everything that make the game is content^^

 

[woody554]

decide which one YOU like better and put all your eggs in that basket. there's really no point whatsoever in making what some online rando wants you to make.

 

[BigCut]

I don't really need a story at all.

If I'm playing an adult game, I'm either doing it because I need to bust, or because I genuinely enjoy the gameplay.

Ideally both.

 

[Sylkevon_5]

decide which one YOU like better and put all your eggs in that basket. there's really no point whatsoever in making what some online rando wants you to make.

I do plan on doing what I what in the end^^ I'm just looking for elements in the answers of my question that may give me insight/ideas I didn't though of to construct a better project.
Even if it's my first game I want to be proud of myself, I could have started with a smaller project but I wouldn't be happy with my own work, and as the first player of my game if I'm bored by it, this is bad news xD

So yeah I'm going to put all my eggs in that basket but I want to make sure to throw them in a god damn fine basket^^

 

[Sylkevon_5]

I don't really need a story at all.

If I'm playing an adult game, I'm either doing it because I need to bust, or because I genuinely enjoy the gameplay.

Ideally both.

I see what types of games you like, some of them can be really good, especially as you said if the gameplay fit.

Gameplay is an important part too, but I don't want to do a boring grindy sanbox or rpg, I want it to be rewarding like some hidden chars/location in a dungeon crawling game, or just a quick fun gameplay.

I would like to do a mix of both because it would fit my project quite well but I will have to think about it a little more to find a perfectly balanced gameplay as all things should be.

 

[robozaec]

I may be lazy, but I don't have enough dedication to commit to reading a full fledged story and learn about characters and such. I mean, if it has good writing, it might be interesting. In my opinion, a good porn game has a mix of both porn content and a story, but it absolutely doesn't have to be Tolkien tier story, in a matter of fact, I'd rather prefer something simple. But who knows, I don't have tons of experience with VNs, the ones that I've played and enjoyed both porn and writing are Amorous, Juicy Futa, Femboy Burgers, Sissy Maker Deluxe, and that's about it.

 

[Sylkevon_5]

Hmm... mmm!~
Why won't you use reverse thinking?~
Instead of trying to satisfy individual needs, try to think of how to make things satisfy people regardless!~
In other words, make anything you wish to share with people look cool!~
After all, some people didn't think of how to satisfy different kinds of fetishists, they just made hentai look cool!~
If hentai was not looking cool, they would not develop many fetishes, isn't it?~
Just think about it~

Whatever people like, I need to make it so good that even those that weren't speciality into what I'm making, still interested?
Brute force with passion?
That's a difficult feat but, who am I to refuse such a challenge after all ^^ I might as well try.

I gave myself the time needed to be able to work on a game because I wanted it, so why not go all out? ^^

 

[Sylkevon_5]

I may be lazy, but I don't have enough dedication to commit to reading a full fledged story and learn about characters and such. I mean, if it has good writing, it might be interesting. In my opinion, a good porn game has a mix of both porn content and a story, but it absolutely doesn't have to be Tolkien tier story, in a matter of fact, I'd rather prefer something simple. But who knows, I don't have tons of experience with VNs, the ones that I've played and enjoyed both porn and writing are Amorous, Juicy Futa, Femboy Burgers, Sissy Maker Deluxe, and that's about it.

This why I don't think I will go with full VN style but rather Manga/Anime, shorter sentences, faster pace, story written though the discussion of the chars rather than a pages full of writing (might do that as side info, for those interested in lore, species etc).
This method is also asking way more cg/work as even the lips of a chars should change to see the emotion that goes with those lines, but to me it's seems essential.

For the story itself, it dosn't have to be Tolkien tier true ^^, but there are good and badly written simple ones (same for complex ones).

I decided to go with the adventure type of story, I can imagine a complex world and slowly unfold the story around it as the player dive into the game, while the background story is interesting, the adventure type still resolve around meeting different chars, not everyone is about to backstab you for power in an intense political intrigue ^^ (I can do that to! But that won't fit this game xD)

For character writing is not much about taking time to learn about them more in this case, what's make this character slightly better than the others, maybe my point will fall flat on this one xD
Ex : In those game you quoted is there a char or two that you would like to see more content of it? That could be because of it's chara design/writing

Some point may be off, you can tell me if you disagree^^

 

[Raboobie]

If it's male MC and the dev is capable of decent story, then the story is more important for me.
If it's female MC, I don't care about the story too much, just give me the lewds.

If you are going to have major development, growth or change on the MC during the story, it needs to be very clear from the start. Not within the actual story, but at least in the dev notes about it. A weak pathetic MC is not appealing to many players.

 

[robozaec]

In those game you quoted is there a char or two that you would like to see more content of it? That could be because of it's chara design/writing

I guess, I like the trans lizard, forgot her name, from the Amorous game. She has a sad backstory, and in the game you act as a person that would help her mentally to come to terms with her personality and "transness", which is really romantic and wholesome, and the sex scene at the end is just icing on the cake. In the Sissy Maker Deluxe game there was this witch girl that would summon lewd demons, that was pretty interesting and alluring to come visit her and fish for more rituals.

The important thing to note, is that the story always comes first, and the characters kinda develop from that. You don't wanna think of awesome characters and just build a story around them because that would feel very forced and unnatural. The characters are in a way representations of different opinions, worldviews and in the case of adult games, fetishes. I would suggest that you start with the premise (a short summary), then the plot itself (intro, 3 acts, ending) and from that you'll get much better characters.

 

[Living In A Lewd World]

I personally think both can work as characters and plot go hand in hand. One needs definitely an idea, where one wants to go. But this corresponds with the"wants" and "needs" of the characters, as the story develops through them. But this may also depend on, if the story is more plot- or character driven.
When one e.g. looks at the subplots of "the Headmaster" those revolve all around changing certain "negative" characteristics of the girls to something positive and getting their gratitude *cough* for this. To write such substories, one does surely rather initially think about the "negative" characteristics which should be changed and only then thinks about under which circumstances the headmaster learns about the characteristics and what events need to happen til the headmaster is able to cure the poor girls from their suffering *cough*.
And I find especially this VN very well done regarding story telling.