Questions regarding posting self made content

[YumamiSoft]

Hey all!

So, here's the deal. We're two game devs who've recently jumped into the deep end of adult game development. We've both got about 8 years of industry experience with released games behind us, though given the nature of our content we want to keep a bit on the down low.

We've wrapped up our first game and are now just twiddling our thumbs waiting for the green light from DLSite's approval squad.

We thought it'd be cool to make a post of our game here when it hits the shelves, partly to spread the word but mostly to get some honest feedback. We know piracy is inevitable, so we're also planning to make a "pirate build" that's almost identical to the paid version. The only difference? It'll give a shout-out to our Patreon page when you exit the game.

Truth be told, we're a bit out of our element here. Game devving? Sure thing. But marketing and self-promotion? That's uncharted territory. We've both always been lurkers.

My fear is that we'll come off as faceless advertisers when we really intend to build a community to make a proper living from developing games.

So, what do you guys think? Any and all opinions are welcome. Really. We're all ears.

 

[Jesus]

You should be fine really, as long as you're following the thread creation guidelines:

3. Thread Creation

When creating a thread, the following points must be adhered to. Not including them will result in the thread being locked and moved to the H-Section, no matter how many posts the thread gets before a moderator sees it. Copy-pasting translated DLSite information is not a valid OP.

Thread title must follow this format, as applicable:

[Author’s Name in native language / Author's Name in English, if official translation exists. This is optional] Title of game in primary language / Title of game in English, if official translation exists. This is optional. (RJ Number, Last Updated, Version Number, if applicable.)

For example: [月の水企画 / Tsuki-no-Mizu] ナイトメアガールズ / Nightmare Girls (RJ215006)

• If a direct translation to the name does not exist, do not attempt to add a machine translation or make your own title.
  • If you're unsure about what to put as the title, just default to the original language, with the original name
• Thread title must have appropriately attached prefixes to it.
• If the thread title gets too long, trim down as needed. The base necessity for a thread title is
  • [Author's Name in native language] Title of game in native language

Thread OP must contain the minimum information, though you are encouraged to add as much information as you'd like:

• Link to source of the game’s information (DLSite, blog, etc)
• A brief description of the gameplay. The description should, at minimum, contain the following information
  • The type of game (Is it a VN? A side scroller? A puzzle game?)
  • What your overall objective is (How do you progress? What is the end goal?)
  • The prominent mechanics found in the game and an explanation of how they come into play in the overall game
  • How H-content is accessed through gameplay
• (Optional) Major fetishes found in the game
  • The following content MUST be explicitly mentioned in the OP
    • Guro/Ryona
    • Vore
    • NTR
    • Loli/Shota

If a game is not far enough in development to be able to provide this information, add as much as you can (Speculation, images, developer updates). OPs are expected to update until it can meet the original top requirements.

Users will receive two warnings for not following these guidelines. Subsequent offenses will result in a week long ban.

We do get a lot of devs making a single post about their game then completely disengaging from the forums, and they often get their thread locked because they neglected to provide the required information about the game. Given you're going to the lengths of asking about it in the first place, I'm not worried about that. For everyone's reference, the description can be as simple as this: "Dogshit 4: Nemesis is a top-down shooter. You have to reach the end of the level without stepping in too many dog turds. If you step in 3 dog turds, you will lose and get a game over CG, and be sent back to the beginning of the game. Contains scat and bestiality." Even that's more information than is strictly required.

Some games get completely ignored - Daz3D Visual Novels being amongst the most disdained, as they tend to have basic vanilla-adjacent content that the userbase here tends not to be interested in, and are perceived as lazy, low-effort and low-quality - but developers are welcome to promote their games regardless. The bar is so low you'd have to be on the other side of the planet to get beneath - as long as your game has a shred of originality and care put into it, you're golden. Whether people will be engaged with it depends on how it fits each individual's personal preferences - the most common interests here, as far as I can tell, being Action or RPG games with tentacle/monster/beast/interspecies/corruption content, but by no means exclusively.

As for being perceived as cynical - some people will regardless, but I wouldn't worry about it or pay those people any mind, especially since you intend to give out the game out for free - which I think is incredibly based.

 

[YumamiSoft]

Heyo, thanks for your response.

I'm really not used to posting on forums (or anywhere, really) so thanks fo rlinking the rules. I'll be sure to give them a look again before making the post when the game officially launches.

Also, funny that you mentioned those genres/kinks specifically. The game is a Top Down Hack n' Slash RPG, and the best way I could describe the content is "tentacle/monster/interspecies/mind break". We made it in Unity from the bottom up. We did purchase some pre-made tilesets for some of the game world itself, which I hope won't deter too many players.

Anyway, I will post more about it when it actually releases. Thanks again!

 

[DarkFire1004]

I've moved this thread to the H-Games section in case other would-be posters have a similar question. The EE section isn't necessarily the wrong place, but you'd probably get more eyes in the most popular section in the forum.

 

[Jesus]

Heyo, thanks for your response.

I'm really not used to posting on forums (or anywhere, really) so thanks fo rlinking the rules. I'll be sure to give them a look again before making the post when the game officially launches.

Also, funny that you mentioned those genres/kinks specifically. The game is a Top Down Hack n' Slash RPG, and the best way I could describe the content is "tentacle/monster/interspecies/mind break". We made it in Unity from the bottom up. We did purchase some pre-made tilesets for some of the game world itself, which I hope won't deter too many players.

Anyway, I will post more about it when it actually releases. Thanks again!

Well, now you have my interest, looking forwards to learning more about it.

When it comes to pre-made/third-party assets - If it does the job about as well as something you could've made yourself - well, for one, most players aren't going to be able to tell - and you can't really go wrong in saving yourself the time and effort. The main thing in a H-game is whether the hentai part is enjoyable, as well as the gameplay systems surrounding it - player and enemy models; animations/CGs, and how the player accesses them - and that's always going to be very subjective. For everything else, it's very much a "20% of the work gets 80% of the results" type deal. Environment, sound, vfx, UI, level design, even story and dialog - of course it's nice for them to be polished to a high standard, but as long as each meets the bar of not acively detracting from the experience, it's absolutely fine if those aspects aren't the best they could possibly be - even preferable, if it's to the favor of the content matters most in this type of game. Not to say you can't have both, and third-party assets don't necessarily have a negative bearing on quality anyway - it's just a question of implementation.