How and where to promote your adult games correctly?

[TranscendentThots]

You can also access it from F95 (click here). All my games so far are on F95.

Weird. I searched for it yesterday and got 0 results. Maybe I typed something wrong?

 

[osanaiko]

That's kind of you to say. What little I know about marketing, I learned by watching GDC and GameDevUnderground videos on youtube.

There's still something to be said for a focused summary of a bunch of source content. Of course if the source content is not accurate it's still garbage-in-garbage-out, and the only way to know for sure is to actually try to execute a marketing push.
But it is a hell of a lot better than nothing. So, again, thanks for providing it, I hope it helps Vizinty and any others who stumble across this thread.

 

[TranscendentThots]

I'll definitely check this out, but the fact that the adult games makes it even harder. Where should we share adult games outside of the F95Zone?

I recommend Reddit for your "mainstream" Awareness/Interest/Community engagement. Check out

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and do what the existing successful developers are already doing. BE SURE to read each specific subreddit's rules, BTW. Every community has their own rules and you don't wanna get banned.

(BTW this is a good idea, in general. Do what more successful devs are doing, until you have an experienced, well-informed, strategic reason for changing things, backed up by your previous industry experience. This may surprise you, but I, too, have an idea for a "special personal project" in the adult games space. But my plan is to make 3 crowd-pleasers per every 1 "artistic" personal project. That way, if nobody cares about it, I still have the other three games' revenue to fall back on.)

I really liked this post, but if we think about it like that, every platform is a shelf. What do we need to do other than share on platforms like this?

Watch the video on marketing funnels so you understand the basic concepts:

1. Awareness ---> Users need to find out that your game exists.
2. Interest ---> Users need to like what they see and want to know more.
3. Engagement ---> Users need to want to be a part of your game's community, whether they end up buying it or not.
4. Call To Action ---> Users need to know what you want them to do (in your case, send you money one way or another,) and they need to agree that it's a good idea to do it, and then they need to do it.

It's called a funnel because it's "wider" at the top and "narrower" at the bottom. Only people who are already interested in your game will join your game's community, for example. Therefore fewer people will join your community than are interested, for example. (Since we assume you'll never convert 100% of the potential community members.)

Next, you need to perform each of those steps somewhere on the internet. People in Group 0 (The General Public) need to be given a chance of entering Group 1. People in Group 1 need a chance to enter Group 2, etc. (Ideally, you'll do this as cheaply as possible. Currently, "cheaply as possible" is almost free, costing only your time and attention.) You should not host these websites yourself, but it's nice to have a dedicated website like yours, just in case the other platforms suddenly decide to ban adult content.

By the way, you can add me on Discord if you wish. I liked your advice and would like to hear your thoughts now and in the future (Viznity#2801).

Discord is currently rolling out a new user naming system, so I expect utter chaos when trying to add people, but I'll try. It's just a temporary inconvenience. Hopefully it won't even affect this action. But who knows?

 

[TranscendentThots]

Speaking of Discord, does anybody think the staff would take issue with my shiny new sig?

If not, then I suppose I'll let you all know in a few weeks if it was an example of effective marketing.

 

[osanaiko]

Speaking of Discord, does anybody think the staff would take issue with my shiny new sig?

If not, then I suppose I'll let you all know in a few weeks if it was an example of effective marketing.

Staff of F95zone taking issue? I can't imagine. I don't recall any rules about linking off-site being disallowed.

 

[TheMagicalGurl]

Hi!

I'm

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. And I've been trying to develop adult games since about 2018. However, I couldn't focus on the marketing part because of trying to develop the game. This part requires a separate time and knowledge is also required.

I was able to develop a game which is my original idea, but since there was not enough support, I tried to develop new games to attract the attention of different users. It was "

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". I made parody games of

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,

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and

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in case the original idea might not work. The reason why they are short in content is that I could not create my own community. I really suck at this. When there was no community, I started to think that there was no interest in the games I made. Nevertheless, I continued this work on my own motivation. When I did not receive financial and moral support, I could not provide enough motivation and I had to stop the development of games before I could bring them to the development stage I wanted. Also I was alone from the beginning, still I am.

Check out my

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,

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and

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. How do you think I should proceed? It was not a problem at first, but it cannot continue like this for many years. 2018 to 2023... this is not a little time. Because when there are no supporters or the community, I can't see any motivation to continue this job right now. My games have always been free to gather community. Yet, failed.

PS. I'm currently working on my new game "Linda and the Roommate" and that's the purpose of my asking this question.
Probably this game could be my last bullet. And I would like to promote this game correctly.
View attachment 2617931

How and where to promote your adult games correctly?
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!

Have you not looked into this channel yet which you are in because you have the dev tag??

Monetization - Reddit & itch.io - Self Promotion, Subreddits, and itch Sales | F95zone Monetization - Reddit & itch.io - Self Promotion, Subreddits, and itch Sales | F95zone

Also, reply in ^ thread with questions from people that know...

 

[DiviDreamer]

Unpopular opinion - Make the good game and players "promote" it for you.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Unpopular opinion - Make the good game and players "promote" it for you.

There's a seed of truth in this. Marketing doesn't trick people into buying a bad game or watching a bad video or worshiping a bad content creator. It's just a

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. It can make a good game sell 100,000 units instead of 300. It can't make a bad, incomplete, or abandoned game sell 300 units instead of 0. Because any number multiplied by 0 is still 0

That can be a tough pill to swallow, since 90% of content sucks, and which 10% of it doesn't suck is subjective, so there are going to be times in which the public decides that something you don't personally care for is now popular.

It's not because consumers are stupid. It's not because the developers had a huge advertising budget. It's not even because of the IP. Even Marvel Cinematic Universe movies occasionally flop.

That said, there is a science to marketing, some pretty straightforward best-practices that have emerged, some dos and don'ts of the internet and of the adult content market in particular that can be taught and learned.

If your game is already good, organic word-of-mouth will introduce more players into the mouth of your funnel. There's just a lot less friction where, instead of having to google your game's name, or godforbid, type the URL into a web browser, they're getting links to it as part of their usual porn feed, and they impulsively decide to poke at a particularly juicy render and a link to where the picture came from pops out.

 

[TranscendentThots]

First of all, I read all your posts and thank you very much for your interest. You made me happy! Now I will answer all of them in turn.

But without marketing "the existence of the game" is unknown. Yes, Rick and Morty is known for the TV series content. However, the game I made to that content is unknown. Actually, that's the problem. People who don't know the existence of this game can't play it, right?

I tried the first 20 minutes of the game "Rick & Morty: A Way Back Home". And it still didn't give me the content that was the reason to open this game, "porn". In fact, most games are like this nowadays, maybe I should do that too.

Some players don't even care about the story, they just want to reach the content. That's how I was in the past.

In my games, like the 2007 flash games, they have instant access to adult content. I already took flash games as an example. Since I spent time with them in the past, there was always a desire to do the same. For example, these adult flash games from Zone-tan are among the best in my opinion. Or 3-ways flash game is also my favourite. You should absolutely try it.

Since I make it like a flash game, it is short in content. Maybe you add new sex positions and animations, but when you suddenly reach the content, the game may be consumed too quickly and cause the player to lose interest because they have taken everything. Therefore, I completely agree with your idea of "add a story to the game" you mentioned above.

I know I have to pay attention to the story now. And that I shouldn't present adult content to players directly in front of them. They have to work to get it, right? That's where the fun of the game comes in.

You played the first scene of "Rick's Lewd Universe" and closed it. After the scene you played, there is one more adult scene. And then I tried to make a place where you can walk around, click on new places, even though it doesn't focus on the story. This game was made with reference to an episode of Rick and Morty. So we are on a different planet. But in the long run, there was always the idea to go back to Earth and make content similar to the one in the game you gave an example. You can also see this by playing the game, the contents of that place were not open yet because the development had not yet reached that stage. However, the World button was visible in the UI. You can think of it as showing players a preview of what content they might get next if they support me. It is clear from both the comments and the Patreon page of the creator that the game you gave is expected by many people. If I had even the slightest hint of it visible to the community, maybe that game would be in a much better shape right now.

For example, games that have this kind of interest need to do something to make their name heard. That's what I actually want to know. On Twitter, Patreon, Itch.io, Instagram etc... it doesn't work if you just share it. What should we do as an extra?

I'll check out "Dan Harmon's Story Circle", thanks for the advice!

Start with #1. Loop until the MC either has everything they want (happy ending) or is too broken to continue trying (tragic ending.) More info

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.

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And since you like Rick & Morty references, this is what happens when you neglect your story:

 

[Viznity]

Start with #1. Loop until the MC either has everything they want (happy ending) or is too broken to continue trying (tragic ending.) More info

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.

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And since you like Rick & Morty references, this is what happens when you neglect your story:

View attachment 2629045

Alright, I'll see what I can do!

 

[smk2k]

1. Optimize your landing pages using platform-specific best-practices. For example, if you're on Steam, look for youtube videos on how to do better numbers on Steam. Explicitly state your core mechanics in the short description. Pretty graphics everywhere. Tag it correctly. Once you have more than one game, make a bundle, so players thinking about buying one game will see a great deal on offer. [...]

When your game is on steam, make a

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which allows players to subscribe to get notified of your new games without having to wishlist them first.

Finding new games by browsing the Steam store is shit, and the recommendations queue is not much better. If I liked your first game, I'll likely enjoy your new game too. Subscribing on developer homepages is ideal to be kept informed of new games I might like. Your upcoming releases are also much more visible on your developer homepage than in the Adult Only categories' Popular Upcoming tab.

 

[TranscendentThots]

When your game is on steam, make a

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which allows players to subscribe to get notified of your new games without having to wishlist them first.

Finding new games by browsing the Steam store is shit, and the recommendations queue is not much better. If I liked your first game, I'll likely enjoy your new game too. Subscribing on developer homepages is ideal to be kept informed of new games I might like. Your upcoming releases are also much more visible on your developer homepage than in the Adult Only categories' Popular Upcoming tab.

I mean... obviously, yes. Fill in all of the rectangles Steam gives you to fill in. I thought that went without saying.

But even using Steam as hard as it is possible to use Steam, you can't rely on Steam to show the link to your developer homepage to random new users. You will still need to direct traffic to your developer homepage in order for anybody to actually subscribe.

Either way, Steam is still a shelf. It won't sell your games for you. It will just allow people to buy them. There's a difference.

But you're right, making a nice developer homepage, making the most of customization options on your storefront, and all the other best practices can help turn it into a nicer shelf.

 

[Deleted member 2282952]

Unpopular opinion - Make the good game and players "promote" it for you.

I am new to the adult space, so I haven't yet personally confirmed what is the best, but after working on many mainstream industry games in the past (and now) - there are 3 pieces to success:

• Piece 1: Make a product so good it speaks for itself. This requires knowing your audience and being flexible to make adjustments to meet expectations without sacrificing your vision
• Piece 2: Write content on your primary blogs (which, for me in Adult games, is F95 and Patreon - cross-posted to other channels for SEO) - even if no one reads it. If you have piece 1, eventually, someone will read it, and they will read more, and become your supporter if they see you put in the real effort.
• Piece 3: my unpopular opinion - if you want to make this a job, the game must be "Steamable" aka fit into the content guidelines to be published there. Without Steam - breaking even is tough, and not because of the money you get from sales, but from the community you can build, and the SEO and social validation that you build.

 

[VeoStudios]

Firstly, I think you should create a development thread for your new game, build interest in it early.
Secondly, you say you receive no financial and moral support, unless your game shows a great promise off the bat(good story being set up, decently sized demo/first release, good renders/art, etc) thats not going to happen for a while.
Don't get discouraged, stick with the game and improve based on feedback and with time it will hopefully speak for itself. Thats a better way of doing things then making a game, abandoning it or keeping it limited in scope because of lack of support as that doesn't really attract patrons. The longer your in a market the better, or something.