I can't decide on the theme of my game.

LfkCn

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Apr 20, 2023
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I'm planning to make a school-setting game. I've written a scenario that I think is good. However, there are billions of school-setting games on the internet. Surely, these games are being made for a reason. If people didn't like this genre, there wouldn't be so many school-setting games.

But i think it would make more sense to make unpopular genre games. For example: there don't seem to be many zombie games from what I've seen. Or viking or pirate games. I feel like if i make a game in this style, it would attract more people's interest.


What do you think about this? I know that for a game to be popular, things like the scenario and scenes are more important. No matter how original a game is, if it's poorly written or if the scenes are terrible, people won't like it. Still, I'm curious about your opinions. Would you prefer the themes that have billions of examples like school-setting or the scenario of one guy in a house with 5-6 women, or would you prefer less popular scenarios like apocalypse scenarios or pirate/viking styles?"


( Vikings and Pirates are just examples, there could be different things as well. Still, I'm not excluding demons and angels from this topic, there are also many games in that style. )
 
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Hagatagar

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Oct 11, 2019
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Okay, a normal(?) school where pirates, corsairs and vikings learn their craft would be kinda funny.
Of course, they would be in different courses and there would be a playful beef between them. ;)
 

fyl3toys

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Dec 24, 2021
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As long as your writing about incest it doesn't matter what scenario you come up with.
 

HarveyD

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Oct 15, 2017
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There's likely lots of school/college setting games because a lot of them use Daz or something similar for graphics. Modern day items make up the bulk of their asset stores and so it's easier for a dev to use that kind of setting. Same with office settings.

If you're making your own art then I see no reason why you couldn't use a different setting.

However, if you've already written something that uses that setting then you may as well continue. There may be a lot of them already but most of them suck.
 

Icarus Media

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I'm planning to make a school-setting game. I've written a scenario that I think is good. However, there are billions of school-setting games on the internet. Surely, these games are being made for a reason. If people didn't like this genre, there wouldn't be so many school-setting games.

But i think it would make more sense to make unpopular genre games. For example: there don't seem to be many zombie games from what I've seen. Or viking or pirate games. I feel like if i make a game in this style, it would attract more people's interest.


What do you think about this? I know that for a game to be popular, things like the scenario and scenes are more important. No matter how original a game is, if it's poorly written or if the scenes are terrible, people won't like it. Still, I'm curious about your opinions. Would you prefer the themes that have billions of examples like school-setting or the scenario of one guy in a house with 5-6 women, or would you prefer less popular scenarios like apocalypse scenarios or pirate/viking styles?"


( Vikings and Pirates are just examples, there could be different things as well. Still, I'm not excluding demons and angels from this topic, there are also many games in that style. )
It's gonna be a cliche answer but...depends.
If you're trying to go for $$$ then create whatever is the most popular, adding in whatever patrons that come along want, it could be a huge success or it could get boggled down in the varying demands and genres that people want and end up with lots of stuff but no depth.

If you're in this for learning or for the sake of creating something, then create whatever you want, and the people that like that will find you and follow you.

If you're going for the niche, be aware the market IS smaller BUT often has greater demand/less standards from within that market, the well known rumour, for example, that Furries are rich who throw money at ANY two-bit crapware with their stuff in because of a hunger for games is something to consider. You will also have less demands in terms of quality since competition tends to be lower in more niche areas.
 
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Jaike

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Aug 24, 2020
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It's sorta difficult to say anything meaningful about this as an outsider because they are so many things to consider. Do you want to monetise your game? Sure sounds like it. Then a school setting means no Steam, and maybe troubles with Patreon. Is it 2d or 3d? There are many school assets available for Daz. What kind of content do you want to make and does it fit the setting? All questions we can't answer.

If your scenario is good, that could put it ahead of most school setting games because those don't have good plots 90% of the time. But it's probably still easier for the average dev to write a good plot in a modern setting than in a very unfamiliar historical setting (let's ignore scifi and fantasy, different rules there), so you might be replacing a good scenario with a worse one if you change setting. That'd be a waste.

Like Icarus said you could make more money in a niche than if you fish in the mainstream. Furries are a notoriously rich market but there are other niches too. Impossible to predict your success chasing one audience over another, tho.

Personally I'm not enthusiastic about your pirate or viking examples, because I'd expect the usual romanticised stuff in a pirate or viking game. I'd prefer a self-aware fantasy game that's inspired by those settings over that.
 

Icarus Media

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Furries are a notoriously rich market...
Out of scholarly curiosity has anyone ever studied or quantified that? I know someone did a study on here about if NTR peeps were rich and paid to have it put into games (I can't find it now), but it would be interesting to see the evidence for the Furry rumour.

Maybe in a seperate thread though, so as not to derail.
 

Lerd0

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Out of scholarly curiosity has anyone ever studied or quantified that? I know someone did a study on here about if NTR peeps were rich and paid to have it put into games (I can't find it now), but it would be interesting to see the evidence for the Furry rumour.

Maybe in a seperate thread though, so as not to derail.

..what was the result of the ntr one?
 

Jaike

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Aug 24, 2020
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Out of scholarly curiosity has anyone ever studied or quantified that? I know someone did a study on here about if NTR peeps were rich and paid to have it put into games (I can't find it now), but it would be interesting to see the evidence for the Furry rumour.

Maybe in a seperate thread though, so as not to derail.
I think it's a general perception thing based on devs like . Furry art is, eh, well represented in the LGBT+ market though.

That NTR analysis thread is here.
 
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Icarus Media

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I think it's a general perception thing based on devs like . Furry art is, eh, well represented in the LGBT+ market though.

That NTR analysis thread is here.
SNAP!

Now let's leave this thread in peace without further derailing. Looking at you Lerd0!
 
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Lerd0

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I think it's a general perception thing based on devs like . Furry art is, eh, well represented in the LGBT+ market though.

That NTR analysis thread is here.
...i mean fen...is older than most devs...older than this forum....had a massive kickstarter like 10 years ago...was makin bank...before devs even started using patreon.......he a true OG.....
...eww fitgirlisbestgirl is there.........ewwww
...fun thread tho...thx....