VN Monthly or Project game updates

Deleted member 167032

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Hi All

Just wondering what is considered enough content from Text to images play time for a monthly game update or project based game update? Also how much porn/nudity should be in such a game?
I know the porn/nudity depends on the type of story that is told.
 
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DarthSeduction

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My artist and I are just discussing this for one of our projects.

On average I'd suggest one sexual scene added per update. Not sure the exact content or style of you game, but there should be something worth seeing each update. Animations can reduce the amount of work you have to do to make things sexy, but they are time consuming. The lowest, for a scene I write for a sex scene would be around 30 renders, and that's a lesbian scene or a quickie. As for the rest, I suggest you try to make enough content that it takes at least 30 minutes to play through if they read every panel.
 

Deleted member 167032

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THank you Darth Lord of the Sith.... May the Force serve you well...

30 renders for a sex scene i take it that is without animations?
I am nearing the release date of my Demo/Episode One vs1.0 so i was wondering what the expected content and game play time was. I mean i have to work at night and on weekends so it's not like i have loads of hours to do this. With just one pc that I use for coding and image renders you can imagine it's slow... I have another pc that i could use for the coding but this pc is an old quad core AMD chipped ddr3 4gb beast or lack of ....

From what you suggesting then it should be reachable for me to achieve .... will think about this.

For example i am busy with a very nice BJ scene that will end up having 20images excluding animation. I'll see if i add a short animation...

My artist and I are just discussing this for one of our projects.

On average I'd suggest one sexual scene added per update. Not sure the exact content or style of you game, but there should be something worth seeing each update. Animations can reduce the amount of work you have to do to make things sexy, but they are time consuming. The lowest, for a scene I write for a sex scene would be around 30 renders, and that's a lesbian scene or a quickie. As for the rest, I suggest you try to make enough content that it takes at least 30 minutes to play through if they read every panel.
 

DarthSeduction

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And if you're just doing a BJ or early sex acts a smaller amount of images is reasonable. Honestly that sounds like a good number for a BJ scene. Just try to keep the show don't tell line in mind. Some will say that they like theatre of the mind, and what they don't see is that less text is more in that respect, but more images just gives you more to work with in your mind.
 

HarveyD

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Personally I'd advise releasing whatever you're comfortable with or whatever suites the story. Inventing or forcing content to satisfy the masses doesn't always work out the best.

30 renders for one sex scene sounds like a lot though. I feel keeping it lower for your first release might be more ideal. You can always go back and add more in.
 

Deleted member 167032

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Spot on.. im also going to have to explain why it happened as the one character was not suppose to do what they just did... Trick is not to bore the reader.

And if you're just doing a BJ or early sex acts a smaller amount of images is reasonable. Honestly that sounds like a good number for a BJ scene. Just try to keep the show don't tell line in mind. Some will say that they like theatre of the mind, and what they don't see is that less text is more in that respect, but more images just gives you more to work with in your mind.
 

Deleted member 167032

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OH yeah, i've changed and redone renders many times and redid some of the text...

Personally I'd advise releasing whatever you're comfortable with or whatever suites the story. Inventing or forcing content to satisfy the masses doesn't always work out the best.

30 renders for one sex scene sounds like a lot though. I feel keeping it lower for your first release might be more ideal. You can always go back and add more in.
 
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Dr PinkCake

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I understand you. It is f*ing hard to find a sweet spot. 30 renders is definitely generous imo. Play the games you've enjoyed the most and count how many they have. Analyze what types of renders they are (closeups/foreplay/actual sex etc). Is the dev reusing renders to make the scene longer (very common)? Were you satisfied with the scene? What would you improve? I think it is important to do these types of analyses but also just to not second guess oneself.
 
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Mikedazz1

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it does not matter if the updates take two or three months, the important thing is that they have quality and quantity
 
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redknight00

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I'd say at least enough to fill one hour, obviously the type of content will change how fast one can get through the new content. Single render with little or not text can be skipped almost instantly, while walls of text can drag a scene longer than necessary, and of course if you have multiple characters it's good to have something for everyone regularly (even if not all updates).

More importantly, it's about how much the game moves forward, if one scene plus several lines of non-H dialogue are do the job then you shouldn't need to worry. Arguably a negative example is SunsetRiders7's SU that has only been moving sideways for a long time and we get people whining about it all the time in the threads, discord and streams.
 

Agent HK47

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More importantly, it's about how much the game moves forward, if one scene plus several lines of non-H dialogue are do the job then you shouldn't need to worry. Arguably a negative example is SunsetRiders7's SU that has only been moving sideways for a long time and we get people whining about it all the time in the threads, discord and streams.
I can confirm this 100%. I like the game, but it is sad when you have 10-20 girls fully enslaved and ready to do your bidding, and you still can't get to fuck them, or even a HJ/BJ in most cases. The term "width of an ocean - depth of a mud puddle" is definately true in this case.
The dev should not have added this many girls so quickly, cause it means he now has to spread his focus wayyy to wide, and that adds in extremely minor additions for each character in every update. At the speed this game is currently progressing, it will take 10 years before every character is fully implemented, and that is only if he doesn't add more characters (which he will, don't even doubt it).

Big brother suffered from the same problem, before DS abandoned it.
 
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DarthSeduction

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I can confirm this 100%. I like the game, but it is sad when you have 10-20 girls fully enslaved and ready to do your bidding, and you still can't get to fuck them, or even a HJ/BJ in most cases. The term "width of an ocean - depth of a mud puddle" is definately true in this case.
The dev should not have added this many girls so quickly, cause it means he now has to spread his focus wayyy to wide, and that adds in extremely minor additions for each character in every update. At the speed this game is currently progressing, it will take 10 years before every character is fully implemented, and that is only if he doesn't add more characters (which he will, don't even doubt it).

Big brother suffered from the same problem, before DS abandoned it.
Eh, BB had sex content with almost everyone before he abandoned it. The problem was that his sex content was 5-10 poorly framed scenes (for instance looking at max's ass while you fucked lisa) and then repeat. There was not enough content to make all the work worthwhile.
 

HarveyD

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Unless you want to make a living on patreon doing this.
And therein lies a big problem a lot of games have. Money. There isn't really a problem with wanting to make money, or even live off, of your project on Patreon. Or some other platform. But it changes how everyone percieves and reacts to it.

A lot of developers have some skills in coding or some art aspect, but hardly any have experience creating an entire game, managing its creation and dealing with funding. A lot end up being long winded and drawn out (not always deliberately) with no end in site.

My honest advice would be to create the smallest game you can. Doesn't matter how many renders it has or how long it takes to finish. Just make a complete and enjoyable experience and work off of that. Oh, and don't ask for money for the first thing you've ever made.
 

DarthSeduction

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And therein lies a big problem a lot of games have. Money. There isn't really a problem with wanting to make money, or even live off, of your project on Patreon. Or some other platform. But it changes how everyone percieves and reacts to it.

A lot of developers have some skills in coding or some art aspect, but hardly any have experience creating an entire game, managing its creation and dealing with funding. A lot end up being long winded and drawn out (not always deliberately) with no end in site.

My honest advice would be to create the smallest game you can. Doesn't matter how many renders it has or how long it takes to finish. Just make a complete and enjoyable experience and work off of that. Oh, and don't ask for money for the first thing you've ever made.
Yeah because what's the value in your time and effort. There's something to be said about making a game that is worth paying for, surely. But to imply that people who do put in their time and effort for your enjoyment shouldn't ask for funding is not only ignorant but arrogant and quite frankly deplorable. Seriously, with that kind of attitude you disgust me.
 
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Dr PinkCake

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Well I can only speak for myself when I say that money comes second to the actual craft itself. I fucking love creating stuff and do it on my spare time! If people want to reward that creativity with money, I'm all for it but I honestly rather have justified raving reviews of my creations. I would never blame a dev for asking for money if they need it to fulfill a goal of theirs or just as a reward for their hard work. I think it's safe to say that non-developers have little to no grasp on how much energy it takes to create a game. And then to see that all that hard work gets pirated immediately without compensation can be crushing if you're not prepared for it. Luckily, I find that the adult community is pretty awesome when it comes to backing creators who deserves it.
 

OhWee

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I've seen some games that seem to get by OK with fewer renders per scene (say less than a dozen), but have enough substance that I don't mind.

It really comes down to time management. Some developers can crank out 300+ renders an update, others do OK with only a few dozen per update. It's when you release an update that has say only a dozen or so renders and only a couple of minutes of gameplay, that's when it's really annoying.

A possible exception to this is if you've been putting off that first sex scene with a specific character for a long time/many updates. At that point, I do think you really should do a larger number of renders for that first time, than you might normally do if you normally keep the scenes fairly short. I'm specifically thinking of the first Tracy consentual full on sex scene in Dreams of Desire. We waited a long time for that one, and it felt rushed to me. The renders were exquisite, yes, but because of the 'wait', I think we should have had more position variations, etc. for that particular event.

Some developers love to show off each facial expression variation, which is appreciated, but to be honest a smaller subset works OK too. Again, it comes down to your hardware capabilities (how many renders an hour or day you can manage), how much time you can invest, and whether you are crossing over into diminishing returns territory or not.

A good story can trump a large render set in a number of cases, so again it comes down to hitting the right balance for your situation, desires, and goals. It also really helps if the characters you have 'move' you in some way, so that you can hear their voices in your head (figuratively of course). It makes scripting their dialogue easier. Having some character that you are rendering and writing for that you don't have any particular fondness for, or attachment to (say if they are a villain), well you should be able to enjoy the process as you work, instead of just feeling obligated to it.
 

WhitePhantom

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I'm having this problem too with deciding when to release updates, because I story-board everything beforehand and then render everything, and now I've found my Day 3 update is going to need about 250 renders, which is going to take an age.

I'd just say make the update long enough that you are happy with it, if you think it's a good update, release it, if you don't, keep working on it until you do :)
 

Agent HK47

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Eh, BB had sex content with almost everyone before he abandoned it. The problem was that his sex content was 5-10 poorly framed scenes (for instance looking at max's ass while you fucked lisa) and then repeat. There was not enough content to make all the work worthwhile.
I think I worded that bit slightly poorly. What I meant is that BB had the same issue with constantly adding new characters, which took away the focus from already existing characters, causing a huge slow in the pace of which progression was made in the updates.
As an example, the barista girl and doctor weren't really adding anything of value as such to story, so they should have either been added much later (preferably after all the main characters had some decent sex scenes) or scrapped entirely. In my eyes, the barista girl could have been scrapped without issue.

And yes, imo DS uses high quality renders, but only a few of them. He seems pretty lazy in this aspect, although I can't blame him, since he has a lot of shit to do in a short time, but it still doesn't mean I have to agree with it. In my eyes, sex scenes should have 25 renders as bare minimum, and preferably more. I dont want to look at 1 image, while 10 pages of text goes by, describing the scene.
 
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uradamus

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This depends a lot on why you are asking. If you want to know for the sake of making sure you get just enough done not to leave anyone feeling cheated, then you are going about this all wrong. You should always be putting your best effort towards getting as much content in as you can, without worrying about arbitrary numbers of scenes and renders and word counts etc and/or how long you can drag things out.

My only concern would be avoiding creating too many loose ends.There's nothing worse than being led on and having to wait months/years before a teaser finally pays off. This is actually one of the few things I dislike about Mythic Manor, which has otherwise been among my favorite games to follow on here lately. There are so many side characters and unresolved plots that have been introduced that I want to see some action with and I have no idea when they will finally get their moment in the spot light. Plus all the locations on the map with named buttons that give a not available yet dialog when you click on them! If your game has a map and an area isn't ready, then just don't give it a damn clickable icon yet, lol. Summertime Saga is another that suffers from much of the same issues and it kinda drives me away from wanting to waste time on trying the updates. If I never see an under construction pop-up again, it'll still be too soon. XD

It would be best if you could plan goals out ahead of time for what you want in each release, breaking up the game into logical chunks like novel chapters where each update can stand on its own based on the content added. I know this isn't feasible for every game, but definitely something worth giving some thought to. It might even be a good idea to pare down your game to its core essential bits and focus on getting those done ASAP, then if there is still plenty of support and call for additional content you can slowly start adding back the previously removed fluff to pad out the game with post 1.0 release updates.