What makes/breaks a game for you?

[GuyFreely]

Sexually, I largely agree with Darth's early post on non-consensual. I'm also not into the NTR/cuckolding stuff much either. As a general rule, I want the character having sex to enjoy it. If it's painful (in an unpleasant way) for a character, I tend to empathize with them and it makes it less enjoyable. Again, as Darth said, it's really about how you handle these situations that can make it more palatable.

Mechanically, fucking grindy game padding nonsense. If you make me do the same activity over and over again watching the same scenes or playing little mini games, I'm done. There better be a way for me to cheat past whatever the fuck it is, because I don't have the patience. I understand that some games you "earn" the erotic parts, but make it interesting for the player. I don't mind a routine as long as I'm not seeing the same scene over and over again. You can tell if you are trying to figure something out and look at a walkthrough that says "after you do this 15 times..." 15 times?! of the same fucking thing? Fuck off! Anna is a good example of routine done right. She goes to the same jobs several days in a row, but every time there is a new situation.

Also, non-intuitive game design. I think some other people have touched on this. I shouldn't HAVE to look up a walkthrough to get through your game. Now different people will have different levels of tolerance for what old point-n-click games used to call "moon logic," but mine is pretty low. An example of this is Holiday Island. I tried just playing through it at my own pace before breaking down and looking at some guides. So in that game, if you aren't aware, you have an assortment of ladies on this improbable island of babes. So here's the thing, events in that game involve several variables: the specific woman, one of her clothing sets, time of day, and some times the presence or lack of other characters. It's like a weird erotic slot machine except you have no idea which combinations you want. An example is that you can take a walk on the beach with most characters. And you just walk and oggle them then go back. But a couple of the characters will have a special scene if wearing the right outfit, etc. So if you didn't have a guide, you are stuck taking fairly ho-hum walks on the beach with 9+ girls hoping one of them shows you her tits.

Beyond that, I want each of my options to be fairly clear what the result will be. That makes it a choice and not just a guess. To that end, I prefer visible stats to invisible ones. If I can make a choice and see aha, my relationship just improved, I'm on the right track! Not everyone likes this level of hand holding, but I would love it if most games had an easy mode option where things were just laid out like this. Now you can avoid spelling it out if the options are clear enough on their own. Or if the other character reacts immediately to indicate the outcome. I really like the games with the undo button. Where you can go, oh shit, that didn't work out, undo!

 

[Hunkydunky]

top personal genres for me are:

Futadom; i really like games for example tales of androgyny and futadom world, former being one of my favorite games.
Traps; really wish there were more games with this genre.
Soft bondage; for lesbians and futa. Not so much when its between male/female.
futanari is also one of my favorite genre,

I really like interactive games where i can choose what i want to do and what genre i want to experience if it's available, some of my favorite text based games are like that. I really enjoy good 2dcg art in games.

Personal dislikes, I pretty much dislike any shota/loli action. its just a big turn off for me and some games/comics really need to put some tags for that.
i dislike the more hardcore genres, scat, pain, gore etc in games. 3dcg or 3d render in general doesn't do it for me, prefer 2dcg so a lot of games on this site are not for me.

 

[redknight00]

I've been thinking about grinding, the way I see the main problems when the grind are: progress and fairness. Repeating a scene several times to get to the new content is frustrating because it doesn't give the player a clear sense of progress, a good example is Four Elements Trainer, each scene has slightly variations and marks the progress of the player, so every time time they have to repeat a scene it will offer something new and a clear indication that they are going in the right direction.

The amount is also important as well as a goal to work towards, repeating the same scene 15 times to maybe get a new one is an absurd, grind at its best is encouraging, fair and with objectives, like in a RPG where the player is always grinding to the next level, or repeating a boos for the unique loot. Basic game design also dictates the player should get stronger and more efficient as the story progresses, this way they will feel better with grinding higher number and encouraged to test the increasing powers.

For choices, my problem with some cases are when I have no idea of knowing which one will be successful, not in a hand-holding sense, but just that the results are randomly distributed. A good set of choices should: A) reflect the player's preferences towards a situation, in which there's not right or wrong, or B) reflect the player's abilities or previous knowledge, here the most important thing is that when there are right choices they should be possible to spot based on the previous experiences or strengths.

 

[GuyFreely]

Yeah, there is a right way and a wrong way to do grinding. You have to ask yourself though, WHY am I making the player do this? Do I think it will make the player feel a sense of accomplishment? Do I think the player will enjoy the grind? If the answer is just to make the player take longer to play your game, you're doing it wrong.

 

[kiteares]

Puts hand up...

I acknowledge it is weird, being Pan it doesn't bother me. In my experience though, guys who like traps usually like Futa too, except for @GDS but he's a special case of strange.

I see it mentioned a bit on here and I think it's the bleeding obvious of get led down a path thinking it's gonna be something good, but end up with opposite. eg you are skipping through the meadows with your SO the sun is shining the, birds are singing all the choices you have made lead you to believe you are getting your happily ever after. Then a bunch of guys jump out from the bushes and you are both grabbed and you are forced to watch as your SO is gang raped.
In this context am I missing something or is it very much like what it says on the tin?
If that's the case, I must be unusual in that I like futa, but don't like traps.

 

[uradamus]

Yeah, there is a right way and a wrong way to do grinding. You have to ask yourself though, WHY am I making the player do this? Do I think it will make the player feel a sense of accomplishment? Do I think the player will enjoy the grind? If the answer is just to make the player take longer to play your game, you're doing it wrong.

Ya, grinding is one of my biggest pet peeves with adult games, especially when it's just doing the exact thing over and over. For the most part I haven't really been able to tolerate that sort of game play since the '90s when I was last playing JRPGs on a regular basis. I think the older I get the less tolerant I become with grinding. I just have too many other far more important things to do than needlessly repetitive BS in an ero game. Though I like when games have a mechanic for revisiting or repeating scenes I'd like to see again at my own leisure, without it being mandatory to advance the game.

About the only time I find grinding acceptable is when each iteration is different and building on previous cycles/experience. I'm not even sure there are many adult games where that would even make sense though. It is more apt for things like platformers where you might have to redo a stage a bunch of times to find just the right path and timing to get through it, such as with games like Super Meat Boy or Life Goes On. Or maybe even some rogue-like games from time to time like Rogue Legacy where you are playing through basically the same content in a different layout and with progressively more advanced features with each run building on the last.

 

[greatmaguskyros]

Things important to me in a game are:

1) Art. I like top notch art and lots of it.

2) Story. Something believable, edgy and dark usually.

3) Ease of "use". I like early H scenes with lots of controls and options. This gives me the opportunity to fap on the fly if need be or allows me to take my time with a fap marathon as desired.

 

[Dr PinkCake]

Sexually, I largely agree with Darth's early post on non-consensual. I'm also not into the NTR/cuckolding stuff much either. As a general rule, I want the character having sex to enjoy it. If it's painful (in an unpleasant way) for a character, I tend to empathize with them and it makes it less enjoyable. Again, as Darth said, it's really about how you handle these situations that can make it more palatable.

Mechanically, fucking grindy game padding nonsense. If you make me do the same activity over and over again watching the same scenes or playing little mini games, I'm done. There better be a way for me to cheat past whatever the fuck it is, because I don't have the patience. I understand that some games you "earn" the erotic parts, but make it interesting for the player. I don't mind a routine as long as I'm not seeing the same scene over and over again. You can tell if you are trying to figure something out and look at a walkthrough that says "after you do this 15 times..." 15 times?! of the same fucking thing? Fuck off! Anna is a good example of routine done right. She goes to the same jobs several days in a row, but every time there is a new situation.

Also, non-intuitive game design. I think some other people have touched on this. I shouldn't HAVE to look up a walkthrough to get through your game. Now different people will have different levels of tolerance for what old point-n-click games used to call "moon logic," but mine is pretty low. An example of this is Holiday Island. I tried just playing through it at my own pace before breaking down and looking at some guides. So in that game, if you aren't aware, you have an assortment of ladies on this improbable island of babes. So here's the thing, events in that game involve several variables: the specific woman, one of her clothing sets, time of day, and some times the presence or lack of other characters. It's like a weird erotic slot machine except you have no idea which combinations you want. An example is that you can take a walk on the beach with most characters. And you just walk and oggle them then go back. But a couple of the characters will have a special scene if wearing the right outfit, etc. So if you didn't have a guide, you are stuck taking fairly ho-hum walks on the beach with 9+ girls hoping one of them shows you her tits.

Beyond that, I want each of my options to be fairly clear what the result will be. That makes it a choice and not just a guess. To that end, I prefer visible stats to invisible ones. If I can make a choice and see aha, my relationship just improved, I'm on the right track! Not everyone likes this level of hand holding, but I would love it if most games had an easy mode option where things were just laid out like this. Now you can avoid spelling it out if the options are clear enough on their own. Or if the other character reacts immediately to indicate the outcome. I really like the games with the undo button. Where you can go, oh shit, that didn't work out, undo!

I've been thinking about grinding, the way I see the main problems when the grind are: progress and fairness. Repeating a scene several times to get to the new content is frustrating because it doesn't give the player a clear sense of progress, a good example is Four Elements Trainer, each scene has slightly variations and marks the progress of the player, so every time time they have to repeat a scene it will offer something new and a clear indication that they are going in the right direction.

The amount is also important as well as a goal to work towards, repeating the same scene 15 times to maybe get a new one is an absurd, grind at its best is encouraging, fair and with objectives, like in a RPG where the player is always grinding to the next level, or repeating a boos for the unique loot. Basic game design also dictates the player should get stronger and more efficient as the story progresses, this way they will feel better with grinding higher number and encouraged to test the increasing powers.

For choices, my problem with some cases are when I have no idea of knowing which one will be successful, not in a hand-holding sense, but just that the results are randomly distributed. A good set of choices should: A) reflect the player's preferences towards a situation, in which there's not right or wrong, or B) reflect the player's abilities or previous knowledge, here the most important thing is that when there are right choices they should be possible to spot based on the previous experiences or strengths.

You both are on the same page with not liking hidden stats. You want instant gratification/verification of your actions. Is this because you don't want to replay the game or just hate it when a choice comes back to bite you in the ass later? I'm very interested in this particular aspect as my game hides the stats until the end of the episode and choices from prior episodes will affect the outcome in future episodes. This is a concept that Telltale series (Walking dead, Batman, Wolf among us) does extremely well and to my liking. Would this be a gamebreaker even if your choices never would cause a gameover, but simply change the story?

 

[GuyFreely]

You both are on the same page with not liking hidden stats. You want instant gratification/verification of your actions. Is this because you don't want to replay the game or just hate it when a choice comes back to bite you in the ass later? I'm very interested in this particular aspect as my game hides the stats until the end of the episode and choices from prior episodes will affect the outcome in future episodes. This is a concept that Telltale series (Walking dead, Batman, Wolf among us) does extremely well and to my liking. Would this be a gamebreaker even if your choices never would cause a gameover, but simply change the story?

Hidden stats are not an inherently bad thing. The problem I personally have with it in most games on this site is that it is used to lock away erotic content. Oh you didn't like her dress on day 3, so on day 7 she won't sleep with you, sorry. I realize that in life, you makes your choices and you takes your chances. This is a game though, and the goal for me is the experience the content. If I unwittingly screw myself over, I miss out on the content. You don't have to show the stats or tracking, but it should very clear what the player is choosing. Giving a player more information about their choice let's them be more confident they are making the choice they want to make.

Here's a made up scenario, your choices are as follows:
A - You look pretty.
B - You look beautiful.
C - You look sexy.
Now in some games in some scenarios, any one of these choices could get the player closer to their goal. Which one is it? Does the player KNOW which one it is, have you given them enough context to know the difference? Is this a meaningful exchange or is this a guess and hope situation that will have game altering consequences?

Scenario 2:
A - You look pretty. (+1 friendship)
B - You look beautiful. (+1 love)
C - You look sexy. (+1 lust)
Now we are getting somewhere. I know what each choice means now. That doesn't take anything away from the choice itself. Also, you have to have at least some indication of which of these stats the player wants.

Scenario 3:
A - That dress looks great.
B - You always look beautiful.
C - If we weren't in public, I'd take you right now.
Here we are trying to give the player more to go on. I can see that the first choice is more about the clothes, the second choice is complimenting her and the third is a bit perverted. Now you still haven't outright told the player the consequences, but there is more context here and hopefully you've given him an indication of which one the girl wants to hear.

The overarching goal should be to give the player the experience they are looking for (if it's possible). If the player wants to bang girl 1 and that's totally possible, then tell him (one way or another) how to bang girl 1. You want a really basic device from dating sims, etc. Gifts. Mary likes chocolates, Susan likes flowers, I can't afford both. Even then some games let you buy chocolates or flowers and say, you fucking figure it out. "I got you some flowers Mary." "I hate flowers, ugh!" (Mary hates you now). This same scenario can be applied to simple choices in VN. I have a couple of options, I can only pick one, do I know the one that gets me to where I want to be?

If I ever play a game again, it's almost always with a guide. I will see what routes I missed or the perfect way to get to scenes and speed run through it. It's a much less enjoyable experience generally.

 

[Dr PinkCake]

Hidden stats are not an inherently bad thing. The problem I personally have with it in most games on this site is that it is used to lock away erotic content. Oh you didn't like her dress on day 3, so on day 7 she won't sleep with you, sorry. I realize that in life, you makes your choices and you takes your chances. This is a game though, and the goal for me is the experience the content. If I unwittingly screw myself over, I miss out on the content. You don't have to show the stats or tracking, but it should very clear what the player is choosing. Giving a player more information about their choice let's them be more confident they are making the choice they want to make.

Here's a made up scenario, your choices are as follows:
A - You look pretty.
B - You look beautiful.
C - You look sexy.
Now in some games in some scenarios, any one of these choices could get the player closer to their goal. Which one is it? Does the player KNOW which one it is, have you given them enough context to know the difference? Is this a meaningful exchange or is this a guess and hope situation that will have game altering consequences?

Scenario 2:
A - You look pretty. (+1 friendship)
B - You look beautiful. (+1 love)
C - You look sexy. (+1 lust)
Now we are getting somewhere. I know what each choice means now. That doesn't take anything away from the choice itself. Also, you have to have at least some indication of which of these stats the player wants.

Scenario 3:
A - That dress looks great.
B - You always look beautiful.
C - If we weren't in public, I'd take you right now.
Here we are trying to give the player more to go on. I can see that the first choice is more about the clothes, the second choice is complimenting her and the third is a bit perverted. Now you still haven't outright told the player the consequences, but there is more context here and hopefully you've given him an indication of which one the girl wants to hear.

The overarching goal should be to give the player the experience they are looking for (if it's possible). If the player wants to bang girl 1 and that's totally possible, then tell him (one way or another) how to bang girl 1. You want a really basic device from dating sims, etc. Gifts. Mary likes chocolates, Susan likes flowers, I can't afford both. Even then some games let you buy chocolates or flowers and say, you fucking figure it out. "I got you some flowers Mary." "I hate flowers, ugh!" (Mary hates you now). This same scenario can be applied to simple choices in VN. I have a couple of options, I can only pick one, do I know the one that gets me to where I want to be?

If I ever play a game again, it's almost always with a guide. I will see what routes I missed or the perfect way to get to scenes and speed run through it. It's a much less enjoyable experience generally.

Great response! I'm an advocator for scenario 3, there should be some challenge in a game but choices should be pretty clear on what they could lead to. But I also like having consequences of actions that you cannot predict, because life isn't always predictable. Perhaps making a choice to do something leads to a branch you wouldn't explore otherwise. Sure you might be missing content, but imo it also gives replay value and adds depth.
The only approach I really dislike is that there is only the one and only path to achieve something, e.g. you MUST respond A, C, C, B, A to get this scenario.

 

[uradamus]

Great response! I'm an advocator for scenario 3, there should be some challenge in a game but choices should be pretty clear on what they could lead to. But I also like having consequences of actions that you cannot predict, because life isn't always predictable. Perhaps making a choice to do something leads to a branch you wouldn't explore otherwise. Sure you might be missing content, but imo it also gives replay value and adds depth.
The only approach I really dislike is that there is only the one and only path to achieve something, e.g. you MUST respond A, C, C, B, A to get this scenario.

That kinda makes me think of Katawa Shoujo a bit. They had hidden numerical values for the different girls, and in order to end up in a particular girl's route you basically had to have enough points with them at the various decisive forks in the story. Usually you would be a few points over what you needed for a girl, so you could actually have a fair bit of leeway with your choices and still end up in a particular route. In some cases you could even kinda back out of the obvious route you are leaning towards with the right choice at basically the last minute and end up in a different route.

 

[redknight00]

Katawa Shoujo a good example of choices because for the most part it's clear picking one choice over the other will have a impact a certain way, for example siding with Lilly over Shizune will obviously increase the reputation with the Lilly/Hanako duo, that what I wanted.

Players should never be arbitrarily punished if given the choice. If the choices are: a) go to the Park b) go to the store, the player has way of knowing which one will have the outcome he wants, therefore their success will be by chance and that's bad.

 

[Benn Swagger]

FIRST TIME IS EVERYTHING
In many porn games, the MC have a target, either his dream girl or his sister or his mother, aunty, whatever. Some games that I've played, make the first Sex Scene so cheap that like paying a hooker to quicky sex than done. FUCK WITH THESE DEVELOPER and their games marked as garbage on my porn game list.

So if you want my respect of your games, the first time must be very delicated, sweet or passionated or super lusty ... just make it extravagant. Also simplistic scene by scene, in between scene also turned me off. For example, Big Brother. There's like 3 to 5 scene of sex scene ... that just turn me off & lowering my respect to the developer of the game.

GAME BREAKING BUG
Some of long game RPG genres with branching system are prone to bug. And sometimes the bug aren't happen directly but more like a time bomb, waiting to happen after it triggered. These kind of bullshit make me rage quit & stop care of your game.

STUPID MOTIVE aka KID's PORN aka LAZY/INNOVATIVE WRITTER
I love Nukige's games, but to make all female character is default easy bitches are put down my interest to your games. I want some differentiation of female characteristic. Some can be easy slutty bitches, some are normal & some are hard riggid asexual character that need hard effort to be torn down it's barrier.

 

[GuyFreely]

Katawa Shoujo a good example of choices because for the most part it's clear picking one choice over the other will have a impact a certain way, for example siding with Lilly over Shizune will obviously increase the reputation with the Lilly/Hanako duo, that what I wanted.

Players should never be arbitrarily punished if given the choice. If the choices are: a) go to the Park b) go to the store, the player has way of knowing which one will have the outcome he wants, therefore their success will be by chance and that's bad.

Right, I'm all for paths/routes in games. Where you can go one way or the other and it's clear that you are going that way. I'm not a fan of failure states in general, though it can be done well. Like you say, the choice should always have context so the player is actually making a choice and not a guess. It shouldn't be A: Go to the park. B: Go to the store. It should be A:Meet Mary in the park. B: Go to the store with Sarah.

 

[Seething Harpy]

Personally I can't stand games with poor english, NTR, non-consentual sex or with characters I find unlikely to be realistic. Also hate it when nothing happens wthin a "day" in game. A couple of days with no apparent change means I'll quit it immediately. These are the things that break games for me.

 

[Deleted member 229118]

Makes:
I am turned on by power and control.
This can take many forms so let me give a few example's.

1: Using someone best friend, sister, mother, etc.
To enslave even more people.
The sweet taste of power as there devotion to me makes them betray friends and family.

2: Controlling the entire family.
Older woman are a turn off but i always target the mother first simply because she can help me turn the rest into my property.

3: I hate sharing.
The woman are mine and only mine.
Other man in the games are rivals to be removed.

4: Using hyponsis to slowing turn someone way of thinking.
The risk of getting caught enhances the flavor of the victory.

Stuff like this is what i am looking for in games in general.
A feeling of power i will never have in real life.
Mind control, domination, rape, slavery are all tools to feel empowered.

Breaks:
Anything that takes power from me.
I will never submit to anyone.
Any game that forces me to submit to anyone is pretty much a game i will never play.
Ow sure i can serve a king or boss.
They are my employer's after all.
I bare them no ill will.
But forcing me to obey?
Making my charater sumbit?
Not happening.

Likewise i hate incomptence.
There are several games that would be quiet fun to play if i didnt hate the protaganist for being a compleet moron.
Winning becausing you got lucky?
If done sparingly i dont mind.
If the only reason the plot moves forward is because of unnatural luck.
Then i just get pissed off.
It wont feel like i am in power if i rely on luck or demons to achieve my goals.

Whenever i read you happen to find a magic book, lamp, demon, etc.
Who can make all your perverted desire's come through all i read:
We are to lazy to make an story that is believeable and doesnt require duex ex machina to move forward.

There are only a few games that i consider good but will never play simply because they rely to much on luck or unbelieveable cercumstands.

For example:
Seeds of chaos i wont play because:
1: All the sex scene with the demon girl are degrading to my charater.
2: They pretty much trow you in jail and you eventual join them that way.
Given that my nature is to defy anyone trying to make me a slave i pretty much hated every second of the story.
Where if they accauly had use corruption and false promisis i might have joined them in a heartbeat.
For example having the demon girl promis him wealth, power and his personal harem while constantly reminding him how his service to the crown left him with nothing.
Yeah i would take that offer.
I mean i can be a peasent for the rest of my life or i can serve demons and live as king?
Call me selfish all you want but what do i own other people?

Or inherritiance.
Those eyes hurt to look at.
But more importantly i have no reason to want to enslave those girls.
There victems of an asshole slavery uncle and nothing indicate's that my charater is a slaver.
The game has potential if it could accauly give me a reason why my 18 year old good life and general nice guy main charater would want to have slaves?
It is moral offensive..... And i played countless of slave games.

That is what makes or breaks a game for me.
I want to feel like i have power but i dont want to feel forced into doing anything.

Last example:
I love free city because of the options it gives but hate being forced to enslave people.
Even if they would removed the slavery i would still feel empowered and the game would make me happy.
The fact i am forced to be a slaver is what is dragging the game down.

Likewise one of my all times favorite games is lab rats.
The charaters personalities make the game worth playing.
I enjoy the sublte drugging of my future fuck toys, the change in there personality, the power in knowing that i am changing them into my harem.

Power.
It is the only thing that mathers.
Does that make me evil?
No it makes me a realist.
The ones in power deside right from wrong.
The ones in power get all toys.
The ones without power serve or die.
Even in the west where the ones in power are significantly less powerful then dictatorships still obeys the law of might makes right.

Power is meaningless without control.
After all what use is power if you cant control it.

 

[Dictateur]

For the most part, consent is my only major line that I don't like to see crossed. There are exceptions.

Same for me, I don't like rape in a general fashion, but my favourite eroge of all time is still Sengoku Rance, which is based on... rape. Even it's in the " way of comedy "

 

[suprbbsnipo]

What makes or breaks a game for me is not very simple because there are many different conditions within the game type and the content being given while playing. So I'll try my best to explain what I like and don't like.

Engine: The game's engine must work well with the game type! Too often I see games that use an engine that slows the game down for no reason or doesn't make sense. Whatever game that's being made must be made with a play style working with the game engine. Seeing as the most controversial engine in these forums is RPGMaker I will be focusing heavily on this.
Examples:
Work well with engine:

• Harem Collector - (one of my favorite adult games) This game utilizes the basic battle system of an RPG Maker game without adding too much grind and contains balanced player classes and battle mechanics to make a great story based RPG game with lots of side quests, adult content and lots of comedy. I only wish the entire game was updated to RPGMV to avoid later issues due to file handling limits.
  
• Violated Heroine - with a tweaked RPG Maker 2000 make a great RPG corruption game that makes use of maps to create an adventure for each of its protagonists.
• Dreams of Desire - this is a game that acknowledges that is a Visual Novel and all consequences are choice based without any pointless minigames.

Work OK with the engine:

• Cohabitation - I don't know why RPGMV was used for this game but it works well enough so it gets a pass.
  
• MILF's Villa - Unlike other Icstor games it has a slightly more puzzle based gameplay which works better with the RPGMV engine.
• The Twist - as far as I can tell, the only reason for the Unity Engine is for the 3D scenery. It's more of a Visual novel, though.

Really should not have used that engine:

• Any RPGMaker game by Daniels K - I have no idea why that dev created games this way. The engine doesn't add anything to them other than add pointless fetch quests that are used to pad up the run time.
• Most VNs using the Unity Engine - unless there are going to be effects and animations added to what would otherwise be static pictures, it would be better to use any other engine for the VN.

Minigames: these are a great way to add content and change up the game play. Unfortunately, it's also a great way to pad the run time for no reason. Point is, DON'T ADD POINTLESS MINIGAMES. If you have minigames in your game, make sure you that the player can fail them (I am looking at you, Amazon Island), or better yet, get different content depending on how well the player does.

Content: I have many different feelings on the various content available in adult games and have different lines drwan on different types of content.

• Story/Progression - the story doesn't need be overly complex, but it has to be more than "Oh my god, a woman found a guy with a big dick, so she must fuck him!" I want the character to earn that action.
• Incest - while I would never practice that fetish in real life, I can understand the appeal. Hell, incest is still practiced in many eastern countries. The only problem with this I have is Patreon's family friendly porn policy. If they're gonna add incest, allow them to do so.
  
• Rape/Non-Con - I am not that big of a fan of rape in games, but it's not really a deal-breaker. I would just prefer it if it wasn't taken seriously in the game.
• Futa/Shemale - I like or am only fine with this if the game's art is CG or custom-drawn art. I am not a big fan of real life shemales unless they are very feminine and have boobs.
• Bestiality - Like Futa/Shemales, I like or am only fine with this if the game's art is CG or custom-drawn art. However, I do NOT like any real life pictures or animations of bestiality. Call me weird.
• NTR - I am not a big fan of NTR. NTR is all about enraging, emasculating, and/or creating jealousy with a character. I am fine with breaking relationships, polyamory, and cheating, but not NTR. Also might be a weird line to draw. I especially hate games where the protagonist falls in love with someone and then proceeds to have sex with everything else (I mean everyTHING) in front of that person as that person watches with jealousy (I also hate it when the main character is the one watching with jealousy).
  
• Watersports/Scat - I am fine with and can even enjoy watersports. Scat on the other hand is a big no-no for me. (I was scarred by 2 girls 1 cup)
• Harem/Polyamory - I love this genre, regular or reverse. I just want every harem game to have a least one harem ending.
• Loli/shota - not that I am a pedophile in real life, but I actually somewhat like this genre to a certain limit, and only if the characters are at least going through puberty (please don't kill me).
• Corruption - this is a bit harder to explain. I like some forms of corruption and don't like other forms. The types of corruption I like are trainer games and sexuality exploration games. The kind I don't like are like Elena's Life, where coincidental bullshit and more coincidental bullshit pile up and the main character acts like a total idiot and feels like she has no choice but to comply, which ends up with her having more leverage against her from all parties. Hypnosis is fine but only when it is used to lower inhibitions and not straight up breaking the will or mind. Blackmail is also fine if it is used sparingly or when starting the relationship.

Other:

• Art - this can make or break a game for me, but it's really subjective. If you are using DAZ models and the lighting is bad, everything looks like plastic and it is hard to look at. Also, I don't like a lot of black women in DAZ (not trying to be racist) as the skin shine looks really weird with DAZ textures and lighting, and most devs don't take the time to correct that (or the cleavage issue for that matter). It would also be nice to have different women to have different body types and shapes but it's not that big of an issue. 3D Custom Girl will most likely turn me off from the game as posing and the cel-shade looks really bad to me (I used to like it but now it's just annoying; thankfully, Harem Collector is starting to move away from using this). Honey Select would probably be preferred over 3d Custom Girl, but that environment has content limitations. Pixel or drawn art is something I really like and I would love to see more games with it. Real life pictures are also great as long as they follow what I wrote earlier.
  
• UI - this isn't really that big of a deal but having a bad UI is really annoying. RPGMaker usually has it's UI already made so no need to worry on that engine. It's just the other engines you have to worry about.
• Grinding - many games force you to grind to progress, and I understand that this is required to keep pace in some games. But don't make the grinding painful or not worthwhile (Harem ver. 2 and Absolute Power are really annoying with this).
• Translation - I know that quite a few devs don't speak english, so I feel like kind of an asshole for saying this. I have to say it, though. I have a hard time playing games with bad english. Which is why I might not support a game with terrible english translation. A game like Lucky Mark might end up being an amazing game by its end, but I won't play it. Why? Because the english is terrible. It's not as bad as the english in Pokemon Vietnamese Crystal, but at least that one is funny. I don't want to play a game where I get confused by what the characters are saying.

I hope that whatever developer that reads this finds this helpful and takes it into consideration.

 

[GuyFreely]

On the topic of player choices in game, I've been running into this one lately that really bugs me. Pick A or B? Okay, I pick B. Wrong! That was stupid, we are doing A! Okay, well fucking don't let me pick it. The ones that really bug me are when they seem like arbitrary choices. Like outfit A or outfit B? I dunno, they are both kind of sexy, but not risque, so B. God, you're a pig, I'm wearing outfit A. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

One place this type of thing just skates by as being acceptable is "how far can you go?" Rub her ass / Stop -> Rub her Pussy / Stop. At least in this scenario, I know one option is testing the limits and I know the other option is safe. So in that sense I can forgive it. I still don't really like being given this choice in the dark. Like I want some indicators. (She seems to be really enjoying it) or (She seems a bit nervous). But don't you fucking trick me with this shit (She seems to be enjoying it.) -pick rub her pussy- "What the fuck, asshole?" (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

 

[baneini]

On the topic of player choices in game, I've been running into this one lately that really bugs me. Pick A or B? Okay, I pick B. Wrong!

It's very bad design. Its an element of grindy gameplay, the player has no info but has to make a decision and wrong decision leads to a game over. It's only good if you have the info the make the good choice and fucking up just leads to negative consequences down the line, rather than immediate game over.