Which of these game ideas should I work on first? [PRE-Development Thread]

[TranscendentThots]

Restaurant Entrepreneur Management Game - (Ren'Py) When a young man returns to his hometown after college graduation, the first thing he notices is that the local burger joint where he'd spent so much of his youth had shut down. The second thing he notices is that his bratty ex-girlfriend is up to her old tricks again. But while earning his BS, he also learned a thing or two about BDSM. Now, he's only too happy to teach her everything he's learned... if she earns it.

But she gets more than she bargained for when she realizes she's quickly become addicted to two things: having him in charge, and his cooking. Together, they hatch a plan to revitalize the local resturaunt scene... or at least have a lot of fun trying.

Isekai Comedy-of-Errors - (Format undecided. Possibly Ren'Py or RPG Maker.) She was the no-nonsense businesswoman who had everything... except for a man who could tame her. No, seriously. She'd tried so hard to find a man who could dominate her properly in bed. The problem was her pesky competitive streak. Before she knew it, she always found herself topping from the bottom and bored senseless!

But then she died, and was offered a deal by a deity: Choose a Power. Save a World. Be a Hero. Save her soul. But she was nothing if not a shrewd negotiator. She quickly found a way to get everything she asked for., and more... and that's when her real troubles began.

Now, her powers are malfunctioning, she's trapped on a doomed world, she's surrounded by demons that want to ravage her, and worst of all... they don't stay hard for long enough!

Haunted By Tentacle Monsters Kinetic Novel - (Ren'Py... possibly ebook series?) After years of therapy, an outwardly brash rape victim chooses to take back her sexuality. She rents a flat in a tourist trap town during Spring Break, with one goal in mind: work up the nerve for a casual fling with some random dude. As she's settling in, she hallucinates being attacked by a tentacle monster-- a reminder of the delusions she once experienced about her original attack.

Her therapist encourages her to ignore the hallucinations, but eventually, she fights back...and that's when things really take a turn for the bizarre. Can she learn to survive and even thrive with a monster on her back?

Swinger BDSM Party RPG - (RPG Maker) A married couple go to a secluded mansion where a masquerade is being held. But it's not just any costume party. It's a gathering of BDSM enthusiasts, all of whom have expressed both dominant and submissive tendencies over the years.

They have gathered here to play a game. The rules are simple. Each guest gets five plastic beads shaped like heart-shaped gemstones. A guest may give one or more of their gemstones to another guest whenever that other guest gives them "an utterly fulfilling experience." Red-lit rooms are "in-character" play spaces. Blue-lit rooms are "real life" safe spaces. Have fun! Whoever has the most gems at dawn wins the title of "Most Dominant" until next year.

But this particular husband and wife duo have a secret weapon: they are absolutely crazy about each other!

Lay down the law across a variety of steamy erotic tableaus! (Sample the snack platter in the living room.) Fight using your Words and a variety of sexy Actions! (Recognize someone from your town. Don't acknowledge that you've met before.) Switch which spouse is the Dom/me and which is the sub at any time! (Stand in line waiting for the bathroom and have a conversation about which breed of dog is best.)

Roleplay in both senses of the word as "Utah's Third-Hottest Straight Couple" fucks their way through a mansion full of rich sex nerds!

Exponentially Increasing Harem Isekai- (Ren'Py? May require too many character designs to be workable.) He was summoned from modern earth to another world and given authority by that world's church to perform lewd acts with any woman he wished on his path to victory over the Demon King. But the church didn't count on his own personal definition of "lewd." Nor of "victory." Now, women across the continent are clamoring to join his harem, and the church will ask themselves "what kind of monster have we unleashed?"

Sci-Fi Exploration Game - (Format undecided.) Subspace travel is dangerous. It's a space that lives and breathes. A space with no mind, but a will. Impossible un-things lurk there that want to exist... but don't know how. They latch onto the human mind, stare deep into its wants and fears, and try to convince it to carry it with them into the world.

This makes long-distance space travel more or less risky depending on what type of crew you send. Send a warrior, and you'll attract monsters. Send a thinker, and you'll attract mysteries. Send a trader, and you'll attract opportunities.

But as humanity pushes its way outward across the stars, one Dominant cosmonaut is about to discover that when you venture hand-in-hand with a team of loyal sluts, you attract everything there never was.

Literally Any NTR/Cuckold Concept - Fuck it, I'm curious how strong the community interest is for this. Assume none of the above games will include ANY NTR or Cuckold content. Somebody else would be tapped to write this, since I have no idea what I'm doing in this genre. This option is mainly on the list to stop people from trying to force it into the other options.

If you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions, let me know in the replies below.

 

[Stiig]

Seems like pretty diverse style of games in term of gameplay and/or storytelling, which in itself is interesting

Since I dislike maledom but love fem/futadom at least some of the ideas seem like they would not be for me.

This will be super subjective and if you want to have broad succes probably not a good idea to only listen to me.

Isekai Comedy-of-Errors
Sounds like it could be interesting if "She was the no-nonsense businesswoman who had everything... except for a man who could tame her" remains true and the demons trying to ravage her have met their match and she takes over hell.
If it is the standard fantasy of a powerful women getting turned weak/submissive/masochistic count me out.

Swinger BDSM Party RPG
Might be interesting if the gameplay is fun

Sci-Fi Exploration Game
Maybe if the MC is female or futa. If not then solely if the game is good and you can ignore the lewds

Literally Any NTR/Cuckold Concept
If it is not the typical dynamic of lady being masochistic, submissive and passive with the netori I could probably love this. But I know is probably the most popular dynamic to use. But when done with a lady who is assertive or dominant with the netori it is such a rare gem!

The rest sounds like there would be no reason for me to engage with from the description

 

[Lerd0]

..but real talk.....work on whatever makes ur dick harder.......

 

[TranscendentThots]

Seems like pretty diverse style of games in term of gameplay and/or storytelling, which in itself is interesting

Whenever I have a game idea, I write it down, brainstorm it a little bit, add to it, and then probably forget all about it while I'm working on something else. This is why I write them down. In fact, just re-reading this list while I was making the poll, I realized that I'd forgotten about half of these.

Since I dislike maledom but love fem/futadom at least some of the ideas seem like they would not be for me.

This will be super subjective and if you want to have broad succes probably not a good idea to only listen to me.

Fair enough.

You should probably assume that any given kink is not an element of the work if I don't mention the kink or at least a very common adjacent kink.

Isekai Comedy-of-Errors
Sounds like it could be interesting if "She was the no-nonsense businesswoman who had everything... except for a man who could tame her" remains true and the demons trying to ravage her have met their match and she takes over hell.
If it is the standard fantasy of a powerful women getting turned weak/submissive/masochistic count me out.

Dude! Spoilers!

But it goes deeper than that. She wants to be made weak. She really, really does. She's dreamed about being put in her place for decades. And she just can't. That's the joke. Giving her OP isekai powers that turn on and off on their own only ever makes her situation worse. But it makes it worse in a chaotic way with lots of possible permutations and outcomes, so it doesn't get predictable. And the fact that she's clever and competitive and even aggressively dominant in achieving her goals means that no matter whether she's winning or losing, she'll always be frustrated and struggling and failing to do the opposite.

A good writer can wreak havock with this formula. A single encounter can be layered with so many nested flags involving her abilities and the enemy's abilities and surprise weaknesses and side-effects, the learning curve that comes with suddenly re-speccing her entire power set, and her own established psychological triggers, that the audience is kept guessing right up until the last moment, not so much if it will blow up in her face, but at what point will the chain reaction of of explosions stop, what state will she be in when they do, and how big will the crater around her be?

The closest she ever comes to visibly enjoying it is "she doth protest too much," though. If you're a demon, and you've somehow reduced her to a naked sweaty wreck lying in a pool of her own cum, you haven't won. She is already planning your execution. She's kind of self-defeating like that.

Swinger BDSM Party RPG
Might be interesting if the gameplay is fun

I mean. RPG Maker. And I am not a master of the engine, so it'd probably be fairly stock. But I'm thinking you wouldn't play it for the mechanics. You'd play it for the quirky character interactions. The RPG gameplay is just there because the LARPing suggests it so nicely.

I'd say it's like Undertale, but come on, I'm not a god.

Sci-Fi Exploration Game
Maybe if the MC is female or futa. If not then solely if the game is good and you can ignore the lewds

Gonna be honest, the plan here was just to blatantly copy Oppai Oddessy and hope for the best. So, no. Male protagonist by default. (And I suddenly realize that it's kind of shitty that I was relying on the unspoken expectation that it would be the default.) I'd be open to doing some sort of modular MC thing if I could figure out a way to do it that didn't double or triple the production time. To say nothing of how little I trust myself writing other genders from a first person POV like that.

Literally Any NTR/Cuckold Concept
If it is not the typical dynamic of lady being masochistic, submissive and passive with the netori I could probably love this. But I know is probably the most popular dynamic to use. But when done with a lady who is assertive or dominant with the netori it is such a rare gem!

I mean... do you wanna write it?

The rest sounds like there would be no reason for me to engage with from the description

Trust that gut instinct. It won't lead you astray.

 

[TranscendentThots]

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..but real talk.....work on whatever makes ur dick harder.......

I wouldn't put things on the list if they didn't make my dick hard.

Well, I mean I didn't at first... But then one really aggressively persistent guy started pestering me about NTR in a private conversation. So I added NTR to the list, even though it didn't make my dick hard, just to see what would happen.

What happened is making me question my entire previous understanding of the adult games market.

 

[Stiig]

Your Isekai Comedy-of-Errors sounds like a pretty original idea.

I mean... do you wanna write it?

Seriously? Unsure since you said you just added it for someone elses sake and it does not make your dick hard
And if yes: How much writing are we talking ?

 

[TranscendentThots]

Seriously? Unsure since you said you just added it for someone elses sake and it does not make your dick hard

Hypothetically speaking? As much writing as you care to contribute. With the caveat that if I don't have a full story, I can't release a game.

I'm hiding the numbers because people tend to vote for whatever's already winning and I don't want to influence the voting? But so far, it's starting to look like this NTR thing is a genuine trend.

I would happily ship a sex game that doesn't make my dick hard in order to make money. But actually writing that game would be tedious for me at best, torture at worst. And that means it definitely wouldn't resonate with the target audience. It would be a joyless, perfunctory process.

And you can get away with a certain amount of that in production? Or to a lesser extent, sometimes even during the design phase? But you absolutely cannot get away with it when it comes to the writing, acting or promotion. For those things, your work needs to have the kind of heart that only comes from a sincere appreciation of the material.

Audiences can tell when it's missing. They can smell it.

That's why I can't write it myself.

And if yes: How much writing are we talking ?

You (or other writers who share your interests) would need to write everything. From the concept to the characters to the dialogue. You wouldn't need to write programming instructions, although it wouldn't hurt if you have Ren'Py experience and can do that, too. The title is (usually) the last thing to be written, (at least for the first Patreon build,) and is dictated more by things like wordplay, googleability, and what other titles are already taken than by the actual desires of the writer.

I could help with the structure or the pacing? Maybe punch up a line of dialogue here or there? But even then, I'd want someone who's into the genre to have final say in matters. The only thing I'd veto would be art/design decisions that seem too expensive to implement. In those cases, I'd try to go for a cheaper version of the same basic concept.

Likewise, I don't want to tack NTR onto one of my existing game ideas, no matter how popular NTR is, because it would clash so much with their cores. As you've noticed, my writing skews entirely in the other direction. At best, it would feel like the two routes are taking place in two unrelated stories. I'd much rather produce an NTR fan's concept than try to staple it onto one of my concepts where it doesn't fit.

If I decide to go through with an NTR game, I'll start a proper thread in Recruitment & Services. But if you're interesting in doing this kind of writing, let me know, and I'll keep you in the loop.

 

[Stiig]

Makes a lot of sense of all what you write.

Also I agree tacking in different fetish/kink to a single project just to add the tags seem to often delude it and make seem half-hearted and unfocused.
Much(if not most from my experience) NTR contain maledom BDSM and as you seem to be pretty comfortable about making that it might not clash as much(Or at all) having BDSM NTR in the same story and at least you could use that to up the steaminess of some scenes if that is what you do well.

But if you do NTR solely to make money I would probably be a bad bet for the writer. Since most of the NTR I enjoy are the niche ones that break some standard tropes and dynamics(Mainly the power dynamic with the lady and the men to a less maledom focused one). And I only really care for Type A netorare and netorase and my impression is Type B is the most popular.
Of course one could be surprised some of my ideas appeal to a niche crowd that rarely gets content and therefore will be a commercial success. Hard to tell without really trying.

But if you decide to take the chance at something that might not be a succes, but might will because it will do something less standard I might be interested. Will not promise anything at this time, depends on what happens in life and motivation at that time and so forth.

You are welcome to inform me in PM if that is the case then or other discussion around these things.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Makes a lot of sense of all what you write.
Much(if not most from my experience) NTR contain maledom BDSM and as you seem to be pretty comfortable about making that it might not clash as much(Or at all) having BDSM NTR in the same story and at least you could use that to up the steaminess of some scenes if that is what you do well.

Interesting take. Now I'm starting to wonder if I even know what the NTR tag actually means. It's where some NPC steals away the MC's love interest, right? Like, that's the main focus of the player's emotional journey? To experience loss and jealousy, through the eyes of the MC?

If my boss fucks my girlfriend, I don't care whose idea it was. Either way, I'm going to have a bad time.

Of course one could be surprised some of my ideas appeal to a niche crowd that rarely gets content and therefore will be a commercial success. Hard to tell without really trying.

There are tools and methods a developer can use to try and gauge interest before committing resources to a big production. (Polls, for example. ) They're not perfect, they can be manipulated by bad actors, and they can't predict the future, but when combined with other market indicators such as sales data, they do have the potential to reduce the role luck plays in a project.

Any successful game pretty much needs all three, though: a sincere emotional core, technical competence, and public interest. The first is non-negotiable. The second is a barrier to entry. The third is a force multiplier.

 

[Stiig]

Interesting take. Now I'm starting to wonder if I even know what the NTR tag actually means. It's where some NPC steals away the MC's love interest, right? Like, that's the main focus of the player's emotional journey? To experience loss and jealousy, through the eyes of the MC?

I am not the authority on NTR: But at least as I see it NTR differentiate from just regular cheating in in the rough sense you describe, the loss and jelousy. Cheating can be non-consequential and be a one time affair changing nothing in life and at no threat to the relationship, ntr has to have that risk or hurt.

But there are still works of NTR where the angle or POV might be on the affair and not the despair. But whether that gives the NTR feel enough for true lovers of NTR I do not know.

There is of course alse the 3 different types. Where netorase is where the MC gets off from the affair of their partner, so no true suffering, but the turn on is often the risk of loosing or edging that.

Most NTR are written around some dominance dynamic often going on outside of the sex most of the time. Most commonly the netori guy being more assertive and dominant than MC, therefore getting the lady. It is rare this dynamic is not present.
Often it is also shown by adding sexual maledom BDSM elements to the sex between lady and netori, to show the contrast of the sweet sex she has with the husband and that she is being tamed/degraded/turned submissive by the netori.
There is nothing in ntr that states the power dynamic has to be like this, but it is the most common trend from what I have seen.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Nobody:

Humans: (require more granular language to describe sex)

 

[TheRedMyst]

+1 for the sci-fi exploration game with a dominant male MC! I'd like to make a game like that myself one day.

 

[DD3DD]

It's more of Asset availability... I love the restaurant based game idea, but I know the food assets still sux in DAZ and Blender look and variety, so that will be a pain in the @$$ when you want to get creative.

 

[TranscendentThots]

It's more of Asset availability... I love the restaurant based game idea, but I know the food assets still sux in DAZ and Blender look and variety, so that will be a pain in the @$$ when you want to get creative.

I have a plan.

It's not a great plan, but it should get the job done for the first few releases, and after that it should scale with whatever budget I can throw at it.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Some NTR fans reached out to me and explained that the link to this poll is being shared in some NTR communities. Which is fine. That certainly goes part of the way towards explaining some of the numbers I'm seeing here. But a much bigger issue when I was making this poll was my own ignorance:

It turns out that NTR isn't a genre. It's at least nine genres.

This calls for another poll.

 

[TranscendentThots]

Well, with both polls closed, I've learned that none of my first crop of game ideas were particularly Earth-shattering. I had hoped that a "crowd-pleaser" would emerge, but poll response was mid, the games that won ended in a 3-way tie, NTR fans rocked the vote like no one else, to the extent that I opened a second thread just to learn more about the genre(s), and I got a lot of quality feedback from the users in this thread.

Overall, here's what I've learned so far:

• None of this first crop of specific ideas were special. Or at least, none was such a crowd-pleaser that it stands out as an obvious pick for what to work on first.
• Maledom is every bit as niche as NTR, if not moreso, despite the market for maledom being so much more saturated.
• Some elements of maledom seem almost "baked into" so-called traditional gender roles and cultural norms.
• For all the rants and disclaimers you see peppering the threads of popular games, both sides were pretty well-behaved during this poll. Great job, everybody. We did it. We cancelled the culture war itself!
• Core concept doesn't matter a whole lot in either porn or in video games. In porn, users mostly care about kinks and visual appeal. In games, people care mostly about graphics and what you can do in the game. There's also a small cadre of hardcore fans in this community in particular who are all about the quality of the writing.
• Market research can only take you so far. It might (or, as in this case, might not) help you spot which of your ideas has the most raw potential. But it can't motivate you to create something you're not inspired to create.
• That said, for the devs who are driven to create in the NTR space, there appears to still be some unmet demand.

I hope this is somewhat helpful to other developers. If I go ahead with pre-production on any of these, I'll probably do another poll, just to see whether seeing the first preview images sparks any sort of interest this text-only poll didn't. I also need to learn how to be more professional and manage fan expectations a little better.

Finally, asking people to rank genres VS specific ideas was probably a dumb idea. Hiding the results until the polls closed, on the other hand, may have been pretty smart. (I wanted to avoid a situation where everybody piled on the same choice due to peer pressure, and it worked a little too well!)

Thanks to everyone who voted.