Post by Amaiar in Recent Challenges comments

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I'm not gonna lie, the whole reason I got interested in the game in the first place was the NSFW approach. The premise offered something new and original in the market of +18 games. Seeing that part go would heavily drop my interest, and I'm guessing some others as well.

When buying something, the consumer asks himself: where would I get the best experience for my particular interest with this amount of money? Games follow the same logic, as does porn. It sells, and the proof is all the unrest that stems from all this BS censorship happening lately.

Now, what kind of experience offers the game in a SFW environment? Dating sim/management you say. The former genre already oversaturated, and the latter not exactly popular. Adding the +18 content wouldn't make things much different usually, but the premise of the game being "monster creatures" adds a little spice that makes the whole combo of genres unique in itself. Remove one of the parts, and the rest will struggle to hold on, I think.

So what I'm trying to say is, if you envision this project from a selling standpoint, I believe you're considering the wrong approach. And if you wanted to make a game because you're passionate about it and the ideas that drove you to do it, then you shouldn't sacrifice any of those ideas.

My suggestion would be to keep the game as is, then offering a free "Demo" (like up to a certain update patch, or a certain story point, maybe have it be just a full loop of the first monster) on Itch, like a lot of other creators are doing. And using that to promote your Patreon where you would sell the full updated version with everything included.

Win win for all.

Tech Tsundere12 days ago

We definitely know that the 18+ aspect is a major draw for the game, we’re not ignoring that, we will continue to provide ways to get the NFSW version where possible.

The plan we have is already basically what you suggested, make the itch.io page free leaving the demo as is for now, and use the page to promote the Patreon. The future updated demo version will also include the 18+ content on itch but again will promote other platforms to get the full version.

The change to SFW is a minor one, only replacing the explicit relationship scenes with non-explicit suggestive lewd scenes(M rating vs AO rating)and would allow us to be on other platforms besides just Patreon.

Both Steam and GOG allow SFW games with 18+ patches, which is a common practice on those platforms, and so we’d provide the patches like many other games do.

The SFW version would also allow us to get on platforms that can’t/won’t/don’t allow this type of graphic explicit content(whether that be payment processors, or other reasons) but do allow strong sexual themes, like the Epic Games and console stores.

The only reason the game would ever become 100% SFW, is if there were a “porn ban” a.k.a. A law that made it illegal to produce/distribute 18+ content in the US.

Amaiar11 days ago

I heard somewhere that Steam is considering passing a stricter ToS against games with +18 external patches. I hope this doesn't come to be, but lately I've hoped for many things that unfortunately have happened anyway.

Which is why I get a little apprehensive when I see creators, specially smaller ones, fold under this oppression and censorship. IMO we should be fighting more to keep our freedom, both of speech/creation and consumption, rather than accepting things like these as they come and try to mold around them. And I get it, I get the "but what can someone alone do for a change?" feeling. It's safer to adapt than to stand one's ground. Still doesn't mean it feels less shitty that the power/control-hungry corps are getting the win, you know?