Why are eroge / hentai games less popular here?

[KomiTsuku]

Two reasons.
1. Different composition of the community. I've got a lot less people to market a hentai game to on this forum than others. Even a well done one is going to find a hard start.
2. Finding an artist to do the hentai side of the art. I won't lie; I have some folks who help me that really want the studio to make a hentai game. Why? Because, as previously mentioned, the internet is full of perverts and we can make a profit in both fiscal and name recognition. However, when I did my initial preparations I noticed that there only seemed to be two types of artist who were willing to do hentai works. Those who were not really all that good and those who would charge me an arm and a leg for it. I WANT to do a tasteful OELVN hentai game. I've got some great ideas for one (one is even otome!). I just don't have the critical piece, an artist. Production costs are insane and something I just don't want to risk on a potential flop. Maybe after I get some more regular games produced...

[Samu-kun]

I think you guys are just guessing stuff... I don't think Homeward would have been any more popular if I had cut all the H from it. It would just have made it a lesser work. Don't worry about public opinion and just make eroge if you want to. If it's a game worth playing, then people will come.

[J. Datie]

It would just have made it a lesser work. Don't worry about public opinion and just make eroge if you want to. If it's a game worth playing, then people will come.

Be advised, however, that if you make eroge, you may begin speaking in double entendres, possibly without realizing it.

[Samu-kun]

Bwahahahahahaha. Good one.

[OokamiKasumi]

...just make eroge if you want to. If it's a game worth playing, then people will come.

That's the problem. How do you make an erotic game worth playing without good erotic art?

Erotica, more than any other genre, depends on the readers'/viewers' Physical (visceral) reaction to it. Erotica is supposed to make you hot. Hopefully there's a good story too, but the real point of Erotica is to make the reader hot. Good story or not, if it doesn't make the reader hot then it has FAILED to be erotic.

Horror also relies on physical (visceral) reactions from the reader/viewer -- disgust and fear in particular. If you don't feel disgust or fear, that horror story has Failed to be horrific.

However, erotically exciting one's readers is far more difficult than simply horrifying them. The main problem is that what one person thinks is erotic -- others may not.

Case in point, I do NOT think teen-aged looking (child-like) characters are hot. I don't care if the story states that the character is 20 or even 30, characters that look like teenagers or children don't do it for me because I am Not a teen-ager, (and hopefully, neither are any of the people playing my erotic games.) Just looking at characters that resemble children makes me feel like a pedophile -- and I don't even find them attractive!

Example: These are the two main characters from the yaoi manga, Okane ga Nai (No Money).


The one on the left that looks like a high school kid is Ayase. He's supposed to be 20 and a college freshman. The other guy is Kanou. He's supposed to be a year YOUNGER -- 19!

In the story, Ayase is supposed to be so hot no one can resist trying to seduce him.
-- I don't see anything AT ALL attractive about Ayase.
-- I find Kanou, on the other hand, seriously hot.

I wouldn't touch an erotic game populated with Ayase styled (child-like) characters with a ten foot pole. However, a game with Kanou styled characters I'd snap up in a heartbeat.

Truthfully, the problem isn't so much the characters' Bodies, though ultra skinny bodies also look too child-like to be attractive (erotic) to me. The main problem is their Faces; those monstrous eyes with the teeny-tiny mouth and barely existent nose. Realistically, only infants have that kind of face and I am absolutely NOT attracted to infants! (I don't even like kids in general.)

However, since 90% of the people doing anime-style art ARE drawing child-like characters, as a game-maker this makes the difficulty of finding what "I" consider a decent character artist extremely tough, and then there's the problem of decent Erotic art.

My solution was to Photoshop photographs.

--

Unfortunately decent erotic photographs are even more expensive than erotic art! Sigh...

[Efreet]

@ Ookami Kasumi

Visual representations differ from one person to another and your point has been raised before - Japanese anime/manga styles could be likened to child-like features. There are reasons as to why most characters have large eyes, they express emotions and 'look' aesthetically pleasing.

As for the Yaoi example, I suppose another reason as to why Ayase looks so much more child/girl-like could be based on their relationship roles - Ayase looks like the timid, innocent and submissive sort of person who will be seduced by Kanou who looks dominating regardless of his age... I'm not too keen on that style...

One anime series that doesn't have the exaggerated eyes for the submissive character is Sekaiichi Hatsukoi - Ritsu, left, has larger eyes than most male counterparts but not too much to look like a girl. Masamune is the seducer in this case. The anime style is not too far from the manga from the looks of it.

[OokamiKasumi]

@ Ookami Kasumi ...most characters have large eyes, [because] they express emotions and 'look' aesthetically pleasing.

They may look aesthetically pleasing to some, but Not to me. I find eyes that large frightening, like they're about to swallow me.

As for the Yaoi example, I suppose another reason as to why Ayase looks so much more child/girl-like could be based on their relationship roles...

I agree. It's obvious that Ayase was designed to look girly to enunciate his role. However, I personally don't find that look (over-thin with an infantile face) attractive (erotic) At All on females any more than I do on males. I find it Disturbing.

One anime series that doesn't have the exaggerated eyes for the submissive character is Sekaiichi Hatsukoi ... The anime style is not too far from the manga from the looks of it.

I'm very fond of Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, Best First Love, and also Junjo Romantica, done by the same artist and anime team. However the author's emphasis is on characterization and story -- not erotica. The art is not meant to make the reader/viewer hot at all. In fact, the Junjo Romantica series is pretty much a yaoi parody. It's making fun of the entire genre.

When it comes to Yaoi, Naono Bohra is my all time favorite with Ayano Yamane right after because both artists are realistic in style. Naono Bohra however, is a far better story-teller.

Naono's work: http://www.cute-factor.com/members/shay ... hi-old.jpg

Yamane's work: http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/82341

As for romance manga art, I like Kaori Yuki's work. The faces are exaggerated with a small nose and mouth and larger eyes, but not anywhere to the extent of someone like Mayu Shinjo. Kaori Yuki's adult females actually look Adult.

Kaori Yuki: http://www.injongi.net/wp-content/uploa ... uary-0.jpg

Mayu Shinjo: http://gallery.minitokyo.net/view/442177

[Dollywitch]

[ I've moved this to the GMC, because there's nothing requiring it to stay in the hentai section, and it's interesting. ]

Why do I think that KS will be the source of a new wave of developers? Well, I've been to multiple anime cons where people have cosplayed as KS characters. I'm pretty sure that at sakuracon, I saw the full set of characters at one point. If it generates this much interest as a beta, how much interest will it develop as a release? While interest doesn't necessarily translate into people making their own games, I think it's a good predictor in the macroscopic sense.

Actually, Katawa Shoujo is largely what got me involved here so I think you might be right.

I had been thinking about a VN for a while, and looking at Ren'py. I decided to do a bit of a VN for a college project, with the intent of fleshing it out sometime in the future. But it was KS that made me want to do it NOW, as opposed to in the future when I'm more accomplished with other things.

Christine's games were also a big factor for me as they gave me a different way of looking at VN's. While I don't really have the programming skills to do something that interesting it still inspired me and showed me that VNs were a good way of relating certain concepts.

[kara24601]

I have mixed feelings about eroge / hentai games. Especially annoying and rage inducing for me is when a creator includes rape crap in their game.
Sigh. Even some "good" ones will have rape crap in it and that will or would be the only thing that I'll hate about those games.

I haven't found many that are A. rape scenario-free and B. something with hot characters that make me want to pair them up or wish the character was real....

I myself, enjoy trying my hand at making both non-adult and adult works. Since I'm not a great artist though I stick to Adrift (interactive fiction) for my adult works.
Unfortunately, there's a huge divide in the interactive fiction community and a lot of creators are snobs who look down upon adult interactive fiction.
And the fact that there's some really bad aif out there and the (mainly male creators) insist upon being stupid about certain issues doesn't help either.

If I were a better artist, I wouldn't feel "awkward" about drawing sex at all. But then again, I used to be a member of a small club called Pervert Pride, so what do I know.....

[mugenjohncel]

I don't know about other places but I can safely say that one of the main reasons Eroge / Hentai games are less popular here is because the H-Section is usually hidden from plain view...

As a creator I would love to have maximum exposure. You reward for creating something are either Monetary if you are into commercial development or Bragging Rights if you are into non-commercial / hobby... as I belong to the later category I certainly wanted the most exposure possible... being an attention-whore... this is like fuel for me... Unfortunately, knowing that the H game you are about to make... something that will cost you time, money and effort will only be demoted to the hidden H section of Lemmasoft to be obscured and forgotten forever... that doesn't sound motivating enough...

Of course, we all know that Lemmasoft Forums is viewed by both Adults and Under-Aged and the admins will have to do the so called right thing by censoring H section out of plain view even though the so called Under-Aged groups may be more mature mentally and emotionally... In my case, the only reason why I'm engaged in the remake of LVUER's RSP (basically a strip the loli game) despite knowing the fact that the game will end up on that obscure section of Lemmasoft is that my desire to molest those Loli's is stronger than the regret of being destined for obscurity...

So there you have it...

"POOF" (Disappears)

[Weakjounin]

Usually I'm one of those perverted kids that lie about their age on websites, but on here, I'm really not bothered, so I just leave the hidden site out of my way and so I can't contribute to it.
(BUT THE SECOND I TURN 18, I WILL CREATE A HENTAI GAME THAT WILL SHAKE THE FOUNDATIONS OF THIS FORUM FOREVER. CUE MANIACAL CACKLING)
but in all honesty, the true reason why I'm not into that scene right now is that I'd rather be able to have a story I can enjoy. And that's easier to come by when the selling point of the VN is the story, not sex.

[xelacroix]

if i want sex i go for real porn or real slut

[Fatelogic2nd]

I seriously don´t understand the reasons behind that phenomenom, but I always wondered the strange taboo that many people seem to have with Visual Novels, like if every VN was an excuse to satisfy your darkest onanist desires...

I won´t lie, I love VN with heavy sexual content. That said, I DO NOT try most VNs for that reason. I tend to choose them for three reasons:

*Character development and depth of storyline.
*Duration and replay value (I want visual novels that can keep me inmersed in their worlds for more than 30 hours long... there are many, but still they´re the minority... shorter novels just leave me an aftertaste of wanting to spend more time in that "world", knowing more of those "characters")
*Dynamic gameplay (management of schedules, degree of free choice, RPG elements, raising sims, card games and such. Those items are always a plus.)

However, it depends on the depth of the story (for me) if the game is abusing with H-content or merely showing adult scenes. Sometimes the H-scenes feel "forced" with lame excuses to justify them, just to appeal to a more "daring" audience... and that kind of sucks... But leaving that aside, I always have that kind of discussion with some friends of mine when they ask:

"Why do you keep playing those porn games?"

Man... Sex is a part of everyone´s life :s You can tell a story that involves heavy sexual content, but if the story is well writen and that H content makes sense in that world, then it´s only natural... A story can have many sexual inuendos or explicit sexual scenes WITHOUT making that simply a porn game :s Or would you say that you´re living a PORN LIFE just because you had sex a week ago...?

Thus, I guess that, if there´s some decline on the audience that goes for adult oriented VN (even if I don´t think so), its because they make that (Sex = Pervertedness = Lack of story depth = Not interested) relation... and it´s a serious mistake :s

[LVUER]

I think the reason why eroge is less popular here is because we want make/support OELVN. JVN is identical with eroge/sex scene and we must admit commercial JVN have a very good quality art. I think when we're looking for OELVN identity, somehow we want a high quality VN that just not about sex. We want story, we want character, but we don't want sex scene... and so eroge is not so popular here...

[Zatch]

I think the reason why eroge is less popular here is because we want make/support OELVN. JVN is identical with eroge/sex scene and we must admit commercial JVN have a very good quality art. I think when we're looking for OELVN identity, somehow we want a high quality VN that just not about sex. We want story, we want character, but we don't want sex scene... and so eroge is not so popular here...

This! Plus, nobody want to be known for making eroge/henati games... It is very bad rep. I guess that is why japanese vn creators goes by a different name than there on

I'm planning a hentai game just so I can say I did it. <--- This off-topic.