Version 0.15 Public Release Schedule

Thanks for the tips. I hadn't heard about the former, but I already have a thread at the latter: <a href="https://www.xmoonproductions.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&amp;t=5267&amp;sid=ef7e2e3eaee61fccea46831f4472f5c5" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.xmoonproductions.org/viewtopic.php?f=10&amp;t=5267&amp;sid=ef7e2e3eaee61fccea46831f4472f5c5</a>

I suggest You'd post about Your game at <a href="https://www.henthighschool.com/other-projects/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.henthighschool.com/other-projects/</a> and/or at <a href="http://www.xmoonproductions.org/viewforum.php?f=10&amp;sid=43d39c718ba8817a2592e904f02a3fb7" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.xmoonproductions.org/viewforum.php?f=10&amp;sid=43d39c718ba8817a2592e904f02a3fb7</a> as there's also a community of people interested in erotic games, who usually do not share cracked versions, but rather talk about the game(s).

Maik Decker

You did not annoy me, and you have in fact been very helpful. Your assumption that I didn't know about many of those sites is correct, and I do mean it when I say I will keep them in mind for when I start promoting (which will be soon). Some things I were well aware of, however, such as the whole Akabur thing (you'll notice that I support him on Patreon). :) There is little risk that I'll suddenly drop this project unless interest should turn out to be catastrophically bad after a few months. This is a side project to my day job, and I have no trouble supporting myself economically without having to rely on the Patreon. I've invested quite a bit of money into this game, but even if I were to never recoup my expenses, I would still be fine, all things considered.

First, I'm sorry if I have annoyed you. It was not my intention (my apologies in any case). Second: fair enough. I will keep an eye on this project, I will try the game ASAP and I will send you my feedback (although I'm unsure if that is still useful or not). But just to clarify I was not suggesting that you did all the things that I mentioned at once: I was just listing them, in response to your comment: "PR is very difficult in the early stages of adult games like this, because the avenues of discussion and reaching out are so limited." That sounded to my ears that you were unaware of some of the options that there are available out there. That is the danger of assumptions. Live and learn. In any case, I have sadly seen other cases when interesting games done by passionate developers have been dropped or put on hold for various reasons, included the economical side. I'm trying to avoid that fate in games and developers that interest me. "When I launched it, I deliberately posted about it in one single place." Good to know. I suppose that you don't want to mention it here or you already have done it. Thanks for the time and attention.

lostone2

Thank you for taking the time to write all that. There are some useful nuggets of information there that I will take with me on the road ahead, specifically the various sites you refer to, some of which I am not familiar with. There are, however, two things that you need to be aware of: 1) I am not actively promoting my Patreon at the moment beyond discussing it at locations where a conversation is already happening. 2) I do not intend to run my Patreon as a business. This is a work of passion that will hopefully attract money in the long run, but I put the game first and the money second. You give me the impression that you expect me to approach it the other way around. I don't think that way. That doesn't mean you're wrong, but you place much more emphasis on the business parts of this than I do. About the first point above: I am not actively promoting my campaign because I don't feel it's ready. When I launched it, I deliberately posted about it in one single place. The rest happened on its own. I paid close attention to conversations to be able to step in wherever they might happen but made no efforts to start them on my own. Quite simply, people don't want to hear about a version 0.1 or 0.15 of yet another DAZ-rendered Ren'py game. They *might* want to hear about a game like that once it has a few updates. I've done a small-scale, quiet launch so that I could get some useful feedback from a small, but dedicated user base. Once I feel ready (which might happen with the upcoming 0.20), I will start to promote more aggressively. Had I tried to go all-out with marketing and promotion from the get-go, people would have seen nothing but a Patreon cash-grab, and that's not what I want this game to be. There is a long road ahead of me with this game, and a lot of it will be uphill. Most people will instinctively react with distrust when I promote myself. You only get one chance at a first impression, and I want to make sure that when most players first come across my game, that impression is a good one. I am in no rush. I don't want to sell promises. I want to sell results.

There are a lot of venues open to you: you can create a blog, you can create a Twitter account or a Tumblr channel to promote your game, you can open threads in the various forums (from what I had read about your game both Legend of Krystal and Fenoxo forums are good places to start), you can post your game to pages like itch.io or GammeJolt, you can explore the option to release a censored version on Steam. Another option (if the engine allows for it) is to put a demo in Newsgrounds. There a lot of options but of course, all implicate a certain amount of work (and to be honest, it's not always easy or nice: that is why I suggested a PR guy). If your game is both good and popular, you have the chance to get free advertisment by YouTube LP's (by people like PuritySin for instance) or by getting a mention on lewdgamer.com. The idea of opening your Discord (a little, I would recommend you to have some channels as patreon only) is another possibility: there is alot of variations on it. For instance, Hreinn Games have a Discord for just their patreons. Sunsetriders7 has chosen to have a open one (but not very friendly with the non-patreons visitors). Others like NoMoshing from Bad Kitty Games have a friendly community. So you have to choose what is the right scenery for you. Another suggestion: you can try to talk with other developers about their strategies, what works for them and what doesn't. That opens the road to get a public endorsemnet of your game down the road (for instance, that happened to exiscoming: Akabur tried his game and he jumped from 400 $ to +2,000. Of course, it doesn't happen often but it happens). Some examples: Akabur's endorsement of exiscoming: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/orange-trainer-13377355">https://www.patreon.com/posts/orange-trainer-13377355</a> Alx's endorsement of Avenger: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/shameless-plug-14156161">https://www.patreon.com/posts/shameless-plug-14156161</a> Regarding F95, I understand that there you have a warm welcome (because your pressence gives them a sense of legimaticy, but I disgress sorry), but it only gets you a short part of the road. The thing is, that you have the right attitude in your interactions. You're courteous but firm. You have a vision on what kind of game you want to do and you seem to have a pretty good idea on how to acomplish it. I think that you have alot of potential because you behave as a professional. I had yet to try your game and I really want your success (lol). Unrelated to the previous, you have a specific issue (maybe you're aware about it already) that I found trying to locate a forum thread: if you Google the name of your game, you will learn that there is another game (non-erotic) with the same name. That is not ideal but it's up to you doing something about it or not. I'm sorry for the wall of text but I hope that it helps you (also I would have included a lot more of links, but the message system here is not really suited for it).

lostone2

Well, I can be reached through messages, but I see your point. What would your suggestion be? A public part of the Discord server, perhaps? For the record, I did not create the thread over at that pirate forum, nor do I condone piracy, but it was the only place beyond this Patreon where anyone discussed the game at all. Your bafflement is understandable since the common tactic against pirates is to attack them, but my policy is different. I believe a good amount of my patrons so far are here because I took that community seriously and was respectful towards them, which they, in turn, are to me. If there was ever a chance of me reaching that list you posted, I certainly won't get there by being hostile towards the few players one can reach this early in a campaign. PR is very difficult in the early stages of adult games like this, because the avenues of discussion and reaching out are so limited.

Thanks for the answer, but I'm totally baffled. Do you mean that the only way for a non-patreon user to contact you (besides posting in public posts) is in a pirate forum where the content that you (and many creators) create exclusively for your patreons will be shared publicly? Are you for real? Are your patreons aware of this fact? In this page: <a href="https://graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators/adult-games" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://graphtreon.com/top-patreon-creators/adult-games</a> you will find the top 50 adult game creators (sorted by number of patrons). Do you really think that they will earn that place by posting (only!) in a pirate place? Good luck with your project, but IMHO you should contact a PR guy (or at least study how your *successful* fellow developers operate).

lostone2

There is also my Discord server. Patrons from $1 and up get an invite to my server.

There is one. It's not mine, but I'm pretty active in it: <a href="https://f95zone.com/threads/long-live-the-princess-v0-15-belle.5259/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://f95zone.com/threads/long-live-the-princess-v0-15-belle.5259/</a>

Do you have any thread on any forum (like LoK, Fenoxo, Hongfire, etc)? The message system on Patreon is way too uncomfortable for my tastes.

lostone2