BBBen
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Update - Feeling up Shizu on the train
🕑 Added 2017-07-03 23:00:02 +0000 UTC tl;dr - Since there's a shorter than usual break between updates this week I thought I'd take some time to talk about PAT and explain... well, you'll see. I'm also planning to release a public update for PAL at the same time as the first Attack of the Nega Maids patron release.This week's image
This pic relates to the discussion about PAT I've got below - specifically the vibe of it. I thought it turned out pretty well too, though.
I've decided I'm also going to reveal this girl's name is Shizu. In the game you won't discover her name for a while, but it doesn't really hurt for you guys to know she's called Shizu. She's still a mysterious character.
Pervert Action: Timelapse
I wanted to talk a little about PAT here and the difficulties I've had in being able to convey the idea of it. I feel like I haven't done a great job of explaining why the game should be interesting, mostly because of the way I like to tell stories about characters. Normally in a Pervert Action game I'll create a setup for a character (Misato from PAC is a bitch and a bully, Fumi from PAL is crazy and acts different depending on the day of the week) and then I'll have the relationship progress to a point where you kind of 'discover' the sexual kinks of the story.
I feel like that makes it more fun and interesting when it actually happens - you get more of a payoff from it if you don't know what's coming, because that means almost anything can happen in the game and I as a writer have the ability to slowly build a context around the sex that makes it more appealing. Misato could have turned out to be a bullying dominatrix in her sex scene, but instead it goes in a much more tsundere direction that I think is more fun. The scene doesn't function by being massively kinky, it just does its job through narrative tension and pay-off.
So anyway, the setup in PAT is fun, I think; Shuji is single and lonely, then one day wakes up and finds a month of his life has gone but now he's got three amazing girlfriends at once. That may not be enough, however, to really get people on board. I can also show you character designs (which hopefully you like) and give you a sense of the aesthetic I'm going for (which is kind of a subtle thing to show) and maybe even talk about some features, but beyond that I can't really say too much without revealing a lot about the story and the character developments.
This is a clash between story-telling and advertising that you often see. I hate it when film trailers tell me the whole plot of a movie, but I understand why they do that because it gets people to see the movie, apparently. Still, maybe I could thread the line a little better. I am, after all, asking for support from you guys to develop the game so I shouldn't expect you to do that just on the basis of my previous work (although honestly that's still my main argument).
So anyway, I want to tell you a little more about where these character stories are going without giving too much away. I just have to be careful what I say to avoid spoiling the fun. I will probably post a kind of public project outline at some point in the not too distant future in order to reveal some more details.
Attack of the Nega Maids
I've decided that the best approach to the first AotNM release is probably to do something like what I did for LMO, which is to put out a public release and a patrons-only release at the same time. The public release will have some cheats (although I'll keep those private for patrons) and also some art improvements, but otherwise it will be the same as PAL v1.0.0. The patrons only release will have that stuff, plus some new content, although I don't know exactly what yet. (Whatever's ready by then.) By the way, I don't mean this as a cynical tactic, it just seems to make sense to have a patron-only release available when I get the publicity for a public release. Let me know if this seems out of order or exploitative, though!
Anyway, toward the goal of making these new updates I've been working on improving a bunch of art in the game. I'll show you some more of that soon, I think, both on here and on my Tumblr. Do follow me there if you use Tumblr - I have so few followers/notes it's disgraceful. :)
Also AW Freyr and I have been working on the writing. We're mostly doing separate parts of the project right now; I'm focussing largely on the new Hiroshi bits, plus some random ideas while AW has been focussing more on the responses to when you molest the maids as they go about their daily chores.
So there's quite a lot to chew on there. Do you like the Shizu picture? Do you have any opinions about the kind of secrecy I've had around PAT? Do you think the AotNM public release is an okay thing to do? Let me know in the comments!
Comments
BBBen
Actually, I meant you could post in the community tab (which I think most patrons don't know about, I admit). Yes, that wouldn't get me any publicity but I don't mind it. Of course I can't really recommend something until I try it myself, but if I get time then I'll try stuff out. I just don't tend to get much free time. :) I do have a couple of friends who are developers, but I've already mentioned them. Plus in my experience a recommendation isn't necessarily reciprocated, which is fair, really, because recommendations are best when they're honest. Anyway, I do actually sometimes tweet out signal-boosts for other devs, I just don't tend to do them here quite so much because I often don't know the work too well. I think that 'other creators supported by' feature is the best thing we have at the moment for searching adult games; it would be good if there were some kind of better adult search function on Patreon, I don't know why they can't have some recommendations that allow you to see adult stuff on it at least if you're already supporting NSFW campaigns. Incidentally, thanks for being so active, guys! I've been glad to see a bit more discussion lately, it's good to know people are reading the updates.
DragonFire
The thought was for the creators to make promoting topics of other creators, as the impact would have a greater and more direct effect. Not all patrons take their time to scroll down and read all other patrons posts within a topic after all, but of course it would take time for a creator to engulf him/or herself in checking other games out and decide wether it is a creator they would endorse or not. Time that could have been used to create within their own game. When it comes to erotic contents, Patreon has made it difficult to simply search for it, though I do suspect the erotic part of this site brings in the most VAT for them? ;-) So when I look for other games to try, I sometimes click the profile of other patrons who post in topics to see who they follow or pledge to. Then I saw some of the creators give their own recommendations to other creators, wasn't long reviews, just a small: "Hey guys, check out this other creator!" and then a link. Maybe a small added comment of what they thought of the game or the creator, or a mentioning of him/her being a friend etc. It would be extra work for you, so I guess we could do it the way you suggest, by writing our own suggestions to other creators here, but that would only give exposure to them.. as in possible new patrons to their games from your flock of followers, wouldn't it? ;-) In any case, to get the ball rolling, I do enjoy the game and art style of Tora production. It's a two "man" team (one of them a woman) who makes their own type of games. Tora does the writing and her partner Mortze makes the art. It's like illustrated novels where the choices you make progress the story, the overall story plot is fixed, but wether you see erotic outcomes depends on your choices, in some cases they can also change the ending of the story drastically. Their games are published when ready and complete, first for patrons of course, but I don't sense any money milking options in their tiers. They can be checked out here: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/tora">https://www.patreon.com/tora</a>
BBBen
I've thought about writing up some more detailed recommendations for other games but it hit a little bit of a wall when I realised that I don't feel like I have the time to either write the reviews (which I find hard) or even to play very many games. I can say off the top of my head that Harem Collector from Noah is a good one (might be good particularly if you like my stuff); I could also recommend looking at Camelot by Shadow Portal Games and I liked A Town Uncovered by GeeSeki. But even with these I haven't had time to sit down with the latest versions and see how far the game has progressed because whenever I get into the mood to play an adult game I'm better off channeling that into working on my own games, so I didn't really think I could do them justice. I do occasionally tweet out brief recommendations, though. Still, I would encourage you to post your recommendations in the post fee, since patrons can make posts too. I *might* get time to try them out and even if I don't then other patrons might benefit and find something they like. :)
Hank Rillek
Cool Idea DragonFire!
DragonFire
I have to agree with Hank, one sure way to be seen by other patrons is to promote with other game creators here on Patreon, have seen quite a bit of that lately and it appears to work. Often in game creator topics, I've seen patron posts with questions like: You know any other good game creator? So I guess many of us are interested in finding more games, the only real problem is locating creators you feel worthy of doing such promoting with, and of course to ask them if such would be desirable for them too? I could send you a list of some of the creators I either follow or support, with my own view on them as game creators, if you like some input or inspiration to start on? :-)
Hank Rillek
Well, it's a lot easier to market a game like Redams Monster Girl Island or Keys Officer Chloe, since those games are more focused on a central theme. Yours are AIF which is harder to get into for people. You do manage to mix in other mechanics such as battles and love points. But you are still exploring a number of kinks, most of them in one off situations. This is where you run into the spoiler territory. So it's better to make little teaser images. Stuff like a single tentacle or a dildo lying around. If I were you I'd focus on what makes your games stand out. You create anime inspired harem situations, in which you build meaningful relations with a bunch of women. There is usually some sort of mystery to solve. The relationships building part makes you stand out from most other harem games. In those games the women are simply defined by their job or relation to the character. The PC does some standard RPG puzzles , fucks them ,and moves on to the next NPC. Your games are more like Kers Harem or Noah's Harem Collector, as in the writing is what keeps people engaged. However, most players will start playing the game to build the harem. Another thing I see more creators doing lately are cross promotions. they simply link to each others Patreon pages. If you go this route, I'd suggest writing a bit more about the others game. Mostly why you'd think it's worthy of people's time.
BBBen
Glad you like the picture! And yes, I am still pretty early in the development with PAT; I could share more than I have been but I'm also pleased at the moment to be able to keep it in the planning stage, because there's a lot of things about it I haven't worked out yet. That advice is interesting, thanks. It's possible I'm a little too led by the success of 'kink-focused' developers who'll say something like, "this game is all about this kink" and get a lot of interest. Perhaps my own stuff isn't as amenable to that kind of a pitch in the first place, just because I'm more based on character development. To your question, yes I will eventually be releasing AotNM fully to the public and probably there will be a partial public release somewhere along the way too. I'm just holding off on that at first because... well, I need a patrons-only version. :)
Hank Rillek
I really like the picture, both schoolgirls and groping scenes are pretty hot. As for the PAT secrecy, I thought you were just really early in the development, and didn't have much to share yet. If you're talking about marketing, you should think about the groups of people you're marketing to. If it's your supporters like us, we'll already interested in your new game. You can also point to the previous Pervert Action games and tell the new game will borrow certain aspects from that formula. As for the last group, I suggest putting out a lot of hot images of the characters. Without much of a description of how and what is going on. As for the AotNM release, you will release the extra content to the public as well right? At least at a later date or something.
