Jump to content

LoversLab & Patreon Adult Game Development


vinfamy

Recommended Posts

(I don't actually have a solution, just thought I would open a discussion for everyone to participate. The final decision of course lies totally with Ashal)

 

I realize that LoversLab is first and foremost an adult modding community, but you might have all noticed that over the past year or so, there has been a massive surge in indie adult game developments fueled by Patreon. Admittedly, quite a decent proportion of these games are just people jumping on the bandwagon and the developments never get anywhere, but on the other hand, some Patreon developers seem genuinely committed and have made good progress.

 

As a result of this, the "Adult Gaming" section of LoversLab, in my opinion, has become a bit unorganized. I swear there is now one or two new threads opened there about a new Patreon game every single day, which is even faster than say the rate of which Skyrim adult mods are being released.

 

It ends up being really hard (for me at least) to navigate and know what new game might interest you (because most often, the thread name is just the game's name, which is usually quite ambiguous and doesn't tell you what theme/ fetishes are included) or to actually keep track of its future developments. Plus, the threads for these indie adult games are still mixed in the same forum with threads for modding mainstream games without their own forum (like Conan Exiles). As a result of all this, most of these new games get completely lost before anyone notices.

 

LoversLab has become a big community, and in my opinion, it would be nice if the site can be a bit more supportive of the indie adult gaming scene - which is a bit of a step-brother to the adult modding scene. Firstly, this serves the needs of the existing community members anyways : if you use adult mods to sexualize your Skyrim/ FO/ Sims, you're most likely interested in indie adult games if they are any good - so a better organization of the adult gaming section is to the benefit of the community. Secondly (potentially a bit more controversial), after you take out the 'bandwagon' factor that is always present with any new trends, it helps support some genuinely creative and hard-working people who are just trying to make a living doing something they love which happens to be a bit 'unconventional' and will never be supported by mainstream media: i.e.  if you're a good developer who deliver on your promises and is actually making a good game that is actually gonna be completed, you're given a fair shot (not a guarantee or constant free advertising) of the community noticing you and your game. This doesn't mean the user will pledge but at least the developer is given a fair opportunity to convince the user to try the game and potentially donate if they like it.

 

We already have a oligopoly essentially in mainstream game development where the major game developers and publishers (looking at you, EA) dominate the market and kill off smaller fan-favorite creators (which result in some mediocre and bug-ridden 'AAA' games still achieving major commercial successes) , I would hate to see the indie adult gaming scene in a few years time being also completely dominated by a few 'early adopters' creators who have built up their own audience over the years (and they would totally deserve their success btw, don't get me wrong, it's the flipside of their success that worries me) while smaller, newer creators without an existing audience and their potentially promising projects get killed off because they never get any attention whatsoever. The community then loses as a whole as we miss out on some potentially kick-ass adult games.

 

I realize that this is potentially a bit of a touchy issue on an adult modding site as Patreon NSFW developers are asking for money while most mod authors work on their mods (some of which have already taken more time and have more content than most Patreon games) as a hobby and not as an income stream.

 

The potential solutions I can think of are:

  • At least have a separate forum for Patreon adult games/ not mix them with modding of Conan Exiles and co. Maybe three separate forums: Modding of Other Games, Hentai Games (i.e. adult games made by professional game studios), Indie Adult Games.
  • Keep the current forum structure, but have a standard structure for thread names in the Adult Gaming section, for example: [Engine] [Theme] [Two Main Fetishes] Game Name 
  • Split the Adult Gaming section into sub-forums depending on game engine used, theme or genre.
  • Allow the developer to add a thumbnail picture next to their thread name (not sure if the forum CMS allows this)
  • Use a similar system for the mods' Downloads section (but instead of download files from LoversLab, link the green Download button to Mega.nz of where-ever the game is hosted). So that, the Downloads categories would be Skyrim, Skyrim:Special Edition, Fallout 4, Oblivion, Fallout 3/ NV, Adult Games, Other. Maybe on the front page below What's New, Highest Rated and Most Watched for the mods (where there are acres of empty spaces currently anyways) we can have another box for most viewed new adult game this month or something like that. 

Just some thoughts. :)

Link to comment

Might as well.  The cat is already out of the beg when Sims forum went Patreon.  Personally I think Patreon is a bad idea for game development or software development in general but there is no alternative given Kickstarter and other crowd sourcing platforms won't allow adult projects.

 

It would be a pain in the ass for moderators though given they would have to start policing possible bait-and-switch projects using LL popularity to get people subscribe to their pay-to-play projects.  I think we already have mod creators left because they don't like how Patreon is allowing de facto pay-to-play project to be hosted here.

Link to comment

Don't think there is an issue asking for donations.

 

It's pay walling content.

 

Personally, as long as the dev if offering something like getting feedback on the game, giving out a demo or giving the game away for free it should be cool. That said if there just using the site advertise to make money and nothing else then it really shouldn't exist on here.

 

As for organization, I think having a Adult game section where people can update there DL link and have a change log would be cool so you could follow then and get notifications on updates, rather than check the topic x times a month.

Link to comment

We have pretty specific rules about paywalling.  Eventually we do hunt down and remove those threads that cross that line. 

 

We are looking into doing a bit of organizing on the section the OP stated.  Please be patient.  Ashal is the only one that can create new sections and he has a lot of demands on his time.

 

Cheers,

Greg

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I have mixed feelings about the patron system. For EG, the sims 4 section. A lot of content is directly pay walled on patreon. That in itself is fine. I do not have an issue with content creators that want some form of compensation.

 

My biggest concern is EA. There was a shit show in the sims community regarding the paysites vs free sites thing. It got bad enough that EA had to intervene and basically state that you can NOT charge for custom content. Hell even TSR aka the sims resource; One of the largest paysites had to go free.

 

I do not want LL to attract unwanted legal attention because of all this.

Link to comment

I have mixed feelings about the patron system. For EG, the sims 4 section. A lot of content is directly pay walled on patreon. That in itself is fine. I do not have an issue with content creators that want some form of compensation.

 

My biggest concern is EA. There was a shit show in the sims community regarding the paysites vs free sites thing. It got bad enough that EA had to intervene and basically state that you can NOT charge for custom content. Hell even TSR aka the sims resource; One of the largest paysites had to go free.

 

I do not want LL to attract unwanted legal attention because of all this.

 

The thread focuses more on indie game development (people making stand-alone adult games using Renpy, RPGMaker, Unity, Unreal, etc), so there shouln't be too much legal troubles there.

 

But on the Sims thing, didn't Turbodriver get a notice from EA about the use of the word "Wohoo" and then changed it to Whims? This means they are well aware of the mod and the Patreon, but they allow things to go on as long as you don't use their trademarks. My very non-legal-expert thought on it is that EA can probably legally shut any Sim content creators' Patreon down if they want to (hell, even if they're actually in the wrong legally, if such a massive corporate giant goes after me, I'll be scared shitloads), but they can't be bothered/ don't want the bad publicity/ community backlash/ don't want to bring any attention to the adult modding scene of their 'family-friendly' game.

 

Even some indie games/ SFM creators based on League of Legends, Marvel, DC Comics, Warcraft etc are still surviving on Patreon. It's quite clear copyright infringement, but it seems it's more the case of the copyright holders not being bothered to sue rather than the creations being completely legal.

Link to comment

Well, I suppose you are correct about the companies not being bothered to sue.

 

On the main topic, I think having a section for up coming projects with their patreon links might not be a bad idea. It would certainly reduce thread clutter.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...

I personally think it would be cool for Loverslab to support other games besides Elder Scrolls,Fallout, and Sims. Imagine if loverslab became so popular and so successful, that it became known as the #1 biggest Adult modding community. It would be like Pornhub, except it was for gaming. (Although come to think of it, it may just mean receiving major backlash from the old farts in the media. Since this site does have fetishes that they may deem "disgusting" or "misogynistic") 

Link to comment

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. For more information, see our Privacy Policy & Terms of Use