[Devlog & Research] Progress into the future

Long-time lover of Solas City Heroes - it could definitely use the TLC

I quite like adult games with fun fast action gameplay but it needs to balance with the scenes and that's hard to do. Like Undercover Waifu and Waifu Uncovered get this balance pretty good although the games aren't super sexy (just still nudey images). There's a few I've played where the action and combat is fun to an extent but you need to get defeated to see the scenes, I think this is like the standard mechanic and it's obvious why because it's the "punishment" for defeat but that itself is limiting for a variety of reasons. It's a very hard balance to get and I think with the frenetic action, you do limit the actual sexual content as in the Waifu uncovered games, unless the scenes are defeat scenes, which also has limitations, there's not an opportunity for balance there in terms of content, it has to be that you've got caught by the baddies. You've got a tough job but you're ideas are always great and I am sure we all appreciate the work that you put in creating adult games with more to them than most!

I wouldn't go for MMO, as that means also more work to do. Besides, MMO and adult doesn't get along that well, as someone also said. Games like Velvet Sundown,Red Light District and the recent Lovecraft comes then to mind. The things happening in there ain't very mature to begin with. Just stick to singleplayer. There is a market for it and you have already people here who support you. I also wouldn't doubt too much and not think of a worse case scenario. Just keep up the good work. By the way, i voted for big game with long story or big sandbox possibilities.

I prefer Solas City Heroes over Yaradiel's Crown simply because I like beat 'em ups more than RPGs. I think you explained in the past that the current Unity did not allow different body types. Everyone from the players to the enemies had similar body types. I want my scrawny male hero to have a tough time with big lasses and muscle mommies, and he's in the wrong part of town where the chicks have dicks. I also can't play this like a femdom title because the enemies will eventually climax while doing the deed to the player.

can't really decide on size of game or the pace both styles can be fun, adult style or otherwise if it's fun and the rules/mechanics are intuitive or easy to learn anything can work

"Yaradiels Crown" can be developed as an online game. In this game, players can spend dollars to purchase attractive clothes and powerful equipment.

Multiplayer and adult games do not mix at all for me personally and I would avoid something like that fully but that doesn't mean I think devs shouldn't try it if they themselves are interested in making something like that and can actually reliably afford it. Multiplayer is so so so much work and all of it is wasted work and resources if it doesn't do well which sucks for the devs. If I don't like something I just move along. There's been a few HGames I've played throughout the years and recently (A Very specific one from recently comes to my mind immediately) that have tried to make things faster paced and/or more involved and active even during HScenes and it has ruined every single one of those games for me personally. Simply giving players options to customize HOW the game is played (like disabling certain more involved mechanics) would go so so far without really hurting the game imho. Would absolutely love to see an overhaul for SCHs combat, make an already great game better? Sign me up. Longer experiences are preferred for me, growing my character(s) and progressing through a decent amount of content is fun, also helps it feel like I'm getting my money's worth regardless of it being an HGame or not. What isn't a good thing and can be pretty tough to balance is Artificial difficulty and needless enemy stat bloats (the entire Borderlands series when in Multiplayer or Mayhem/Chaos/Overpower levels). Balance is a relatively big concern for longer experiences. Monster Girl Quest paradox RPG Series I think do a very balanced long term experience quite well with a tonne of party and character customization. Their HContent I pass on but as Long JRPGs & Creature Collectors? Fuck Yes. Too many hours in them honestly.

While I vote on this I'm still for adding monsters to the roster of enemies, or magic oriented positions. Not sure if the Vampires got their vampire positions yet but that is where I lean with direction no matter what direction games go.

Hello Author~ I personally prefer a slower pace. Because I’ve seen that the game has designed so many exquisite sexual poses, I really want to fully appreciate every single action of the opponents, enemies, or bosses. If the pace is too fast and the poses end before I’ve finished watching them, it feels a bit like carefully preparing a whole table of delicious food, only for the guests to take two bites and then have the plates cleared away… kind of a pity

I don't have particularly strong feeling on game-size / per-game-investment. I do prefer games with more work put into them, but not so much that I demand it one way or another. For lewd multiplayer, I just can't handle it. I'm permanently too aware of how it's some other dude on the other end, also trying to enjoy the sexy sights. I'm too sexually repressed to be able to ignore that; I feel watched and exposed. Like, maybe, if it were made to be very, very anonymous, with extremely limited player-to-player interaction (no direct text/voice chat, no player-to-player sexual encounters), I could just barely force myself to engage with it. But I feel like that might just defeat the entire purpose, especially for the hypothetical other players who actively want in-depth player-to-player interaction. For game speed, it feels like it's less about the presence of speed, and more about the absence of relaxing downtime. There are multiple lewd fighting games, many of which are somewhat fast-paced; but they also work downtime in, with lengthy animations on-grapple and between-rounds. The player can relax and enjoy the lewds during that downtime. Meanwhile, I'm picturing something like CS-GO, where even though there's lots of waiting, the player is in a constant state of high-alert: an enemy could peek any second now; the moment you relax to enjoy the lewds is the moment you get sniped and lose the round. So, like, you could probably make a lewd game as fast as you wanted, just so long as the gameplay loop allows for periods of low-alertness relaxation. Is Nude Byte a good example of this working, or is that still "chill paced"? For Session length, I'm personally very flaky, I bounce from game to game constantly. Thus, I love when there's minimal need to remember previous sessions in-detail. Quick, self-contained levels, or rouge-lite/like runs are my ideals. But I do like in-between run customization and progression: pure rouge-likes that absolutely-completely reset between each session can get old fast. I'm not opposed to longer session games, but for me personally to enjoy them, they need a rather robust reminder-system, or to be straightforward enough that remembering previous sessions isn't a necessity. For SCH, I really like the idea of a big update for it, but my personal priorities would be different. Reworked talent trees sound nice, animation changes and the like sound cool. But I'm personally more invested in the idea that all of the back-end code changes will make the overall game feel less "janky": less moments of getting punched by a visibly knocked-down enemy, less moments of enemies walking into walls, and so on.

I hope to develop a fighting arena game, similar to MMA.

I hope to develop a fighting arena game, similar to MMA.

The most thing I like about the games so far is the ability to choose your own bondage kit and even being captured with full bondage on, which is why I play solas and YC regularly, the companion system in YC also fun with them being customizable and all (I'm a solo player so multiplayer stuff is no no for me).

I still would love a Dungeon Coup makeover.

Why not make SCH2?

I am not sure about others, but my first choice for finding new adult games is not Steam. I like to keep my adult game playing as private as possible, so I am not a fan of multiplayer adult content, either. That is the same reason I do not use Steam for adult games. Steam is too mainstream, and I like to keep my adult game playing side as private as possible. Kind of a shame to hear that Yaradiel's Crown may be impacted here as I just recently joined your Patreon because of it. It is a terrific game. I hope you don't let your fear of what Steam may or may not do impact your decision on how you move forward with its development. Also, wanted to say thanks for Kinky Fight Club! My all time favorite adult game.

While I could think of a... nay; even two fucktons of things added to a adult superhero game I'd say do some bugfixes at best at SCH and plan some SCH2 which is more third person full motion (aka jump/flight) open world and a bit more diverse type of hero archetypes and a bit of a more non-self aware sex comedy streak instead of trying to rationalize it with "its the real world future but everyone is hooked up in a VR tank". The fans of a superhero setting usually keep their realism expectations outside anyway :)

From developer point of view - it is not easy thing to make multiplayer, especially in action games you have to know what you are doing, otherwise interaction between character and the world will be clunky, people will run into desync issues and overall have terrible time. Netcode as they call it is one of the most complex things in game development. Another thing to consider is AI and how much you can do with it. Claude code with sufficient context can do a lot even today and it is still improving. I would not worry about scale so much as having good idea and unique style. AI cannot innovate, but helps you produce faster and focus on innovation if you use it right. Finally advice about censorship - you could potentially design your game as only “light adult” and have adult themes as free mod in workshop. It will be adult game in spirit but you could have legal defense. Steam could only force you to take down the mod. If the game is good, people will share it in other channels. It will complicate development but that’s where AI could help.

When it comes to Adult games I am a bit divided about Multiplayer I can understand the idea behind it, especially with a game that has a character creator, wanting to show off your designs and progress but at the same time I feel that multiplayer games either sacrifice single player experiences to allow for multiplayer mechanics or force players against each other. As an example of the former you can look at either Solas City Heroes or YC if you wanted to turn either into a multiplayer game you would need to do something about the sex animations and escape mechanics as those interactions while fine in solo would slow down a multiplayer experience as one player would be in a sex scene while the rest of the group clears out everyone else leaving the person who just escaped from the sex with nothing to do and if you made everyone watch said scene then you place game progress in the hands of one person who may or may not share the same interests as the rest of the group which could slow down everyone else. In the case of the latter for a fighting game multiplayer is more doable but at the same time you run into the same issues that mainstream fighting games have namely toxic players, cheaters, and trolls. Personally I like solo experiences as they let me go at my own pace and in the same fashion I think you as the dev would have more freedom to do things as you like also. Finally I want to point out that multiplayer games especially the big ambitious ones tend to generate bugs on an order of magnitude greater then single player games.

I think you should prove a system before you expand the scope. The "bones" and feel of Solas City has always felt better to me because the path to fun is WAY shorter than the other games. I know what to do to succeed, I know what to do to make fun stuff happen, and there isn't a whole lot of time spent searching for those things. So much on paper for Yaradiel sounds amazing but I rarely know where to go next and I don't feel like I have much control over what I want to do or experience.

A great series of questions and definitely all are worth asking. Leaving a more detailed response here. In my experience, I have never really seen a multi-player mode or function in adult games take off. Will there be people that will interact with it? Sure. However, the amount of development time, resources and infrastructure that has to go into something like that just doesn't equate to the small percentage that would actually participate in it versus single player content. Best thing I would recommend is maybe leaderboards for players to compete for the highest score/best performance, but that is about as far as I would recommend anyone take it. Gameplay wise, you never want to make the core game loop too simple, cause all that will do is just make it boring/repetitive. That said, your point about complex gameplay being too distracting is a very real concern. A good rule of thumb that I think anyone could follow is this: can you appreciate the “action” on screen while playing the game? If the answer is yes, all good. If the player can't appreciate the activities on screen, because their eyes keep getting pulled away to manage meters or watch for reactions, then it needs to be toned down. Game size is a difficult one, and likely can only truly be answered by you. Everyone would like most games to be big in scope, but that just isn't a reality. Some projects need to be reigned in to keep focus, there are also budgets and development time to consider. The best thing to do is likely consider what it is you are trying to accomplish with the project and ask: does it need more to reach that vision? Then adjust based on what you know. Also, community feedback can be a great tool here, specific to each project. Hope this helps and best of luck.

I didn’t answer the game size and session length questions, because the most accurate answer would be „I enjoy both of those things, depending on my mood.“ Small side note: I really enjoy your games, you‘re doing by great!

Size: No real preference here, but I think games with a smaller scope are easier to keep consistent and fun-to-play. It takes a considerate greater skill as a creator to make a bigger game equally as engaging. Multiplayer: To make multiplayer work the gameplay needs to be so good it can work without any H content. In that case, why make a H game in the first place? Gameplay: Some kind of real-time element is needed to make it engaging. That usually means either real-time such as SCH, or turn-based with QTEs. Starvy's KO Zone One is a positive example how to implement QTEs. The game is mostly turn-based, but "in combat" it has well-made and varied events (and a one-hand and two-hand QTE mode). Sessions: Similar to size, it is considerable harder to make a game where you can continue than a game that keeps it simple. SCH update: The core gameplay needs improvement. As I mentioned in the past, you could remove stage 2-5 from the game, and gameplay-wise hardly anything of value would be lost.

Wrestling game collab with that weirdo that keeps spamming his artwork on your Discord! >.>