future dating sims might be female romances only

[jack1974]

Today got a negative review for Love Bites with one of the main issues listed as offering only 2 male romances.
In the past (I even made a blog post) I thought that the best was to offer both male+female love interests whenever possible so more people could play the game. But I didn't consider the drawback of getting many negative reviews (talking about Steam of course) because there are fewer romances (for example even SOTW got many negative reviews JUST because of the romances number). To be honest I kind of understand them, if all the competition offers 4 yuri romances and mine has only 2, they are right to complain. So I'm not polemic here, just making considerations

At this point if I still allow to choose male or female protagonist but have only bisex female love interests, I could still offer 4 for the usual price range of $20 (talking about dating sims/visual novels) and at least I should reduce the negative reviews (which sadly are important for Steam). Since if you play the games only for the males, you wouldn't even buy the game but if you play for the females, at least the amount of romances won't be an issue (4 is usually the standard in most games).

I wanted to support everyone but as you can imagine it's hard to keep working for peanuts when you see the other indie developers doing regularly ONLY yuri/straight games (many not even BxG, just yuri and stop) and making good money with many positive reviews.

For the RPGs currently in the works nothing will change of course, but for future games I think I might be forced to do this.

[Franka]

While I would never write a negative review over that, I did only romance the female characters in Love Bites, and it did make for a slightly smaller game, so I see the point. I just feel sorry for the otome/yaoi lovers out there.

[mastro]

I believe for dating sims is understandable, you might want to keep it for RPGs since are bigger games anyways. but I was surprised to see you still trying to please everyone when it's a recipe for disaster. Look at Hanako, Razzart, C. Love, they all make yuri only games and are always in the top sellers on Steam. You need to learn from the veterans of the industry, if they do that there is a reason, no?

[jack1974]

While I would never write a negative review over that, I did only romance the female characters in Love Bites, and it did make for a slightly smaller game, so I see the point. I just feel sorry for the otome/yaoi lovers out there.

I know, as I said I completely understand their reasons. I am sorry for yaoi/otome fans but sadly it's as mastro said, 90% of VN released on Steam are yuri only I think unless you have a team like Dream Daddy with 3,6M followers in which case you can do a yaoi game and be a topseller without problems.

Anyway I'll think about it, that is just a review. But from past experiences (SOTW) I think the romances number is an essential factor for people and I can't just ignore it anymore...

[Franka]

I know it's early, but so far it looks like there are more yaoi fans than anything else for Love Bites (according to achievements).

[jack1974]

Nice Hopefully they'll write a positive review if they liked the game.
Anyways, as usual I'll wait until at least 2-3 months have passed since the release before drawing conclusions, because now it's really too early. I was mostly thinking loudly but as I posted I didn't made my mind, are only thinking what's best. In any case have a lot of games to finish with all kind of content!

[Ryocchi]

If that happens I would bid Bye to WW to be honest.

[jack1974]

I understand, but hopefully that won't happen.
Also as I posted on twitter I think I'm going to relax for a while, I noticed I've been a bit too irascible in the past weeks, that's due to having released two games in two months. My other indie friends doing 1 release a year take a break of a full month after every release, and instead I've been working non-stop on PS2.

(I will still work on that though just take things slower)

[Troyen]

Out of curiosity, how well did C-14 (otome) and Heirs and Graces sell in comparison to your games that are primarily female romances?

I mean, personally I tend to pursue the female options in most games, but sometimes I'll come across something where the writing and art is intriguing enough I'll play an Otome game (like C-14 and Hanako's Royal Trap). Having two choices in a game because of development costs kinda sucks, but I'm not sure that means you'd have to solely produce yuri games. Couldn't you also create the occasional otome or yaoi game?

I don't think you should solely follow the crowd, but rather base it off your experiences and data. Just because 90% of VNs on steam are yuri...well, six years ago there were very few yuri games on steam, so the market can change. I think as long as you differentiate yourself with quality and substance, you can build and retain a following. Many of those other games don't have a lot of content or substance (I've spent the past week looking for more VNs on steam and itch and only came away with a handful), and a disappointingly large portion of them are barely through early development.

[SimonStardust]

If that happens I would bid Bye to WW to be honest.

I second that.
Although... I guess... I would stay for the RPGs. (Still hoping to see an alien yaoi romance option one day. >.<)