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Are Gamers Hurting The Gaming Industry?

A couple weeks ago, when Cypress_Z, MagicWhiteLady and I were doing the sound test for the first episode of the Indecent Gaming Podcast, we received a question from a fan:

What do you think about Game Theory’s “Are Gamers Killing Video Games?” episode?

But, because we actually have pretty strict itineraries for the Indecent Gaming Podcast and are trying to focus on a particular topic per week, addressing the state of the “game industry” isn’t on the agenda. At least not soon enough to be topical with Game Theory’s episode on the subject. So here I am, making my viewpoint known from the safety of muh interblags, because I do have thoughts to share on the subject.

In case you haven’t watched it, MatPat’s view is that gamers who say they want innovation are lying. Citing the high sales of games like Call of Duty and Madden, he points out that there is a clear divide between popular internet opinion and what actually sells.

But I don’t think that’s entirely the case… or, at least, the people who are asking for innovation aren’t the people who are buying 10 million copies of Blops 2 in one month.

MatPat (the guy who makes Game Theory) clearly uses “gamer” as an umbrella term in his video- if you’re a person who plays video games, you’re a “gamer”. However, the customer base for the gaming industry is made up of many smaller groups with different needs and motivations, known as “market segments”. Fratboy Fred (who wants to spend time after classes rocking Blops with his buddies) has different needs and habits than Mommy Marge (who has 2.5 children begging for the new Mario game), Retiree Rita (who wants to relax after a hard day of gardening with some hidden-object games or maybe a little Peggle), and Gamer Nerd Greg (who is on top of all the latest releases, reads game reviews online, and watches shows like Game Theory).

Basically, I think who “gamers” are in terms of culture is very different from who “gamers” are in terms of raw sales data- and the people who desire innovation and change in the gaming industry are a smaller market segment within the group of people who buy games as a whole. This is why a plurality of indy games devs can do well while AAA studio releases that target “gamers” as defined by gamer culture constantly under-perform. I think we’re looking at a community of perhaps 15 million “culture gamers” as opposed to a community of ~200 million “people who buy games” worldwide. Thus, Call of Duty Black Ops 2, reviled by gaming culture, sells 7.5 million units on launch day while critically acclaimed, meme-spawning Bioshock Infinite sells less than one million copies in its first month of sales.

Obviously, the situation is more complicated than I make it out here, and I’m far from being an expert. But from where I stand, taking “popular opinion on the internet” and conflating it to “the opinion of everyone who buys games everywhere” was a mistake on MatPat’s part. It’s not that “gamers want innovation” is a lie, it’s just that the definition of “gamer” is a lot more complex than it initially appears.

Anyway, Nekochan is still editing the next Indecent Gaming Podcast- sorry it’s not out yet, but until we get a rhythm going on how the release schedule is going to work, things are going to be shaky like this. Until then check out this Offbeatr for a monster girl breeding game I thought was cool. I don’t know much about the guys running it, but they asked me to take a look at their page and plug their stuff and, well, I wouldn’t be doing that if their game didn’t catch my interest.

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Indecent Podcast Episode 1

Grab the Indecent Podcast Episode 1 here

Cypress_Z, MagicWhiteLady and I have started recording a podcast and episode 1 is available for download on the Bad Kitty Games front page. We’re still ironing out the technical aspects of the ‘cast (for example, my mic sensitivity needed to be turned way the hell down) but hopefully the problems with the recording won’t stop you from enjoying it.

In this week’s episode, we discuss hentai gaming in general, what inspired us to start making our hentai games, and some advice on people looking to start their own hentai game projects.

Also, Harem Collector: Fairy Side goes out to the testing team today, and should be released to the public in a week barring any sudden problems. Harem Collector itself is looking pretty firm for a mid-May release (although I just now realized the dates on the Bad Kitty Games release schedule are wrong, have to go back and fix that).

Anyway, I think the plan is to do these Podcasts every week, so if you have any questions or things you want to see addressed on the show, let me know in the comments or on the forum.

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My Least Favourite Word Is….

Delayed, delayed, delayed. Just a real quick update on certain things.

The newly-christened Indecent Gaming Podcast will be released next week, as a download available on badkittygames.net. Sorry for the delay, but there has been some unexpected editing problems.

The next release of Harem Collector has been delayed by a week or two, but should be out soon. Similarly, the “special surprise” I had mentioned will be given the same release date.

Also happening next week, this blog will be moved to badkittygames.net.

Thanks for your patience!

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H-Games Podcast Coming Soon!

…So of course, the day after my April Fool’s post I wait until halfway through the morning before putting up my regular blog post, just to make you sweat.

Actually, it wasn’t actually an April Fool’s Prank yesterday. I did actually find Jesus. And then I was all like, “Jesus take me back!” and then Jesus said, “Hey, aren’t you the guy that makes Harem Collector? I don’t think I actually want you back. Your soul is all weird and sticky.” And that’s why I’m continuing with HC- my soul was too creepy for the son of god.

Anyway, tonight Cypress_Z, Magic White Lady and I will be recording the first-ever H-Games Podcast (not the final title). Unfortunately it won’t be live streaming (for now) and it’ll probably be on the youbtubles sometime next week, so if you have any questions for any of us, throw them down in the comments.

Also be aware that very soon I’ll be closing this blog down in favour of a blog hosted on the Bad Kitty Games website. Not going to be a huge deal, you’ll just have to go somewheres else for your weekly dose of me.

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Bad Kitty Games Closing Down

Hey all, I’m sorry this is so sudden, but because of the recent troubles in my life, I’ve rediscovered God and have decided to make Christ a part of my life again. I’m still going to be in the video game business though, just doing proper Christian games, inspired by classical like Noah’s Ark 3-D.

I’m trying to redeem my sinful past and stop with all the smut-peddling, and though the road will be long and hard no doubt Jesus will walk beside me and carry me.

I’ll keep you all in my prayers and hope that one day you’ll all find it in your hearts to love Jesus like he should be loved.

-NoMoshing

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“I’ll Do My Best, Master!”

First off, thank you to everyone who expressed their support and sent offers of help last week. I’m glad that the response was so overwhelmingly positive, although I don’t really want to have similar blog posts in the future. MWL and I now have a tentative plan so it’ll be easier to make progress on the game and move past this difficult time.

So, today we’re going to talk about Elaiya.

I’ve been planning Elaiya’s Love Quest for awhile now- she, along with Doll, were the two characters whose Love Quests were fundamental and I had elements of the quests in mind from the beginning. It’s going to be interesting when the next release happens and you can compare Meline’s quest to Elaiya’s because Meline was never intended to have a quest to begin with. Newer fans might not be able to recall, but back in the day when Meline reached 101 Relationship points, you just received the reward right there.

 Anyway, I have the plans, and it’s going to be the most complex Love Quest available. There are branching bits in case you’ve met certain NPCs, the dungeon is going to be non-linear, and there will be two boss fights, one of which will be a solo duel with just Elaiya. The duel will allow Elaiya to use her “Stealth” Technique to take cover and avoid being hit.

So, I’m looking forward to getting you guys this quest and being able to explore Elaiya’s back story and experience some new challenges.

With regard to balancing Elaiya, well, she’s gonna get nerfed. Not right away. But eventually her “thing” will be to have medium damage but a higher critical rate, and her signature skill Barrage (and, eventually, Improved Barrage) are going to be about making more attacks to roll the dice on more criticals. Plus, a bit more damage from those extra attacks in a turn.

Meline’s Quest is coming along, but it needed a lot of art (sprites, faces and CGs!) done and is waiting on that.

Anyway, figured you could use an update on where I was on that stuff, I might have to cut Diadira from the April release, but I’m hoping to have these two quests done.

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TLDR: Whining and First World Problems

I know it’s not really classy to go into my own problems like this, but my situation has really had an impact on game development lately and I feel that everyone who follows Harem Collector development is owed an explanation.

Basically,  my savings is running out and I’m going to be cut off from GA by the end of May. I was hoping by this time to have some kind of monetization in place so I could support myself and continue to work on HC and other projects full time. I was also looking to phase out donation support for the game, because technically I’m operating in violation of P-yp-l’s TOS and that doesn’t really sit right with me. However, that has not been the case- I have failed to meet minimum standards for most advertising companies, my bank considers this business too much of a risk to give me the support I need to run my own online store, etc. Basically, while these things might still happen in the future, for now time has run out and I need to get a second job.

In the middle of this whole thing (being depressed about having to flip burgers or something again, updating my resume, figuring out the future of the company, etc…), I also found out my aunt died. We weren’t particularly close, but due to my family situation things were… complicated, and my feelings on the issue have been similarly complicated. This is also the second family member I’ve lost to lung cancer, in case you needed additional incentive to quite smoking yourself.

So, for the last week and a half, work has basically stalled on HC and related projects. This is also why I haven’t been updating my Twitter- when you’re spending your days in a housecoat, obsessively playing PS2 games and trying to avoid thinking or feeling anything, you’re not gonna to have a lot to update people on.

But now, MWL is back in town from her week-long adventure in the middle of nowhere, and we’re going to try and get things done and back on track. Some changes are going to have to be made, though. To summarize:

Harem Collector: Progress will be slowed in the next few months. I’m hoping to get by with a part-time job, which will leave me half a week to work on HC, and evenings + weekends to work the administrative/business side of things, but we’ll have to see what happens.

Harem Collector: Fairy Side: Progress will continue as normal, or at least it won’t be affected by things to do with me. MWL is doing some great work, and I’m really excited to see how the new release is received.

Dungeon Assault: No Mercy and Project Norn: Unfortunately, these are the big victims here. Both projects are going to be shelved indefinitely.  When I have more time and the business is more self-sustaining, I’ll get back to them, in some capacity.

Anyway, that’s basically it…. Just wanted to explain why things got really derailed these last couple weeks and why things are going to slow down in the future. For today though, I’m going to get back to work and hopefully overcome this inertia and make progress once again.

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Games You Might Not Have Tried: RPG Maker Edition

Originally I wasn’t going to write anything today- have been feeling really unwell lately and today has been the worst of it. However, I saw today’s Extra Credits and was inspired. So, let’s all go on a meandering trip through my games collection to see my suggestions to you. Not all of them are recent, and not all of them are porn games, but here it is.

Despair Labyrinth
When people talk about the “greats” in the RPG Maker H-Game community, they mostly refer to Overwhored or Harem… but I don’t see DL come up too often. Despair Labyrinth is an excellent game combining a pseudo-roguelike kinda feel with game over rape and a morality system. Plus, all the starting characters have very different personalities and playstyles, making for a lot of replayability.

Embric of Wulfhammer’s Castle
I don’t even know how to describe this… it’s a romantic comedy open world puzzle game, I think? There’s a crazy amount of depth and things to do here. The ending can potentially go complete off the rails into Gainax territory though, so you’ve been warned.

Heartache 101
If you’re into dating sims and visual novels, give this a try. It’s a free visual novel/dating sim/board game, if you can believe it, with some fun, quirky characters and the ability to mod the game.

The Crooked Man
I haven’t finished playing this one, but it’s an excellent RPG Maker-style horror game (I think it’s actually created with some other editor….) The game itself dances on that fine line between melancholy and fear… it’s an excellent use of your time if you like horror.

Huh, I guess that’s it…. If you have any recommendations, put them in the comments.

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Future Girls

So, I started this week having no idea what I wanted to write about on Blogsday, so I outsourced today’s topic to the first backer to get back to me. Courtesy of Omnibomb, I give you today a preview of the characters I’m considering for future games.

Harem Collector

Let’s see… where are we at? Sixteen girls with Female!Gargan? Eighteen after you count Diadira and [Elf Ranger Girl]. That leaves another twleve girls, minimum. Well, I really don’t want to go into it here, because at this point it might be a bit spoilery. Here’s what I can tell you:

The Bankrupt Noble Heiress
When you do receive your player housing in Westcastle, the Hero will find the house overseen by a particularly haughty and proud maid. Turns out, the “maid” is nothing of the sort, but the daughter of the now-bankrupt noble family that once owned the home. She was essentially squatting, but dressed up as a maid in order to not be arrested. But the Hero doesn’t care, of course, and slaps a collar on her regardless.

Slime Girl Familiar
Similarly, when the player acquires the housing in Southport, they discover the sanctum of a (now dead) wizard. However, the building is far from empty, and the wizard’s old  familiar- a slime girl created through arcane experimentation. Sheltered and innocent.

Project Norn

While there will be about 6-8 characters you can have sex with, the main heroine duties are spread out between four different girls. The first two girls you meet on the other side of the well are Athena and Skuld. Athena appears as a lady of the war and the party’s main fighter, and is very intelligent and known for fighting smart. Skuld appears as the party’s resident black magician girl, mysterious and cruel.

As for other characters, a rule 63’d version of Houyi will appear as the party archer, though I have fewer specifics on her character she will probably be an energetic genki girl type. Kikuri-hime will appear as the party’s main healer. And even though they are dudes, Hades will appear as the accessory shop owner, Ptah as weapon crafting guy, and Gabriel as the party’s mage-knight.

Harem Collector II

Even though it’s at least a year or more away, I have given some thought to who is going to appear in the next Harem Collector game.

The Time Traveler’s Granddaughter
Since the Amazing Old Man ended up being unexpectedly popular, I thought it would awesome to incorporate him in the ongoing Harem Collector story. So, in the second game, you’ll run into his granddaughter, having taken up the family business of time adventuring. She’ll totally be rocking the pulp sci-fi look- free-floating rings and tinfoil skirt, etc. She’ll help out in battle by fighting with a raygun and calling down orbital strikes and such. Oh, and if you’re curious about how she’s going to look, she’s going to appear as an Ultra-Rare unlockable character in Dunegon Assault: No Mercy.

 The Five Generals of Kellos
All of the five generals of Kellos will be recruit-able (capture-able?) characters in HC2, and they’re all sexy ladies to boot. Some of the generals are:

Fiona the Grave-Digger
Commander of the Second Legion, Fiona has mastered the art of fighting with a shovel, thus earning her nickname. She is also known as a great strategist, even among the ranks of the Five Generals. Confident and sassy, she likes to taunt her opponents before each battle in order to goad them into making mistakes.

Wolf the Sniper
A supernaturally skilled marksman, Wolf has revolutionized the use of black powder weapons in battle, and her Third Legion is renowned for the speed and accuracy of it’s rifle lines. I haven’t written much of her character into stone, yet, but that’s because I haven’t played any of the Metal Gear games and I will have to pick them up in order to get the parody right.

Red the Scout
The newest of the Five Generals commands the Fifth Legion. Although she lacks the experience of the other generals, she makes up for it with innovative tactics and a reckless disregard for the odds. She’s trained her legion to focus on maneuverability and travel speed, and makes use of more cavalry and mounted infantry than the other Legions. She uses a baseball bat in combat, of course, and like Wolf is a pretty blatant parody.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I have other plans, but they’re staying secret for now.

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What Pokemon Taught Me (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love to Grind)

On Valentine’s Day this year, Nekochan gave me Pokemon Y.* I’ve been pretty engrossed in it ever since, and yesterday I noticed something startling- I’ve spend 45 hours on the game so far.

Forty-five hours- almost two full days of time- and I was only on Route 10. I had spent all that time grinding around seventy pokemon to level twenty, and my “main party” of favourites to level 30.

Not bad for a guy who has repeated said he hates grinding. It stills boggles my mind.

So, I found grinding to be fun, and even fulfilling. How did this ever occur? I have a few thoughts, and I’d like to share them with you now.

Rule #1: Grinding Must Be Easy
With Pokeymans, especially in the newer versions, you’re generally earning a level every 2-3 battles against an enemy of equal level. This is nice and fast-paced, and you never feel like you’re wasting your time.

With the help of an item called the “Exp. Share” every players automatically gets around level seven, your whole party of pokeymans get half XP even when they don’t participate in the battle. Not only does this help a great deal with leveling that Magikarp, it also means that if you want to level a pokemon you don’t have to do anything more complicated than having them in your party.

Rule #2: Grinding Must Give You Something New
On top of getting the normal stat-ups associated with a level, every 4-5 levels a pokemon will learn a new move. Granted, you’re not going to be taking every every new move that comes along, but the important thing is that every twenty battles or so, you have to make a decision that could give you something new to play with. But even this can get out of control…

Rule #3: Grinding Must Be Simple
The one time I tried World of Warcraft, shit got out of hand pretty quickly. Not just because of grinding- I had friends to play with, and was prepared to deal with grinding if it meant I could roll with my peeps- but because once you level to a point where you finally saw a skill tree, it was just too complicated. On top of spells that must be bought from trainers, this new skill tree that starts at level ten, and recipes and skill levels for crafting, the grinding became too complicated.
When leveling up means having to tab out to consult a FAQ or figuring out how best to spend skill points so that your character doesn’t end up piss useless, that’s too much shit.

Rule #4: Grinding Must Have a Point (More Than Getting Stronger)
This is going to be the hard one for most games. In pokemon, you have the pokedex. By catching or evolving your pokeymans, you fill entries on the ‘dex. If you want to have caught them all, it’s your pokedex that will track your progress and let you know.  So on top of getting something new every twenty levels or so when a pokeyman evolves, it all contributes to a greater purpose- filling out the pokedex.
And Pokemon is hardly the only game that uses this. Lost Odyssey made grinding fun because it was all about your immortals learning skills. Your immortals not only got stronger through level-ups, but from learning skills from mortal characters, who (in the process of grinding) would then level-up and learn more skills to teach to the immortals. Collecting those skills took a lot of the bite out of grinding, because it really felt like you were getting somewhere. And heck, if it matters, there are achievements to be had as well.
Final Fantasy X-2 did something similar with it’s job. system (and I can heard you snickering- yes, the game’s story is a complete shit sandwich but goddamn did Square ever hit one out of the park with the job system). However, because grinding in that game wasn’t easy, it is overall less attractive.

Now, obviously the individual tastes of people differ, and if millions of Warcraft players are any indication I think I’m in the minority of gamers who think grinding sucks. But these are just my findings that I thought I’d share with you.

*I got her the Play Arts P4 Arena Elizabeth and Grim Grimoire, in case you were wondering.