During the development of YL, I have been looking into other erotic games to gather some ideas to provide suggestions, but I found some nice ones that I would like to have more exposure and maybe see something to fruition out of them. Not having much income myself, I will leave links to these developers Patrons for those that might want to contribute or spread the word:
My thoughts: "The Chamber": No demo, only some screenshots. Very good ones, but there's nothing yet. "Shades of Elysium": The demo is extremely short, but even with that, it has lots of bugs. It's basically three animation loops, about 2 minutes of content. "The Cathouse Tale": I thought that project was abandoned. The lastest demo looks very polished and complete, I'll try it more extensively later. "Rack 2": There's no public version yet, but I know Fek can deliver.
I think that if you want to make a Patreon, you have to give your potential patrons a finished prototype to try. Giving two minutes of content or a bunch of screenshots and a short video looks like there's no future for the project. I mean, if you don't have the time, or the money, or the energy to present a working prototype with a minimum of content, I don't have any trust that the project will come to something.
in the past i test the cat house tale, but by some strange reason, it load only to title (looks a cow sit in a chair) i select adjusts and try to play, but it only load, and load, and load, and finally only can hear a music but just a black screen...i try to take a look to the other sugested proyects, but have a free version downloable at my personal think, its very important to know if computer can runs it good (or at least, i just can run) i understand maybe people can just say me "buy a new computer" how idea its fine, but no money for it for now and if just no run, maybe they building the game thinking in very strong computers, optimice program for just use what need (and no need buy a NASA computer), i think its important too, its how "put a bit of love" in the program
The Chamber looks more like a pipe dream than an actual project. A lot of screenshots of nice looking assets but no examples of the game in motion. Compare something like that to the Yiffalicious website where you can see an example of what you're getting. I can't see that project going anywhere.
Rack 2 seems like the guy is going on past reputation and word of mouth which is fine. But having only ever heard of the project through this thread just now, I don't know where to go to even see what the game might look like so it seems difficult for a new person to come in and just trust the guy based on what other people are saying and nothing more.
I remember Cathouse and I thought it was a dead project, I'll be keeping an eye on that one. And the RPG looks like it might have some potential further down the line. I'll check back on it every now and then.
Only other games I played besides Yiffalicious were The Cathouse Tail and Rack 2. I tried out the cathouse back when things were in turmoil over there and I came away not too impressed. I've heard that a new dev team took up the project and is making some good progress so I'll have to give them another shot in the near future.
As for Rack 2, I bought v0.1.9 on itch.io back in February so here are my thoughts on it. I loved the character editor as its pretty much everything you'd expect in a furry porn game in terms of customization. Actually the character editor was the highlight of the game for me. The character models are a little goofy looking at times because of their big heads, hands and feet but its not a deal breaker unless you really want realistic models.
Now for my biggest personal gripe with Rack 2. Each character you have sex with has a set of things it likes and doesn't like. For example you might have a character who likes to be edged but doesn't like to be overstimulated or vise versa. If you don't do what it likes then you'll get less points out of it which are used in a minigame to gain currency. You use that currency to buy new equipment for your laboratory which is basically a room with a sex table when you first start out.
So essentially I don't like the "game" part of rack 2. One of the reasons I enjoy Yiffalicious so much is because of exactly what their slogan says, "100% yiff, no bullshit". I can just hop in, spend a couple hours creating a scene, jack off then rinse, repeat. I'm given everything I need from the start. Obviously a lot of people enjoy things like minigames, progression and unlocking stuff, but when it comes to porn games, I prefer to have everything I need from the start.
All in all, Rack 2 is still pretty cool game. I know Fek plans on implementing a mode with everything unlocked at some point which would solve my biggest personal gripe with it so I'm really looking forward too that.
@Ev0_lizzy Is strange that you can't run Cathouse tale, because it's using the same engine as Yiffalicious. Maybe they're using some shaders that don't work on your graphics card generation. Did you try to update your graphics card drivers?
Horsie said: because it's using the same engine as Yiffalicious
Rack2, Yiffalicious, and CathouseTale all use Unity, but the dev teams are different and the level of optimization can have a huge impact on how much memory the games use and which GPUs (with how much available memory) can run them.
@Horsie - Yeah, like jei3 said, just because they both use Unity doesn't mean the games will run exactly the same. Pretty much anyone can make a Unity game, whether it's resource intensive or not is another thing. For example, a 2D pixel art game made in Unity is going to run a lot better for everyone than a 3D game like Yooka-Laylee, which is also Unity engine.
Horsie, i know my problem about my computer strong, i fight versus it all times when i will use a new program, sometimes i need reduce the quality for programs can runs correct, or forced to play in full screen -but for best reference, actually i using the official free version of yiffalicious (0.6.4 32 bits if i no remember bad, under win7 ultimate) and it runs really good depends what i use, for example, spa room be best about fantasy castle for me, beacause spa room be more "small" when talk about objects, lights, and in essence, triangles , sometimes i like to use my own music when i be building some animation, if i use the spa room and only one character, i can hear my music at normal speed but when i start to put more characters at the scene, or use another places more big in triangles, the music start to sound a bit more slow, literally...if i continue putting more characters, music runs more slow and sometimes the cursor "jumps" a bit... you know, lag... -yiffalicious for me have a strong point, this true i have a bit of lag, but if i close another programs (and have a bit of pacience) i can work with it and do a normal/standart job, thats the reason to i talk about optimization, i know yiffalicious continue in evolution, but its important remember to put this type of "love" making all possible optimiced, for example deleting the duplicated or "non visible" triangles, option for disable all sounds (one thing its make it in silence and other its disable, a bit more of energy for move the graphics) if have more of one light, option to turn off, etc... -other game builders teams have computers more strong, more advanced, and just simply dont optimice, direct they say about higher minimal requirements for the system (maybe they like work fast and only for strong computers), i can understand it, as be logic they dont build for computers with a windows 3.11 but i think they lost a lot of consumers/players of her program if not be optimiced to can run in all computers how be possible...(options to activate or disable graphics, sound, screen resolution,etc..., be really a good idea) -Thats the reason, in my personal think, its good sometimes have a free version for people can test and decide if talk about the program to her friends of if help or not with donations...(dont have sense help a program what no run in you computer...include when you know in the future buy a best computer)
@Horsie I understand that optimism alone isn't enough to make a game good, I just wanted to share these here so, you know, spread the word. For some of us, a dollar a month is not a deal breaker, and considering how large the fandom is, maybe some hundreds of people giving a dollar each can make those creators reach their initial goal (which many times implies in quitting their everyday job to dedicate more to their projects and/or hiring help).
I can't also say that comparing YL to any of these is fair, since YL has a larger development team and their Patron is at 11k, but I'm sure it wasn't always like that and if people didn't gave them a chance, they wouldn't be here now many years later.
If any of those reach their goal and nothing comes out of it, sure, burn and bury them, but until that, it is too early to dismiss any of those early ones as either good or bad.
I love Rack 2, but I'm waiting until it's a bit closer to completion to start up my Patreon payments again. It can be a bit wonky, but that's to be expected when there's so many incomplete systems in place. Fek's good at what he does, so I'm sure the game will turn out great.
I finally got around to checking out The Cathouse Tale and uh... I am not a fan of these character designs. They look all wrong, like, it looks like it's just a bunch of people with cheesy animal muzzles. Hopefully they go back over the models in the future, because it seems pretty cool otherwise.
@nathan I'm sorry if I sounded rough on the two projects that have too little to show for them, but what I wanted to say is that money is not the most important aspect of making a game, but a combination of knowledge, perseverance, love, and even resilience. Making a game is hard. Very, very hard. So it does not matter if you get paid or not, because what matters is if you have the will to take the project to completion. That's why I don't trust nor like when people buy some premade assets from the store, slaps them together, do a lengthy presentation promising too many things and then ask for patronage. Do you want people to trust your project and give you money? Make something that shows that you poured wits, hard work and love on it and then present it as assurance that you can actually deliver.
@Saruh Quite the bit of thread necromancy you pulled there, but alright, it's an interesting enough topic it just might be worth resurrecting.
Rack 2 is indeed quite promising, I use it all the time when I need to give an example of how one might integrate porn and gameplay seamlessly, but unfortunately, Fek (the developer) has been extremely slow with the updates for years now. Many have speculated he's run into the classic problem of early spaghetti code making adding new features difficult, as any changes have a good chance of breaking something that'll be hard to find and fix, and the fix itself could break something else. Coincidentally, It's also the reason FurryVNE didn't reuse code from Yiffalicious, since there was a similar problem there.
The gameplay, while innovative and solid in its basic idea (which is that your resource gathering is directly tied to the way you pleasure your clients, with varying methods giving you different resources so you need to do different things to get everything you need to progress), is very unpolished and feature incomplete, making it a bit of a chore to actually play as a game. There's a mod out there (Rack 2 Reinvented) that I've heard improves things considerably on that front, however, and it's even been endorsed by Fek himself. Haven't gotten around to trying it out myself yet, though.
I forgot to answer so I don´t know if it has been answered because there are so much comments, but I wanted to say that for me, rack 2 does not need "more" support, if you see his patreon it has a lot of earnings, and some time ago he had more, better than the other three. What I wanted to say is that Rack 2 is one of the most successful proyects, there are other which needs more support
And the cat house tale sadly ended one year ago, I don´t know if it had started again
Comments
"The Chamber": No demo, only some screenshots. Very good ones, but there's nothing yet.
"Shades of Elysium": The demo is extremely short, but even with that, it has lots of bugs. It's basically three animation loops, about 2 minutes of content.
"The Cathouse Tale": I thought that project was abandoned. The lastest demo looks very polished and complete, I'll try it more extensively later.
"Rack 2": There's no public version yet, but I know Fek can deliver.
I think that if you want to make a Patreon, you have to give your potential patrons a finished prototype to try. Giving two minutes of content or a bunch of screenshots and a short video looks like there's no future for the project. I mean, if you don't have the time, or the money, or the energy to present a working prototype with a minimum of content, I don't have any trust that the project will come to something.
Rack 2 seems like the guy is going on past reputation and word of mouth which is fine. But having only ever heard of the project through this thread just now, I don't know where to go to even see what the game might look like so it seems difficult for a new person to come in and just trust the guy based on what other people are saying and nothing more.
I remember Cathouse and I thought it was a dead project, I'll be keeping an eye on that one. And the RPG looks like it might have some potential further down the line. I'll check back on it every now and then.
As for Rack 2, I bought v0.1.9 on itch.io back in February so here are my thoughts on it.
I loved the character editor as its pretty much everything you'd expect in a furry porn game in terms of customization. Actually the character editor was the highlight of the game for me. The character models are a little goofy looking at times because of their big heads, hands and feet but its not a deal breaker unless you really want realistic models.
Now for my biggest personal gripe with Rack 2. Each character you have sex with has a set of things it likes and doesn't like. For example you might have a character who likes to be edged but doesn't like to be overstimulated or vise versa. If you don't do what it likes then you'll get less points out of it which are used in a minigame to gain currency. You use that currency to buy new equipment for your laboratory which is basically a room with a sex table when you first start out.
So essentially I don't like the "game" part of rack 2. One of the reasons I enjoy Yiffalicious so much is because of exactly what their slogan says, "100% yiff, no bullshit". I can just hop in, spend a couple hours creating a scene, jack off then rinse, repeat. I'm given everything I need from the start. Obviously a lot of people enjoy things like minigames, progression and unlocking stuff, but when it comes to porn games, I prefer to have everything I need from the start.
All in all, Rack 2 is still pretty cool game. I know Fek plans on implementing a mode with everything unlocked at some point which would solve my biggest personal gripe with it so I'm really looking forward too that.
-but for best reference, actually i using the official free version of yiffalicious (0.6.4 32 bits if i no remember bad, under win7 ultimate) and it runs really good depends what i use, for example, spa room be best about fantasy castle for me, beacause spa room be more "small" when talk about objects, lights, and in essence, triangles , sometimes i like to use my own music when i be building some animation, if i use the spa room and only one character, i can hear my music at normal speed but when i start to put more characters at the scene, or use another places more big in triangles, the music start to sound a bit more slow, literally...if i continue putting more characters, music runs more slow and sometimes the cursor "jumps" a bit... you know, lag...
-yiffalicious for me have a strong point, this true i have a bit of lag, but if i close another programs (and have a bit of pacience) i can work with it and do a normal/standart job, thats the reason to i talk about optimization, i know yiffalicious continue in evolution, but its important remember to put this type of "love" making all possible optimiced, for example deleting the duplicated or "non visible" triangles, option for disable all sounds (one thing its make it in silence and other its disable, a bit more of energy for move the graphics) if have more of one light, option to turn off, etc...
-other game builders teams have computers more strong, more advanced, and just simply dont optimice, direct they say about higher minimal requirements for the system (maybe they like work fast and only for strong computers), i can understand it, as be logic they dont build for computers with a windows 3.11 but i think they lost a lot of consumers/players of her program if not be optimiced to can run in all computers how be possible...(options to activate or disable graphics, sound, screen resolution,etc..., be really a good idea)
-Thats the reason, in my personal think, its good sometimes have a free version for people can test and decide if talk about the program to her friends of if help or not with donations...(dont have sense help a program what no run in you computer...include when you know in the future buy a best computer)
I understand that optimism alone isn't enough to make a game good, I just wanted to share these here so, you know, spread the word. For some of us, a dollar a month is not a deal breaker, and considering how large the fandom is, maybe some hundreds of people giving a dollar each can make those creators reach their initial goal (which many times implies in quitting their everyday job to dedicate more to their projects and/or hiring help).
I can't also say that comparing YL to any of these is fair, since YL has a larger development team and their Patron is at 11k, but I'm sure it wasn't always like that and if people didn't gave them a chance, they wouldn't be here now many years later.
If any of those reach their goal and nothing comes out of it, sure, burn and bury them, but until that, it is too early to dismiss any of those early ones as either good or bad.
I finally got around to checking out The Cathouse Tale and uh... I am not a fan of these character designs. They look all wrong, like, it looks like it's just a bunch of people with cheesy animal muzzles. Hopefully they go back over the models in the future, because it seems pretty cool otherwise.
I'm sorry if I sounded rough on the two projects that have too little to show for them, but what I wanted to say is that money is not the most important aspect of making a game, but a combination of knowledge, perseverance, love, and even resilience.
Making a game is hard. Very, very hard. So it does not matter if you get paid or not, because what matters is if you have the will to take the project to completion.
That's why I don't trust nor like when people buy some premade assets from the store, slaps them together, do a lengthy presentation promising too many things and then ask for patronage.
Do you want people to trust your project and give you money? Make something that shows that you poured wits, hard work and love on it and then present it as assurance that you can actually deliver.
Preach it Brother!!
Quite the bit of thread necromancy you pulled there, but alright, it's an interesting enough topic it just might be worth resurrecting.
Rack 2 is indeed quite promising, I use it all the time when I need to give an example of how one might integrate porn and gameplay seamlessly, but unfortunately, Fek (the developer) has been extremely slow with the updates for years now. Many have speculated he's run into the classic problem of early spaghetti code making adding new features difficult, as any changes have a good chance of breaking something that'll be hard to find and fix, and the fix itself could break something else. Coincidentally, It's also the reason FurryVNE didn't reuse code from Yiffalicious, since there was a similar problem there.
The gameplay, while innovative and solid in its basic idea (which is that your resource gathering is directly tied to the way you pleasure your clients, with varying methods giving you different resources so you need to do different things to get everything you need to progress), is very unpolished and feature incomplete, making it a bit of a chore to actually play as a game. There's a mod out there (Rack 2 Reinvented) that I've heard improves things considerably on that front, however, and it's even been endorsed by Fek himself. Haven't gotten around to trying it out myself yet, though.
And the cat house tale sadly ended one year ago, I don´t know if it had started again