Eroge, The Beginning (Patreon)

The Verdict

I have decided - we're going to make an Original Eroge! There are many reasons behind this, but the biggest ones are:

• It's my own IP. I don't have to worry about getting Cease & Desist or tiptoe-ing any legal stuff. The last thing I want is someone telling me to take down potentially years of work simply because they can. I'm getting old and I want my stuff to be out there. Besides, I can always draw fan art.
• Visibility. In line with the above, the general consensus about Fangames is that you shouldn't talk about it or its development until it's finished. I don't find that ideal. I'm excited about making my own game and I want to share that excitement. Perhaps that's a sign of an amateur, but hell I like hearing feedback and support.
• More Things I Love. Fan games are great, but they also impose certain restrictions (ie. established characters & personalities, setting, etc.) Granted, you can always create Out-of-Character scenarios, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a fangame in my opinion. An original game will allow me to explore character ideas and scenarios I love that wouldn't work on a fangame.

And with that, let's talk about changes.

Changes to my Patreon

I'm happy to say that the current format (regular Ero Illustrations, Character Suggestions and Polls) will stay.

My last post sounded like I'm so done with that format. It was worded poorly. Basically to rephrase it: I'm looking for a new "high" in my art, and right now the answer to that is making a game project. However, it would be stupid of me if I just up and abandoned what I'm doing now just to chase some "high". It would especially be disrespectful to you guys who have been supporting me if I just suddenly changed my content because of a whim.

So to quickly sum it up, the only change is adding Eroge Development alongside the regular monthly Ero Illustrations.

But rather than treating it as just more work, I also like to see it as an Opportunity to Fail. This might sound weird, after all who likes failing? The thing is I've become complacent over the past few months. Complacency breeds laziness, laziness leads to neglect. I would be lying if I said that I never wasted the time and the support that you guys have been giving me. I don't want to come to a point where I'm taking things for granted. So making this Eroge is a way for me to get my shit together and be more productive.

One thing I'm planning to do is for Dev Posts to be public, so people who are interested in the project can follow the development. Like I said, I want to share the excitement of making this project. Naturally, you guys will get early access and previews to the actual game as it develops. 

Do note that the Ero Illustrations, Character Suggestions, Polls, Rewards will still be kept Patron-only. Think of it as the reward for letting me make my game project 😉

And with that, let's talk about the Project for a bit.

The Eroge Project

Some of you have been supporting me for a while and you might remember that I attempted to create an eroge a year ago. For the new supporters, the gist is I failed that project big time and I suffered in a lot of ways because of that.

I'm bringing this up because I do not plan to repeat that. I believe that I'm now in a better head space and attitude than I was a year ago. Now I don't want to talk my self up too much because talk is cheap. But just rest assured that I'm not putting my mental/emotional/physical health at risk this time. I plan to enjoy the process, and when the going gets rough, I promise that I will ask for help.

Now, about the Project. It's currently untitled because I haven't gotten all the specifics down. But as a quick reminder, here's the summary of the project.

           Summary: Thanks to your expertise in all fields of magic, you have been hired by a  Magic Academy to tutor several talented students. You are relocated to a  secluded dorm where you and the students will live and study together.  All is well at first, but you learn that each student has a certain fear  that prevents them from reaching their full potential. It's your job to  guide and teach them, and to devise a plan to help them overcome their  fears. Perhaps in the process you'll win their hearts as well.

To be completely honest, this idea really was inspired by Fire Emblem Three Houses, at least the "dating sim" aspects of it. For those who have played that game, expect to see something similar, obviously I won't just copy everything (I literally can't, don't expect anything 3D and there won't be 100 characters and 500 routes :P)

I want to take the parts I enjoyed and build up on those. I don't currently plan on adding a Battle System because that's complicated and well, this an Eroge project and I prefer to focus on the Ero more than anything.

I believe that's about it for now, there's not a lot to talk about yet because the project just started and things aren't finalized just yet. But here's something I've finalized. It's the classes the students can take. I'll leave it at that for now because I'll go in-depth with it on a later post.

Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments!