💌 Ink turns to gold, romanceable NPCs, and finding motivation in Mr. Hands' Naughty List #18
Hello, lovelies!
I have a confession to make. Introductions are had and I never quite know what to write here! I’ll let you know if I ever figure it out. 😅
What I can tell you is that I have another amazingly stuffed newsletter with all the latest from the adult gaming community. 💖 If you’re interested in games about love, sex, and romance, you’ve come to the right place!
Speaking of which, if you would like to receive this newsletter every week, make sure to subscribe:
Now let’s get into it!
Ink celebrates 1.0 🎉
Inkle Studios has announced that their open-source scripting language ink has reached version 1.0. This release is certified stable and battle-tested since it already powers two of their games, Heaven’s Vault (2019) and Pendragon (2020).
Ink 1.0 is excellent news for fans of visual novels, since this unassuming little language powers a great many of these games! Buried in this press release is a tidbit that was very useful to know for my own game:
There is a port for the popular Godot engine, and work is progressing on a C port that will ultimately enable Unreal integration.
My game Up There They Love is powered by ink, but I don’t use Unity. A port written in C would very much improve integration for my custom engine!
Romancing NPCs on Twitter ❤
If you’ve been on Twitter in the past week, you’ve probably seen the trend of posting your “final boss" image. This where you take an existing photo from your phone and post it as if you were the final boss in a video game.
I was okay with the first few that showed up in my timeline, but it’s basically just another excuse for hot people to post selfies.
Luckily, a variation has popped up! One that is much more to my liking. Show off what you would look like as a romanceable NPC:
These poses are all quite striking! They should make for excellent reference material on my next game. 😁
Staying motivated as a solo dev
Over on the blog, I’ve written an article about how I use Twitter:
The first way I use Twitter is to engage with fans. The best way to grow your audience on the platform is to give people a reason to follow you. But I don’t want just anyone to follow me, I’m looking for people that are interested in sexy games.
This is my third article in my series on how I stay productive. I’ve previously written about how I use Notion as my task manager and how I use deep work to get more done.
What I can tell you from personal experience is that these techniques are definitely working. I’m now churning out a new article every two weeks! 😁
Wrap up your todo list in Catgirl’s Questlist 😸
Catgirl’s Questlist is the new yuri visual novel and RPG hybrid from Rascal Devworks that was released last week. The game has you playing as Vera as she tries to complete her quests while also wooing all the ladies she encounters.
The full title for this game is actually “After I Met That Catgirl, My Questlist Got Too Long!”, which I think is just wonderful. I’ve written about this game before and now that it’s out I can assure you that it’s indeed a hoot!
Catgirl’s Questlist is out now on Steam.
Writing Wrap-Up 📖
The Daily Dot reports that adult women are now the largest demographic in gaming:
A new study […] has revealed that adult women now occupy the largest demographic in the gaming industry. Women over 18 made up a whopping 36 percent of the gaming population, followed by adult men at 35 percent.
Blerdy Otome did an interview with Aikasa Collective, creators of lesbian romance game Mizuchi:
I think it is a shame how the hypersexualized works tend to be better known than the other WLW titles. One example in film media would be Blue is the Warmest Color, [where] the original comic creator stated the film set was missing lesbians and felt the sex scenes were porn.
OpRainfall has posted a review of the wonderful visual novel Aquadine:
Honestly, opening this game for the first time in a year is surreal. I’ll finally see for myself what kind of story will await me. […] Now it’s time to answer the age old question: How does it hold up to such expectations?
Indie darling Hades wins big at the first-ever Gayming Magazine awards:
The Supergiant Games release won both Game of the Year and the Readers’ Award, voted by readers of the website. It’s proven to be incredibly popular for its tight gameplay and hot cast that’s had fans thirsting since its release.
Rice Digital dives into the history of lewd games with a feature on Three Sisters’ Story:
Three Sisters’ Story, meanwhile, is an interactive mystery adventure game that just happens to include some sexual content.
Amy Stevens asks the all-important question: what makes a good character introduction?
Before we meet this character we hear a lot about him – that he’s an assassin who plays with knives and calls himself a spy, but also that he talks bigger than he is, and Bash can hear him coming from a mile away.
Anomalous discourses has an interesting piece about flowery language and mechanical reading:
Every new iteration introduced a new nuance to the situation, such that it became that much more intricate. [O]nce the reader has caught on to what is happening, even the smallest of changes become profound.
Die Gute Fabrik has put a 2-day workshop on writing better dialogue:
But no matter who you are and what you're writing for, if you want your characters to sound roughly like 'real people', then this is a good foundational workshop.
LewdPixels warns that grind is not a substitute for content:
While some of these games have gorgeous art, witty and effective writing, and compelling characters, it often feels like the play time is artificially inflated by substituting grind for content.
Wyoming City invents the new crime of “performance prostitution”, specifically targeting sex workers on online video platforms:
On Tuesday, Gamroth’s “OnlyFans amendment” was included in the definition which added the word "touched" […] to the definition of “performance prostitution,” according to local K2 Radio.
Obscenity laws also make OnlyFans creators in Thailand vulnerable to prosecution:
But in Thailand, the report explained, publishing “obscene” content online is “punishable by up to five years imprisonment, a B100,000 fine, or both.”
Cheeky chuckle 🤭
Artist spotlight 💡
Thanks for reading this far!
If you want to help me compile the newsletter, feel free to poke me on Twitter.
Until next time!
-Mr. Hands