[*Complex*]

Honestly though, I tend to just attack things. I come up with an idea and just sort of starting coding stuff. Admittedly, this is not the best strategy and something I hope to rectify over time.

That is the worst possible approach, except if you consider the alternatives. Constantly procrastinating on writing that lengthy  "design document" that no one will ever read will not lead you anywhere. All your initial ideas will be wrong. The least bad way to do is to just start by doing something small and to the point, accumulate knowledge by doing, then thinking and refactor the design.

Of course, as usual, the co called "best" approach all depends on the type of game project.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynefin

If you are doing a new game, then you are doing something *Complex*. The relation between input and the output (in to and out of the player) is not predictable. Established practises do not and exist genre standards are undefined. No one understand what you are trying to do, not even you yourself. Experiment, question your assumptions and make music out of the cognitive dissonance. You are *Ken*.

If you are working in an established genre, then you are doing something *Complicated*. Prior experience and expectations exist outside your game. Proven good and "good" ideas can be both reapplied and subverted. While your code base starts from an initial empty repo, you are at the core already refining and improving existing games from your first commit. Wake up early, practice regularly and stand on the shoulders of giants. You are *Ryu*.

So pick one. Or be the ultimate warrior. Go for broke. Be both.



(Pardon the text wall. Working wit operative IT management for a few years has caused me to grow a sore spot and admittedly a "strong opinion"  in in this this topic.)

One of my team members is co-running a campaign for basic civil partnerships (marriage is not even talkable at this point), and even that is met with incredible amount of resistance from both the government and the general populace.

If it's any comfort, getting at civil partnerships legislation was a pretty big deal in Sweden to. But legalizing same sex marriage 15 years later was more or less a non issue. We even had a mostly conservative national cabinet at the time.

How about opengameart.org or similar?

Personally I'm a bit sceptical of low quality placeholder art (aka "programmer art"). My experience of so called "temporary" solutions is that they tend to be the most long-lived solutions. Using premade assets of relatively high quality means that you get a Minimum Viable Product at a much earlier stage in development.

You could also make mock screen shots if you just want to be able to pitch.

Why not make a HUD that is 3 crystals of different colours?

Something like this, but with crystals.

Good point. Didn't really think of it that way.

There is a danger in trying to appeal to a wide audience in the same game. Especially for an indie game that by definition has niche appeal as it's only strong point.

If the artist prefers to draw women, then he/she is probably also a lot better at the female anatomy. So straight women will probably not be the audience for this game. But considering how popular BL is these days, I really don't think  a "GL" game will have a problem finding ít's market.

Just don't make your GL game it in Direct X. (Ok, terribly sorry about that one. Could not help my self  )

Congratulations. Now if we could only get the whole of the EU to follow your example.


(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_of_same-sex_unions_in_Europe)

@Jordgubben - I prefer writing for female characters, my friend prefers drawing for female characters, so it seems a natural choice. However if it was going to stunt sales considerably we'd have to think about this seriously, as we would like to profit from the game.

Please do not make a male protagonies motivated by "sales". 

The assumption that only male main characters sell has been debunked in al major media except possibly video games. There are to many dude-bros in video games. If you make a game without dude-bros than it most likely bost your sales.

Make the game you want to play. If you do not want to make it, then why would any one else want to play it.

*AO.

And if I recall correctly, the issue is that you can't let AO games mix with other games in any form. Sounds easy, until you remember the way Steam recommendations and such work (or the rest of the UI, for that matter), which would automatically break the ESRB rules as it will inevitably show AO and non-AO games together in the same screen sooner or later.

Can it really be THAT hard to keep AO and non-AO separate?

Code:

if game.rating == AO then recommendAoGame() else recommendFamilyFriendlyGame()

Maybe it requires a lot of design rework top support a complete isolate AO-section.

Added:
But that can't be the whole story because "Hatred" is AO, and it's on Steam.
http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/16/7557639/hatred-esrb-ao-rating

-Would making the relationships purely lesbian make a big difference to the game's success?

Is this game intended for a hetro cis male market? Or a more broad market?

Or in other words: Is the purpose to to improve diversity in media? Or is it to protect the viewer/reader/player from people of their own gender? Or do you as an author want to be less constrained by traditional gender roles?

None of the above motivations are more or less "right" or "wrong". But like in all other things, how you go about this has a lot to do with what you are trying to accomplish.

For selling sexual games on steam , seems risky
i saw that in steam selling policy , they dont seems liking those kind of themes
Maybe some games managed to avoid this

Can someone please explain this to me? What's the big scare any way?

I get that they may not want it on their store front page. I don't get a total ban. Amazon (arguably the worlds biggest book store) has loads of both porn and erotics if you just look for it, so why is Steam (arguably the worlds biggest game store) the last loyal outpost of the puritans in this particular field?
 
Also.
Searching for "porn" on steam yeld 3 results: Postal III, Killing Floor - Harold Lott Character Pack and Steam Greenlight Submission Fee. The last one made me chuckle.

(http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/comics/critical-miss/14175-Erin-On-the-Prospect-of-FF7)

2. I have The programming and modeling skills (and tools) needed. What more do I need?

A through understanding of game mechanics and design. Thechnical skills (programming and modelling) is will only take you so far. Your real goal should not just be to make a game, but a relevant one. Making something that could be be classified as a game (or at least interactive entertainment with a goal) is a good first step, making it look pretty follows, but the road of the true master artisan is so much longer than that.

It's dangerous to go alone, take these:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz
https://www.youtube.com/user/Campster
https://www.youtube.com/user/bunnyhopshow

How do you feel about a female protagonist from a masculine and business stand point?

Is it just me or has this thread derail very far from the original question?

(3. Not very likely there are as many as 10 games on Steam I'd even be interested in playing~)

ehhh, i think youre probably wrong about that. its just a matter of having the interest in looking. you probably have a certain impression of steam based on the culture around it (completely valid), but its a pretty deep marketplace and has a lot of really amazing indie titles, experimental stuff, visual novels, etc etc.

How about compiling a list with ten games where every entry fulfils the following two criteria: They are 1) really really good and 2) feature a female protagonist as the only playable option.

 

3135.6 hours...
I need to re-think my lief

Spread even over 10 years that's actually less than 1 hour/day. Or 2-3 "average length" audio books a month.

[Arguable choice]

Dota 2	Arguable choice - Se above
Thomas Was Alone	Both represented - Different main characters on different levels
TowerFall Ascension	Player choice - Seems 50%/50% as far as I've been able to unlock things
Tomb Raider	Female lead - Villains of story constantly remark on having their asses kicked by a "little girl"
BioShock Infinite	Male lead - Some argue that Elizabeth is the main character, but Booker is definitely the player character
Cave Story+	Male robot
Bastion	Male kid
Long Live The Queen	Female lead
Portal	Female test subject - Also possibly Native american or Hispanic?
Dungeons of Dredmor	Player choice - The female player character was added in a DLC, if I remember correctly

When filtering I found 6 Male and 3 Female solo protagonists. I also found a lot of games that I've never played, but I believe that is the established norm on Steam

For me personally, I couldn't care less who I play as long as the game is fun.

I agree. For me personally, this is not a problem. But I'm also a slim "white" (mostly) heterosexual male in my thirties. 

Dota 2 - Both genders are playable

DOTA 2 is a bit tricky to pin down. Yes you can chose, but it's very male dominated roster. There are 16 female characters (including Broodmother and Winter Wyvern) in the 100+ total rooster (roughly 1:5). From what I can recall, Puck is the only explicitly non-gendered hero in DOTA 2.

The champions in League of Legends fare a bit better. There are roughly 40 female and 85 male champions (almost 1:2). I can not think of any non-gendered characters in LoL.

(Edit: The gender-ratio in DOTA 2 is 1:5, nothing else)

The "academic" gamer has moved to gog and steam. They (We) simply do make a mentionable dent retail sales.

But to get back on topic, here's a challenge. Take a look at your own Steam library (I just assume everyone here has Steam). What is the gender of the protagonist(s) of the 10 games you have spent the most time with?

This is US retail sales data only. On an international chart would probably feature more Asian games. Also, FIFA would most likely out-sell NFL and NBA. I assume that "retail" means it excludes digital sales (Steam and GOG).

[Top 10 best selling games of 2014]

Top 10 best selling games of 2014
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/01/19/the-top-ten-best-selling-video-games-of-2014/

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare	Boys club - Can only play as male as far as I can tell
Madden NFL 15	Boys club - American "Football" is not big in the EU. Does NFL even have a female league IRL?
Destiny	Men and women - Character creation allows both genders
Grand Theft Auto 5	Boys club - Story features 3 playable dudes
Minecraft	It's Complicated - Notch claims that "Steve" is genderless. He might be trolling.
Super Smash Bros (for 3DS and Wii U)	It depends - Substantially more male than female character. A lot of characters a selectable gender (Villager, Wii Fit trainer, Robin) or are not easy to define (Yoshii, Pikachu)
NBA 2K15	Boys club - Only Men as far as I can tell
Watch Dogs	Boys club - The main character is Male
FIFA 15	Boys club - Women's National Teams will be included in FIFA 16
Call of Duty Ghosts	It depends - Story campain features only male protagonists. Allows player choice in in multiplayer.

(Note: I did not do super heavy research on any of this. It's mostly what I can recall from memory or find easy by casualy searching the interwebs. It thing this is enough to pain a broad picture of current thrends)

why not both?

Agreed. Or even better, make it a non-binary slider.

The myth that "strong female leads do not sell" used to be true in Hollywood, and then the first Hunger games movie made 613,661,868€ in international box-office sales. If anything there is an untapped market here.