Why

I've been thinking about what the point of all of this is. There are lots of useful ways to spend time, but making text based games is a strange thing to do. Adult text based games are a niche in a niche and it seems like the audience for them is super small. Why should I work on these projects anyway? The only reason I can think of is that I want to expand the boundaries of what games are. More specifically, I believe games can be much more than what they are perceived to be right now.


One of the estimations of computing in the future is that it will mostly be done via mobile devices. People are using phones and tablets over desktop computers at a rising rate. So this means mobile devices are becoming increasingly important places to discover and consume content via default marketplaces like Google play or Apple's App Store. It's important that these marketplaces create an environment where consumers can discover content, but also that content creators can deliver their products to these stores.




So if you were to browse Google play for example, you can find apps, movies,  television show, music and books to download and view. If you navigate to games on Google Play, you'll discover that they are bundled into 8 Subcategories: Arcade & Action, Brain & Puzzle, Cards & Casino, Casual, Live Wallpaper, Racing, Sports Games, Widgets. Given that 'Live Wallpapers' and 'Widgets' are essentially not always games and 'Racing' could be bundled with 'Sports Games', I'd say that there are really only 5 game categories available. These categories are a very minimalist view of what games are, and where they should fit. Also these categories suggest what games people should look for, as well as what types of games game makers should make.


If you don't agree, consider the Book section of Google play. Books is another primary category in the Google play app and Books has 28 subcategories. These categories range in topics from Health to Science to Young Adult, and it seems as if no matter what your interest there is a category of Books for you to browse. More importantly if you are an author interested in creating Health books for example, there is a category for you. You can clearly see that making a Health book is at least potentially a lucrative endeavor because the category does exist and someone out there will read your book if it's good enough.


Because Google knows that some people want to read Romance books, Google play has a Romance subcategory in the Book section and nobody thinks twice about it. Google play does not have a Romance subcategory in Games... because it's completely unheard of to have such a section where games are sold. I don't mean to pick on Google play because I could just as easily use other marketplaces as example. Amazon Appstore has 17 game categories which is far more than Google play, yet Kindle includes 32 ebook categories each with multiple subcategories. In fact kindle's Romance section has an erotic subcategory. iTunes has 18 game genres which is really good, but by comparison it's books are separated into 24 genres each with several subcategories.


To be clear, my argument isn't that game sections need exactly the same subcategories that Books have. My point is just that the existence of all these categories in Books versus Games, suggests that people are expecting a lot more from books as a medium than they do from games. And by extension people making games are limiting themselves to the things that fall into available categories and what is popular. The idea that a game is perceived as something for a child means that it's culturally unacceptable to categorize video games as anything more than that. There have been several cases where Apple has taken down games from it's App Store for including political subject matter for example. So the future of computing is in the hands of companies that structurally exclude or marginalize creativity in games by placing road blocks to developers that look to expand the medium beyond simple toys. There are many games that try to change the paradigm of what games are, and if there is one reason why I want to make my niche in a niche in a niche games, it's to be a part of that movement.


Anyway, ideals are nice, but what would a Romance subcategory of Games on Google play actually look like? My first thoughts aren't that it would be the fall of civilization, but actually a useful way to find adult games. If a proper Romance category existed it would be trivial for Google to employ the same blocks it uses to prevent minors from accessing explicit content in other parts of Google play. In reality there are already lots of visual novel games on Google play that would fit perfectly into a Romance category, many are just categorized as Casual since it is a generic enough title to fit any game. Another type of game to go in Romance would be multiplayer adult games, which again already exist on the margins in poorly fitting categories. The existence of these games on Google Play proves that it's possible to create (hopefully) tasteful mature games that are deserving of a category of their own. Not everything in the category would be gold, but as an adult I'd like to be able to buy adult games without it being some kind of strange niche request.


So what is my goal this year? I have to believe that there is an audience for my strange games, and I'm going to try and find them. I am going to make games that challenge perceptions as much as possible and release them wherever I can. Wish me luck (I need it).