The relationship between people who make games and the people who play them has always been a tenuous one. Since the advent of online gaming communities, gamers have been one of the loudest, most contentious consumer groups out there. "Gamers rise up" is a joke, sure, but only in its phrasing. Gamers are, often, easily galvanized and radicalized - especially when it comes to perceived slights against them.
On the development side, people working long hours to create games have to contend with that struggle. They're often the cannon fodder for publishers - put out in the line of fire and forced to deal with any and all feedback. It's a stressful, unenviable position that comes as an unfortunate consequence of how the industry is structured.
But sometimes, that relationship is symbiotic, as developers get to know their players and build a better game from it. Players are given a platform to voice their opinions, influence the direction of the game, and help build the finished product into something everyone's happy with.
Such is the case with Tender Troupe, developers of the hit adult mobile game Booty Farm. Comprised of veterans from throughout the industry, the developer has found massive success in their partnership with Nutaku.
Booty Farm, which is best described as a cheeky hybrid of farming and dating sim mechanics, launched back in December of 2018. Since then, the game's seen exponential growth in every possible area - especially in its large and diverse cast of characters.
Tender Troupe's community manager, Tarantulic, says that's due in large part to early flirtations with timed events.
"Booty Farm really started coming into its own last year with its special events," she says. "First, we went with a safe bet - Easter and Christmas events. Now, every month, we do three events - and each come with their own story."
Tarantulic attributes one of the game's biggest strengths - its interconnected cast of lusty ladies - to these events. "This year, it really started feeling like a community. The girls mutually have connections."
But it wasn't always like this. At first, Booty Farm had a fairly stock set of content, and once players tapped that well, there wasn't much left. With the addition of events and "seasons" - contained narrative arcs for each girl - the game began to feel more complete, its characters more fleshed out and its world more rich.
"It felt natural to go in that direction," says lead writer and former community manager Psyentific. "They didn't really have completed stories."
Tarantulic agrees. "We originally had ten photos, ten story beats for the regular girls. But with the seasons, it really starts feeling like a story. Where we actually felt girls should have a life of their own was in the seasons system."
But the structure of the game isn't the only reason Booty Farm has succeeded. According to Tarantulic and Psyentific, it was relying on the game's playerbase that truly brought the game into its own. That playerbase has congregated on the game's Discord, where fans discuss what they like, what they don't, and what they want to see more of.
Starting with polls on Discord, Tender Troupe began to engage with their fans and let that engagement influence the direction they wanted to take the game.
"The players always surprise us," says Tarantulic.
Psyentific agrees. "They have all kinds of different ideas - even if not all of them make it into the game. I always gauge girls on the basis of how much I would enjoy their company. But you never know what the community is going to root for and pick."
Tarantulic notes that girls themed around pop culture usually do well for them, and cites a streamer girl gaining traction after Belle Delphine's rise to online infamy. But even that, a relatively deliberate attempt to tap into the cultural zeitgeist, wound up going in a more nuanced direction. In the game, the streamer winds up striking up a friendship with the competitive gamer, resulting in a friendly and wholesome dynamic.
That wholesomeness, by the way, is intentional. Both Tarantulic and Psyentific are adamant about the sweet, welcoming tone of Booty Farm - both in the game itself and in its community. Psyentific says that he's "very proud" of the Discord community, gushing that "this is a place where nobody is going to laugh at you." Taratulic adds that "feeling safe" is a core focus for the community, and says that players "representing a different part of themselves" is key in the game's growth.
And nowhere is this more clear, perhaps, than in the game's flagship character - Stella. For all intents and purposes, Stella is a tutorial character. She's designed to ease you into the game, help you every step of the way, and treat you with all the sweetness that a stock girl next door is supposed to. However, because of player feedback, Tender Troupe did something bold.
"Stella was not expected to be the most popular girl," says Tarantulic. "She was supposed to be this trope-y girl next door type. She's possibly the most wholesome thing in the whole game, and because of this, players can project what they want on her. She's your first girlfriend that you successfully woo."
Because of this, the developers discovered that players had grown a sort of attachment to Stella. Her presence was comforting, and her demeanor reassuring. But in a bold experiment, the developers took a cue from DMing Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.
"You give players something they love," chuckles Tarantulic, "then you threaten it."
In the subsequent seasons of Stella's route, players discover her ulterior motives, personal axes to grind, and other narrative aspects that I won't spoil here. Suffice it to say - she's a very different character than she initially appears to be, which makes the entire experience much more interesting.
Tarantulic puts it in succinct terms. "We gave her an agenda." She laughs with cheeky glee. "Players feel horrible because their girlfriend got angry with them."
This type of experimentation, Tarantulic and Psyentific say, wouldn't be possible in any mainstream game they've worked on.
"We used to work in the mainstream industry," says Tarantulic. "When you work in the mainstream industry, tropes pay out. When you experiment too much, you risk alienating."
But she says that experimentation are what players of Nutaku games are looking for. The entire ethos is that people playing adult games want something different, novel, and unique. That fantasy of escaping from the ordinary, messing around with somebody you may not in real life, tapping into a fetish that you've only mused on before... that's why people are coming to these games.
"A lot of times, we think we know how players are going to react," says Tarantulic. "People have ideas of what people like, but you can't project what you would like on games with sensitive material. We don't know how to create the perfect character. Listen to your players. It helps us design better."
Nutaku marketing and communications manager, Karuna W, agrees. "If you listen to your players, you'll create a great game. We make sure that we have a close community. We have a customer service team, but we also have a community team that makes sure we have good engagement. We initiate conversations."
It's that approach, along with Nutaku supporting Tender Troupe's experimentation, that's led to Booty Farm being such a resounding success.
"Signing up with Nutaku has changed the way we make games," says Tarantulic. "It's a lot less stress. It's nothing we've ever seen in the industry. We can't imagine ever going back to the mainstream."
So, has Nutaku and Tender Troupe solved that infamous disconnect between players and developers? Maybe, maybe not. Certainly, it's hard to apply this model of development to things like personal solo projects and AAA narrative games.
However, speaking with Taratulic, Psyentific, and Karuna was a starkly different experience than most developers and community managers I've spoken to during my five years in this industry. There were none of the beleaguered sighs or the casual snipes at community, critic, and publisher expectations. The niche nature of adult games practically guarantees a smaller scene - a scene that's willing to pay more if they like what they see. In many ways, this is an ideal model - a model that developers have tried and failed at too many times to count.
In that sense, Tender Troupe is a great example for not just adult gaming, but for the industry as a whole. Smaller, more focused projects with a willingness to experiment, coupled with a supportive publisher and carefully curated community, seem to be better for developer livelihood in the long run.
At a time when developers are coming under more and more justified scrutiny for their insidious internal practices, it's nice to hear that some folks can make games without making their lives a living hell.
Booty Farm is now available from the Nutaku store. Tender Troupe's upcoming titles, Kink.Ink and Long Lost Lust, are due out in 2020.