Dev Interview: Pretty Ink creator of College Craze

ADULT GAME DEV INTERVIEW: PRETTY INK

Pretty Ink is the developer of College Craze our Game of the month for March 2023. I talked with her about the game, the development and other adult gaming issues. As she is one of the few female developers in the industry we talked about her experience in the adult gaming industry so far. Invited to read the full interview.

1. Can you tell us more about the story of College Craze? How did you come up with it?

Sure, so College Craze is a highly immersive life and dating sim with a customizable female protagonist. It’s explicit, and doesn’t shy away from sex scenes in writing or visuals. The main story follows our main character, (you can name her whatever you’d like, but her default name is Jemma) as she experiences her first year at Sugardale University.

It doesn’t take long before she realizes she’s being stalked by someone, and while there are a huge number of variations when it comes to the plot, the main thread that ties them all together is the fact that she must sus out who is her stalker.

She can get into scandals, love triangles, cam for money, become a sugar baby among a whole host of other things, so it truly can be a unique story every time you play!

2. Not many games feature a female protagonist, has a game with a female MC always been an idea and why?

Yes. I haven’t always thought I’d be making games, but now that I’m making one, I know for future ones, I’d always like to make sure a woman’s perspective is front and center.

When I first made this game, I realized there were really so little games that not only had a female protagonist, but also were truly made with a woman’s perspective in mind.

3. How long has the game been in development? How did it all start?

I’ve been developing this game since mid-late 2021.

So I’d been pretty bored, like a lot of others had been during the pandemic in 2020, and somehow stumbled onto the lewdgames subreddit. When I initially browsed it, I actually wasn’t interested in what was there, because it seemed like every game there was meant for men only. I’d circled back around at one point though when I was desperate to find something to pass the time and found Good Girl Gone Bad by Eva Kiss.

I’d never played anything like it and was so inspired to try making my own game like it, so I decided that once I’d finished writing the 1st draft of a novel series I was writing, I’d try making a game. I finished writing my novel and the next day started on College Craze!

I loved the general premise of GGGB, but really wanted to expand on a narrative, as well as make a more customized experience (because it’s hard enough finding a female protagonist game, let alone one with a black female lead) and really get immersive with it. From there I was really hooked and have been making College Craze since!

4. Are you a solo dev, or do you have help creating the game?

All solo baby! I write, draw, develop and designed the GUI myself. I did hire help to implement my GUI designs, but otherwise it’s a one-woman-team!

5. Where are you from (can be a broad answer)? What did you do before developing adult games?

I’m from the northeast US. (I’m sure it’s kind of apparent considering the setting the game is currently in) and before developing this game I was a UX and UI designer!

6. As a female developer, do you think you have a different approach to game development in comparison to your male counterparts?

I think when it comes to developing female-protag games, there definitely seems to be a different approach. In a lot of games I’d seen before, the goal of the female-lead is typically to be a corruption vehicle— something you can force to do things to make you- the player- happy. There’s not much insight or emphasis on the character’s personality, (Unless she’s dumb, in which case, there’s a LOT of emphasis on how dumb she is) but much more on her physical appearance.

I think my approach is much more directed towards folks who truly want to inhabit a woman’s perspective, and make decisions that align with her personality. (Though you can totally play the game with her as a corruption vehicle if you’d like, it’s really open in that way)

7. Would you like to tell us about the influences various books/games have had on the development of College Craze?

I knew when I wanted to make the plot for this game, I wanted to overlap lots of concurrent storylines that loosely (or tightly) wove into each other. Shows like Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Euphoria were really big narrative inspirations while coming up with the plots.

I had just finished reading Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, so there was a bit of that going on in the beginning. Life is Strange, the Sims and of course Good Girl Gone Bad were all big inspiration for me when it came to video games as well.

8. What does the process of creating new characters look like? Can you show us an example of how you do your art? Do you maybe have any early takes?

As embarrassing as this may seem, I am often heavily inspired by folks I see on TikTok. Theres so many different types of aesthetics and vibes and if I am intrigued enough by how one person looks to stop my scrolling, I will save them so I have a huge collection of stupidly-attractive people doing cringey dances or thirst traps for future reference in games.

Sometimes I’ll mix the styles of a few to come up with a new character too! More often than not though, I am imagining their personality and having that lead what they look like as well.

9. You can customize the MC at the beginning of College Craze where you can choose the hairstyle, hair color, and even race of the female protagonist. This is a refreshing approach, what led you to implement this and what effect did it have on overall development?

Just to clarify— I don’t assign race to the skin tones purposefully, because I want folks to self-identify however they’d like. I know my game isn’t hyper-custom when it comes to the options, but hopefully the players imaginations can fill in the blanks if needed.

I wanted to implement this because I never see myself in games like this. It’s typically a white female protagonist I have to imagine myself as if I’m trying to kind of self-insert. I wanted to make it so that people could see themselves while playing, because frankly its more fun that way.

As far as the effect: Well, it made this game a lot harder to produce. For every CG I have to account for 3 skin tones, 3 hairstyles and 3 hair colors. It may not seem like a lot for a 3D game, but when everything’s hand drawn, 1 CG can end up taking way more time than if I’d just gone with one type of main character. It’s a lot of work, but so rewarding. I love hearing from people about how refreshing it is to be able to have an MC that looks like them!

10. As this is an adult game, what, in your opinion, is the hottest scene in the game?

Whew, well as of Chapter 5, I’d say it’s definitely a toss up between fucking Jace for the first time after nearly getting caught by Professor McGregor, and fucking Bryce after the ABC party.

In Chapter 6, which is nearly done, and set to release soon, I’d say there’s a food play scene that has been on my mind for DAYS that I really hope the players love when it’s out!

11. College Craze has a really varied cast and not just in terms of race and body proportions but also personality-wise. Tell me more about them, are they based on people you know, celebrities or?

Thank you! I’d say the personalities are partially driven by folks I know, partially driven by what I interpret strangers as, and partially driven by myself!

I think a great way to make more in-depth and varied characters is to borrow from your own life, both good and bad. Its material you know the best, and as a result it’ll translate into a well-fleshed out and realistic characterization!

12. College Craze has voice acting. Do you find it important for your characters to have a voice? I also mean that figuratively.

There’s currently only voice work for our stalker, but in V6 there will be more! It would be an absolute dream if I could get all characters in the game to be Voice-acted. But I know that would be incredibly expensive and also super hard (I can’t even imagine how hard finding a good VA for Jay would be), but I think the times that it is voice acted it needs to be impactful.

The rest of the game is quiet, so to hear a voice suddenly, needs to make sense and also be memorable! So the scenes that currently have it were chosen carefully.

As for in the figurative sense, absolutely. I am big on good characterization, and a vital part of that is voice. You should be able to read a line in the game and know from the way they speak who it is. Even two characters who may sound similar have their differences and its great to know that the players can tell the difference between a line Triggs says versus a line Jay might say.

13. Do you identify with any of the characters portrayed in College Craze?

I always say there's a little of me in all characters in the game. One character in particular that I find to be most like myself when I was going into college is Blair (arguably, one of the most hated characters in the game, which only fuels my own self-pity lol). I also was a bit of a Ruby in my first year, though not to her extent lol. I’ve grown since then and see a lot of myself in someone like Demi these days.

14. Who is your favorite girl in College Craze (apart from the MC)?

It used to be Blair, because she was so complex. But I actually have started to really like Dr. Gray these days. (I know, I know, I really like the villains haha)

She’s actually loosely based on a professor of mine I’d had in college. She was a very strong woman who was brilliant and loved her field but was very aware of how others perceived her as being cold just because she didn’t fit the “maternal” personality a lot of folks expected her to be as a female professor.

In my opinion, I could very much see her being what Trish could be if she decided to be a professor some day, haha.

15. We talked about the influences of books and games, but what about the adult sector? Any influences? Any favorite porn stars?

Not really, actually. I have a bunch of favorite male pornstars, but funnily enough they have not really influenced much of the game.

16 How long does it take for you to produce an update? Do you follow any steps, or do you have more of a go-with-the-flow kind of approach?

Typically, if everything in my life is calm and I’m able to get to work, 3-4 months is usually my production time per chapter. Unforunately chapter 6 is taking way longer than expected due to a family emergency and the amount of content I wanted to produce.

I have a loose outline for plot points throughout the entire game to the end. But before each chapter I plot out all days and scenes and branches I need to hit. From there, I just start writing and kinda go with the flow. I always have my outline open while writing and make sure to check off the beats as I hit them.

Sometimes a scene will arise in the moment and I let it flow (like the Jace sex scene variations, I only intended for 2 originally and ended up with like, 5 haha!) But I try to make sure that I’m always sticking to the outline the best I can, so I don’t allow the scenes to bloat too much.

17. Can you talk more about the upcoming content? What can we expect in the future?

Yes! This upcoming update was originally slated to be larger, but because of personal reasons, it’s taking way too long for my comfort, so I’ll be cutting it up and releasing with what I’ve done already.

The chapter will be moving us along in time even more, allowing us to learn more about the main character’s past and parents, as well as some decisions coming to a head or having some consequences. As always, there’s more opportunities to increase your body-count, with characters we know and some that we don’t.

I’m hoping to start wrapping up the plot in the next few chapters, so expect for some things to start falling into place as we bring this all to a close!

18. Which aspect of the game improved the most since when you started the development? If you were to go back in time, would you do anything differently?

I think both my writing and the art have improved. When you work on something every single day for nearly 2 years, it’s bound to get better! If I could go back in time, I’d definitely redesign a few characters, as well as figure out a better way to more consistently draw the curly hair type. I struggle with it to this day, but hopefully I can get it down before the next game is out!

19. How much do you pay attention to the feedback from the fans? Do player expectations play a huge role in your planning for the next update?

I used to a lot. And then I got very overwhelmed and decided it was not good for me. I’m a chronic people pleaser IRL, so translating that to thousands of people sharing their thoughts on what they like, don’t like, expectations, etc, it’s impossible to cope.

I explicitly do not allow player feedback to influence how I write each chapter because I always have to remember why I made this game in the first place: for myself. If I ever lose sight of that, this won’t be fun for me anymore, and I can’t lose that!

20. College Craze is written in such a professional way I wonder if you have any formal education in that field or is that just pure talent or a mix?

Haha, thank you! I actually went to school for Economics and Chinese, and took maybe one creative writing class in my four years of undergrad? I’ve always written since I was a kid though, so maybe it’s just the practice?

21. How has your experience been in the adult gaming industry so far? What are the top advantages and disadvantages you’ve come across so far? Do you think being a female dev of adult games poses any additional challenges?

It’s been interesting! I love how open it is, and the variety of stories, games and genres you can run into.

As far as disadvantages, its incredibly hard to gain traction by traditional means. Advertising is so hard on mainstream platforms, because of weird puritanical views on what is appropriate and not. I can go on and on about this, but I do think the landscape of the internet is a strange one these days.

I don’t think I’ve run into many challenges as a female dev, (except the errant misogynistic DM or two I’ve gotten in the past) but I do think there definitely needs to be more spaces made by women for women here. Sexuality can be expressed in many different ways, and it seems there's an entire demographic of people who aren’t well represented in this space as the spectator and not as the object.

SPICY SIDE NOTE:

I invite you to read my Interview with Eva Kiss the developer of Good Girl Gone bad

22. Do you play adult games often? If so, which ones are your favorites currently? Any recommendations?

Funnily enough, no. I don’t have any time these days. I loved GGGB, I’d like to check out Lust Campus when I’m done writing College Craze. I always recommend these other games that are either made by women or center on the female perspective: Mythos, In Her Own Hands, and Female Agent.

23. What is/are your advice(s) for the new developers? Any tips on what should be the first thing when starting?

I know its super cliche, but stay true to yourself. Never forget why you started making your game in the first place. Don’t make a game just because you think it’ll make you money, it’ll very quickly turn into something not fun to make and not fun to play.

As for the first thing to do when starting: Spend a day really thinking about and writing down what you want to accomplish with your game and what makes you so excited about it. Never lose that because no matter how much you think you love your idea that first day, you’re gonna wanna quit on others, and its good to remind yourself of why you started in the first place.

Also, know when to adjust. Be flexible, and understand your own limits!

24. What game would you like to see as our game of the month?

Ha! I’m such a bad game dev, I’ve only really played GGGB, so I’ll toss a hat in the ring for Ms. Eva Kiss.

25. Have anything to say to the members of Spicygaming? Now is your chance 😊  

Thank you all for making such an incredible community! Its great to see a passionate group of people surrounding these games, and I know us developers truly love and appreciate it!

If you like the content please help me by supporting me on Spicygaming Patreon and get some rewards in return.

What did you think about the selection? Did I miss a game that was completed recently? Let me know in the comments.