In-depth interview with the developers of Peach Hills Division

ADULT GAME DEVELOPER INTERVIEW: Peach Hills

Peach Hills Division was our porn game of the month in December 2023. It is one of the most ambitious porn games I have been able to play in the last year. With stunning 3D graphics, Open World design, Adventure type gameplay and a unique blend of excellent 2d art when it comes to the sex scenes. Definitely one to keep an eye out for.

So I was really curios in who is the team behind Peach Hills, where there experience comes from, what can we expect next from the game and what their take on AI is. Let's dive in,

MORE ABOUT THE PEACH HILLS DIVISION:

Let’s start with the basics, tell us a bit about yourself and the team. Where are you from?

I (EvilBuda) am from Spain, I’ve been living in Mexico for the past 15 years. The rest of the team is

from Mexico, we are currently a group of 4 people on development and 1 managing social media and

the community.

So, what got you into game development? How did it all start?

The project started as something small to practice in my free time. Due to the twists and turns of

life, my professional path took a very different direction from what I studied, this project was a way to

get back to my beginnings as a developer. As the idea progressed, I saw potential in this idea, so I

involved more people. From there, everything escalated to what we have on the table today. Not

everything has been transferred to the game yet, but I am confident that soon we will have all the

foundations of Peach Hills Division in place.

Is Peach Hills your first project?

Yes

You started developing Peach Hills some time ago, so tell me, what have you learned in the last couple of years? What were some of the major obstacles you faced during this time?

The hardest part of making video games has nothing to do with video games themselves. It's

managing the team and knowing how to navigate challenges. The most challenging part for a small team

like ours is maintaining stability. Staff turnover is a real problem, we often find ourselves losing resources

and time on people who leave within a few months, making the investment practically useless. Add to that

the limited budget and it becomes very easy for the project to stop advancing.

Staying motivated when the investment doesn't return is also hard. We may not be many people, but

maintaining the team still costs a lot of money.

These two points, I would say, are the most challenging. The third might be marketing. I'm a developer, not

a salesperson, so finding the time and focus to study that part and set it in motion has been very difficult

for me. It has gradually improved with the help of new team members, but it has been hard to get there.

Peach Hills is a different game by design and gameplay from what we are used to when it comes to adultgames. What made you go the route of making a 3D adventure game?

When implementing 3D, you allow for much greater material reusability. On one hand, it has a

significantly higher initial investment compared to traditional 2D but, on the other hand, once you have

the models with their rigs, investment is recovered very quickly. The same applies to environments. Once

you've built the general setting, moving the camera from one place to another is much simpler than

creating new art. In fact, you can do it almost in real-time, giving you much more freedom when advancing

the story.

Additionally, when doing it in 3D, you maintain a dynamism on scene that is very difficult to get with

traditional 2D. The setting moves as a real environment would, as do the characters. This dynamic I think

helps a lot for this type of genre, where long dialogues can become overwhelming quickly.

We haven't reached that stage yet, but with 3D, we can also include complex cinematics or animations.

Once we integrate this into the game, the use of 3D will be justified on its own.

Can you discuss any specific game that has inspired you when creating Peach Hills?

It’s not a game, but a movie: Volcano High School. It’s about an institute where the students have

superpowers and compete for their ranks through battles. I thought that idea had a lot of potential.

Peach Hills is designed to be a massive game. How many gameplay hours are you aiming for when completed?

I haven't calculated it specifically, several open-world elements are yet to be implemented but by

simply following the story puts us close to 60 hours if I divide it between what we've implemented and

what is yet to be released. But, like I said, there are still a couple of central gameplay elements missing, so

don't take my word on this.

There seems to be a lot of world building going on. Who is designing the world, can you tell me more

about the world itself?

I’ve always been the one in charge of the story. I tried to create Peach Hills in layers. On one hand,

there's what you see directly and what happens in the game. On the other, there's what the characters

and elements of Peach Hills do when you're not around, based on your input or their environment, driving

the story forward. Then there's the background of the base and the world where the story unfolds, which

is something that moves everything and everyone and governs the general rhythm of the game.

Finally, there's the general lore—things the player may or may not see, depending on how much attention

they put in or how interested they are in discovering it. I don't portray this part directly in the story, but it

is fully stipulated so, I can choose to reveal it at moments or in details of the environment. I think this last

part is what gives soul to the game. It's essential to be careful not to show too much to maintain the

mystique and allow the player to fill in the gaps.

How important is the sex in the game in comparison to the story?

It's very easy for story and sex to compete in these types of games. This is why I try to have sex be

part of the story. Every progress you make in the story should be capable of leading you to a sex scene or

explicit content without it seeming forced or taking you out of the main narrative thread. In Peach Hills,

sex between recruits is encouraged, it generates an immediate benefit to the center and its military

potential. This way, we justify the intertwining of both story and sexual content, making their coexistence

within the narrative very organic. I've had to lower the level of “shyness” among the characters a bit, but I

believe it's something the player can quickly get used to and set aside when certain things happen in the

story

How do you create lewd scenes, where do you get the inspiration from? Can you show some examples?

My mechanic is to present everyday situations and give them small triggers that could send the
characters in more "unusual" directions. There are characters in Peach Hills capable of getting into certain
types of situations but completely incapable of getting into others. It's crucial to respect that and only give
them small nudges to see how they will react.

"What would happen if...?" With that, writing the story is a process of discovery because until you set the
scene, you don't fully know what the characters are capable of.

For example, I knew Lila was going to look for Jim for her locket, and I knew she would find him in a
“delicate” situation. But I didn't know exactly how the two would react. As you start to develop the scene,
you see the limits of each character and how far they are capable of going (or not going)

What about fetish related content? How do you approach the taboos that come with that?

The world of fetishes is infinite. Just when you think you kind of know what's out there, you discover a

whole new "line" you didn't know could exist. My idea with that is to approach the usual ones and let the

community react a bit to see which directions to take. We have enough characters to have variety, but I'm

not in a hurry to use them all. I prefer a more organic development that aligns with the story and the

characters that make it up.

We make polls with our community now and then that give us general guidelines to follow, from there, we

feed the narrative. I don't want to compromise the story trying to cover every fetish. As for taboos, aside

from illegal themes that we will never approach, I might have reservations about dark or gross themes. I

don't think this is the setting for that.

Are you planning on adding fully animated sex scenes or animations in the future?

Of course! We hope to get there soon, the idea is for it to be one of the main attractions of the

game. However, it's expensive, and we need to further develop the base game before we can start moving

in that direction. I hope that we can begin working on it soon to elevate the storytelling. Due to budget, we

must carefully consider where to apply it, but if done correctly, it will give a boost to the narrative.

How do you approach character development? Can you give some insight on how the characters wereinitially created?

I try to let the characters define themselves. I outline their general characteristics and try to justify

them with their background. When you do that, these characteristics become solid and affect many more

aspects of their behavior than you initially had foreseen. With that done, they are quite capable of

deciding "for themselves."

For example, Lila was never taken seriously at home because her special ability is somewhat ridiculous,

and she often has her head in the clouds. This left her with a strong inferiority complex and, consequently,

a latent desire to prove that she’s capable. For her personal development arc, she must start from the

bottom, feeling incapable, she has trouble speaking up or being around people. She stays alone, etc. With

that, I can start putting her in situations and see what she does.

Jim is someone simple; he doesn't feel very capable either, so he doesn't judge. This makes them very

compatible with each other but quite incompatible with life in the competitive environment of Peach Hills.

Once the characters give me this interplay, I only need to create situations and see their reactions. Of

course, you know where you're going, but they decide how to get there.

Who is your favorite character in the game? (no cheating by telling I like all )

Nut! She hasn’t appeared in the game yet, so you’ll have to wait.

Are you adding additional characters in the future? If yes, can you share anything about them

Many! Right now, we have 7 characters with their character concepts finished and ready to launch into

production. Among them are teachers, magical beings, and students— within them students with no gift

and squad leaders.

Celeste from the store, Miss Belle the principal, Mr. Engin the caretaker of the center, Rueben who will be

Jim's best friend, Nut, the “fairy” that Jim will have to deal with every day...

Let’s talk about the art a bit. Peach Hills is definitely unique. The blend of 3D and 2D is seamless. Whatmade you pursue that route?

Well, I feel we still have a long way to go in that aspect, but I believe we are heading in the right

direction. What we currently do is create renders in Eevee, and we give it a quick edit to give it that final

touch that the engine doesn't provide. 

The idea is to create a recognizable style so that, with a single

image, people can identify your game. I feel that Daz 3D, having provided many tools to small studios like

ours to make games, hasn't done much to create a variety of styles within the industry. Having

differentiating elements is always important. That was my main goal - to make it as beautiful as possible,

practical with our limited production line, but without losing the "handmade" essence.

What engine do you use for the 3D?

We work on Unity… Fingers crossed.

Can you show me some early takes from when you first started developing Peach Hills. Like from back when this was still alpha

Of course! Here are images of what the downhill station looked like and how it is now. All parts of

the project were scaled to the same level.

Tell me a bit on how you approach development. What does your typical work day look like?

We all work in a cloud-based board where we follow scheduled tasks. We manage it using a SCRUM

discipline for tasks that we address in specific periods. We take certain liberties when it comes to the

follow-up, but we are a very small team, and I try not to get too caught up in the method.

On the board, each team member can show progress for review and feedback, and it's where all

development advances.

The core team, which consists of 3 members, is in the studio, but we also work through the online board

to facilitate follow-up. For now, I balance game development with another job to pay the bills, making it

challenging to do any other type of follow-up beyond the board. It's a limitation, but I think we've been

able to work well.

Last game you played?

Halls of Torment for PC.

What is your take on AI, specifically the AI art and AI writing? Do you use any of the AI tools for development at all?

It's a dense topic that hits close to home. I'll give you the long answer and the short one.

The long one is that I come from the artistic side, I’ve dedicated thousands of hours to learning and

understanding styles to later break them down, reconstruct them, and create something unique. I've

drawn inspiration from every artist I've encountered, my style and abilities are thanks to them, and my

time invested in practicing, but I know very well where the boundary is between their style and mine. If I

limited myself to copying them, I wouldn't do them or myself a favor.

There are various ways to use AI. A skilled artist will use it to get references, shot types, composition, color,

etc. They will use it as a reference and make it their own. This is what all artists have been doing since the

beginning of time. With this kind of use, I feel that AI is a great tool because it allows us to rely less on our

libraries of reference and opens a world of possibilities for improvement. The final product is never the

result of AI but what you create with that result as a reference.

Then, there are others who will see AI as a way to get results without doing the work. They will input their

prompt, and what they get is all they will achieve because they don’t know how to do anything else. They

will try to sell it as their own, make games, movies, scripts, etc. This kind of person will easily destroy any

industry they get into because, unfortunately, AI will undoubtedly improve to the point of being impossible

to identify.

We are already in a pseudo-artistic decline. Artistically clueless but wealthy businessmen have infiltrated

major studios and got more decision-making power than the founding artists. It's those individuals whose

eyes light up when you talk about AI because their lack of experience is not a relevant factor anymore.

They will flood the market with auto-generated products and cut off funding for artists who will have to

seek refuge in studios that are committed to originality. Both markets have customers, so we'll see what

happens. If the industry pushes artists to unite, incredible artwork can come up that will make any kind of

autogenerated content look bad.

The short answer would be that it's a great tool that can be a valuable creative resource for project

planning and pre-production (always as a reference) or very poorly used by the incapable, who see it as a

way to get results without applying the effort.

What do you think adult game development will look like in 5 years?

It will surely be filled with AI-generated material, which will lower the overall quality level

significantly but, at the same time, will easily distinguish original projects from the rest.

I would like to thank our small but awesome community for the unconditional help backing Peach
Hills and thank you personally for your interest in our project. I Wish you much success, your work
matters and helps give more coverage to this sector that truly needs it.
Sending warm regards and a heartfelt hug from all our team! - EvilBuda (Peach Hills)

Where are you with Peach Hills right now? How long until the game is completed? What is happening next in the game, any hints you can share?

We don't have all the base modules in place yet. In this update, we released the journal and mission

tracker that people requested, and for the next one, we are working on a narrative rebuild to make it flow

more smoothly and solve some issues. We will also implement dialogue options and complete the map

navigation in its entirety. With that done, we will solely focus on advancing the story and introducing new

characters to flesh out the story.

In the upcoming chapters, Jim will be presented with a very important mission for the center, and he will

have to activate it using all the resources at his disposal. New characters will appear, setting in motion the

general conflict with the council. The recruits from the center will have to start choosing sides, all while

getting to know each other better, of course ;)

Are you working on any other projects in addition to Peach Hills?

No, Peach Hills is our only project. It's important to stay focused. I'm confident that as the story

progresses, the game will resonate more within the community, and we'll be able to accelerate

production to completion. Once everything is tied up, perhaps we'll look beyond, but for now, it's

important to deliver each update at the level it deserves, and that doesn't leave much time for

anything else.

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