Amare is coming to a visual novel near you

Romantic crawlers, amare games, and more in Naughty List News #42

A consortium of developers of the “otome” genre of visual novels announced this week that they have coined a new term to describe their products: “amare”.

These developers want to signal that the types of games they make have become more inclusive since they first started appearing in the early 90s. While “otome” is Japanese for “maiden”, “amare” means “to love”. The new term can be used to describe games that have a similar tone and feel and it doesn’t constrain the games to a specific audience.

They have explained their thinking in an infographic in this Tumblr post. And as luck would have it, Blerdy Otome wrote about inclusivity in the otome games fandom at around the same time.

I think this is a great development overall. This new term groups games with similar themes together, which should help them find a broader audience.

Romantic dungeon crawler Boyfriend Dungeon is already a smash hit ⚔

Boyfriend Dungeon is a game where you plunder the dungeon and take your weapons on dates. This unusual combination of dungeon crawling and dating sim raised eyebrows when it was first announced, but it looks like the gamble has paid off.

Tanya X. Short, Captain of Kitfox Games, reports that the game is selling extremely well and is already turning a profit:

Tanya X. Short @tanyaxshort

we sold as many copies of Boyfriend Dungeon in 1 day as we did in the first week of Moon Hunters (2016)... plus we didn't take any outside funding for it, so it's all for Kitfox, baby! 🎉

I like to think this proves the central thesis of this newsletter: there is a huge untapped market for these types of dating sims! I hope the studio will take the right lessons from this early success and continue making games that feature romance as well as action.

Boyfriend Dungeon is available on Steam right now.

Writing Wrap-Up 📖

• Blerdy Otome looks at Imperial Grace, where you try to survive your first year as Empress. The game looks amazing and you can even turn off the mature interactions if you’re not up for it.

• Management game Love Tavern is available now on Steam Early Access. Hire girls from different tribes and expand your business!

• Erosion is an erotic card battle game being developed by Trash Gods. I do love these kinds of games but I have to wonder: where my coop card games at??

• Otome game Apocalypse Dream is looking for funding on Kickstarter. Be careful with your choices in this game because every character can die apparently!

• Furry open-world game Carnal Instincts adds sexy snakes. Because even cold-blooded creatures need love too.

• Super Seducer 3 heads to Nutaku after being banned from Steam. The live-action dating sim was banned for vague reasons even after gathering 60k wishlists.

• Love & Sex with Robots is hosting a virtual conference on August 18th. I’d tell you to bring a plus one but you might already be staring at it.

• Love, Emma reports that she’s finally in her anal prime. But you should see the other guy!

Cheeky chuckle 🤭

Kirstie ❤️🖤 @kirstie_talbot

I don’t think this is the coughing emoji.

TBS | Hanny✨(comm close) @Uirusu_chan

Follow me for more dating tips

average tsukki enjoyer @chukishima

I FOUND IT

average tsukki enjoyer @chukishima

does anyone have that tiktok where its this woman and her bf doing fake facebook pregnancy announcements and theres one where shes like "emergency meeting! mommy and daddy have been acting really sus in medbay!"

Artist spotlight 💡

Raichiyo @Raichiyo33

just some practices of Petra, Fe3h

Thanks for reading this far!

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Until next time!

-Mr. Hands