All Ages of Geek Y Press Games Yaoi Interview

18+ Yaoi Interview with Y Press Games about Boys Love, Kickstarter and Adult Visual Novels

It’s Emily here with another Yaoi feature, this time with Yamila Abraham founder of adult Yaoi Visual Novel Studio Y Press Games. I have been following Y Press Games for several years now, going back to 2018 with To Trust an Incubus which was a huge Kickstarter campaign which raised a huge amount of funding for a Yaoi Visual Novel. I’ve also been following Yamila Abraham’s writing career since Yaoi Press was out (when Yaoi was a rare gem in America). Now that I write exclusively for All Ages of Geek, curating the best of the best Yaoi and other LGBTQ+ media, I needed to do a feature.

A huge thanks to Ryder our PR Manager for setting up this interview. Another huge thanks for All Ages of Geek to opening the doors to more adult-themed content, specifically visual novel reviews. Yaoi isn’t as talked about as a genre as it should be. And with the pre-production of “I Married a Monster on a Hill” along with the WEBTOON from All Ages of Geek’s sister founders, I’m really glad to have found a place that is so open to Yaoi content.

So let’s get into the interview with Yamila Abraham founder of Y Press Games!

Hey there, Y Press Games! What inspires you to create amazing Boys Love focused games?

Hey there, All Ages of Geek!  First off, Y Press games is not my first company.  In 2004 I stared Yaoi Press, which published OEL (Original English Language) BL manga.  We put out 55 graphic novels, comic books, and art books over 8 years.

After Borders Books closed the business shut down and I started Yaoi Prose, where I published over 100 BL and hetero romance novels, all written by me and many going on to be published by foreign publishing houses in over 7 different languages.

Yaoi

In 2017 I started Y Press Games to focus exclusively on visual novels.  The market for VNs had opened up enough for us to have a go at it.  

So, the truth is, BL has been my passion all my life, since before it was even first published in Japan.  Working in BL has been my full-time job for 20 years now.

What’s the secret sauce behind your amazing games? How do you make them stand out in the market?

Thanks for calling our games amazing!

We give fans of the genre what they want, because they’re paying good money for these games, and we owe them everything.  This means not pursuing a project that doesn’t click with players.  We stick to games that are in demand and that we can also be passionate about.  Orcs are hot right now, so we got hot with orcs.

Can you tell us about any challenges you’ve faced while creating Boys Love games, and how you overcame them with a little magic?

I started this company with $3,000 and the help of friends I’d made in my past businesses.  However, I didn’t know how much work went into a game, money ran out, and things got delayed.

Fortunately, we had a successful Kickstarter that gave us the infusion of capital we needed to get our first big game off the ground.  That’s the magic.  Kickstarter is huge for games, and many people go there regularly looking for games to support.  We couldn’t have survived without Kickstarter!  

You can follow us on Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/ypressgames I back every gay visual novel that comes out so everyone who follows me gets an email about it.

When it comes to writing content, how do you keep it authentic while also adding fantasy, adult content and dialogue?

I’ve been a writer my entire career and have studied the craft extensively.  Good writing is good writing no matter if it’s manga, novels, or games.  The same rules apply.  Character motivations, keeping to a central theme, story arcs, character archetypes, and all that good stuff need to happen in your game narratives.

It’s 50% skill, 50% imagination.  

Can you give us a sneak peek of any upcoming projects or releases that fans should be excited about? 

Absolutely!  Dear Monster is our latest big hit, done in partnership with Lovenuts Studio.  The art by Jouvru is gorgeous, and the story has gotten rave reviews.  We’re have a 97% positive review rating on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1748300/Dear_Monster/ 

Later this year, Monster Lover is coming out.  This features a romance between a human main character and a terrifying horror-movie type monster!  Follow our Steam page here to get a notification when it’s available for Wishlisting: https://store.steampowered.com/developer/ypressgames 

The biggest game we’re working on right now, however, is Orc Covenant.  People loved the orc from Dear Monster, so we went full orc!  It’s not for the faint of heart.  Wishlist on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2243570/Orc_Covenant_Gay_Bara_Orc_Visual_Novel/   

The Kickstarter for this massive game launches April 1st 2023!  We hope for it to be our biggest campaign ever.  Madakou‘s art is AMAZING!  Fans can click the option to be notified of the launch and check it out here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ypressgames/orc-covenant?ref=6q446l&token=5317270f  

How do you make sure that your Boys Love games are as fun to play as they are swoon-worthy? 

We have two ways of making sure fans love our games.  Our beta testers and The Council of Wise Gays (not a joke).  The former play each route of the game as it comes out and tell us what works and what doesn’t so we can fix it.

The Council of Wise Gays is private channel hosted on our Discord (join here https://discord.gg/KyhMvJg).  I am a cis-woman (she/her) so I rely on 17 or so gay men to help me make sure our gay games are meeting all their standards.  

They have intimate access from an initial concept, to sketch art, to game scripts, to art submissions, and everything in between.  If they don’t approve a game, then we don’t make it!  (Seriously.)  

We give instructions on what it means to be in the council and how to petition for membership on the Discord (join here https://discord.gg/KyhMvJg).

How do you come up with the designs for your characters? 

I trust my artists to do better character designs than anything I could describe to them. Besides basics like hair color, gender, height, etc., I just describe the personality of the character, their role in the game, and the setting of the game.  My amazing artists always come up with something that blows me away.

We know you always deliver crowdfunding rewards in full and on time, but can you tell us the story behind how you became a “Backer Favorite” on Kickstarter?

I view Kickstarters as a loan that I need to pay back when I said I would.  So, I make sure that I map out a rigorous timeline for the game, then I add a 6 month buffer to this to cover anything that might happen.  This means we’re early with delivery most of the time.  

Having a good reputation on Kickstarter has helped us tremendously.  We know how important it us to maintain the trust of our backers.  I believe we became a ‘Backer Favorite’ after delivering 3 projects on time.  This unlocked other privileges with Kickstarter also.

How do you strike the perfect balance between storytelling and gameplay in your Boys Love games? 

We thought that people wanted complicated games with intricate choice trees in the beginning, but we realized that players are usually annoyed when they don’t know which choice to pick.

I believe that VN players are there for the story first, and see the choice picking ‘game play’ as just a way to get even more story.  We keep things simple now, and players seem to appreciate it.

As a creator what makes visual novels so appealing, and why do you think they’ve become increasingly popular?

It’s like getting a great novel you can pick your ending on, while at the same time seeing the characters interact and getting gorgeous sexy splash screens.  Add in compelling music, beautiful backgrounds, sound effects, and sometimes voice acting, and it’s a perfect mix!

I also find that a lot of folks who have difficulty with reading either through dyslexia or vision issues, find it a lot easier to use the text to voice feature in VNs rather than reading physical novels.

Can you walk us through the process of creating a visual novel, from ideation to release, and if there has ever been any mishaps along the way?

I don’t come up with a concept for a visual novel until I have an artist lined up.  Art is what sells your game.  If the art is bad, no one will stick around for your amazing story.  So first, the artist, then coming up with a concept that will both compliment the artist’s style, and will be something we can be passionate about.

Once we have an artist, we make a one sentence premise for the game.  If you can’t say it all in one sentence then you haven’t nailed down your theme and you’ve got a convoluted mess.  The shorter the sentence the better.

Next, we come up with a title and get the game logo designed.

We do a brainstorming session to determine our setting and characters.  Then we get the artist started on key art, the character sprites.  (A different artist will do backgrounds, GUI, logo, etc.)  

We haven’t started writing the game yet at this point.  We still need the artist to get started because art takes the longest and you don’t want your artist sitting around without work.  We’re going to need the key art soon, also.

While the sprites are being illustrated, we will write the demo portion of the game.  This gives the artist an initial list of CGs (computer graphics/pinup images) to start with when they finish the sprites.  Demos must introduce the concept, setting, characters, and be full of tension that gets the players interested. We try to end each demo on a cliffhanger.

Once we have the sprites and logo, we make our capsule art for Steam.  This isn’t the final capsule art, but it’s enough to launch a Steam page with.  We also need a trailer for Steam.  We make a 30 second teaser trailer introducing the characters with the sprite art. 

Now we can launch our Steam page.  It’s absolutely imperative to the success of the game to launch the Steam page as soon as possible.  You must hit certain wishlist targets before launch and they will take 6 months or more.

For our big games we plan to launch a Kickstarter right around the same time the demo is completed.  This is when we get the full trailer for the game of around one minute.  This is used for Kickstarter and Steam.  We’ll also update the capsule art now that we have more images available.

Work continues all throughout the Kickstarter.  We try to have the first route of the game ready for beta-testers at the end of the Kickstarter.

We promote the game heavily as work continues.  Every time a route (a story with one of the chosen love interests) is completed we give it to our beta testers and tweak it based on their feedback.

Then we launch the game and deliver all the Kickstarter rewards.  For super-successful games we will then start work on DLCs (downloadable content) to continue the game’s story.

The biggest mishap along the way was me not knowing what I was doing and just throwing shit at the wall to see what stuck.  Last year I took an intensive marketing class from HMAG (How to Market a Game) and finally got my ‘shit’ together.

What has been the best part about creating Boys Love media? 

Getting to make a good living from my home is a gift I will be eternally grateful for.  I work for myself in the genre I’m obsessed with.  It’s something I would do for free, and yet I’m paid handsomely for it.  I have a fantastic life, all thanks to those players who believe in us.  Thank you all so much!

Can you tell us about any collaborations with other studios or creators that have led to some truly magical games?

Our first partnership that struck gold was with Studio Kosen, a team that had worked with my former company Yaoi Press, for their superhero game Mister Versatile.  

This came out in 2020 and we are still putting out DLCs for it to this day!  The latest one, Brotherhunks came out just two weeks ago!  You can check that out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2278020/Mister_Versatile_Brotherhunks/

Our second partnership with Studio Lovenuts was Dear Monster, which came out in January of this year.  That amazing game speaks for itself!  (We also partnered on their first game, Sentimental Trickster.)

We partner with studios that need finance and support, as well as those who have game Kickstarters that they weren’t able to finish alone.  We can’t help everyone, but we can give them more leads to pursue if we aren’t able to accept their project.

How do you engage with your fanbase outside of the games themselves, and what kind of community events do you have planned for the future? 

Discord, Discord, Discord!  (Join here https://discord.gg/KyhMvJg.) We have an extremely active Discord with channels for each of our games.  We sometimes do live voice chats where fans can talk to me directly and hear about everything going on.  Then we just have random conversation into the wee hours of the night.  We do it once a month and it’s great fun.  

Can you share any fan reactions that you’ve received regarding your Boys Love games, and how has their support impacted the development of your games?

When we launched Brotherhunks recently one Mister Versatile fan told us how meaningful it was for him to go back to a game from his past that he loved, and how he got a shiver just hearing the familiar theme song.  I love that one of our projects can inspire those feelings.

To Trust an Incubus came out on Steam when there was just a handful of gay games in existence there.  I see it included in many lists of ‘Gay Games You Must Play’ and similar.  I love the status that old game has achieved in people’s hearts!

What’s your favorite game that you’ve created, and why does it hold a special place in your heart?

Alpha Hole Prison will always be my magnum opus.  This game took over two years, is longer than three Stephen King novels put together, and has literally thousands of CGs.  I put my heart, soul, and everything I had into AHP, and the fans response to that has been incredible.

As someone who creates adult games, what’s the most important part about marketing yourself properly?

I think it’s respecting boundaries and not expecting to be treated the same as non-adult games.  We always say, ‘Please retweet this tweet if it’s safe for you to do so.’  And when you emailed about an interview I explained up front that we might not be appropriate.  

We love the forums that do help spread the word about our games, but we never feel entitled, and we respect those outlets who don’t cater to an 18+ audience.

Beyond that, in general, you need to constantly be learning about game marketing and not just feel your way in the dark.  I missed out on a lot of sales due to my early ignorance.

How do you come up with your ideas? Do you think them through, or do they randomly just come to you?

Lately it’s been looking at what an artist does best and then tailoring a story that will use their abilities to the fullest.  Imagination runs best under a dictatorship.  If you tell yourself:  you need a gay visual novel story, but it must involve demons, and it must take place in feudal Japan, and it must have a villain protagonist, and it must feature a Japanese onsen, the ideas just start flowing.

This is actually how we came up with Oni Onsen, a new game we’re starting work on this month!

Finally, where can everyone find your work online and how can they support you?

Please check us out on Steam here, https://store.steampowered.com/developer/ypressgames/list/95041/  Itch here https://ypressgames.itch.io/ , or join our Patreon, here https://www.patreon.com/ypressgames .  

Our Patreon is basically a way to save up for our Kickstarters.  Your monthly payment is saved up for you and then when we have a Kicstarter you can cash in your balance to get the reward you want.

You can also check out our web site for all our press releases!  https://ypressgames.com/ 

Thanks so much for taking the time to interview me!  I’ll be sure to share this on our Discord and social media!

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