Dive Deep into the Mind of Yaoi Game Genius Washi: You Won't Believe What We Discovered!

We had the pleasure of chatting with Washi all about their work. Be sure to check out what they have going on HERE for more!

Hey Washi, first things first, what got you into creating games in the first place?

I have always been the type of person to post erotic BL illustrations on my own website. Before social media became popular everyone had their own website, and posted their own literature and illustrations to them. Among those, some people had published little minigames as well. The minigames were simple, like strip rock-paper-scissors, or breakout clones where you could see lewd BL illustrations when you cleared them. Since I liked both BL and video games, I really took a liking to seeing those 2 come together in these minigames, and began wanting to add them to my site as well. I had absolutely no programming knowledge, but I read some books and began by creating a small game in Adobe Flash (now known as AnimateCC.)

Why Yaoi? What draws you into this genre so passionately?

I've always liked video games, and ever since the SNES era I've thought "it would be great if there were some games with BL in them." In a sense, what I'm doing now is fulfilling the dreams that I had when I was young. There's plenty of people around the world making games that aren't BL, so I see no need to create those myself.

How do you actually go about creating your games, start to finish?

Because the format of my games are all decided from the start, first I look for arousing situations that I can make use of. Once I find them, I plan out the scene composition, draw the illustration, and animate it. After that is the programming, and once it's nearly done I order voice acting for it from voice actors. Once the voice actor's voices are in, and all of the text has been finalized, I send it out for translation. Among my games, there's still plenty that I've yet to produce, but many of those also start with trying to think up arousing situations. I'm considering what style of game to make use of those situations after coming up with them.

You got games like STORAGE and RESTROOM. What's the inspiration behind these intriguing titles?

I'm not very good with deciding upon a title, so I just take what I see and set it as the title. To put it another way, aside from the first word I think of, nothing else comes to mind. I really admire poetic beautiful titles, but I truly can't think of anything, so I always go with simple titles.

What's the timeframe to get from a blank screen to a published game?

Back when I created things in Flash, I was able to finish many of them in about 4 months, but since switching to Unity it takes me about a year. Because I'm still getting used to Unity, and also started translating them into several languages, it takes longer than it did before.

Do you go solo, or is there a team behind the magic of your games?

I create my games by myself. Voice acting and translations are ordered from other people. The audio samples are free to use assets. The graphics and programming are created by myself.

What are the challenges you face when working on adult content, especially Yaoi?

If it's specifically "because it's yaoi," I would have to say the difficulty in finding voice actors. Most voice actors are straight males, so many lack experience with "moaning." Just because they can perform well with regular lines doesn't mean that they can moan well. As such, I have to be very careful when requesting voice actors that don't provide moaning samples. Also, some voice actors don't take BL work or adult work, so I have to be considerate of that as well. I also have a lot of trouble because there's not many places to advertise or sell games with adult content. Because the AppStore won't allow adult products, despite the many requests I'm unable to create a game for the iPhone. Additionally, I've heard that Steam also rejects applications that are exclusively erotic content, so I have yet to apply there.

itch.io's transaction handling company also has a restriction on adult content so I cannot sell my products there, instead being limited to posting free versions. Other than that, there's been a few distribution sites where my products didn't pass their requirements and I've had to stop selling there.

Your games are available on both itch.io and DLSite. Why those platforms? Got any favorites?

While this overlaps some with the previous question, these websites don't have overly strict stances on erotic content, and accepted my application so I am registered to these 2 websites. Also, a big reason is that they have large user bases. Regarding DLsite, their translation service, and other various services they release to provide support to product creators makes them a big favorite of mine.

Uncensored and censored—why offer both? Does it change the game experience in your opinion?

Originally, I was offering my BL games for free online. However, it became necessary to add voice acting, and I thought of selling games to cover the payment to voice actors. In the paid version, there's automatic animation playback, and a few additional options, but this is my way of showing thanks to people who go out of their way to pay money when they could play for free. All of the games I'm selling used to be playable for free online in the past. However, all of those games were created in Flash, so once support for Flash ended they were no longer able to be played online.

I didn't think anything of it at first, but after some time I started to wonder "would anyone buy a game without knowing what's in it?" And then I started making videos that show the game contents, as well as trial versions that unlock only one product. These situations have led me to believe that free versions where you can immediately identify what's in the game are very important. As such, the paid versions are basically there for people who liked the free version and think "I want this in my collection."

Let's talk visuals. How do you decide on the art style for each game?

Because animation is central to my games, I utilize an anime style that's easy to manage when creating animations. As far as the UI goes, I aim to keep it simple so that it doesn't detract from the illustrations.

Voice acting and sound effects—how important are they in setting the tone?

Voice actors are extremely important when it comes to my games. In a way, I think the main purpose in playing them is to hear the voices of the voice actors. You could mute the voices when you play, but I think about 80% of the fun is lost this way. Whenever I place an order with a voice actor, I always request them to "make it sound like you're feeling good." If it sounds like they're in pain, it will give an impression that they're trying to endure, which prevents the player from enjoying it. Also, since the moaning is the main part of the game, I take care to make sure the moaning is in a tone that won't make you tired of hearing it. I consider sound effects to be important in fostering a sense of familiarity, but some people may find them annoying, so you can adjust the volume in the paid version.

What's the most rewarding part of creating Yaoi games for you?

I enjoy putting the program together most of all. Once the program's put together, and it all works the way I want it to, it makes me simply happy. Incorporating new techniques into the program gives me a sense of growth, and stamping out difficult bugs gives me a sense of accomplishment. I do have some reluctance in attempting more difficult programming, but most of it I find quite enjoyable.

Any moments where you didn't finish a project?

There was just one. I had simply forgotten all about making it, so it's on hold indefinitely. At some point, if I feel up to it I may continue making it. Other than that, I had almost finished something but Flash support ended, and I wasn't able to continue making it, but I do intend to remake it in Unity.

How do you handle feedback and criticism, especially considering the erotic nature of your work?

Fortunately, I haven't been met with criticism yet. If it's something I can agree with, I may make changes, but otherwise it would probably end with me thinking "there's people who think that way, too." Because of the nature of it being BL and R18, I do believe people would criticize it, but at the same time there's people who approve of it, and I would like to create products for those people. Regarding feedback, I can incorporate it if it's something I'm able to do. In most of the paid versions, you can continue playing even after making the uke cum, and this feature was implemented due to the feedback of someone who played my game.

Any plans for future games?

I covered this a little in the previous question, but I would like to remake a Flash game that I nearly finished in Unity. This is an adventure game similar to an RPG that also has body touching game parts in it. This will take me several years to finish, so I would like to create smaller products like "STORAGE" at the same time.

Got a personal favorite among the games you've made?

I like "SECRET TRAINING" because I did a good job on the illustrations. The game itself is a little difficult, so sometimes I wonder if I could have taken a better approach, but I do like the situation where a new seme repeatedly takes the old one's place.

How do you keep your ideas fresh and avoid repeating the same tropes?

For the theme, I dig up my memories of BL that I've enjoyed, or search online for new BL which I can use to draw inspiration from. Since it takes time to create each game, there aren't many times when I'm short on ideas. It's most often that new ideas build up as I'm making a game.

Yaoi has a massive fandom. How do you balance catering to fans while staying true to your vision?

Ultimately, I'm making games for myself. The target demographic of my games is me. I'm only fulfilling my wish of "it would be nice if there was a game like this." Since the world is a vast place, there's sure to be people with similar tastes as me, and I think it would be great if I bring them enjoyment as well. Because of this, even if someone suggests something, I'm not listening unless I think it's entertaining, on the other hand if I do think it's entertaining I'll listen. (This is also because I can't create something entertaining unless I understand what's entertaining about it.) Since the world is vast, no matter what strange choices I make, I think there will always be people out there that will accept what I do.

What makes you the happiest creating games?

Creating games is what I live for now. I believe there's still many people in the world that haven't found their purpose in life, or a hobby that they can get absorbed in. That considered, I think I'm very fortunate to be able to clearly say my purpose in life is "creating games." Also, it makes me very happy to hear people's impressions upon playing my games.

And lastly, what's the legacy you wanna leave behind in the Yaoi gaming world?

I wish to leave behind "body touching games" in the world of BL gaming. Despite body touching games not requiring anything complex, perhaps because making the animations is difficult, there aren't many people creating them. (Especially in Japan) Since I was originally creating body touching games because I wanted to play them, I would like for this genre to get about as popular as visual novels.