Submission Guidelines

Games should not be offensive to any gender, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, body type, age group, nor to people with different cognitive or physical abilities; nor to those with with different marital or cohabitation preferences.  The word ‘trap’ must never be used to describe a person.  Do not submit games which present pedophilia or abuse in a positive light.

Do not send submissions to our Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Discord, or other social media pages. We will only consider submissions that follow these guidelines.

Don’t be too intimidated to submit to us.  This isn’t Hollywood.  You don’t need the right connections to break in.  You don’t have to speak perfect English.  You don’t have to have clout.   A real flesh and blood human will see your submission and consider it.  If you are a talented adult ready to work hard and with a high level of professionalism, you may just be published by Y Press Games.

Unfinished Crowdfunding Projects

We have rescued a few projects in the past.  If your options are to never deliver or to get help, we might be able to help you.  Each project comes with different circumstances, so we look at things on a case by case basis.  Contact us through our contact page and let’s talk.

Some things we may be able to help with:

  • Financing
  • Programming
  • Project Management
  • Line Art (if we can match the existing style)
  • Coloring (if we can match the existing style)
  • Backgrounds (if we can match the existing style)
  • Music (if we can match the existing style)
  • Voice Acting Production
  • Writing (if we can match the existing style)
  • Marketing
  • Publishing

Our philosophy is to offer a fair deal or no deal at all.  If we can’t help you, but the game looks good, we can usually put you in touch with another developer who will offer you an equitable contract.  We’ve done this for another game in the past.

Licensing/I.P.s/Contract Work

If you have the rights to a proven I.P. (novel, web comic, graphic novel, web series, art series, etc.) that features male/male gay romance, we can help bring this to life as a visual novel.  Reach out to us through our contact page.

We can negotiate a working/royalty situation that you would feel comfortable with, granting you as little or as much control over the project as you want.  We can provide talent (subject to your approval) to bring the project to life, or work with the talent you select.  We will be flexible to win the trust of a proven brand.

Note:  We currently only make games in the Ren’py and Unity game engines.  We can’t assist with games made in other engines.

If your I.P. does not involve gay romance we may still have an interest in working with your brand through one of our other game companies.  We have a strategy/time management game company (not visual novels) for players 12 and older as well as another visual novel subsidiary currently focused on creating interactive therapy tools for a client in the mental health industry.

As you can see from the last example, we are also open to certain kinds of contract work, provided we can personally and passionately connect to the project you propose.

Our preference is for the creation of applications that are free or commissioned for use in a business.  Regarding for-profit games, we must be sure that your premise is viable before taking money from you.  Our services are not inexpensive, and most games launched on Steam make less than $1,000 in their first year.   We won’t take part in a game that has no hope of recouping your development costs nor actually making a profit.  We are not a vanity press.

That said, if your product is a winner that we can be passionate about, we have numerous resources, a varied and large pool of talent, and the skill and know-how to adapt to client’s or potential partner’s needs.  We have separate business entities for publishing and crowdfunding that would not show a connection to Y Press Games.

Please feel free to get in touch!  contact page

Writer/Artist

If you are both the writer and artist, or writer/artist/programmer on a gay dating sim and would like to partner with us, we sometimes offer net royalty-share opportunities with 50% for the creators.

To submit, make sure your work fits into one of the genres on the bottom of this page and send a query introducing yourself and listing your past works and any credentials.  Give us a brief description of your project with a beginning, middle, and end.  Provide links (not attachments) to multiple examples of your artwork.  Contact us through our contact page.

We do not accept artwork that is primarily derived from ai.

Artists

Artists should submit by contacting us through our contact page.  Tell us what you’re interested in doing:  Line Art, Backgrounds, Logos, GUIs, Flats, Shading, or Graphic Design.  Provide links to samples of your work.

We have a need for semi-realistic art of gorgeous muscular men.

We are very strict about deadlines.  We do not accept artwork that is primarily derived from ai.

Programmers

Right now we’re producing visual novels programmed in Ren’Py and Unity.  We currently have two programmers working for us at this time and are not looking for additional help.

Writers

If you would like to be a writer for us you should submit your own concept for consideration.  You do not need to be a programmer to submit a concept to us.

Writers are paid either a flat amount for the entire game script, or a percentage of the sales, possibly with an advance.  We negotiate with writers on a case by case basis.

To submit, make sure your work fits into one of the genres below and send a query introducing yourself and listing your past works and any credentials.  Give us a brief description of your project with a beginning, middle, and end.  Contact us through our contact page.

Genres are listed in order of preference –

Masculine Gay Games for Men
We would like gay game submissions from existing fans of the genre.  If you are not familiar with Barazoku magazine from Japan, you should at least be a fan of the western variants of bara which include the work of Patrick Fillion and Tom of Finland.  The demographic for these games are gay men.

Gay games can be x-rated or sweet and funny without graphic sex.  The fan base is open to all well-executed, respectful, and enjoyable games.

Yaoi – Open to Writer/Artist Royalty Share Submissions only
Yaoi games must have extremely strong premises propped up by exceptional art teams.  There is an enormous amount of material for western yaoi fans to consume.  For a game to sell well it needs to contain an irresistible premise, and something that generates buzz in the community.

We are extremely selective with yaoi games and do not plan to make more than one a year.

Yaoi games can be x-rated, mature audiences, or without sex scenes.  The demographic for these games are women.

Do not submit shota-con or anything that even vaguely looks like that if you squint at it.  Rape should not be presented as sex scenes that are meant to titillate, in a positive light, or as the basis for or start of a relationship.   Unhealthy relationships should not be presented in a positive light.  Both partners should have agency in the principle relationship.

No one under 18, even ancillary characters, may be present in X-Rated games.  We do not accept artwork that is primarily derived from ai.