Date Ariane (and the Western AVN industry) is 20 Years Old!
It was around the beginning of August 2004 that I posted “Ariane’s Date Simulator” to my web site. Nobody noticed until 2007 when it went viral, and as a result a new gaming genre was born.
link: A 3 part history of Date Ariane / Date Ariane Remastered (contains links to older versions)
Sales are over, but I’m leaving the rest of the post up.
This has been an amazing experience. Not only launching the first HTML Adult Visual Novel which inspired hundreds of others, but also launching the first Western (3D or western style art) Renpy game about 9 years later which inspired thousands of others.
I want to thank all my fellow AVN developers. I know how much work and creativity goes into the development of these games, and how little reward is often gained from their development. It’s a fun but not necessarily rewarding hobby for most of us. I love making these games, I hope you all do, too.
I’m a big believer in “All ships rise with the tide” and other developers are not competition, we all benefit together as a growing industry. The Adult Visual Novel games come in many “flavors”, some of which I personally don’t care for, but my tastes are unimportant. Developers should make what they want to make, and nobody deserves censorship.
The philosophy of AVNs is to give players platforms to fulfill their desires without harming others in real life, and this philosophy constantly proves true. Adult gaming plays a role in the decline of sexual assault cases world wide. Sadly the industry is constantly under threat of censorship and demonetization, but the data favors our position. AVNs are a net good for society.
I love the look of Daz based graphics and I am now working on a couple of titles using Daz myself, but I also understand the appeal of Honey Select games. HS games are much easier to make graphically, leaving small developers to spend more time with the writing, which is why it’s not a coincidence that many of the best written games use HS graphics.
What really amazes me are the hand drawn titles. I never ever believed 3D was superior to hand drawn, I only used 3D for my games because that’s what I have available. Love the hand drawn games!
And finally I want to thank the millions of fans around the world over these 20 years. No way would I still be in it after 20 years if it weren’t for you.
Date Ariane Games 
Congratulations on the first 20 years!
Unfortunately, the giveaway does not seem to work properly. I get to an itch.io page, but if I click the “Download or Claim” button on that, I get a popup that reads “You don’t have permission to view load this project, ask the developer to check the visibility settings.”
I fixed the download, it should work now.
It does, thank you!
Dear Ariane,
I am a long time fan of you, your games and your other thoughts and articles mostly about AI.
Tried to look back when I first played ArianeB, but itâs several computers and harddisks back. Canât seem to find it on old backups.
But at least 15 years back.
Itâs interesting to see the picture quality improvements over the years.
Your latest model seems a bit young.
With all kind regards,
Ed
Netherlands
[cid:image002.png@01DAE2B6.10FB97A0]
Sent from Mailhttps://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986 for Windows
Thanks. Yes, I like improving my graphics. The new graphics in Ariane in Paradise do look different and younger, but I’m not entirely sure why. I think it’s because the 3D model is more detailed and less “flawed”, the detailing gives the illusion of younger.
The whole point of this project was to 1.) Improve the graphics of Ariane in Paradise, and 2.) Learn Daz Studio well enough that I can confidently make new games like Dating in a World on Fire in it.
I have completed both goals at this point, and I have NO plans to do the same to Date Ariane Remastered.