[[In Your Opinion]] What makes an oekaki species successful?

[BlueEyedKite]

Mods if this topic has been created before just let me know. I did search! ^^;

I didn't know where to put this question so I figure this board is good. Anyway!

I am about to open my own dog breed species in the closed species community oekaki. I just spent the past hour clicking through all the different species there O_O You know what I noticed? It's pretty rare to see a species get off the ground let alone be successful! This got me thinking:

In your opinion, what makes an oekaki closed species successful?

I would like to discuss this topic! What do you think the key is? Having an opening event? An ARPG aspect? It's own lore? Artist search immediately? Leave it open for marking to drum up interest? Advertisement?

Yeah that's it basically, what gets folks coming back to adopt. Keep the discussion civil though I am sure you didn't need me to say that <3 the CS community is pretty wholesome.

All opinions welcome ^^

[Cerestes]

IMO You need a good base to start off with, dedicated artists and the discipline to stick to a scheduled routine.
Also, I think a species thrives better when the staff branch out and make more activities of things to actually do with your characters after adoption, i.e. art prompts or roleplay threads. You have to get people invested!!

[fablefury]

I think originality as well as finding something that most people would enjoy. The ones that come to mind, for me personally, are kalons and keldines. They're both canine based species, so something that most people already like. Then you add something like shines or scales which adds a cool feature and it's not over the top. I believe both of them also offer free adopts/raffles fairly often, so you aren't forced to pay for a character to have something of that species.

You also have to think about the community on CS. There are a lot of furries, or people who enjoy animal-based characters, especially canines, felines and horses. Then you add elements like events, or (based on what the species calls it) some sort of daily gacha of rolling currency, traits, MYOs, characters, etc etc.

I'm not a huge fan of closed species but Kalons has been around forever, and you can tell why when you see them. They're beautiful and it's obvious a lot of time is placed into making them from the artists and owners. I'm not too up-to-date on keldines so I wouldn't know specifics about them but I have definitely seen some really cool designs from there as well.

To add, they've built up this community of people and from that community comes YCHs and such, free gifts for just owning a character from that closed species!

[BlueEyedKite]

@Cerestes You brought up something I never thought about and that is adopts on a schedule. I haven't really thought of if adopts come out on certain days in other species I follow. They probably do, and I will keep that in mind! Also I agree about having something to do. I'm a writer myself so I'd be thrilled to host a roleplay, great ideas! Thank you <3



@inkfauna I think you're spot on. The animal-based species do tend to do better and stick around longer. And events are a necessary element to keep interest going.

I have never been in the Kalon community, as I was busy in other species when that community took off, but it's a wonder they're still thriving years and years after opening. If you ask me a hidden secret is their artists, and I don't mean their skill level. I was lucky enough to talk to one of the Kalon artists and they are so genuine and kind. Every adopt they put out it's like they had a mini fanclub of users not just wanting a Kalon but wanting an adopt from that artist specifically who was so sweet as pie to interact with. Having artists that are personable as well talented can only help grow the community. Just an aside I noticed.