> "have to let em catch me to lose clothes before getting fucked" formula was never that good of a mechanic.
I feel the same way. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of precedence for mixing porn and gameplay that doesn't ruin flow for either. If there were, I'd use that mechanic in a heartbeat.
But as of right now (as far as I can see), there is none.
Might as well take the existing formula and give it my own spin.
(I'd love to know a game that mixes lewd and game well, though.)
Huh. Not the reply I expected, actually.
> I feel the same way. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of precedence for mixing porn and gameplay that doesn't ruin flow for either. But as of right now (as far as I can see), there is none.
Well… In the context of current design, you can't have your cake and eat it: either players get to progress, or – see porno content. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot marry two fundamentally opposite game goals into a functional loop. i.e. A ‘run and gun’ style of gameplay where the player’s trying to avoid losing to enemies, and a ‘desirable loss’ state which encourages staying completely passive while getting (literally) fucked.
Frankly, it all comes down to what you, as the dev, want to achieve. Going out on a limb here, but doing this as a hobby, artistic expression, or even extra income, please don’t mind my wishful thinking. People obviously do want the porn, and they don’t care much about loops, MDA theory and UX stuff - I'm in the minority there. Instead have fun while picking up some experience along the way.
Heck, go ultra-silly! Give the audience even more reasons to want to ‘do it’ with the aliens…
Otherwise, may be you'd want to try some genre subversion. Like controlling the monsters against the character, à la reverse-horror games do, etc.
> I'd love to know a game that mixes lewd and game well, though
Gonna go off on a tangent first, so bear with me.
The availability of impactful mechanics in sex-games depend a lot on the game’s genre. As porn is meant to fulfil sexual fantasy scenarios and provide quick gratification, most smut experiences either focus on shorter play-times and simple, nonintrusive mechanics (e.g. casual, point&click, social), or have a lot of easily accessible and various lewd content (e.g. visual novels, dating sims, freeplay).
Games that delve more into narrative-design ultimately outgrow the pornography and turn to either exploring eroticism, sexual themes, or other, more grown-up stuff. Ze old ‘came for the porn, stayed for the story’ jazz.
All that said, off the top of my head, I do have are some suggestions of games (that are not pure visual novels, dating sims, or mini-games) that implemented sex-mechanics in 'interesting' ways:
- ‘Corruption of Champions’ makes the top of the list, as the body-modification mechanics, in addition to allowing combat customization and personalising the descriptions, (dis)allow certain sexual interactions depending on what tools the player possessed. Plus, the modded versions of the game have sooo much content ‘tis really hard not to be impressed.
- ‘Breeding Season’ was, before its downfall, the highest earning adult game on Patreon. I suppose people really wanted a well-drawn, animated, match-making, stats-management game about monster-hybrid husbandry. UI had a lot of issues, and tech-wise it got worse with every revision, but in case you’re curious how to run a promising project into the ground and still have an audience…
- ‘Tales of Androgyny’, for the time being, also suffers from the ‘desirable loss’ problem, but it’s the only porn game I know of that uses an RP combo system to allow setting-up certain (sexual) actions depending on the character’s stance and state of being. So there’s food for thought.
- ‘Rack 2’ is pretty darn impressive as far as visualization of lewd activities is concerned. Paired with the amounts of allowed customization, and the way it blends simple mechanics into more complex sexual interactions, it is a very promising adult freeplay game. Has some performance issues and bugs atm thou.
- ‘House of Tail’ is a game about managing a brothel. There are many of these out there, but somehow this one left the best impression, probably cause of the clean UI, or smtn. The porn element isn't as accented as the other ones I've listed. It's more about the theme, really.
- ‘My Very Own Lith’ starts off as a lewd digital pet game but, since its creator is a writer, things can get rather subversive depending on the players actions. Good example how writing can exploit basic mechanics.
So… there, I guess?
Hopefully you'll find at least some of this useful.
I'm all ears in case you need any more comment.
edit: clarity, fluency, formatting, spelling - work is never done.
Hey, sorry for the late reply!
> either players get to progress, or – see porno content.
Yep. What I'm struggling, design-wise: Connoting lewd scenes to progression (without throw-away* content.)
This is actually the purpose of the cinema tapes. Rewards for just exploring. (Although, I feel this reward method is archaic. It's also weird if you haven't let her get boned. Also somewhat throw-away*.)
*throw-away - lewd scenes shown once, then never brought up again. It always leaves a feeling of wanting more, and leads to project scaling problems.
---
> People obviously do want the porn, and they don’t care much about loops, MDA theory and UX stuff.
Absolutely. At the same time, I want a 2D shooting game with a specific reload mechanic, and I don't see it anywhere, porn or not. So I'm making it, and I'm so happy with how the shooting feels now. (Of course, needs improvement.)
> - I'm in the minority there.
Same.
---
> Otherwise, may be you'd want to try some genre subversion. Like controlling the monsters against the character, à la reverse-horror games do, etc.
Like Carrion? I love this idea. This was one of the first ideas before DiBS, until I realized how much assets I'd need to make. Then I promptly walked back from the idea. Project scale is something I'd want to manage. Still, I'd like to play this game.
---
From games you mentioned (and my personal observations of other games), I've noticed people really like story in their porn.
Actually, no. It's context. And that's something DiBS simply doesn't do at all.
DiBS is a "tourist-sightseeing" game with no dialogue whatsoever, and I feel this is holding the game back. (That, and the fact this is furry with tentacles lol.)
I don't think DiBS needs dialogue, but it does need explicit context. Random logs and journals would do a lot to legitimize the world and the experience. It's something I'd want to do later in development.
I've had this in the back of my head, but it's nice to legitimately write this down.
---
Anyway, thank you. Been insightful. It's also just nice to talk about what can be better for the game (or the next one).
Edit: Typo, different opening, and clarity.
i really loved a few implementations of Divine Arms, but the creator seems to be caught up in one thing or another, so as far as i know there's been no development on that game.
i loved its system of gameplay meets porn, where you could resist a "sex attack" similar to your grapple mechanic but with the typical button masher/point and clicker to prevent damage, or indulge in the "sex attack" voluntarily to take damage but gain damage buffs.
still didn't like the idea that you had to wait for an enemy AI to choose its "sex attack" instead of a regular attack, but i think it might be an interesting combination with your grapple mechanic? choose to resist, or choose to indulge by picking one of two "termination nodes" where if you just reach the cursor to the escape node, you escape as is in the current game, or to the "indulge node" where you can either take no damage or trade damage for a buff?
another idea i just had, mix the clothing/HP with a mechanical tradeoff, maybe the less armor you have, the harder it is to resist a grapple but the faster your stamina recharges, and alternatively/additionally you reload your pistol faster/move faster? i imagine if i was a little lady trapped in an infested station of tentacles, naked and afraid, i'd be pretty panicked and run a hell of a lot faster than when fully armored.
the last idea being that you could intentionally trade armor for buffs so that you can be instantly undressed in one grapple in favor of nude buffs(admittedly paired with debuffs so it's high risk+high reward)
