sierralee
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October 31 Update
🕑 Added 2021-10-31 20:24:35 +0000 UTCFirst up, check out the comic! I mentioned this idea a year ago, but only decided to make a comic recently. As mentioned then, the idea of someone being "congenitally tsundere" struck me as funny while working on Crimson Gray, but I didn't think it could really sustain a project of any kind. A comic seemed like a way to have a bit of fun with it. ^-^
I'm also sharing this around Reddit because I might as well. I only posted to a couple big subs and r/tsunderes, does anyone else have suggestions? You can also updoot the others if you want.
Anyway, I have something of substance this week...
Cognitive Breakthroughs
One benefit of not pouring all my energy into a single all-consuming project is that my brain has more free creative energy. It might seem like downtime, but it's critical to overall healthy functioning as a creative. I can always continue old projects that I've mentally designed, and my brain continually comes up with random figments, but there's also a need for another kind of creative work.
Here's my newest breakthrough: all of the rest of TLS will be managed by NFTs. Each unique affection point will be an NFT that you can purchase. All future sex scenes will be written by blockchain. All of this is a very good idea.
Okay, for real: one of my personal disappointments over the past two years or so is that I haven't been sure what I want to do following the completion of TLS. Oh, there will certainly be more art, short stories set in the world, a full replay with some editing, and potentially developer commentary. But I've been wanting to be able to get my subconscious working on a new concept so that when it's time to begin a major new project, it's been thoroughly considered.
For example, I do have a science fiction concept that could be a long term project, but too many details remain uncertain. Not details that my subconscious can work out, I mean fundamental constraints like genre and engine. This is still an unknown mentally, but I've gotten excited about another one of my ideas that I think could serve as a good interim project.
I'd like to do a post-apocalyptic setting, but instead of plot or characters, I want to talk about a game mechanic that's captured my imagination lately. A lot of digital ink is spilled about how sex is used in adult games, frequently falling into plot or reward categories. I think this is a hard problem to crack because the sexual and gameplay elements frequently operate as different, and potentially mutually exclusive, methods of engagement.
For this game, I'd like to explore a number of things: greater choice/branching during sex scenes, and iterative sex scenes. Now, you do lose some narrative potential this way and I'm concerned about avoiding repetition. But overall it's a concept that I think could be fun, perhaps better explained with an example than all the mechanics I have in mind.
Say you have a pairing, and for plot reasons both partners receive stat boosts from sex. However, they're not guaranteed to have great sex at first, and if you pick "jam it in" type options, things will go poorly. As the game moves forward, your choices both inside and outside sexual encounters will interact. Improved relationships lead to better sex options, sex gives you stats, gameplay choices lead to romantic encounters that improve relationships, etc. In theory, I think this could lead to a gameplay cycle where the sexual encounters feel inextricable from the rest.
Not sure how others will react to the execution of this, but personally I'm enthusiastic. I've always felt like it's difficult to include fetish choice or branching scenes in a game in a way that feels meaningful to me (as opposed to making the game an interactive masturbatory aid), but this will be my shot at it. I'm glad that I can be thinking about this, both in off-hours and subconsciously, so hopefully I can execute the idea well when the time comes.
As a reminder: I won't begin any work on this project until TLS is essentially complete. However, I hope that once I reach that point, the idea will be fully baked in my mind.
In other news: ugh, October is over and the year is almost done. >_< There's so much I want or need to do yet, so maybe no vacation after all. Just having a couple of normal work weeks definitely helped me get on top of the stuff that was piling up, so maybe I can shift gears in the other direction again.
Comments
Sierra Lee
Unfortunately, I can't give a comprehensive response because I'm not familiar with those games. My intent isn't a high level of granularity in sexual encounters, but rather exploring a (sexual) narrative that's unique to each pairing. For all the jokes being made about sex tutorials, I meant the groundedness more as a background framework than as a goal. For example, if one partner got a mutation* that gives them tentacles, then part of their scenes will be dealing with this change, evolving from awkward efforts to integrate the new body part to mutually satisfying tentacle sex. I don't anticipate the choices during the sex scenes would be truly challenging to the player (neither through ambiguity nor checking a bunch of sex stats), but they could have significant flavor differences and hopefully lead to a more satisfying sense of integration. *In case anyone is thinking that this would be done procedurally, that's not what I mean. This isn't a game where anyone could randomly get that mutation, the tentacle couple would have unique scenes.
Hursha
At a narrative level the only game I can think of which tackles the idea of actually learning how to be intimate with another person is Love of Magic. Not a favorite of mine, but it does take a serious approach to the main couple learning how to pleasure each other over time. At a mechanical level, there's a few games that let you choose how you have sex, but the most complex I know is Lilith's Throne, which actually lets you pick exact positions and actions over the course of sex, and the partners' preferences will impact the effectiveness of those acts, which in turn gives you an in-game resource. I would worry that having the details of sex being at the forefront could cause players to stop caring about it, ironically. There's a chance that you end up at a state where there's simply an optimal way to approach sex, which doesn't engage well IMO, or that having too much granularity in options makes sex too prosaic.
BleBle
Mmm I will give my grain of salt over here. It sounds good so I hope it starts well. One things I miss on "modern" games are the "mini-games" or the spicy that adds the game more variety and richness.For example: Breath of Fire 3-4 has a set of minigames like working on a sand port carrying boxes and the classic fish minigame.This mini-games makes your life easy on the main game.Also you can build a city of faeries. Breath of fire V doesn't have fish minigame for plot reasons, but you can build a city of faeries, and ants. FF has some type of minigames too, the card-game on FFIX is a so-so. The chocobo races and blitzball in FFX are great but Blitzball prizes are lame as fuck, so much potential wasted. I think the Suikoden games are the games with more variety and fair in prizes that I could think right now. Of all the Suikoden games I played the best was suikoden 2 for psone. It has : a fishing minigame, cooking duels where you can combine with "searching" recipes along the world, fire emblem "wanna be" mini game deply linked with the Main Plot. Even a "climb the mountain" minigame. All of this with the tipical "search of hidden items,recipes, books, seeds or cattle. Damn if the game had some type of "league" would be perfect , but it is by far a game with optional games that doesn't make you tired. Yakuza games are another type of games where you have a lot of minigames, but personally I dont like it much, the games is great and all but at the start of the game they bombard you with minigames, optional things, and you are like "mm ok" Another one that I remember is Dark Chronicle, it has minigolf game with fishing, and fish races. You can make photos and make inventions out of them.It is another game with minigames very well implemented. I am still searching games with a minigame that includes football or something like that.Adults games too! Well you get the idea. I miss that on the last sovereign, but it has a lot of complexity on his own and I can "build" kingdoms so I am happy. Still we need to have a "that conversation" delayed in the PM until you have more time or you are better. I leave this here and I am out. https://img.ifunny.co/images/5e57bb85a664b2c254881319eb18153ee1d066877b182046af747f64455bb89c_1.jpg Have a nice day!
Sierra Lee
That will be a concern, to be sure. However, my intent is that sex scenes will not be grindable: you won't get +1 Strength for each scene, for example. Instead, you'll only receive benefits when a couple's scenes evolve in a significant way. This last part may be difficult, but ideally I'd like every successful sexual encounter to be meaningfully different.
Sierra Lee
Actually, this is lore. Politicans are a breed of toucan that feeds on political discourse.
Keeping balance between sex scenes being regular gameplay element and rewarding narrative may be very difficult. Making sex scenes too gameplay-ish can lead to such scenes being grindy and players thinking "meh, they are having sex again, I'll just click it through to get my stat points"
DukeLeto7
So we've got a typo alert from the forum Bugs thread. Old content too. In the Main Chamber map of the Council of Gawnfall (the one with the deliberations and votes), in event (004,000), there is a line of dialogue that reads: "I believe the Church of Ivala can address this integration in a meaningful way. We should lead on this matter, not follow after politicans." The last word should be "politicians". Screenshot link: https://imgur.com/tkWIvEr
Sierra Lee
Ah, yeah, those are flipped around. Good catch, thanks!
Sierra Lee
I don't know about that, but given where the bar is set...
Sierra Lee
This one wasn't on my radar. I've viewed the explanatory trailer and it looks like a more complex version of the sex combat model, unless that's deceptive. Is there anything particularly inventive you wanted to pull out from it?
Sierra Lee
I have played a significant portion of Daibanchou, actually. Up to a point where I started getting crashes in the middle of certain engagements, That is a comparable example, in that it uses certain base images in varied ways.
Sierra Lee
I hadn't noticed the deletion, as you don't get a notification for moderator actions. Welp, I tried. Just how much iteration there is will depend on how flexible I make the system and how frequently the player can engage with it. If the number of iterations is kept under control, I could potentially do entirely different text for each variation. But some of this will be in the making, not the planning.
Sierra Lee
Joking.
Nathan Phoenix
I can't remember what interview I read it in but someone once said "plenty of h-games can teach you how to have sex but nobody bothered to make a h-game that teaches people to have GOOD sex." sounds like something your game could work on.
onodera
One game that has really changed the way sex is integrated with the rest of the gameplay is Karryn's Prison. It's as far from TLS as a lewd game could be, but since you've made Noxian Nights as well I feel comfortable mentioning it here.
Lord Forte
Great comic! I was amused XD As far at the iterative sex scene concept, that reminds me a lot of one of my favorite old h-games, Daibanchou: Big Bang Age. It's an old Alice Soft game that still holds up pretty well today imo (and it has a professional-quality fan translation). It doesn't have the gameplay element you suggest per se, but it has the iterative concept. Basically, as the protagonist's relationship with a heroine deepens (based on spending time together or special events), you unlock new or "improved" branches in their sex scene. These build on the previous iteration. So in their first sex scene you only get a very basic set of options. Next time, with a higher relationship, you might be able to try a new position for one part of the scene, or instead do a new version of the same one as last time. I'd also just highly suggest the game in general XD Actually it's mildly post-apocalyptical too, if not excessively so.
Jeffrey Lebowski
Oh I just recently completed a full runthrough for fun and have a few bugs to report from slightly earlier sections, but I can hold those off until after the war event is done. However, I also have a potential new bug report for the Incubus Prison, unless what I found was intentional (but it strikes me as just a minor confusion, since it took quadruple checking to even make sure I was correct). In the Gentle Path, the enemies seem like they are stronger versions of the enemies we just faced in the previous section, and we are supposed to use the tactics we already learned. However, the Penitent Flameflies and Penitent Shards inflict the opposite type of damage as their weaker counterparts, with flameflies doing magical damage and shards doing physical, which can negate previously learned equipment loadouts and can add a bit more trial and error to the section. Hopefully that would be a pretty easy fix
Grim8P
The NFT and blockchain part made me burst out laughing. Good show. I love this comic. I'm glad it is on reddit so I can share it around! It looks like r/Tsunderes took it down though for being too lewd. Just FYI if you haven't seen that yet. I personally am intrigued by your post-apocalyptic setting / iterative sex scenes idea and shall look forward to it. I do agree that avoiding boredom due to repetition will be key. > In other news: ugh, October is over and the year is almost done. >_< I had this conversation with some people recently. I feel your pain here. All I can say is good luck finishing up everything!
James
The post Apoc setting sounds interesting!, I can't wait!
JJS
Well its to late in the game for it.
Jeffrey Lebowski
Hahahahaha the NFT thing really got me. Time to invest IncuCoin XD I remember you mentioning this comedic idea, I'm glad it could become a cute and funny comic Your game mechanic idea sounds super interesting! Seems like it could be complex mechanically and narratively but with a whole lot of potential for engagement and integrating sex into the core gameplay loop
JJS
So are you serious about this nft stuff or were you joking?
