Sex as a Gameplay Mechanic

[Carnal Druid]

Hello,

I've be lurking around on this forum (and similar sites) for quite some time and played a lot of different adult oriented games.
My reason for finally making account is not really to make a game (i can't really draw and programming doesn't really fall into my aera of expertise either),
but to talk about them, contributing in the creation process.

As I said, i played a lot of games. And I have noticed something:
Aside from some exceptions, most games I came along used Sex in one of these 3 ways:

- As a way of punishment (mostly if the PC is female)

- As a reward for completing actions (combat, etc.)

- As some form of manageable resource

Only a few games take a different approach, like for example Mario is Missing, which is using it as the battle mechanic, but it's still a cutscene as soon as the sex starts.

Since Gameplay is the most important aspect of a Game, the game basically is the Gameplay, Story and Graphics are cool if they are there and well done, but they are not essential. And since Sex is the most defining aspect of an adult game, it's in my mind atleast pretty crucial that Sex would be part of the Gameplay if not the most important part in it.

But all of the above mentioned approaches have not really satisfied me.

- Punishment: Being punished is not a good thing. When i play a game, I don't want to see the Game Over screen. Most of these Games serves as Male Power Fantasies, where the PC(female) gets raped or sexed in another way if they lose a fight or something like that. So if i want to see sex scenes, i have to lose. See the problem?

- Reward: It's quite the opposite of the first one, but it's still kind of the same, reducing sex to something that occures after combat (that is, after Gameplay), making it a non-mechanic. Sure it's nice that it's there, but still, i'm just watching a cutscene or something similar.

- Manageable Resource: Many Games like Brothel Simulators (or simulators in general) use Sex as a resource like for example wood or stone in RTS games like Age of Empires. Even if i like some of these games really much, the mechanic still seems weird to me, since it's making the sex scenes something i'd rather skip in order to get progress in the game in order to see more sexual content, which i'm then going to skip in order to get progress in the game to... You see my dilemma. And since most of the mayor Games in this category are still unfinished, it's pretty much a vicious circle.


My goal with this thread is not to give the perfect way, the perfect idea on how to do it. But rather to provide a platform of discussion on better ways to use Sex in future Games or for people to give examples of games that to it better that i didn't know before or didn't consider.

I hope you like what i'm trying to achieve.

[CrazyKuroSushi]

Hmmm what about a sex game that involved a rhythm mechanic?

I've been thinking of making a spin off of Mario and Luigi: Super Star Saga

What if there were battles in the game that involve the enemy performing a hentai attack in which you can reduce damage in you do a certain button combination?

For instance. Say the PC has a horny meter and that horny meter reaches max which causes a hentai attack from the enemy that effects the PC's health. If the PC uses certain button combinations, they can reduce the damage from the attack but still get the sex scene?

Or say these is a team attack or special attack that the PC performs to do damage to the enemy that requires a certain combination of buttons.

While the attacks could get repetitive, the variety of enemies and positions could probably fix this overtime and the horniness bar makes it so you cannot perform or be assaulted by these attacks constantly so it doesn't feel like some sort of terrible cutscene you have to put with all the time.

This would inevitably try to combine the 3 types into one, Rewarding the Player with good gameplay, still having the sex scene but not facing game over with it even if you do fail... unless your hp is low but with Kirby and Mario type games, game over is pretty hard to obtain and it is a manageable resource in the sense you are maintaining your hp.

The big problem I suppose would be to keep the player able to look at the sex scene and defend themselves at the same time or attack.

[dullman]

Hello,

I've be lurking around on this forum (and similar sites) for quite some time and played a lot of different adult oriented games.
My reason for finally making account is not really to make a game (i can't really draw and programming doesn't really fall into my aera of expertise either),
but to talk about them, contributing in the creation process.

As I said, i played a lot of games. And I have noticed something:
Aside from some exceptions, most games I came along used Sex in one of these 3 ways:

- As a way of punishment (mostly if the PC is female)

- As a reward for completing actions (combat, etc.)

- As some form of manageable resource

Only a few games take a different approach, like for example Mario is Missing, which is using it as the battle mechanic, but it's still a cutscene as soon as the sex starts.

Since Gameplay is the most important aspect of a Game, the game basically is the Gameplay, Story and Graphics are cool if they are there and well done, but they are not essential. And since Sex is the most defining aspect of an adult game, it's in my mind atleast pretty crucial that Sex would be part of the Gameplay if not the most important part in it.

But all of the above mentioned approaches have not really satisfied me.

- Punishment: Being punished is not a good thing. When i play a game, I don't want to see the Game Over screen. Most of these Games serves as Male Power Fantasies, where the PC(female) gets raped or sexed in another way if they lose a fight or something like that. So if i want to see sex scenes, i have to lose. See the problem?

- Reward: It's quite the opposite of the first one, but it's still kind of the same, reducing sex to something that occures after combat (that is, after Gameplay), making it a non-mechanic. Sure it's nice that it's there, but still, i'm just watching a cutscene or something similar.

- Manageable Resource: Many Games like Brothel Simulators (or simulators in general) use Sex as a resource like for example wood or stone in RTS games like Age of Empires. Even if i like some of these games really much, the mechanic still seems weird to me, since it's making the sex scenes something i'd rather skip in order to get progress in the game in order to see more sexual content, which i'm then going to skip in order to get progress in the game to... You see my dilemma. And since most of the mayor Games in this category are still unfinished, it's pretty much a vicious circle.


My goal with this thread is not to give the perfect way, the perfect idea on how to do it. But rather to provide a platform of discussion on better ways to use Sex in future Games or for people to give examples of games that to it better that i didn't know before or didn't consider.

I hope you like what i'm trying to achieve.

Hmm as for the third form is perfect for game, as for Mario is missing having sex non stop is the same boring thing as not having at all, whilst in most simulators i can skip sex scene whenever i want, but truthfully as you said besides WM and sb2 there isn't any brothel simulator with much content and those two are both image based which i do not like.
But you see you forgot about another important category where sex is one of method to resolve quests (rpg games) since truthfully in english games we do not see this, so it's quite obvious why you forgot about that, since truthfully it requires from author to write good game instead of render image viewer. It's probably means the teams making games are too small , but why is reason of that?? Answer yourself since the answer knows only authors why they not trying to recruit more people to game making process.

[Carnal Druid]

Yeah, that's the problem. you either sacrifice Gameplay continuity or the ability to concentrate on the sex scenes because you are busy pushing buttons. :/

[dullman]

Yeah, that's the problem. you either sacrifice Gameplay continuity or the ability to concentrate on the sex scenes because you are busy pushing buttons. :/

Yes this sacrifice is just too much for me especially since i'm yet to find english games that hit into my needs (it's not like that do not have right fetishes it just they aren't done well).
I mean i offered my help in making game but no one was interested with serious project, and truthfully if i would see any serious person who is trying to make a game i would help them. As for current my believe that if i want a game i make it myself which i do also i have zero ability in writing so i decided to make brothel manager since it less depends on writing. But i had a working demo on unity and truthfully didn't liked looks on it so decided to try rpg maker mv a with using shaders i was able to create dynamic sprite system which create sprite during runtime depends on clothes/poses/hair/skin/eye colors etc. But currently after that i do know what i want to do next return to unity or continue with trying mv to my needs. (Although truthfully for 20+ actors to display it adds second for loading map)

[Daemoge]

The way I've chosen to handle this, for whatever that's worth, is that I'm going to make the combat stuff platformer style and make that as fun as fun gets. My protagonist will be sexy for that portion as well but in a particularly conventional sense. I don't want to, as you say, reward players for failing, turn them into scene collectors by repeatedly failing, or keep them button mashing when it's time for a sex scene. Scenes, in my game, are being separated off into "town" environment and combat in the "platform" environment, which have different sprites, different mechanics, etc. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm essentially removing sex as a combat mechanic. The only time I've seen it done rather fluidly are the way Koonsoft games deal with masturbation (a stop-and-heal action to replenish resources) and this lavishly gory bit called Syakuga where the zombie protagonist can fuck-kill to eliminate the monster in a finishing move style to regenerate health.

[oranssi]

I have a theory.. Do you remember when you played an adult game for the first time? Wasn't it exciting? It sure was for me! But now because the same formula has been used over and over again, it isn't the same anymore. It's just like having quicky relationships with one partner and then another one and so forth.. it is fun at the beginning but eventually gets tiresome. So this could happen more or less when adult games are played. In my case, before I knew it, I was desiring instead, a more meaningful sex context for games. I guess this is like being ready to get married, falling in love and being in a serious relationship. The compromised, has "skin in the game". And because of this, the feeling of achieving something meaningful is increased. But of course, all of this depends on the personal moods at the moment.. Some people want a quicky, some I imagine play it just as another casual game. Big videogame corporations are slowly creating games with sex (although not explicit sex). I appreciate those details very much even if not explicit, it feels truly earned and gets more satisfying, although maybe not in a fapping kind of way. What if you could have both?

So why is sex not the integral part of the gameplay itself, apart of the usual formulas? Because it is dificult to do, in terms of getting nice animations, as well in terms of the technical aspect of programming. It is easier and less riskier (that is, being prettier and fappable, instead looking just ridiculous) to do still images of nudes, or a simulation as a cutscene, instead of doing a much more interactive sex gameplay. Compromising beautiful graphics to have more interactivity is not a niche that is easy to find..

Personally I'm trying to use sex as a kind of soul-searching adventure in the games I'm planning to do.. featuring sexual reproduction in cells to the nature of duality of our world perception. It will be a genera that I'm certain wont be as catchy as nude pictures ahah.. Actually, I'm doing this as a social experiment.

[GoRepeat]

The issue is game pacing. Sex animations inevitably require an animation lock and will always break the pacing of the game; it is hard to have an action game where you are running around, jumping platforms and shooting bad guys while stopping to have sex every 10 - 15 seconds for 20 seconds or more. Certain types of games (such as fighters ala Fairy Fighting) can get around this because they already have animation locks built into the basic combat formula (grabs/slams/throws), so it is just a matter of using that 10 second animation lock for a quick penetration instead of a suplex. Action games tend to suffer the worse from it due to the pacing issues; strategy games can slip in without too much awkwardness since they are usually slow paced or have breaks to begin with.... I am not sure if it is so much finding the perfect way to implement sex into game mechanics, or finding the perfect genre that supports sex animations.