Browsing Slashdot, & saw a link to this article:
Why_videogames_havent_grown_up_yet
It's a small piece about how mainstream video games handle sex & sexual relations (short version: poorly). It's one of my biggest pet peeves with larger games - either they ignore sex completely, or they bumble around with 'how much skin can we show & still get an M rating?' Now make no mistake, I have no problem with pin-up quality heroines. My beef is that the games are clearly trying to sell on sex, but fall short of actually including any. If you're going to put a brothel in a game, there had better be an actual sex option.
In fairness, selling sex while somehow remaining in the 'not porn' camp is nothing new. Movies dance this line with every R release. And somehow they avoid seeming like a preteen's porn fantasy. Why can't video games rise to the same bar? I don't know - but it's one of those things that bother me constantly.
Back to my porn games (which also handle sex poorly, but in the opposite way), Kidan asked me about the stats in my next game. My goal with this game was to have each character actually play differently. The warrior should be strong, but perhaps not great with brains or sexual technique. The wizard should be really bright & should have powerful magic attacks, but probably have low health. So, I grabbed my old RPG books & started notating which stats I'd want to use. I was on the dangerous path of building a full RPG, but then I realized that this is supposed to be a porn game. It's supposed to be light & quick to pick up. So, I looked at everything I wanted to happen in the game, and I started combining stats together. I ended up with:
Body
Spirit
And that's it. I managed to crowbar any action I needed under these two stats. Body consists of everything a fighter would need (Strength, Stamina, Reflexes), and Spirit is everything else. Think of it as a combination of both Intelligence & Charisma - it's everything a wizard would need, plus some charm & sexual abilities. Originally Intelligence & Charisma were separate, but they just aren't used enough in the game. This made the Body stat far superior. So for game balance I ended up combining the two. Which in theory means the wizard is also the best with sexual attacks. It doesn't quite work out that way, as she doesn't have the strength to maintain an advantage in most grapples, but it does make for interesting play. Anyway, I made a short list of things each stat affects, I'll copy it below.
BODY:
Damage & skill with physical weapons
Grapple strength (shifts advantage bar)
Maximum health
Force open doors, climb ropes
Resist poisons
SPIRIT:
Damage & skill with magic attacks
Grapple damage
Health regeneration rate
Solve logic puzzles
Charm / Coerce certain NPCs
That's a long post, so I'll go ahead & wrap up. For those of you who are curious about where K. Fox plays into this, I'll simply say she's somewhere in between. I have her set up as a Monk or martial artist, which requires both stats to some extent.
-DirtyC101
I like what you did between Body and Spirit, getting to read the details. It keeps things simple, and yet it will give a different experience each time. Now, are the three races locked into the three classes, or could you play the different races with different classes? It sounds like you have plans for the former but I remember the selection screen having the classes listed below the characters. I could be wrong.
ReplyDeleteFor the demo, the classes will be locked.
ReplyDeleteOnce the game is done, beating the game with each class will unlock that class for all the characters.
Ah, ok. So, each character is locked into a class, but on bearing the game with said class will make it available for global use. Make people work for their porn! I like that.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see what else this game has in store once its released in both demo and the final product.