because that's what people do when they have unprotected sex
that wasn't his point..Ain's character was revised from a graphic point of view to eliminate every concern the Dev had in terms of what the laws in his country could potentially do with regards to underage implications. The gore filter is for other aspects of the game that have more to do with personal preference of the players. Playing with the gore filter on will however always be a less complete experience than without.
Patreon concern was circumvented with the old disclaimers and naming the relationships yourself. This really had to do with the Dev not being comfortable even hinting at possible underage factor because of local laws (and yes, we are all aware that age of consent varies...but still. it was possibly and excess in caution, but if it makes him sleep better, I'm all for it).
The game is still fairly short.
The late realisation comes from the fact that neither of us has ever done this sort of things before, and that the Dev has spent so many hours on the renderings and other aspects of the game, that wondering about the local laws just came up later down the line.
Finally the "if you're going to disallow underage you might as well take out the rape" argument.
I get it.
I really do.
We're not going to, and here's why:
The underage thing is a big scare for multiple reasons, and it's also something that neither of us are comfortable with (that is, the extreme loli with early teens or even preteens..and yes, I know, this was not the case here).
I have actually argued against changing Ain, citing some of the same arguments (aesthetical) I have heard both here and privately. Since the Dev was still worried about it and would have had this nagging at him going forward, the decision has been made to change the looks.
Since this is still a work in progress and a learning experience for all parties involved, there's a possibility that she will be finetuned further, as we develop more content, and that some happy medium will be reached (happy for the Dev, which is my primary concern over the happiness of the players.. I know, counterintuitive, right?).
As for the forced sex content... we know we're riding along a similar line/grey area.
That said, this game takes place in very much a Mad Max/Fist of the North Star kind of world.. one where might makes right and once might is established, it helps every party involved accept the power balance.
Sex is a normalised and integral part of establishing rank and regulating social interactions.
Think of the Bonobo chimps that use sex pretty much in a similar way, to navigate uncertain social situations, to show affection, dominance, rank, grooming, friendship, education and sometimes just for fun.
It's a warrior society with limited resources and a somewhat liberated sexuality (we could/would just as easily tell this story without the sexy content, if the Dev hadn't taken the initiative from this forum but say, one dedicated to dystopia or sci fi).
We are also interested in exploring or at least representing the edgier side of sexuality (sexuality is not the same as sexual activity or act), in terms of bdsm and such, or at least characters who normalise that sort of thing. The raider girl explicitly states that she'd like a dominant guy to look up to (in what is a bit of probably hamfisted exposition, I agree, but it was a tricky message to convey in casual conversation anwyay).
Basically we will be coasting between the lines of CNC and RACK, for those who are familiar with those terms.
These are themes we've made integral part of how this society works and you could say that the normalisation thereof is, other than the novel setting, the distinctive trait of the game that has appealed to me and made me take an interest and participate in its development.
So removing them is not really an option, for me at least, and the subject is a much greyer area than it would be on the loli front, which allows us to explore.
Of course, we're well aware that in the real world the scene with the raider would be counted as rape by almost every external observer, given the context in which it occurred, but in universe precisely that context makes it so that it wasn't, and that's how we justify depicting it in the first place.
As a matter of fact, the depiction of "forced" situations will always be within the logic of social dynamics that reflect what I've tried to describe above, and the MC has his own moral code that will never condone straight up rape, but will still have to parse it with the world he lives in.
And the player will always have the possibility to opt out of making the MC perform sexual acts he doesn't think are acceptable from that point of view, by making a different choice.