First person vs third person narration?

[IlliumGames]

What's your preferred narration in adult games?
I'm asking because I'm developing a game and I wanna know what my potential future audience prefers.
Also second side question.
Right now I have a female protagonist, what I was thinking is that I do a mixed thing, where I make it mostly first person but have some third person narration in certain scenarios.
Ex) All the actions, fights, and lesbian sex scenes are in first person. While, all the scenes where the protagonist has sex with men and some other scenes I deem necessary are third person. Is it a stupid idea or am I some kind of genius and adult games developing prodigy?

 

[Meridian]

1st person for male protagonists and 3rd person for female protagonists.

 

[Mimir's Lab]

For me, ideally it's neither. I think images should be used where you would need narration and I don't need you to narrate what I can clearly see. However, in the case where images are expensive to produce (manually drawn art), my answer changes because I know that makes projects impossible. In that case, if the character is clearly meant to be self-insert (non-existent background, super bland) then I want first person narration. If the character is clearly unique and we are an audience observing his/her story, then I want third person narration.

 

[IlliumGames]

For me, ideally it's neither. I think images should be used where you would need narration and I don't need you to narrate what I can clearly see. However, in the case where images are expensive to produce (manually drawn art), my answer changes because I know that makes projects impossible. In that case, if the character is clearly meant to be self-insert (non-existent background, super bland) then I want first person narration. If the character is clearly unique and we are an audience observing his/her story, then I want third person narration.

Wow! You know that actually really helps, thanks!

 

[215303j]

I agree with Mimir's Lab .

I don't hate narrative bits, although I think they should be as little as possible after the intro.
I also think it should be made clear that the narrator is talking, not the MC, if that sentence makes sense.

It can be a mix of parts where the MC is talking to him/herself and parts where the narrator are talking to the player.
I think the MC should not talk to the player, except maybe when the story is told as a kind of memoir: "yes, grandchildren, grandmother was there we stormed the Maginot line, and then this and that happened".

 

[anne O'nymous]

What's your preferred narration in adult games?

Ideally, the only narrative parts should be to present the game. And I really mean "the game", not the story. Can we have the possibility to have a harem, will there be some penalties, are we playing a male or a female (god how I hate having to either wait 20 minutes of play, or go back here to look at the tags, before being sure of MC's gender), and things like that.
For everything else, it should be the extend of what Mimir's Lab said. When there's more that what can be shown through the visual, then a small scene, eventually as interlude, will always be better than a narration.

You write a story with a mystery and, to keep the tension living, the player is aware of some moves of the bad guys ? A scene showing the said move, or showing the bad guys planing it, will always be better than a, "meanwhile the bad guys did that".

You want to express the mood change of the girl through the time ? She have friends, and being a girl she share a lot with them. Peeking in a girl room don't just lead to lewd scenes. Sometimes you can also overhear what she say to her friends, in person or through her phone. And if really you don't have idea for those scenes, a diary can be a compromise between a pure narration and an effective scene.

You want to show that the mother is slowly falling for the MC (her son) ? Her browser history is a good start for this. She can also goes to some forums and anonymously start threads to talk about her feelings ; at first to know how to fight them, then to say that she can't fight anymore, then to ask for advice to seduce her son.
This can be either a semi-narrative part with the MC knowing her computer password and finding those threads, or interlude scenes where the player witness her writing those messages and thinking about it ; but don't over do the thinking part.
It can also be MC's girlfriend/wife who goes on adult forum to talk about her awaking sexuality, to learn about some kink she want to try, or things like that. Or as interlude the player see the sexy co-worker talking with a friend and asking for seduction advice.

You want to show that the tomboy sister want to be more feminine, probably in response to her brother's flirt ? The MC can be the one who'll receive the dress, or why not the lingerie, she bought online. Or it can be the girlfriend/wife plug because she want to try anal.

And so on, there's tons of possibilities that can be used in place of pure narrative parts.

 

[DS23G]

For me, ideally it's neither. I think images should be used where you would need narration and I don't need you to narrate what I can clearly see. However, in the case where images are expensive to produce (manually drawn art), my answer changes because I know that makes projects impossible. In that case, if the character is clearly meant to be self-insert (non-existent background, super bland) then I want first person narration. If the character is clearly unique and we are an audience observing his/her story, then I want third person narration.

Yeah, limiting narration as much as possible is also my preferred solution. In my VN, I only use 3rd person narration to mark time jumps (F.e. if a new scene starts and several hours have passed in-story since the last one, I open it with a small narration like "several hours later", "after a while", etc.) and at the very beginning, to introduce the characters. Outside of that, I try to only rely on dialogue and internal monologues.

However, I can see narration actually enhancing a game, depending on what you're going for. Narration could f.e. give a game with a high fantasy story a grander feel. Also, if you're going for something more comedic, meta narration could be a thing.

 

[IlliumGames]

Thanks! This all really helps!

 

[HandofVecna]

I prefer 1st person unless female protag then 3rd person. I hate 1st person if I am still getting thoughts from inside the NPCs head and see scenes when I'm not actually there. Drives me nuts. If I get to read NPC thoughts and see scenes when I'm not there then do 3rd person.

 

[khumak]

I'm not a big fan of having a narrator at all. IMO if there are things you need to explain to the player it makes more sense for the player to have a conversation with an in game character who lays things out for them. I don't mind some sort of tutorial or something if you have a complex UI you just want to explain. That wouldn't make sense for an in game character to know anything about since to them it shouldn't be a game, it's "real".

 

[Ataios]

3rd person, mostly because I don't want any immersion in porn games. As a player, I don't want to exist in the same universe as the characters of any porn game I play.

Most important however, when it comes to female protagonist games is to make a pure lesbian route. A few straight scenes at the beginning may be acceptable, if this is to show that the character was "turned" lesbian, but the focus should than clearly be on the lesbian content, with the MC no longer being interested in the male characters.

 

[Deleted member 1370694]

First Person always, even for female protagonist if I can play her like a lesbian. ehem.

 

[fede2020]

3rd person. I never identify so strongly with a character that I think of them as a self-insert. There will be too many details of their life and the setting that remind me that this is a very different person from myself. Also I think 3rd person helps the author/creator disassociate themselves from the character. This helps because once a creator starts being too invested in their protagonist, the character often becomes insufferable.

 

[jamdan]

In general I don't think narration is needed except for in transitional scenes, to tell the player where the character is going for example "So-and-so goes to work" or something similar, so it won't be a sudden scene change out of no where, which can be jarring.

Say a character is at their home, and is going to work. A blank screen with a narrator saying what is going on in-between leaving home and arriving at work, so it isn't a sudden scene change. "Bob leaves home and shortly arrives at work". Narration during time jump scenes for the same reasons, say at work the character starts doing their work, "A little while later..." and then their work is done. Little transitions to make it flow better.

Sex scene narration can be good too, as a description of what is going on, it can make them a lot more erotic if it's done well instead of the standard "Oh, ah! Oh, ah!" a lot of games use.

As far as 3rd vs 1st, it depends on what you want the MC to be like. If they are a blank slate, probably 1st. If they are their own person, 3rd. Although I personally prefer 3rd, I view games as following the characters stories from afar, like a movie or book, but me being one of them. Just because I read a book, doesn't make me one of the characters in it.

For character thoughts, I don't think a lot of them are important. You don't need to explain everything, keep the thoughts short and simple, nobody is having a monologue in their heads in the middle of a conversation.