Porn game gameplay

[tomcire]

Commenter: make an openworld gta5'ish porn game with this and that...
Renpy dev: (gulp)

Found it with 10 millions of dollars and you may see something.

 

[Glad]

In this thread I would like to discuss about gameplay in our porn games, and to find ways to improve them.

Your classification is a mess but so are porn games...
Porn games are games. The problem is devs look at porn more for inspiration.

What are the major elements of a porn game :
- A story
- Dialogues
- Sex scenes

No. Well, 1 out of 3. Porn games are GAMES. And games consist of:
- Story
- Gameplay
- Presentation(art, music, sounds, text etc)

And pretty much only two of these are mandatory. Story is optional. For example, a tetris game that reveals a line of sexy picture for each line exploded. It has no story, only gameplay and presentation.

Porn integrates into one or more of these aspects, usually at least two.
Porn in story. Typically "porn as background" or "porn as reward". You can write a story with large amount of casual sex or at the end of a particular storyline.
Porn in gameplay. "Porn as reward" or "porn as a way to interact with the world/npcs". Reward part is easy - player does something well, player gets show a picture or an animation or unlocks something. Interaction is harder, because the game has to be designed around it. Can be as easy as sex moves for combat(look at myriad of RPGM games) or as hard and deep(lol) as you are willing to go.
Porn in presentation. This doesn't have to be explained. You can take a non-porn game, mod the nude models in and bam! You have a porn game. 2D sprites, 3D models, textures, text... It all can be pornified to the extreme.

Note about "porn as reward" thing. It doesn't have to be the only reward. It sucks when the only reward is porn.

What are the biggest strengths of porn in games? First and foremost, INTERACTIVITY. Unique to games(unless you count IRL sex). Ranges from the choice of partner, position, outfits, actions... a game can have all of it or none of it. Secondly, story-driven investment. Following the character, player is more invested and achieves greater satisfaction than purely "mechanical" porn can provide.
These two things are neither fully compatible no mutually exclusive. They fight for attention. In fully interactive, open world, free roam games story tends to suffer, and in fully story driven and railroaded ones, the interactivity loses. It's a balance.

My point is... STOP LEARNING FROM PORN, START LEARNING FROM ACTUAL GAMES. To this day, the best porn games are Skyrim and Sims, because modding fails to ruin the underlying gameplay. So learn what works. Learn from witcher games... No that doesn't mean that you have to make a game like witcher, but you can learn how it is integrated into the game. Start from the first one.

 

[Ixiah]

A good addition for a Porn Game would be to learn how regular great games keep you interested in playing, by adding new mechanics or options.
A lot of "Sandbox" games become stale because the way to romance your neighbor or mom is the same way you seduce the Female Principal of the school 4 or 10 hours into the game.
For example:
Add some "Charisma" or Magic skills or skill trees, that get trained the more you interact with others, unlocking new options for both the "regular" and sex gameplay and perhaps even allow you insight that unlocks new scenes with "old" characters.

 

[AmazonessKing]

A good addition for a Porn Game would be to learn how regular great games keep you interested in playing, by adding new mechanics or options.
A lot of "Sandbox" games become stale because the way to romance your neighbor or mom is the same way you seduce the Female Principal of the school 4 or 10 hours into the game.
For example:
Add some "Charisma" or Magic skills or skill trees, that get trained the more you interact with others, unlocking new options for both the "regular" and sex gameplay and perhaps even allow you insight that unlocks new scenes with "old" characters.

There are a lot of ways. I personally like the skinner box concept as long as it isn't abused as mobile games do.

 

[DuniX]

How about a management sim where you are running a porn studio(adult video tycoon), you pick from different sex acts to form a script, then during filming you can be put in control of either the male or female as you go through the script with a control style similar to Teaching Feeling. Have it where as you continue to make movies, the stuff you can do increases as your business becomes more wealthy.

The whole thing essentially gives you the ability to make your own fap material(with plenty of variety) while having a small amount of gameplay and a sense of progression to keep it interesting.

Yakuza Boss Ririka has the best implementation of AV Production although it's more about stats and training.

What I would like to see more is a Functional Purpose for the Sex Actions on why would you chose one thing over another.
If you just need to grind Blowjobs before you unlock Fucking then it gets boring and Blowjobs become Obsolete.

This is where Training Games where some stats increase while others decrease like Bifrost brothel game work well.
Also for Customers give them traits and wants that you tailor your characters for. And you want to be in control in terms of training your characters in a reasonable time and manage and manipulate the customers so that what you have done pays off.
You don't want the training to just be a grind, you want your actions and management have a purpose.

I am not saying you need to play a mini-game that stops you from fapping, I am saying your choices and actions to have a purpose.

Also for games with pregnancy/breeding give it a in-game function for the child like breeding a new generation of ubermensch units that you use for tactical battles.