One more thing: I'm generally wary of heterosexual authors writing gay/lesbian sex scenes. I've been told by actual lesbians that they can immediately tell if a lesbian sex scene in a book/movie/game was written by a straight person or not. I have no doubt they're right.
So at a minimum, I suggest having actual gay and lesbian people read/beta test such scenes first
I definitely have a few women who are friends or family involved in my process. I'll be open to feedback from women on the forum as well. My contemporary game begins with three female characters and one male character. I haven't yet had the women let me know their orientation, though I have some indication of relative sex-drive. I will include a diverse cast, but that will come with time. In my steampunk game, my current focus is on the cis fem character. I do want to include options for other configurations.
That's surely right, although it's probably not limited to FF scenes. Even with MF, a man writing the female perspective or a woman writing the male perspective is suspect as well.
When I first started talking about my project, I received an explicit request to include a lesbian only path, so I really hope I do those scenes well.
It's also not limited to sex scenes. I've started a few female POV games that made me cringe so much I couldn't continue. The characters were effectively "men with breasts." And, judging from the regular feedback I get on the men in my games, I make lots of men cringe with my representations of them.
Writing something you're not is always a challenge.
I consider myself mildly dysphoric, I never fit in with male culture growing up, I'd rather I'd been born female, but there is no drive to live as a woman now--I'm just coming to accept that I'm not quite fully cis.
I hope this may help me to bridge some of those gaps in experience and perspective. I expect my male characters, like Tlero's will attract some criticism from the "self-identified alpha snowflakes."
This is one of the reasons I always suggest to new developers that they should write a few shorter games first rather than starting with the super epic, incredibly ambitious game they've been dreaming of. You get better with practice, and it's nice to be able to make your mistakes, learn from them, and move on to the next thing rather than being 1/4 of the way through and having written yourself into a corner.
Tlaero
I've tried. I've really tried. I realized that working on my big polyamory network story is going to be big. I tried to find another, simpler story. I considered a couple of other stories, but they each expanded into big projects. I finally settled on a steampunk story as my palate cleanser, but it is huge too. It at least has the advantage of compartmentalized adventures.
Unsurprisingly, I endorse the consensus on this thread: I'd leave off the gay male option unless it has sex scenes in line with those in the other routes.
I like to play alternative routes (non-'true' or my personal favourite routes) in these games because they can reveal more about characters' personalities... when they are subjected to more negative situations, feelings of love, or different forms of stress, for example. A gay male route without sex could be interesting to play, in that respect... but it would make your game feel a bit unbalanced and... odd. It would feel like a half-gesture or 'crumbs' as Mheka says.
You've set yourself a difficult challenge, though, Tlaero in allowing players the option of a male or female MC. That essentially involves writing two different MCs, doesn't it? Quite a lot of work!
My ex-partner has recently identified as a form of asexual, and she countered my feeling that it would be out of place to have an ace protagonist (I will have ace characters) in an AVN. I am definitely not ready to try and make a believable and engaging AVN with an ace protagonist.
Some gender/orientation changes will probably be fairly easy. Some scenes can be re-rendered with new characters inserted into saved poses. Dialogue and other scenes will be extra work. Personally, I think it will be worth it in the long run.
