Thoughts on Current Trends in Incest Game/Content Development

[megaplayboy10k]

I think threading the needle between the fantasy of incest and the reality of incest would be just that, threading a needle. There of course are real-world instances of incestuous sexual activity or even relationships that are non-traumatic or non-tragic, but there's certainly a lot of real-world downsides and drawbacks to such relationships--public discovery can lead to legal consequences, including criminal charges and, in the case of minors, removal of children from a household. And feelings of guild and shame can last a lifetime. The fantasy is that the "forbidden fruit" is within reach to taste, and that real consequences are not an issue.
Of course, people also fantasize about cheating on girlfriends/boyfriends and on spouses, also without consequence.
I think you can have variety in plot, theme, characterization, body types, art, MC age/gender, number of family members and personalities thereto, within the incest game subgenre, and that's a good thing. Mainly you can do it just by either avoiding cliché or subverting cliché. You can have slow-grind games, but my personal preference is that better be a damn good story if I'm grinding for an hour between scene progressions. I've thought of a "continuous reward" gameplay model, where sexual content is there from the jump, and game progression just means there's new sex and new partners, not that the MC is inching closer to sticking his dick in his mom/sister/teacher etc.

 

[Only4You]

I think threading the needle between the fantasy of incest and the reality of incest would be just that, threading a needle.

Of course. People say "literature is the mirror of life", but one of my teachers used to say that, it is not really a copy of reality, but rather a higher version of reality. I think what he meant is that it is a romanticized version of reality. Now, I must sound funny comparing adult games with literature, but I think the basic principle of the story of a realistic adult game should be the same - inspired by reality but not an exact replica of it. Not all games need to be very realistic though, the degrees may vary depending on the theme of the game.

You can have slow-grind games, but my personal preference is that better be a damn good story if I'm grinding for an hour between scene progressions. I've thought of a "continuous reward" gameplay model, where sexual content is there from the jump, and game progression just means there's new sex and new partners, not that the MC is inching closer to sticking his dick in his mom/sister/teacher etc.

Agreed, progress should be quantified by the overall state of the story line, not just sexual progress. I prefer a game with 'a story demanding sex' rather than 'sex demanding a story line just for the sake of it'. I wouldn't mind a game having infrequent sex scenes as long as it is consistent with the story the writer is trying to tell. On the other hand, I wouldn't mind if a game showed a lot of sex and lewdness as long as it fits in the narrative. Some games don't try to be very serious and just try to make the game fun by filling it up with juicy sex scenes. I'm okay with that as long as it doesn't seem pretentious, one should not try to present a story as a serious one when it is far detached from reality. Just like the vibe in a comedy movie wouldn't be the same as that in a tragedy movie. Developers can take creative freedoms as long as all the parts of the game fit together and the overall product seems consistent.

 

[pcdc]

You should try Milfy City, it doesnt have most of the "issues" that the author of this thread pointed.

I agree with some of what you said, thats why I found Milfy City the best Incest game currently being developed.

 

[Rick24]

I'm a big fan of incest content. Father-daugher, Mother-son, brother-sister, cousins - I like them all (I excluded homosexual relations because I'm a strictly heterosexual guy). And you would think I'm lucky because, recently there has been such big boom of incest games that one could hardly count all of them. But what I find disappointing is that almost all of them seem to derive from the same basic formula. There are many possible themes/ideas that are being overlooked by the devs when it comes to incest. I am not a content developer, so please forgive me if I'm being cocky by saying what could be done better. I'm just stating my own opinion. I'd like to point out some issues -

• My first issue, and this is a big one, because it is something most games try to ignore (because it is easier that way), is that, just because two family members are in an incestuous relationship, doesn't mean they fall out of their original familial relationship. And if they do so, it can hardly be called incest, because, if suddenly a sister starts seeing his brother as boyfriend, and the brother sees her as his girlfriend, and all their interactions only reflect that relationship, where is the incest? Because their true relationships matter no more from the player's perspective. Also, a mother could never be her son's girlfriend/wife/lover - that's just stupid. But that doesn't stop her from having sexual attraction towards her son. The point I'm trying to make is that a good incest story must be able to portray both the original relationship and the sexual attraction and possible conflicts between the two. And also, when the mother just shouts, "Oh my son! Oh my baby boy! bla bla bla" while having sex with her son, that doesn't count. She needs to show that through her interaction with his son. Sex between mother and son is certainly going to be different from normal sex between a couple. I've rarely seen a game pull that off. And it seems that Patreon's policy has exacerbated this situation - it's hard to portray a character faithfully when she could be either your mother or your landlady
• The setting that so many games use - Son/brother/father meet their counterparts/love interests after a while and fall for them. While, this is certainly an intriguing scenario, I don't understand why so many games need to copy the same/similar formula, while there are so many other possibilities. A boy may start to think differently about his sister/mother when he hits puberty. A mother may start to think differently about his son when his husband leaves/dies. Twins/cousins growing up together may have inherent attractions towards each other from childhood that they only discover after some incidence. Etc. Etc.
• The main character who is often a male character always seems to take the first initiative, why's that? Wouldn't it be cool if my mother/sister/daughter confessed their attraction instead of me confessing that I'm a horn-dog? The MC often turns out to be some lewd character, without any backbone, who only cares about sex. Also, most incest games put very little effort in character development, which makes it hard to care about the characters. I mean, you don't feel like a girl is your sister, unless the story establishes that via some interaction/past history. Only assigning a label "Sister" to a girl, makes no difference. Just like dressing like a bat doesn't make you Batman... Also, to be your sister, she has to be a human girl first with her own thoughts, feelings, preferences and passions. Some devs forget to put even the basic human elements in the characters, which greatly hurts the players' sense of reality.
• Incest stories could be spiced up by introducing other sexual elements but few games willing to take them to the level of extreme. Although incest is a genre in itself, all other genres of adult stories such as pregnancy, triangle love, cheating, rape, homosexuality could be introduced into incest. Though some of these elements can be found in most games, they fear to take them to the extreme. For example I haven't found a game where a father and daughter/ brother and sister have a child together and later have to hide the true parentage. No games showed a mother falling for both of her sons or two brothers falling for their sisters. Another thing, "these violent delights have violent ends" - show me a good incest story that ends in tragedy, which seems to be the most likely outcome of incest.

I think i have some good examples for the depiction of incest in japanese VN. The sister route in Saku Saku Love blooms handles the whole incest theme pretty well in my opinion. Then there is also Hatsukoi. Its an older VN but i also liked the depiction of the incest route in that game a lot. Maybe you played those games? Im curious if this is how you think incest should be displayed in games and if its more to your liking?

 

[Only4You]

I think i have some good examples for the depiction of incest in japanese VN. The sister route in Saku Saku Love blooms handles the whole incest theme pretty well in my opinion. Then there is also Hatsukoi. Its an older VN but i also liked the depiction of the incest route in that game a lot. Maybe you played those games? Im curious if this is how you think incest should be displayed in games and if its more to your liking?

I'm not gonna go down the rabbit hole of how incest should be depicted in Adult materials again. But I have a few good examples. Come Inside does a very good job of depicting realistic Jocasta complex and M/S incest. Haley's story shows "twincest", i.e. incest between twins which seemed to develop in a natural way. Intimate relations looked like a good enough depiction of Electra complex but now I don't know where it's heading. Other good examples would be The Fate of Irnia, for M/S, B/S incest and Bad Memories for incest with a little sister.

I also think that to depict incestuous relations, the subjects don't necessarily need to be blood-related. The goal is to show the complicated nature of the relationship where the subjects simultaneously feel familial and sexual love for the same person. I think one of the best depictions of the Oedipus complex was in the TV show - The Boys, the relationship between Homelander and Stillwell which totally creeped me out, even though they are not related by any means. It's because Homelander admired Stillwell both as a mother figure and a sexual interest. Also, he was visibly jealous of Stillwell's baby, who was, in his mind, competing for her love.

So, yeah, if you understand that, then you would understand why I feel like that just adding a mother/sister tag to your sexual interest doesn't make it an incest game. Whether they are blood-related, is secondary to the actual nature of their relationship depicted in the game.

 

[Rick24]

I'm not gonna go down the rabbit hole of how incest should be depicted in Adult materials again. But I have a few good examples. Come Inside does a very good job of depicting realistic Jocasta complex and M/S incest. Haley's story shows "twincest", i.e. incest between twins which seemed to develop in a natural way. Intimate relations looked like a good enough depiction of Electra complex but now I don't know where it's heading. Other good examples would be The Fate of Irnia, for M/S, B/S incest and Bad Memories for incest with a little sister.

I also think that to depict incestuous relations, the subjects don't necessarily need to be blood-related. The goal is to show the complicated nature of the relationship where the subjects simultaneously feel familial and sexual love for the same person. I think one of the best depictions of the Oedipus complex was in the TV show - The Boys, the relationship between Homelander and Stillwell which totally creeped me out, even though they are not related by any means. It's because Homelander admired Stillwell both as a mother figure and a sexual interest. Also, he was visibly jealous of Stillwell's baby, who was, in his mind, competing for her love.

So, yeah, if you understand that, then you would understand why I feel like that just adding a mother/sister tag to your sexual interest doesn't make it an incest game. Whether they are blood-related, is secondary to the actual nature of their relationship depicted in the game.

Yeah, i think i understand what you mean. Then the games i mentioned should be to your liking. I never heard of Haleys story before so i think im going to check that out. Im interested how the twincest is depicted there.