ABSTRACT
Hoping to add some steam and sex to your next game? Then this book is for you. This practical guide provides you with the foundational tools needed to write, design, and create healthy sexual content in video games in ways that are narratively compelling, varied, and hot! Challenging the assumptions that sex in games is superfluous, exploitative, or only of interest to straight guys, this book encourages designers to create meaningful, enjoyable sexual content for all audiences.
Using examples from well-known AAA games (and some standout indie content!), each chapter provides a framework to guide game writers, designers, and developers through the steps of creating and executing sexual content in their games – from early concept, to setting it up in larger game narrative, and finally to executing specific sexual scenes and sequences. It also lays out a host of details and considerations that, while easily missed or forgotten, can have a major impact on the quality or theme of the scene.
Offering expert insight and ideas for creating sex scenes in games, this book is vital reading for game designers, writers, and narrative designers who are interested in making games with sexual content. It will also appeal to artists, cutscene directors, audio engineers, composers, and programmers working on these games – or really, any game developer with an interest in the topic!
Part 1: Sex, games, and culture. 1. What This Book Is (And Isn’t). 2. The Myths and "Myths" of Video Game Sex. 3. Challenges Part 1: Censorship and Storefronts (with Kris Wise). 4. Challenges Part 2: The Terrors of Tech. Part 2: Sex and pre-production. 5. The Narrative Functions of Sex Scenes (And Why/Why Not to Have Them). 6. Considering Your Thirsty Audience: Diverse Desires vs Target Demographics. 7. The Trifecta of Sexual Approach and Aesthetic. 8. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work! (by Souha Al-Samkari). Part 3: Sex in the larger game structure. 9. Characters and Sex. 10. Sex and the Three Act Structure (Part 1). 11. Kindness Coins and the Chemistry Casino. 12. Sex in Quest Design. Part 4: The Craft of Sex Scenes. 13. Queer Sex in Games (with Kris Wise, Monica Fan, Aubrey Jane Scott, Antonin Fusco). 14. Initiating Sex with Branching Choices. 15. Consent in Video Game Sex. 16. Building Anticip…ation! Sex Scenes and the Four Types of Tension. 17. Building Anticip…ation! Sex Scenes and the Four Types of Tension. 18. Sex Cutscene Direction and Design: An Interview with Ashley Ruhl. 19. Fade to Black vs Showing the Sex. 20. Coming to Grips with Gaze in Sex Scenes. 21. Setting the Sex Scene! Sex and Environment Design. 22. "Aural Sex" and Audio (with Souha Al-Samkari). 23. Tender Talk and Naughty Narration: Dialogue and Sex. 24. Sex and Game Design Part 1: Branching Choices, Interactivity and Agency. 25. Sex and Game Design Part 2: Mechanics and Verbs (with Sharang Biswas). 26. The Aftermath of Sex Scenes.
