May 21, 2007
Interview: Kevin Lyons of GOMA Systems
Kevin Lyons, VP of GOMA systems, makers of the cell phone sex games Rainbow Cafe and Goma Sex, dished on their titles and upcoming plans for Sex & Games.
1. You have two products at present, Rainbow Cafe and Goma Sex. Can you tell us a bit about both?
Both games come in Mobile Phone (140 phones supported), Blackberry (5 series) and PC (Windows ME, 2000 and XP) versions. In both games, the player has 5 minutes to exercise direct and real-time control over a wide variety of sex acts between the virtual characters. In GOMA Sex, the straight game, there are 15 sex acts to be discovered. In Rainbeau Café, the male-on-male gay game, there are 13 sex acts to be discovered. Players are rated on how many of the sex acts they can put their characters in before time expires, which is indicated by a flashing red light on the wall. It's not another strip-poker or "poke the doll" game -- there is real gameplay here. We see mobile phone games as the new "arcade." As such, they should follow the "easy to learn but difficult to master" format, giving the consumer a few minutes of entertainment at a time. Everybody can make the characters kiss in a face-to-face standing position or do a standing blow job on their first time, but not everyone can do a 69 on their third time playing. Ironically, our non-gamers do better on their first couple tries because most gamers skip the instructions and therefore miss the "press her waist and then press the arrow key left/right twice" to turn her around or "press her waist and then press down arrow key twice" to get them on the bed. The importance of having players press the directional key twice for getting the characters in these positions will become more apparent in the sequels when we want the characters to sit or do a half turn for some really interesting positions.
More...
2. How and where are the games sold right now?
All of our Mobile Phone, PC, and Blackberry adult games can be purchased online via our web site, www.gomasex.com, and, in the case of our mobile phone games, also on our wap site, wap.gomasex.com. The game application is downloaded to sit locally on the consumer's device. We just started using a new WAP delivery systems from a company called PixiPay, and it has worked out just great. We have been getting a lot of inquiries as to when we'll have a wireless delivery system for our Blackberry games, and we currently are working on a solution. The Blackberry device does not allow wireless transfers of applications that are the size of our adult games, so they have to be first downloaded to the PC and then sideloaded to the device. This issue and the fact that most Blackberry owners purchase their device through their work have put the Blackberry adult games at a severe disadvantage to the PC and mobile phone adult games, which have taken off.
We had the global market in mind from the start, but we were surprised at how quickly and how popular the game became around the world. We haven't even hit our 1 year anniversary, and our site has visitors from over 95 countries, with sales on several continents. Our aim was to create an interactive sex game that allowed anyone in the world to control the characters -- to engage them in a wide variety of sex acts -- with very little written instructions. Our control mapping pictoral really does say it all! And where in the world is there a population who doesn't know how to have sex or who doesn't want to make sure they're having great sex?
3. Are there any content restrictions on cell phones that have made sales more difficult?
Without Carrier approval, we are forced to market and sell our product "off-deck." This means consumers have to surf the Net either via their PC or their cell phone to find and purchase our adult games. So "off-deck" presents both marketing and distribution hurdles that "on-deck" products simply do not have. It would be nice if our games were the first thing consumers saw when they searched for "sex" on their phones and then purchased the game with a click of the button, only to have the charge simply show up on their monthly bill. We do know for a fact that a couple North American wireless carriers are taking hard looks at the adult sector (pardon the pun J). These wireless carriers currently face pressure from both external social/political forces and internal vetting requirements (e.g., Canada's Telus had their mobile phone adult service up for only a week or so before it shut down the service due to pressure from the conservative right.). Because the potential revenue from adult content is too great to ignore, wireless carriers will be carrying, promoting and selling adult content in the near future. It is unavoidable. But, for now, GOMA certainly likes the playing field just the way it is.
4. One comment I've heard about your games is that they're well suited for a cell phone. They certainly provide an apt distraction which is what most people are looking for from these games. What other comments are you hearing?
The response to the games really has been phenomenal all around. My techie geek side is thrilled when I hear that people really get what we're trying to do with our control mapping diagram. The difference between adult videogames and adult movies is the physical control the consumer exercises over the characters in the content. The key to a successful adult videogame is that the developer has to give users easy access to controlling the sexual positions and sex acts of the characters. Any sex act, or any human movement for that matter, can be motion-captured and then graphically represented. But how do you then give intuitive and easy-to-use control over all those different movements that people make when engaged in an activity like wrestling or sex? In other words, now that your animation team has developed all these incredible acts and movements, how can the player access them easily? In our games, the control of the characters is so simple, intuitive, and easy-to-use that it is summarized in one picture. From there, the possibilities just really geek people out.
But our best stories come from couples. You would not believe how many adults in relationships are afraid to ask their mate to try something new in bed. And you would not believe how many adults do not know what "reverse cowgirl" is, let alone how to do it! My favorite story is a couple who sent us their text message exchanges. The man texts his girlfriend "8-5" (the keys to execute a blow job), and the girlfriend responds with "2-0" (oral sex for her); they finally settle on "5-8-0-2" for 69 (him on top). Of course, there's at least one couple trying to perform all 15 acts in less than 5 minutes!
We also get A LOT of suggestions for the acts to include in the sequels, the most popular being the inclusion of breasts and fondling.
5. Any plans for future products in the works?
We're finally getting around to finishing our martial art game, something near and dear to our hearts. Martial arts is what brought the company together and is the genre that really shows off our core technology. For our adult games, we basically took our wrestling engine, stripped the characters, and, in the case of the straight game, swapped in a female partner. Just as our adult game is "easy to learn but difficult to master," consumers will be able to intuitively and easily execute an unprecedented range of control over characters engaged in hand-to-hand combat. Our adult game consumers are really excited about its Summer release, and it's comforting to know that we'll have such a solid support base.
In terms of the adult genre, we are looking into partnering with at least one established adult film producer to drop in film clips of the game's sex acts into our PC title, so that you're controlling real actors and actresses instead of 3D characters. The revenue potential here is very exciting. What's more exciting is that this interactive adult movie-game could help launch the next boom phase for the adult industry. Just as the adult entertainment industry made an incredible leap when it went from still photos to movies, and then again when those pics and movies could be accessed at anytime in the privacy of the consumer's home by simply clicking a button on the PC, Interactive Adult Entertainment allows consumers to control the characters and the action in the media content. The consumer literally will be creating the adult movie of his or her choice, which can be shared with others. Now how's that for user-generated, shared content?!
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 10:12 PM | Discuss this post on our forums
September 03, 2006
Interview with Hal Halpin, IEMA
Hal Halpin is the president emeritus of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA).
It's been a little over a year since the Hot Coffee controversy broke. Do you think we've seen the last of the Hot-Coffee-inspired legislation?
Far from it unfortunately. We've witnessed in excess of over 100 pieces of anti-games legislation over the past year or two. I would think it safe to assume that we'll see at least that number again in the coming election cycle. The issue has become too politicized, and the down-side risk for legislators isn't severe enough to prevent them from making hay. The more worrying aspect of the latest trends is that policy-makers are changing their focus from self-regulation (industry and retailers working on concert to voluntarily enforce their ratings system) to criminalizing the purchase itself. It's a fundamental shift that changes the burden and puts gamers at-risk. Most gamers probably don't realize that these laws would treat purchasing a game similarly to illegally purchasing firearms!
Do you believe Lieberman's loss is significant for video games?
Being a CT resident and therefore constituent has put me in a unique position in dealing directly with the Senator over the years. Despite our obvious disagreements when it comes to restricting consumer and retailer rights regarding content, I have always found him to be very forthright and exceptionally bright. (I can't say as much for many of the legislators with whom I've dealt over the years.) That said, he was - quite literally - the impetus for this never-ending onslaught of moralistic conservatism. His loss of the primary doesn't necessarily count him out, as he has made clear that he intends to run as an Independent. In either case, there is no reason why he couldn't continue to carry the torch for the causes which have preoccupied his time for the past decade or more - games included. I'd imagine that the National Institute on Media and the Family would still welcome him as a guest speaker during their annual Video Game Report Card. In other words: Joe will still be Joe.
The IEMA recently merged with the VSDA, an association with which most game developers are unfamiliar. Can you tell us a bit about your common ground and why the merger was beneficial for the industry?
The IEMA represented game industry retailers largely (including Wal-Mart, Target, Circuit City, Toys R Us, etc.) and the VSDA represented video industry merchants (ranging in size from small Mom and Pops to the large rentailers). There were some very obvious synergies between the two organizations, and we worked together very effectively over the years in lobbying and legislative issues. VSDA spun off a group which represented the smallest of their members, called IDEA, and that brought our larger member's interests more in line. There really were very few reasons not to merge in the end, and it helped both the movie and games sectors of the broader entertainment business in numerous ways.
Some major outlets, including Wal-Mart, have recently carried a new line of "personal care products" aimed at women. The Elexa line includes, among other things, vibrators. Why the hang up with video games?
I don't know that the major retailers have a hand-up with games per se. You have to keep in mind that at the end of the day, retailers serve their customer's best interests and make purchasing and merchandising decisions accordingly. Games, as a product line, happen to be a the political football of the hour and as such we're getting more than our fair share of people's criticism. Retailers need to be sensitive to their customer's concerns and cognizant of how best to empower them. Ultimately that's how your retain and add new customers.
Did the seemingly sudden change in E3 come as a surprise to you?
It didn't, other than that the news unfolded so quickly. In running the Executive Summit for the previous six years, we had been hearing the publisher's thinking for some time and knew that there were challenges in the event's format and design. I held out hope that it could have been altered in some way - perhaps including a change in format to include consumers. The cancellation created an interesting void, and has since presented opportunistic event companies with interesting options. I know of five different companies that are exhaustively working at filling that niche, and at least two of them have the resources to, theoretically, do a very nice job at it. It will certainly be interesting to see how the new E3 affects the old VSDA show and the new Microsoft Retail Vision Show, if at all.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 07:08 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
May 02, 2006
5 Questions - DreamStripper Pro
David Potter of Ensign Games answered 5 questions for us about his new release DreamStripper Pro.
We posted the feature list for DreamStripper Pro on release day. To you, what was the single most exciting feature of the new game?
The ability to dynamically change some of the body textures and allowing the user to modify and change the original textures, if they feel they are artistically inclined.
You'll be speaking at the Sex in Video Games Conference. What are you hoping to get out of the conference?
I am very interested in the future of where sex in video games is going. We have taken the approach of keeping our games very "R" rated, and want to get a good indicator from others in the industry on the real acceptance of sex in video games. Is acceptance here or is it still just on the fringe.
How much do player comments factor into your design decisions?
We have very active and vocal users' forums. We have forums discussing future dancers, dances and style of outfits for the dancers. We listen and try to respond to all questions and suggestions that our users have. A lot of our new features came from suggestions and feature requests from our current users.
Do you have any plans to make a version of DreamStripper with a male stripper?
Yes we have had a few requests for a Male dancer, we are not against adding a male dancer at some time in the future. The mocap dancers would have to be totally re shot and as for a model we would need to do further research and get some experts in on male strippers.
What's coming next for DreamStripper & Ensign?
We are hard at work, starting the design of our next female dancer, and continuing to add new features to all our DreamStripper Products.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 08:15 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
January 12, 2006
5 Questions - Sex in Games Conference
Following the announcement of Evergreen Events' upcoming Sex in Games Conference June 8-9th in San Franciso, CA, we asked Suzanne Frejis-Chuberka to give us another five answers to our 5 questions:
The last time we talked, you mentioned you started a conference company, though at the time, the Sex in Video Games conference didn't exist. Can you talk a bit about that as well as your conference background?
Well, this seems like the perfect time to have a Sex in Video Games Conference. I was the Conference Director for the Women's Game Conference where your Sex in Games lecture had the largest turn-out by far. Seeing how well attended that lecture was in addition to the growth of the Sex in Games genre within video games, we decided that this was the ideal time for this conference.
My conference background is fairly extensive. I was the Program Manager For the Asia Society's West Coast Branch and I organized a wide range of conferences that ranged from author's readings to luncheons for the Indian Minister of Finance. I have also been the Marketing Manager for a company that did conferences for the educational community.
Why a sex in games conference?
We are at the cusp of a revolution regarding sex in games. There are many directions that the industry can go with this genre and we feel that it is our responsibility to help the industry to focus on the areas where growth can occur.
Who are you hoping to target for the conference?
The target audience for this conference is threefold: the video game industry, the adult entertainment industry, and those interested in investment opportunities.
Can you talk about some of the panels and presenters?
There will be two lectures, “Sex in Games: Where Are We Now?” that you’ll be delivering, as well as another by Dave Taylor, Game Producer and Game Consultant, “The Future of Sex and Technology”. As many people likely know, Dave was a programmer on DOOM and Quake among others.
There will be a heavy influence on facilitated networking with Steve Harper as well as business matchmaking.
The panels include Creating Mainstream Erotic Games, Integrating
International Success to the US Market, Emergent Sex in Video Games and Video Game Hardware, Creating Successful Online Erotic Games, Investing In Sexually Themed Games, Alternative Distribution Methods for AO Games, and an MMOEG (massively multiplayer erotic game) Panel.
Why do you suppose it's taken nearly 30 years for there to be the “First ever” conference of sex in games?
Well, this genre has finally reached a level of maturity where there is a lot of interest in discussing how games can be most effective in this arena and there is a great deal of interest in investment opportunities with these games. With the huge success of sex on the internet within both mainstream as well as adult films and with the continual technological sophistication, it is only natural for both the mainstream as well as the adult entertainment industry to move more into the Erotic Game Arena.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 06:43 PM | Discuss this post on our forums
December 26, 2005
5 Questions - Suzanne Freyjadis-Chuberka, Researcher & Event Planner, Evergreen Events
Suzanne Freyjadis-Chuberka of Evergreen Events has studied how games are marketed toward women extensively. If you're hoping to reach the women's market, you want see what she sees...
Who are you, what do you do and what's your specialty?
I am the President of Evergreen Events. We are a game industry conference company. My business partner Cynthia Freese and I created the company in order to offer the games industry high quality conferences where the attendees can get unique information and make great connections.
My specialty is to see things differently. I have a women’s studies graduate degree and a background in marketing. As a result I have the ability to look beyond traditional conventions of how things are done and see ways that business could be done better so that the industry can continue to grow.
You gave a great talk at the Women in Games conference in Scotland. Can you summarize that talk here?
I have been researching the video game industry for 10 years. Throughout this time I have found the way that women are addressed as a market to be very interesting and confusing. My talk in Scotland focused on the ways that the games industry excludes women as consumers of games. I see three distinct areas of exclusion, game design, game magazines, and game promotion. While women are often courted through one of these areas the other two areas send women such a clear message that they are not desirable customers that they drive potential women gamers away. This is not to say that all women are excluded. There are still quite a few women who play games, but these women are so driven to play these games that they are willing to cross the gender barriers to gain access to the games. These barriers are not intentionally created; they are simply part of the imbedded structure of the industry.
My main point is that the industry needs to imagine the increase in sales of the current game library if women were not driven away from the get-go. This is a main reason for the success behind casual games with women. The women who play these games don’t need to go anywhere but their friendly yahoo site to locate games they might enjoy. The barrier to entry is much lower.
In marketing to their audience, what common mistakes do you see people making that exclude particular markets?
A very common mistake is for the character creation aspect of a game to be underrepresented in the marketing and promotion. Most of the time, the fact that a female character is a playable option for a game is never mentioned in the marketing of the game. Many players want to feel an emotional attachment to their character, and the ability to play a female rocker or snowboarder is key to making some women and men want to purchase a game. To ignore this key aspect in the marketing and promotion of a game is to leave out a segment of the population that may love to play a snowboarding game; they just don’t want to play as a guy. I realize that this seems to be a minor aspect of game marketing and promotion, but the details are where the industry is missing the point on the marketing side.
In what way can developers of sexual content learn from your research (I.e. how can we apply that?)
What my research has shown is that unintentional barriers are often in place and the people that create a game can be unaware of these barriers because they don’t see them. This is why I believe that it is important for any game developer to have the most diverse team possible. Only when a diverse group of people are present during the game development can the barriers be recognized. It is often too late, if barriers to game play are noticed once the game is finished.
What's next for you (business and research)?
Next year Evergreen Events has planned two game industry conferences: Marketing Games to a Diverse Audience: Easily Increase Your Bottom Line (San Francisco-June 22-23)
East Meets West: The Asian Game Conference (Seattle-May)
As far as research is concerned, I am interested in examining the ways that the retail part of the game industry does or does not attract women into the game space.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 10:43 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
December 17, 2005
5 Questions - Noah Dudley, Naughty America The Game
Our latest 5 Questions interviewee is Noah Dudley, a producer working on the recently announced Naughty America: The Game.
Who are you, what do you do and what game are you working on?
My name is Noah Dudley, and I’m a free-lance producer with about twenty years of experience in the interactive industry. I’m working on Naughty America: The Game, an adult-themed MMOG due to come out in Spring, 2006.
Can you tell us a bit more about Naughty America?
In Naughty America: The Game you’ll create an avatar and enter into an adult world of bars, shops, nightclubs, high-rise apartments, etc. You’ll be able to play games, meet other players, form relationships, go on dates, have sex, move in together, and in short do many of the things that you could do if the entire world was available to you.
Many sex games are targeted at the typical straight, white male. What have you done to broaden the audience for NA?
We are very interested in attracting a wider audience for Naughty America: The Game, and in fact our producer is a female who has added a lot to our understanding of what would make a world like this one attractive to women. We’ve placed a lot of emphasis on the player’s ability to form real relationships with other players. That includes sex, of course, but there’s a lot more to do. We also hope to attract a gay audience too, by including gay bars and nightclubs, and supporting same-sex sex.
For you, what's the biggest challenge in sexual content development and how did you (or the company) overcome it?
The biggest challenge, besides stifling the giggles that inevitably crop up when you first start design sessions on sex games, has been finding distribution. We immediately had to give up any hope of the Wal-Marts and Targets of the world carrying our product, and have had to find other means of getting out both our product and word about our product.
What advice do you have for other developers of sexual content?
Sex out of context is nothing but pornography, which to me gets boring really fast. Sex in the context of a relationship, however, can be interesting, exciting and sometimes even meaningful. That’s what we need to be striving for as we treat adult themes in games.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 08:59 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
December 07, 2005
5 Questions - Heather Kelley
Heather Kelley was the recent winner of the Designers Challenge at the recent Montreal Games Summit.
Who are you, where do you work, what do you do and what are you working on?
Heather Kelley,Ubisoft Montreal Studios, Game Designer and I'm working on an unannounced PSP game.
You recently won the Sex in Games Designer's Challenge at the Montreal Games Summit. Tell me about your entry.
My entry, Lapis, was a concept for a Nintendo DS game that secretly teaches players techniques of female sexual gratification.
It's played by helping adorable rabbit-like creatures fly through beautiful environments. The creatures are analogous to female erogenous zones, and by making the creatures happy -- petting them on the ears, tickling them on the nose, putting them in a good environment, singing to them, etc, you can fly through gorgeous fantasy environments and so take each creature to its "happy place," one might say. :) In the process of learning what kinds of stimuli these creatures like, the player would learn techniques of female sexual pleasure, though that wouldn't be obvious or even mentioned as a game goal. The idea was to make the game's style and gameplay appealing to a wide variety of females. So, the actions are sensual in nature, and the rhythm of play is akin to sexual pleasure and orgasm, but the gameplay itself does not depict sex.
Modesty aside, why do you think your entry was the winner?
Well, I think there were some design reasons and some presentation reasons. Design-wise, I tackled the subject of sexual pleasure itself, more directly than some of the other games. And I did it in an accessible way. Presentation-wise, I showed a cool little game demo that I put together with some amazing friends. That helped bring my concept to life in the minds of the audience.
What was the most challenging aspect of the design for you?
I spent a lot of time trying to think of a game idea that was fun, challenging, funny, interactively valid, and not simply a cheap shot to entertain the conference audience. Most of my ideas fell short of meeting all those criteria, of course. Finally, when I came up with the Lapis concept, the biggest hurdle was to decide whether I would really go with this proactive, sex-positive feminist concept that represented what I believe, rather than just presenting a funny idea that met the requirements of the challenge, but didn't represent my perspective as well. Once I committed to being myself, in fact kind of "outing" myself as a feminist designer and not just "one of the boys," and when I committed to revealing that stance in the design itself, it became a lot easier to design, if not less frightening to present.
Did working on a sexually-themed design change any preconceptions you had about sexually themed games?
It changed my preconception that sex-related games need to be about intercourse. My as-yet-unchanged preconception is that a game like the one I designed could never get funded, distributed, or properly marketed, but I welcome someone to change that one too!
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 07:49 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
October 20, 2005
5 Questions - Glennis McClellan, Republik Games
Welcome to this week's 5 questions interview with Glennis McClellan of Republik Games.
Who are you, what do you do, and what are you working on?
Hi there, my name is Glennis McClellan and I am head of production at Republik Games. I’ve been in this business since 1998, and have done everything from game design and art direction to producing games for almost every game platform. I’ve worked for both publishers and developers, which gives me a comprehensive view of the industry. I’m currently working on a fantasy dating game called “Spend the Night.”
Can you tell us more about your upcoming product, "Spend the Night?"
“Spend the Night” (the preview site is coming soon!) allows women and men to safely, and anonymously, explore virtual liaisons and erotic fantasies. This game is going to go a lot further than any dating game currently on the market, meaning the players can have virtual sex. It’s been really exciting to develop a game for an emerging genre, as it’s unlike anything that has been done to date.
Your CEO, Robert Coshland, said in a press release, "We’re going to embrace the Adults Only rating rather than try to slip in under a Mature rating.” How do you plan to do that?
Well, we’re not going to hint at sex or hide it in the code to be unlocked by some clever MOD’er. We’re going to give players want they want upfront, without making them play 200 hours to get a quick glimpse of two blurry people under the sheets.
Traditionally, developers have been shy of the AO rating, knowing that it hurts both sales and marketing efforts (they can't advertise in traditional markets and they also can't put their games in big box retailers). How do you plan to overcome these obstacles?
You’d be surprised how much advertising you can do in traditional markets. After all, the advertisements don’t have to be explicit. Just look at successful add campaigns for clearly adult products like Trojan condoms. They don’t show people having sex, but they imply it. Our strategy won’t be any different.
As far as distribution goes, that’s a concern for anyone making products with this rating. Fortunately, the Internet and broadband are changing distribution patterns for many products, not just games. Our game will be downloadable, as are many games these days. It will also be boxed up and distributed to outlets that carry AO titles. In addition, we have a marketing and distribution partner that will bundle our product on select DVD’s, so we’ll tackle mass distribution through that channel as well.
The traditional adult game demographic is the 20+ year old male. What audience are you trying to attract, and what are you doing to insure diversity in that audience?
People assume that an AO rating means we are targeting that male hard-core gamer, however that is not the case. We’re tailoring our game for the casual gamer, which is a much larger market, the majority of which are women.
To insure diversity, we’re going to focus on the fantasy and role playing aspect of our game. This type of game play appeals to both markets, so there will be a degree of crossover. We’re doing our homework to ensure we attract women. Once we do that, we’re certain the men will come out and play.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 08:57 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
October 07, 2005
5 Questions - Kelly Rued, Black Love Interactive
Thanks to Kelly Rued of Black Love Interactive for being our latest 5 Questions feature:
Who are you, what do you do and what are you working on (and when will it be released)?
I'm Kelly Rued, a game designer specializing in interactive erotic experience design. I'm also working to leverage game technologies for serious applications in sex health education, research, and therapy. I'm currently in production on an adult sex entertainment title (Rapture Online, a 2006 release from Black Love Interactive), and a teen sex education title (The Sex Ed Game, a 2005 release from ISER Games, our serious games division.
Can you tell me more about Rapture Online?
Rapture Online is a 3D erotic experience with an innovative multiplayer action system, exciting solo play, and deep customization features. It's part simulation game and part role-playing experience, and there's nothing quite like it on the market (or announced thus far).
The RO Player Community is an online space designed for cybersexers, role players, and gamers to enjoy sensual, erotic, and fun interactive entertainment together (and we are totally vanilla, swinger, GLBTQ, and fetish friendly). I come from an arts background and have spent the better part of 3 years now researching cultural, historical, and biological facets of human sexuality and erotic
romance so that we can offer a "game" that will do adult players' fantasies justice. Just having sex in a game-like-application isn't enough- there is a certain Tao of Titillation to be nurtured in the
experience so players feel they can express their sexuality and that their online sex play is just a natural extension of their own private fantasies and erotic relationships offline. Rapture Online's slogan is Play Your Fantasies, and that's exactly what the gameplay is about: exploring your fantasies in a virtual world tailored to support diverse erotic experiences.
In recent months, several MMOVSG (massively multiplayer virtual sex games) have been announced. Is there a reason for this?
I've only heard of three new projects since GDC this past March that appear to be massively multiplayer. I'm sure it will happen eventually, but funding for MMO games is a difficult risk in a relatively unproven genre like erotic fantasy gaming. High-quality 3D MMOGs aren't made in under a year though so I'm not holding my breath on any of the recently announced projects. We've chosen to build our engine on middleware for a head start, and have been working on RO since mid-2004 (with a tentative release date planned for late 2006). Explicit sex games have suffered from low quality and lackluster production values for too long, and the market for mainstream games doesn't easily accept last-gen graphics in a real-time 3D title so I'm not sure that any of the quickie projects I've heard about lately will be true MMOVSGs like Rapture Online. I hope we do see something soon though because the industry and market are more than ready for it. I think the recent announcements are largely due to the excellent, forward-thinking support for erotic and sex content shown by the IGDA and its Sex SiG community- it's like the green light to start up unabashedly erotic game communities online. Woot!
You've often talked about "sex positivity". Can you tell me how that has influenced you as a developer and how it influences your game?
Sex-positivity is simply accepting sex to be a healthy, normal, and positive force in our lives. Many cultures' take on sex can be quite negative and the proliferation of sex play online (cybersex) and traditional sex media (pornography and erotic lit) can actually help alleviate the unhealthy and negative hang ups people may have toward sex. As a developer I see a good sex-positive game as liberating fun for players to leave the "real world" hang ups of sex behind and just have some fun and fantasy. Sex-positive erotic gaming isn't a substitute for traditional sex or simply a masturbatory aid- it's a supplemental source of erotic excitement and fantasy that can positively enhance a person's total sexual well-being. Rapture Online is aptly named in that we really want our players to not only get off on the eroticism but feel positive about it afterwards. For us,
sex-positivity simply gives us insights to how we can design feel-good sex games.
There are a lot of women working on sexually themed video games, and, at least to me, the ratio of female to male designers seems higher than it does in the standard industry. Do you think there's any truth to this, and if so, why?
I think it's a bit of an illusion that there are more females working on sex games because there are a few of us in the more prominent design positions at newer companies working on some innovative games (however, if you look at shipped sex game titles, I'm not sure I've seen one yet that had prominent female design credits aside from the Playboy game you worked on Brenda, which was more of a Heff-sim and tycoon experience than an erotic game). In our case, Rapture Online was designed by a female and the studio is managed by a leads team comprised of 80% female developers - an anomaly even for an indie company. I think there are more important factors than gender in making great erotic games but having a more diverse team promises the adult game market more diverse player experiences, and (since the target markets for cybersex and online MMOGs skew more female than most people realize) it's a smart move for companies addressing a mainstream AO sex game market to hire diversity-conscious designers of any gender.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 10:24 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
September 21, 2005
5 Questions - Kyle Machulis, Nonpolynomial Labs
Today's 5 Questions:
Who are you, what's your background and what do you do?
My name is Kyle Machulis. I'm the founder of Nonpolynomial Labs, a research and consulting firm dedicated to helping UI and game developers create immersive environments using alternative control methods.
This is really a bunch of buzzwords meaning "I like driving cars with my kitchen sink and firing guns with light switches".
I run a network of blogs and websites called the NP Network (http://www.nonpolynomial.com/network.php), of which Slashdong.com is a part.
What was the inspiration behind slashdong.com?
Slashdong comes from an idea I had of "viral education". It's similar to the way viral advertising works, i.e. the end goal of the site is not obviously communicated through the facade.
I work in educational robotics, and found that a large portion of the people interested in engineering education were either less than 20 years old, or older than 35. There was a gap in the 18-35 demographic, which makes sense. Between those ages, people are usually interested in establishing a career, building a life for themselves, and generally doing things which require a lot of time and concentration. Picking up something like an engineering book isn't really the lightest of reading, nor do many people find it relaxing or fun. So, instead of trying to aim people toward creating battle bots or RC cars or whatever else most hobby engineering books teach these days that will only interest a certain group of people, I decided to go with something everyone knows, sex.
Sex is an interesting topic in engineering education. Thanks to the need for continuation of the species, humans are engrained with some knowledge of sex when they are born. It's taboo in some cultures, normal in others, but when you get down to it, *everyone* involves themselves in the same action in order to reproduce. So, instead of having a project with an end goal that needs to be explained, you have a positive output of better sex (or at least, some physically sexual actuation). The physics and mechanics are all just part of nature, so there's not a ton of theory to explain before the project will make sense.
Sex also provides a very humorous platform to work with. Instead of dry, theory-equation-code type tutorials, Slashdong is written in a very informal, tounge-in-cheek style. People learn better when they're entertained, and the combination of sex and humor has made for some of the most well-known literature and film of our time, so why not use that to teach?
Lately, we've been working on the idea of engineering projects as sexual education. There are a lot of rather fringe sexual practices (i.e. fetishes) out there that people aren't aware of because they aren't well known. Once people build our basic projects, we present them with new projects involving things such as BDSM and electrostimulation. It allows them to turn the knowledge they've gained in engineering basic sex toys toward learning about new forms of sexual gratification.
It's one big, crazy circle of learning.
Your SeXbox is a first in the industry. First off, for those unfamiliar with it, can you describe it and secondly, why? Feel free to include links for use with the story.
Sex, simulated or otherwise, is obviously one of the most immersive environments you can put yourself in. The brain chemistry related to sexual activity allows a game developer to harness the player's biological reactions to heighten game interactivity at almost zero cost of development.
The SeXBox was the first project I built to combine the education ideas that I stated above with the immersive environment research I do for NP Labs. Video games have come a long, long way in the last decade in terms of technical achievements and gameplay depth. Visual and auditory feedback have gone from huge blobs of color and chip tunes to 1080p resolutions with 7.1 surround sound. However, for haptic feedback, we're still stuck with a controller that vibrates in your hands. There's certainly a decent amount creative work you can do (one of my favorites still being the heartbeat felt when you hold the hand of the girl in Ico), but it's silly to stop there, when you have the rest of the body to use. That's why I created the SeXBox.
The SeXBox consists of an XBox controller with 2 3/32" audio jacks installed in the back. The 3/32" audio plug just happens to be the standard for most modular sex toys these days. If you buy a toy with a vibrating egg attachment, you'll most likely find this plug. The jacks are soldered directly to the pads of the force feedback motors, so when the force feedback signal is passed to the motors, it goes directly to the toy instead, creating vibrations that can be used anywhere on the player's body.
In the tutorials for building the SeXBox controller, people can learn about how motors, electricity, and basic voltage regulation works. After they learn the theory, they can then go on to build their own projects that use the Force Feedback signals. For instance, a player could hook up the force feedback signals to lights in the room while playing a survival horror game, making the lights flicker on and off whenever they are hit. There's a ton of little, interesting projects that can be bred from harnessing feedback signals for environmental stimulus, all it takes is the basic knowledge of how to put it together.
Lastly, the SeXBox provides a very, very cheap way to engage in remote sexual relations. Teledildonics (computer controlled remote sex) is still a fairly new industry, but commerical services charge $100+ for a toy, after which users are still tied in with monthly fees to use the services to run that toy. Our goal is to give users not only a way to have discrete, secure, cheap (the sexbox can be built for <$50) relations, but to also provide a platform they can develop for their own needs and interests.
Links to the SeXBox Tutorials are here and here.
You've been recently active in Second Life. Can you talk about the sexual spaces that are emerging in MMORPGs?
Second Life, and MMOs in general, offer people the chance to almost literally be and do "whatever, whenever, however". Traveling through the Second Life world, you can (and most likely will) run into every single fetish you can think of, and some you've probably never even heard of. A lot of the time, the people that are into these fetishes are also very willing and happy to chat about what they do and why they do it.
This brings up the major reason why MMOs foster sexual environments: Safety. It's difficult to safely experiment with a fetish in real life due to possible social reprocussions. People can be seeing going to clubs, overheard talking, so on and so forth. The internet remedied part of this by providing people with discussion forums and widely available pornography. However, virtual worlds allow people to come one step closer to actually engaging in these situations, while still being able to hit the "off" button easily. "Alt+F4" is the ultimate safe word (at least, in Windows :) ).
Not to mention, cost and discretion. In a virtual world, you don't have to spend $5k in gear just to realize that pony play doesn't do it for you. Pay some in game money for a box that can't be traced to your credit card and doesn't show up in your mailbox. Five minutes and a few polygons later, if you're sick of it, you haven't lost or risked anything, and if you like it... you haven't lost or risked anything. :).
You have said that any game can be made into a sexual thing if you try hard enough. Can you give me some examples?
It's the same idea as slash fiction (fan-written stories involving fictional characters in sometimes romantic or sexual situations), just more interactive for the end user. You've got something that *you* control running around on the screen, so it feels like there's a little piece of you that's interacting with the virtual world. Combine that with a fetish, and you've got yourself emergent porn.
One of the examples of this comes from a joke we made in one of the early SeXBox tutorials. We recommended using the game Burnout 2 in Crash Mode (a minigame where you crash your car into an intersection to see how much damage you can possibly cause) in order to test the SeXBox.
This was a homage to the JG Ballard novel (and later David Cronenberg film) "Crash", about a couple who gets off while watching/causing car crashes. We used this example in jest, but the idea works in a very
real way.
My favorite real example has to be the Voraphile video game list. This is a list of every video game where you can be eaten, can eat something, or can watch something be eaten. It's ridiculously complete, and still being updated to this day.
It's really a testament to the lengths people will go to in order to find what they like, and share it with others.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 08:55 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
September 15, 2005
5 Questions - Hans Frontosa, Interstudio
Who are you, what's your company and what games do you make?
My name is Hans Frontosa and I'm the creative director of Interstudio, the company who created Lovechess. Before Lovechess we did several non-erotic games. These games were not intended for the general market; we developed them for educational purposes for different clients in the Netherlands. Lovechess is our first worldwide release, available online as a download and boxed version. The boxed version is also distributed as a retail version in German-speaking countries and Russia. The website of Lovechess is at http://www.lovechess.nl
Tell me a bit more about the game.
Well it's a chess game, a bit like Battle chess from the old days, but instead of battle, there is sex when the pieces meet. That's the basic idea, the whole setting is done in the Greek era, inside a large temple and the chess pieces are the Greek and Trojan gods, mainly to make the whole atmosphere of the game more playful and a little lighthearted. We did not want it to be a raunchy game, more a classy one, so the whole Greek setting was a good starting point for us.
Is there anything that's surprised you about sexual content development? Something you didn't expect?
The fun it was making the content :-) We are relatively serious guys over here at Interstudio, but the view of my colleague playing with a broomstick in front of a mirror to figure out the right sensual pose was really amusing. Another thing I didn't expect was how fast you get used to making sex animations and watching your reference material. We were also surprised to see that about one third of our customers are female. We thought erotic games would only be bought by men.
How can one include sexual content in a game and not make it cheesy?
The first thing I can think of is be creative and use your imagination. Sex scenes can be beautiful if you consider the whole form of the couple as the most important thing, not the explicitness of the scene. In Lovechess you can see the whole thing, but while creating the animations we always tried to look at it as a whole.
What's the best use of sexual content you've seen in a game so far?
I consider the hunter animation by Joe Williamsen as top notch, in both erotic expression and animation. The hunter Animation has been featured several times, in different versions, on our site The Art of Love.
Thanks, Hans!
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 08:30 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
September 07, 2005
5 Questions - David Potter, Ensign Games
Who are you, what do you do and what are you working on?
My Name is David Potter, and I am Director of Development at Ensign games. I have been in computer game development for about 10 years and have 5 traditional published game products under my belt. This is
my first adult content game product.
Ensign Games is a small computer game development house that was formed from the founders of Catware Inc. We did not always do Adult Games, but found that it was a market that a small development house could get into using the 3D Technology that we had been developing for more traditional games.
One of the projects we are now we working on is an addon pack for DreamStripper. This will add more clothes and hair styles and some UI enhancements.
What process was used to animate the stripper's moves?
In DreamStripper we used RedEye Studios to motion capture and rig our animated dancer.
We first had to find a 2 dancers and have them break down some of the dances into the individual segments for motion capture. We found two very nice performers at a local strip club. It seems in the strip club scene there are no real names or layout for an exotic dance routine. So, we had a lot of fun trying to breakdown and name each dance move - names like "splitswiggle" and "gyratedown" come to mind.
Once we had our dances segmented and named, we had to decide which dance segments we wanted to motion capture, the dancers suited up and we motion captured each of the dance segments. It took an entire day to capture about 50 dance moves for about 300 seconds of actual animation.
Do you have any plans on creating a male version of Dream Stripper?
We have thought about creating a male stripper version, but I do not think the online market is strong enough. Again, just like any other game, it is how many can you sell to break even with development costs? With the female version of DreamStripper and our research into the adult online market, I do not see how a male version would be financially viable as the female version is just holding steady. Now, if somehow we could distribute DreamStripper in a box retail form, I do believe it would then be viable.
As an on-line only AO game, is distribution and reaching the market a challenge for you?
Yes this is very challenging, as many US PC game review and news sites are reluctant to put any news or reviews of our game on their web page, and for advertising they will not take any sort of adult oriented advertising. We have found a couple of European PC game web sites like Gamers Hell that carry news of DreamStripper. We made a decision to keep DreamStripper very "R" rated and not get into the "X" rated market. I think this has helped us with advertising on many sites that are not just adult content related. Right now about 45% of our Sales are non-US/Foreign. We have also started an affiliates program. we are hoping to have the affiliates help get the word out and sell some product.
What advice do you have for other developers looking to enter the adult market space?
My advice would be to do your research on your target market and have a plan for advertising. One of the best things we did was put out a press release and talk more about the technology and game and less about the sex aspect. Something we are doing since we are a smaller development house is to keep communication with our customers and fans open on a daily basis. We have forums that keep our customers up to date on all updates and patches for DreamStripper. We also are asking what the customers want to see for any future add-ons to DreamStripper.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 10:46 AM | Discuss this post on our forums
September 01, 2005
5 Questions - Matt Entin, High Voltage
Welcome to "5 Questions", a new series on the Sex & Games blog.
Who are you, what do you do and what are you working on?
I’m Matt Entin, a writer-designer for High Voltage Software. I’m currently working on a sexually-themed comedy game that hasn’t been announced. So, in accordance with my NDA, I can’t tell you what it is.
What makes sexual content work in a game?
When it’s used appropriately in context and doesn’t feel exploitatively tacked on to the product. The difference between “Leisure Suit Larry” and “BMX XXX” is that “Larry” is ABOUT sex while “BMX XXX” is about extreme sports with sex arbitrarily tacked on to boost sales.
What is the biggest challenge facing developers of sexually themed content?
The public perception that video games are entertainment for children. The ESRB exists for a reason: an M rating means you should be 17 to purchase an M-rated title. Yet in spite of that, we are accused of peddling pornography to children. As a culture we’ve accepted the fact that movies are made for a wide and varied audience. We’re comfortable with the MPAA ratings system. Filmmakers are free to make “Last Tango in Paris” because the public understands that the movie wasn’t produced with an 11 year-old audience in mind. If you’re a parent and you bought your child an M-rated title and are shocked by the content, maybe you should blame your lousy parenting and not the game industry. Everything you wanted to know was right there on the box, bigger and bolder than it would be on a DVD case. Yet it still seems that a large percentage of American parents somehow don’t grasp the ESRB ratings-system. I can only hope that as time passes, parents will become more familiar with the ratings-system and start taking responsibility for the sort of content that gets in their children’s hands.
What's a typical design meeting like for Leisure Suit Larry?
Our number one priority is that the game is funny. Sex is the spice in our laff stew. When dealing with sexual themes we ask ourselves: Can we discuss this subject? Can we use these words? Is this an idea that has real merit or is it merely for shock value?
If Larry were a game designer, who do you suppose he'd make a game about?
Acclaimed porn director Henri Pachard (Wet Panty Spankers, Mandingo Mistress).
Check out Matt's games and company at www.high-voltage.com.
Posted by BrendaBrathwaite at 08:30 AM | Discuss this post on our forums