Earl's Musings: Faproulettes and Porn Games

So, today I'm rambling about a topic I had intended to avoid, but it seems kind of important. As a general rule I've tried to avoid putting any of my personal experiences up on this blog. You're all here my charming personality, and sometimes the lesbians, not for my personal sex life and I do try to keep that in mind. However, I feel like this is an issue that relates to a lot of porn games, and is something porn games could benefit from keeping in mind. So, I'll be touching on a few personal experiences today. You have been warned. So with that out of the way, faproulettes!

So for those not in the know, a faproulette is an imageboard thing that has since grown beyond imageboards. They're an image that contains some porn in the background, and text instructions placed over the top telling you what to do. When it started the game originally was 3 columns, with 10 numbered tasks, you post in the thread, compare your post number to the columns as told and see what you were expected to do. They started off simple, look at X type of porn and masturbate in Y way with Z to spice it up or something, but have since gotten very elaborate.

They've also since more or less stopped being functional. Instructions on faproulettes are, overall, rather unrealistic, or at least clearly designed for people who have done way too much masturbating. Physical expectations on what you can take for the anal stuff has risen, your stamina and sex drive is sometimes assumed to be insane, and the amount of sex toys you're expected to have for some is absurd. This isn't to say they're bad, or they're impossible to everyone, but if you've never done one before, good fucking luck.

So how do these relate to porn games? Well, as a personal point, they're how I first got into the idea of them. While I never really used faproulettes.(Lack of privacy + content is generally not my thing) I was fascinated by them, to the point of building a collection. Obviously, upon discovering porn games this fascination by the idea found a new host, and I've played just about every porn game that's crossed my attention in some way or another. But as a second point, I think they offer something to porn games, not necessarily something for porn games to include themselves, but an idea for porn games to design around.

There's a tumblr that collects faproulettes called rollnfap. It updates sporadically these days, but new ones come up from time to time. At the time of writing this, there's a sort-of faproulette that I find the idea of simply fascinating, and without a doubt inspiring for a later game. It's a healslut game for Overwatch. Instead of rolling, you play Overwatch as Mercy, and you follow sex instructions based on the current situation in the game. It's not the only one, there was some for League of Legends way back, there's a Dota one, and a Saint's Row 3 one too. It's an interesting idea, and, straying into personal experiences here, one that I've found works quite well. While I haven't played much of these games, I often find myself doing similar things in my Sexlab Skyrim games, setting arbitrary rules for things I have to do in cases that occur in the game.

Straying away from personal experiences again, for those avoiding reading them. The problem with this is a simple one. Games don't design themselves with this in mind. And this is true of Shield High too, there's not really anything I can do with the format to make it any better I don't think, it's just too slow of a game, and too linear of a game. But most games don't have events that you can base it around. For instance, I did a dry run of the Saint's Row game I mentioned, and it's possible to complete it without getting into any trouble whatsoever. It's based on running into gang members on the streets. How you define running into them is not specified, however if you just...look away and look back, they despawn. So if you're making it a distance-based thing, avoiding trouble completely by accident just by looking for a place to run to is entirely possible.

So what's my point in sharing this? Well, I guess I'd just like to see this be a consideration in future porn games. Shield High can't really do it that well, in it's current form, maybe in the future it'll work out, however I'd like to see other games which have a bit more freedom in them, be them porn games, or just porn mods for other games, consider this idea of player interaction, and perhaps come up with a solution to the problem. I know whatever game I work on next, so long as it's not linear, will probably have this in mind.

Pudding Earl

EDIT: An afterthought, porn movies with this idea in mind would be interesting too. Have a number of girls, some have good ends, some have bad ends, pick one and follow her fate. Actually, that might work as a game. I should seriously consider that for another time.

0.682 Patreon release

This is the typical short post to inform you all that the Patreon update is out on time again. It's just a spring cleaning so lots of interface updates and only one new scene. I'm taking one day off tomorrow as I've gotta run some errands and then watch Your Name again (It's so good oh my god). On Friday I'll begin work on the update the day after. It's going to be dubbed the "Making Trouble" update, as it's going to be starting the feature of starting plots about enslaving girls you want. This'll start with Melanie and Iris most likely, and then maybe get another one or two in there if I feel like it. Also expect some new dialogue stuff for Angel and Jillian.

Anyway, that's the news. Release coming in the new year.

Pudding Earl

A brief observation

So I'm writing some Lucy dialogue as part of the spring cleaning update that won't be appearing this update. It's part of a longer term goal for characters and since I don't have all the systems in place to keep Shield High dynamic it's not going to come up anytime soon. However it got me thinking about something interesting. It's been years since I wrote original Shield High, and so the voices of all the girls have been lost. I remember how some of them talk(Angel and Jillian I still have a decent grip on) but some girls didn't ever get enough content for me to develop a long lasting feeling for them.

What this means is that a lot of girls are going to change in this new version, pick up personality traits that I feel fit them, but weren't there in the original. I think I'm gonna have to go back and read all my original sex scenes when making new content going forward to make sure it all feels like the old stuff. At least in terms of tastes each girl has.

That's all I wanted to share. Just found it a bit interesting and worth sharing.

Pudding Earl

Earl's Musings: Seduction of Porn Games

In my absence, I played a lot of porn games. Probably not a massive variety of them, as modded Skyrim has proven to have close to what I'm after, and I'm quite happy playing that when I really want a porn game to play, but almost every game that crossed my path I gave a quick play of. And in doing so, I noticed something that seemed to be missing from most porn games, Shield High included, though I hope I'm at least a little better about it than some other games, that was kind of necessary. Every porn game just seems to assume you're already in the mood for whatever smut it wants to give you.

This is a problem because it puts your game into an odd spot. The purpose of a porn game is to kind of act as foreplay to...whatever it is you have planned beyond it. But some porn games act like they're the be all end all of the experience, like the foreplay was meant to come from somewhere else, and you're already going to want it. And that's a rather limiting attitude to have. At the very least, it limits the times people will play your game, or the ways it'll be played, and at worst it completely alienates you from certain audiences. A decent chunk of porn games I've played have been games about fetishes I didn't have, but was interested enough to see if the game would tempt me with them. The answer is generally no, the game just...presents it, and hopes I like what's being put out there. Usually it doesn't leave me curious enough to take up any of the optional content, and I simply see what a purity attempt at the game looks like. (The wonders and importance of purity runs is another topic for another day)

Ultimately the point I'm trying to make is that a porn game should seduce you. It should make you want what it's offering, or at least tempt you with it. Porn games have a very unique position to use this seduction to influence gameplay. A sufficiently sexy enemy might give a player pause in fighting it, make them weave in just enough self-sabotage to lose an otherwise easy fight, just to see what they'll do. The seduction is also a good way to draw your player into exploring the game in a way they wouldn't otherwise in a porn game. Most of the time I'm playing a game, I chase quests because I need money and experience. Sometimes I'm in a particularly roleplay-y mood, and so I'll chase a quest because muh character, or just curiosity about what lies at the end, but usually not. A porn game that knows how to seduce it's player however, has another tool to draw players into quests, or add another layer to the story by making a choice influenced in part by lust.

Another reason seduction is so important is for players such as myself, and some of my fans, who enjoy putting their characters through cruel situations. It's especially important for people who don't like having to self sabotage, to push them to the limits of wanting to. A good rule of thumb that I've picked up in my time away from Porn Games, during a brief stint engaging in ERP was that the threat of losing must terrify, but excite you. In a porn game this is harder, obviously, as a player can just turn off the game, savescum back to before the fight, or just start a new character, but even still, in the moment, it's a good feeling to strive for. If a player will play their hardest to avoid it, but not back out when they lose, then I think a game is perfect. Well, perfect at seduction. The fight has to be balanced to really make the seduction work. Or be poorly balanced, but entirely voluntary on the players part.

Which...is two other topics for another time, so I will leave it there for now.

A quick update on the Shield High front, not a lot has been added in the past week, it's been a slow painful slog through content, which as soon as I'm feeling better tonight, I will hopefully slog a bit further into. Either way, update on time confirmed.

Pudding Earl

Earl's Musings: Aspirations of Porn Games

Being that I'm working on Shield High just about every day, I obviously spend a lot of time thinking about porn games. I also spend a lot of time thinking about the world at large, politics and all that jazz. As I regularly mention, I'm writing a series of (rather unsuccessful) books on Amazon, and being that I've been thinking about politics, I've been weaving some of that into the themes of the books. Not a lot, not enough to make a statement on anything, but I have been trying to explore some ideas, a thing I haven't ever really done before with my writing.

And so the combination of these two factors has me wondering. Can a porn game be more than just a porn game? Obviously games as a whole have faced a similar question before, in the whole debate over if video games were art. Obviously, the conclusion that has been more or less settled on is yes, they are art. And a lot of that comes down to the fact that they can be more than just a game. They can tell a story, share an idea, make you feel something, or question a concept you never heard before.

But can porn games? It's a question I honestly can't answer. Porn games aren't like any other genre of games. Any other game really only needs to meet the criteria "Is it fun" to succeed. Others set secondary goals on that art front, but at the end of the day if they fail them, so long as the game is fun, people will probably still like it. Porn games however, have a different path to success. Before asking if it's fun, first you need to work out if it's hot. Does this game succeed at being porn? If yes, does it succeed at being fun? That dilemma is a whole other musing for another time, so I won't go into it in detail now, but it's a difficult act to balance.

What I think the question ultimately boils down to is, can a message co-exist with porn? Or does the porn cheapen the message? And this isn't just in the same scene. Obviously trying to share some form of political message while Jessica goes down on someone isn't likely to work out. Shy of characters who are a bit silly (I have a vague desire to have a girl who gets off on having "Taxation is theft" whispered in her ear during sex) it can't really work. And on those silly characters, it's really just making fun of something which happens to be political, more than anything else. But in the game as a whole, does having moments that get serious, well before, or after, the sex, and talk about something important. Does that work? Or would that just rob the game of some of it's sex appeal?

I'm certain it would impact the game's sex in some way, but I can't exactly work out how. On the one hand, maybe it would detract from it, maybe it would distract you from it, or disturb your mood. But maybe it would make it better. In my experience the sexiest things are the ones you really care about. To use an example from Fenoxo's latest game, TiTS, I don't care about 90% of the sex. But I swear to god when I get the chance to fuck my cousin, I'm going to jump all over it. Because that's something I'm actually invested in. And maybe, by exploring ideas beyond just sex, maybe it will make people more invested in the characters, and thus the porn.

I don't know, I don't have an answer. I'm probably going to wind up experimenting with this down the track in Shield High. Make the dialogue you can have with most characters properly deep, and give them something a bit more serious to talk about. On reflection, I realize some already were a bit serious, so perhaps it won't go too bad. Who knows? If it does, I'll replace it with something light and silly by the end release.

I hope it was at least a bit interesting.

Pudding Earl

And now to tack on a quick bit of news. I broke Shield High. I have since fixed it. There's now an extra menu to navigate on the interact button. I'm going to have to fix it to go green when you have a non-class interaction around. Almost all the interactions are for progressing through the game, but the changing rooms have the option to get changed or shower. Showering is getting a proper scene since it's been on my mind, and I kind of want to add *something* of content to this update. I'll be adding more options for interacting as the game goes on. After this, I think it'll be house keeping, and making sure that events are in place for next month's update, so I can cram in more content, and then if I have time after, preparing more stuff for the next month. That would be a nice change, being ready well in advance.

Where I'm at right now.

At the point of writing this post I'm currently procrastinating finishing up a text entry. I need to cap it off with a sentence. Or I might look at it, and decide it's done, I'm not sure yet. But, as I finished this text entry, I reflected on where my mind is in relation to Shield High. The past week has been a hard, painful slog of work. I'm doing cleaning mostly, adding in boring monotonous text entries that all need to be there, and that you, as players, will probably read once go "Neat" and then only skim the first line of to work out which one it is. I know cause I do this all the time. Thankfully, you'll also encounter these rarely enough that they won't feel dull and monotonous to you. I'm just writing them all back to back, which means they do, and it sucks.

I've been mixing up those text entries with entrance texts, which are equally painful to write, but much more likely to give you some positive feedback on the game. When I run around and test the game does feel a lot nicer to play because of them. However, in writing this one text entry, something sort of...clicked, in my head.

For the past little bit, while I've been getting back into the swing of things, I've been concerned my characters won't be interesting anymore. Karen and Samantha felt so...the same, in writing their texts for when you lose. They weren't, of course, they did different things, but I was still concerned I'd run out of ideas quickly. The monotonous text work has only made that worse.

But today something changed. I wrote a text entry for the gym, and mentioned some girls playing volleyball. I've mentioned groups of girls around the school before in these, but somehow being confronted with another one, similar, but distinct from the others, something settled in my head about how I always worked with Shield High. I think...I remembered that characters are meant to be a bit ridiculous. I'm meant to be exploring ideas that seem kind of silly but could maybe be sexy. Or ideas that fall into more fringe fetishes that maybe I don't even like. And for some reason, writing about these girls who aren't even in the game yet has made that sit better with me. I think maybe I'm picking up a bit more of my old passion for the writing that I lost. Up until now I've been running largely on the passion for the game-side of porn. (Which I have a lot of).

Now we just hope that said passion lasts, and this wasn't a momentary flash. I'll keep you all posted on that, and expect some stranger content in the coming weeks. Good strange, I hope.

Pudding Earl