So, this past week I've been hard at work making all of my romances be good. So far we've got Angel, Iris, Jillian and Melanie all primed up with their first dates, and Josie is on the way after them. In writing these dates, I've spent a lot of time writing stuff that isn't sex. It's been fun, but I always worry I'm going too long with them, with the average scene taking about 4 entries to get to the sex. But then I reason it's romance and it needs to be different from normal sex, so of course it's going to take a bit of time exploring the characters and maybe a bit of the world while I'm at it. I know no one cares but I put some effort into this backstory and damnit I'm going to slip my clues in.
But then tonight I played some Corruption of Champions again. The game that first inspired me to start Shield High, in no small part because, in my opinion, everything Fenoxo does is obsessed with dicks and I just want some good lesbian stuff damnit. And in playing, I started to notice a trend that happens to me a lot when playing Fenoxo's games. I ended up skimming. Like, a lot. It always feels as if the text is kind of...in the way, rather than being an engaging part of the game. And upon reflection, I think the issue I take with it is how long it spends describing things.
I'm aware of the hypocrisy in this, I often stop to describe things in Shield High, at least when going home or to other girls houses. But it feels a bit over the top in CoC. For me at least, I'm sure other people really enjoy it. Which gives me two questions really, am I the odd one out in feeling this way? Do most other people enjoy the big descriptions? Or do you prefer a more minimalist approach with your porn? That was three questions, but they're really just like, lots of ways to ask the first one. The second question is how much description is enough? How much is too much?
I don't have an answer to that question. I'm just pondering it here. I have a theory that the amount of description that's acceptable is dependent entirely on the access to the porn. If the description is slowing people down from getting to the porn they want, it's probably too much. Though, perhaps that's the answer. Weave your sex content into your descriptions with enough regularity that you can ride the good will to the end. Someone remind me I made this post for my next game, I need to remember to test that theory.
Anyway, that's it for today, release SOON(tm)
Pudding Earl
I like detail description when it is to setup the porn stuff am interested in. For example Dom/Sub relationships is something am into so descriptions of possibly none sexual things on their date but shows that one person is the dominant in the relationship I enjoy reading about. From the difference in how they dress or how they interact with each other when other people present or light (or not light) teasing of what the future may hold.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand long descriptions of small talk that don’t seem related to something am interested in that design to show 2 people getting closer together am much more likely to skim.
So if the romance set the mood for the porn stuff with fetishes I like am going to read every word, otherwise am much more likely to skim.
Thanks for the feedback. Romance so far has been about 4-ish entries of small talk, developing out relationships with Jessica and her girlfriend or Jessica and her mother, followed by a decent amount of sex. They've progressively gotten shorter on the sex front the more of them I write, so I'm considering taking a short break and doing some coding tonight so I can come back strong on the sex for Josie, and then possibly expand on Jillian too.
DeleteThough honestly, there's nothing inherently wrong with skimming sections you don't like, the real problem is when you end up either A. Skimming everything trying to find something you like that isn't there or B. Have no idea where to stop skimming. I think for the most part my romances have got pretty clear "Stop skimming here" lines. Except for the Iris one. There's no sex in the Iris romance yet.
I think the reason for skimming in CoC is twofold. First the repetitive nature of CoC to actually get anywhere means you'll be seeing certain scenes an awful lot as you try to grind your Str/Int/Con/Equipment to levels that can actually survive a Minotaur or Sharkgirl encounter that you need to before you can even begin to accomplish things means you'll be seeing certain scenes many many times over. The second part is that a significant number of these scenes have basically no relevance. They don't inform the player, they don't significantly affect the MC, and they provide no value besides pure sex and my response is often "Yet another sex scene hidden under 1000 words of lorem ipsum". Worse is that some of the scenes are very 'Ikea Romance', but even the ones where the sex is actually good but by time I get there I'm fatigued from something besides the intended result.
ReplyDeleteExceptions to this do occur, the Sand Witch is a good example of an enemy who does this because it's a slow ensnarement that is relationship building, affects the MC and the scene changes many times.
While I'm not always down with the specific fetishes on display by the non-hostile NPCs you can interact with, again usually they aren't things I skim because the sex often feels like a culmination of a building relationship. I think the difference is that the MC feels invested, and by proxy I do too, because they involved effort and input, rather than another passive one button 'rape or be raped' fight scene.
I don't really think the way your game is being constructed falls into either of these categories.
"even the ones where the sex is actually good but by time I get there I'm fatigued from something besides the intended result."
ReplyDeleteI think this sums up my core issue with a lot of not just Fenoxo's stuff, but porn games as a whole. An awful lot of their content feels kind of filler-y, and by the time I reach the good stuff, I'm not in the mood anymore. That's probably one of the only issues that I can see affecting Shield High, if your particular desire is a few plots deep, getting there might be a grind. Also some of the content will end up being "Oh it's this again" but only in terms of random plots(a problem that I'm hoping will be mitigated by volume one day) and enslaved events(an unfortunate necessity of keeping being enslaved playable without letting it drag on too long).
But overall I agree with a lot of what you've mentioned here, and it's gotten me thinking about a few future topics for musings. I might end up making a common theme of pointing out flaws in other porn games for musings, since it makes for the easier way to discuss issues.