An Adult Game In Progress

[Geekyraven]

I'm not sure how to begin this but the idea came to me a while ago. I've often been wondering what happened to games where you are the villain. I feel like that genre of game has left us behind these days. I was playing CoC2 and Trials when I had an idea. Why not make something in the same vein as them? I've got no experience or knowledge of that stuff. I am googling and trying to learn what I can. But the transformations and things could be used to make something similar to anime like Overlord or I'm a Spider So what. Where you can make your monster and evolve them to become something.

Again I'm completely new at this and only have the barebones of an idea. I don't have any skills in graphics or art. So the only thing I've got to my capabilities is I'm a fair writer. I'm posting this with the hopes of maybe getting like-minded people. And putting together a game that people including myself can enjoy playing. I can't say that I know for sure how this will go. But if a game like this exists please tell me. I'll update the thread and name if it goes to the point where development even begins.

 

[Tinman]

You might want to check out Overwhored.

Also, RPGMaker might be your friend here. You could presumably set up various monsters as beginner classes and then have them evolve at certain levels. Making a game like CoC 2 and having the player evolve after transforming (especially with partial transformations possible) would probably be a coding mess, not to mention a writing nightmare.

 

[Geekyraven]

I wasn't familiar with that one, thank you for pointing it out. I guess that's true it would be a nightmare when you get down to it. Though it would be kind of neat to allow them to pick things. Partial transformations would indeed be an issue. Especially for someone like myself who is entirely new to game making process. I'll look into RPG maker and see what I can maybe accomplish.

 

[To&Fro]

If writing is your focus, Twine is a good choice. RPGMaker requires some coding and artwork skills to be effective. Ren'Py is artwork focused. Twine can be done with just writing skills and the art/coding is only to spruce it up.

You can also cut your teeth on a shared writing site like chyoa.com which lets you write directly to the site and let others co-write with you. That, of course, has its own challenges, but you get immediate feedback which can be a good thing for a new writer.

 

[Geekyraven]

That would be very helpful, since cutting my teeth is kind of the problem. I will try Twine out and see if I can manage to create something with my writing. The art part will I guess have to come later. Since I don't exactly have the pockets of someone who can buy art for it just yet. Guess every game maker goes through the same process huh?

 

[To&Fro]

It's not an uncommon problem. People, especially males, tend to be very visually oriented. So issues with art in a story tend to drive things towards the visual aspect, thus engines like Ren'Py do very well, but you need that artist to make it work. It also explains the popularity of comic books.

However, keep in mind that stories are deeply ingrained in the human psyche. They were verbal before they were written. They were acted out before they were written. They were DRAWN before they were written. The linkages are older than the first written language and writing as a whole by standard anthropological theories.

Twine DOES have an art inclusion function, and there are ways to make or download free art from even non-artists out there, you just don't need art to tell a compelling story. It has more of an effect if sex is in your story because most writers struggle to write a good, meaningful, well described sexual encounter, thus the apparent 'need' for art in sexual stories. If you are good with sexual situations in text, art becomes an unnecessary add-on, in fact can sometimes distract from the story/situation. Most starting authors are just trying to get good at writing, let alone writing about sex.

So go for it, but don't expect your first forays into writing to be blockbusters, in fact, you might get some seriously negative feedback. Just be prepared for it and don't try to write your magnum opus first. Stick to shorter stories (medium length ones, actual short stories are far harder to write than long ones!) and get your feet wet.

Good luck!

 

[Geekyraven]

I don't think anyone ever writes a magnum opus, I'm still learning and developing processes as it goes for game design. I am basically studying the ins and outs of Twine at the moment. Just trying to make basically a proof of concept and go from that place forward. Hopefully, when I post here I can gain insight and develop as a game developer and writer.

 

[To&Fro]

I don't think anyone ever writes a magnum opus, ...

Well, most good writers understand the idea that nothing is ever 'their best work', there is always something next that will be better. The term is used in a historical perspective most of the time.

Many beginning writers get into it thinking it's easy only to find that good writing takes just as much hard work and dedication as a regular job to learn to do it well.

I kind of laugh at many people who are "English" or "Literature" Majors in college that feel they have the keys to critique the works of others because some piece of paper says they got good enough grades from tests and submitted papers to call themselves experts. When you've sweated over pages, word nuances, or woken up in the middle of the night with an epiphany that solves a story problem for you that you've had nightmares over for weeks; that's when you truly understand how much effort goes into the works of others that you read.

So, I welcome you to the world of writing. It will either be heaven, hell, or more likely something of both. Good luck and keep us apprised of your efforts!

 

[Traget]

I think sexual games that involve the player character as the villain might be difficult to get the feel right. Go too far and it feels very violently rapey, don't go far enough and people wonder what the point of being the bad guy is. I could certainly be wrong, but I'd think that alone would be a fine line that needs careful judgment.

 

[To&Fro]

There are several games already in existence where you are tentatively 'the villain'. Most of them are about how deeply you dive into villainy. Usually the deeper you get the more the game pushes against you using populous backlash. This is normally based on the idea that the more you instill fear to gain control, the harder it is to keep control. This is somewhat how human nature works... sort of. The player goes too far = bad end.

I recall a couple of games where they completely ignored such concepts and allowed the bad guy/girl to win. It turns the Hero's Story cycle on its head but to do so it has to make a world where such a victory is possible, usually making them harder to relate to.

So, making a 'bad' MC relatable really isn't terribly hard, they are called anti-heroes. They do good things in bad ways. There are bunches of them in stories. They are allowed to win. Popular characters like this would be ones like "Constantine", "Iron Man" and even "House MD". Writing them isn't all that hard, they take a selfish road most of the time, but when it really matters, they begrudgingly put their effort on the good side of things. That doesn't make them necessarily good, it just means they are realistic when the chips are down. Even Darth Vader was ostensibly an anti-hero in the end, but he was never the primary villain either.

Villains can be selfish, but when the chips go down, they choose destruction over stability/order for some selfish reason... ie: burn it all down. However they justify it makes no difference, order must be destroyed or be created/managed by only them. Nobody really wants to read/participate in a story where everyone is destroyed or subjugated to someone's whims.

Thus, it's somewhat impossible to actually make a villain 'win', but an anti-hero can. So the main MC would be a type of anti-hero or the story wouldn't work well unless it was some kind of dark, karma-lacking world.

 

[Geekyraven]

I wanted to update you to let people know where I am with my idea overall. So the idea has undergone some transformation as a story. The term of the equipment used is undetermined yet. So let's start with the points I have figured out.

The storyline is set around an Overlord-like world where the main character, is male or female. They have inherited the Kingdom of an Overlord and are the heir of the domains of monsters and beasts. Basically, a Demon Queen or King of a race picked from a selectable amount. The player has to rebuild the Kingdom, by creating children with characters in the game and building up their own military might. This will allow for war where prisoners are taken and so on. That's the idea on paper at the moment.

As for equipment, I'm unsure what would work in this regard. Renpy seems possible though art will be hard to find. But the idea seems something a bit more fleshed out.

Anyways this is an update on where I am thus far. Any advice or tips would be welcome once again.

 

[To&Fro]

Sounds like a challenge, go for it.

Being an 'Overlord' isn't necessary a good or evil thing. If the MC will be an Evil Overlord, I strongly suggest they read the Evil Overlord's Manual, it can be found here: http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html

A benevolent Overlord is usually well loved and appreciated, like any good boss should since we all know how RARE they are. Being benevolent does have its drawbacks as you are: always taking bullets and arrows meant for your underlings, you have to pick up more work when an underling fails at some part of their job and laugh at some of the lamest jokes you've ever heard. This is just a sampling though.

Again, if you don't have an artist on staff now, forget Ren'Py. Stay with Twine, you'll be much happier and you can still incorporate art and audio. Ren'Py is well known for crushing the aspirations of budding CYOA writers. You can put together a Twine Harlowe CYOA adventure in just a couple of weeks with little learning curve... of course it won't be snappy and lovely, but for a first pass it would do to give you a proof of concept. When you woo a struggling artist with your writing, then convert it over to a more advanced Twine or Ren'Py format... just a suggestion though.