1st Edition
Passion and Play A Guide to Designing Sexual Content in Games
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!
Acknowledgments
Author
INTRODUCTION
Part 1 Sex, Games, and Culture
Chapter 1 ◾ What This Book Is (And Isn’t)
Chapter 2 ◾ The Myths and "Myths" of Video Game Sex
Chapter 3 ◾ Challenges Part 1: Censorship and Storefronts
Contributor: Kris Wise
Chapter 4 ◾ Challenges Part 2: The Terrors of Tech
Part 2 Sex and Pre-Production
Chapter 5 ◾ The Narrative Functions of Sex Scenes (And Why/Why Not to Have Them)
Chapter 6 ◾ Considering Your Thirsty Audience: Diverse Desires vs. Target Demographics
Chapter 7 ◾ The Trifecta of Sexual Approach and Aesthetic
Chapter 8 ◾ Teamwork Makes the Dream Work!
Main Author: Souha Al-Samkari, Sidebar Author: Michelle Clough
Part 3 Sex in the Larger Game Structure
Chapter 9 ◾ Characters and Sex
Chapter 10 ◾ Sex and the Three-Act Structure (Part 1)
Chapter 11 ◾ Kindness Coins and the Chemistry Casino
Chapter 12 ◾ Sex in Quest Design
Part 4 The Craft of Sex Scenes
Chapter 13 ◾ Queer Sex in Games
Contributors: Kris Wise, Monica Fan, Aubrey Jane Scott, and Antonin Fusco
Chapter 14 ◾ Initiating Sex with Branching Choices
Chapter 15 ◾ Consent in Video Game Sex
Chapter 16 ◾ Building Anticipation!: Sex Scenes and the Four Types of Tension
Chapter 17 ◾ Bringing to a Climax: Sex and the Three-Act Structure (Part 2)
Chapter 18 ◾ Sex Cutscene Direction and Design: An Interview with Ashley Ruhl
Author/Interviewee: Ashley Ruhl, Interview questions by: Michelle Clough
Chapter 19 ◾ Fade to Black vs. Showing the Sex
Chapter 20 ◾ Coming to Grips with Gaze in Sex Scenes
Chapter 21 ◾ Setting the Sex Scene!: Sex and Environment Design
Chapter 22 ◾ "Aural Sex" and Audio
Contributor: Souha Al-Samkari
Chapter 23 ◾ Tender Talk and Naughty Narration: Dialogue and Sex
Chapter 24 ◾ Sex and Game Design (Part 1): Branching Choices, Interactivity, and Agency
Chapter 25 ◾ Sex and Game Design (Part 2): Mechanics and Verbs
Contributor: Sharang Biswas
Chapter 26 ◾ The Aftermath of Sex Scenes
AFTERWORD
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Biography
Michelle Clough is a freelance game writer, editor, and narrative designer, as well as partner in the game narrative co-op Talespinners. She is also co-founder of the IGDA Romance and Sexuality Special Interest Group and has been speaking at GDC since 2014 on topics related to sex, sex appeal, and sexuality in video games.
