Hentai elements in platformers

[A Cat w/ Glasses]

Hey. Sorry if this isn't the place to post this, but I'm looking for input / ideas / broad discussion.

So, I make 2D, sprite based platformers. I can make other types of games, but platformers are really my bag. I'm looking to break into making h-games.

I've looked at a lot of platformer style adult games, and the vast majority of them seem to incorporate the hentai stuff in a pretty specific way--sex as damage. You touch a monster, the monster plows you, you go on about your business. Maybe they're a special CG or scene if you "die" to any given monster.

This works, but--and this isn't a judgement call on anyone's tastes, this is just me as a guy making games--it's a little more... rapey? Than I'd prefer?

I want to make adult games, but I'd like to circumvent that particular mechanic, if possible. I know there's games that offer lewd pics as rewards for stuff, and I'm a lot cooler with that kind of thing--but is that enough to consider a game a proper h-game? Are there other ways to work adult content into a platformer game? Am I in the wrong business entirely, trying to avoid rape in an h-game?

 

[Bryanis]

There's always peoples having different taste and looking for different things.
Most H game aren't well developed as game, so most people look at the hentai quality / quantity and how easy it is to get.

Lot of people don't like to have to lose on purpose to get the H part. So having the H part unlocked upon losing or upon clearing a stage is usually well liked.
It's true that most platformers are made on the get knocked down, raped and kick back the enemies to keep fighting (or GoR). With animation / cg per enemies and one for the boss (or just animation per monster and one game over scene per stage).

A few have taken the reverse rape point of view, with enemies raping as a way to get power up (playing as a guy or as a girl).

I've seen a few that only offered Game over scene upon losing all your life in a stage AND full scene in the between stage story.

There some with town / base where you get H scene as prostitution to get money (to buy potion, power up or just the inn to rest). A few more ADV like had sex scene in town for failling quest but that's a very specific kind of game.


But I think the more important points are :
1) the quality of the game(play). If the kind if well made and peoples enjoy playing it, they won't focus so much on the H part (unless it's really hard to unlock). Hentai game mean there's a game in here. Peoples prefer to play and enjoy the game.
2) Your motivation. Seeking what peoples want is nice & good, but if it mean you end up doing a game you don't like, you won't be able to really invest yourself in it, and it won't be a good game. Don't lose focus of what YOU want to do.

Personally, whatever the way to get the H part, the important in a game is that I can play it (no impossible difficulty or hardcore control that need 5 hands with 50 finger each). And that I can get acces to the H part in a gallery - Having to keep replaying a game to go lose at specific point to enjoy a scene is way to motivation killing.

 

[DemonBreath]

The reason rape is so prevalent in hentai platformers is less to do with the fact people really like it, and more that its the established "norm", and that's its really easy. I'd say most people don't really care much for context at all, just if the particular images or animations look nice. For what its worth, I'm honestly kinda tired of it, I'd even argue most people aren't a fan of rapey stuff, if you consider many games have some kind of corruption or lewdness mechanic which always leads to the heroine consenting to the h, and such scenes often being the majority of the h scenes.

That being said, something that is likely to get you lots of gold stars from the community is to actually implement mechanics around the h content itself. Too often h games feel like an otherwise normal game, with some h scenes here and there. Making a game that's inseperable from the h content is the way to go. Take something like Tobihime, the only way to make new units is to get your heroines impregnated by monsters and give birth to new allies. Pregnancy is often the answer devs go for, but something like the Moral Sword Asagi has characters getting captured and imprisoned by the enemy, who you then have to go save. Granted, both of those cases are pretty rapey, but there's absolutely no imperative to go in that direction.

Also, try not to go down the dating sim route too heavily. The one thing people hate more than anything is having to work really hard for the h content. These games ARE meant to be fapped to afterall, so don't go blueballing the audience; unless of course that's the point of the game, but if you're looking for the "mainstream audience", if you can even call it that, I'd advice against focusing on a fetish like that. If you want to focus on the fetishes the western community seems to love, cuck shit and incest are pretty much an instant win. But much like rape, I'd argue a lot of people are tired of it, myself included.

If you feel really backed into a corner about this though, and think the community won't accept a game without gameover h, you could always go down the route of implied consent. There was a game that in development that's since gone under called Husband Hunter, where the heroine was on a quest to find a husband, the only requirement being someone that could beat her in a fight. So although it was still using the same mechanics as all the other games, the so called "gameover" scenes were all consenual... kinda.

Good luck on the game, no matter what direction you go in. The community always responds a lot more positively to platformers than RPGs, so I doubt you'll get a lot of negative backlash. Unless of course you make a Patreon with nothing to show for it. Then you're dead to us.

Feel free to PM me if you any clarification.

 

[nimodae]

Working on a platformer myself, I am aiming for it to be enjoyable played both straight and with H-content (and guro). It is entirely without consent though, so my methods might not work for your game. Also, I don't want to give away too much, since I'm in a very early state with it.

Thinking about your dilemma, I thought about scenarios where the character would consent to any sexual acitvities:
Maybe your main character feeds on semen or 'lifeforce'?
Maybe sex is accepted as payment for various goods?
Maybe there's a lust-epidemic and your character's job is to satisfy anyone that needs it?
Maybe your character really needs sexual relief (to prevent something from happening) and does that by interacting with non-conscious enemies (avoiding reverse-rape)?

So instead of avoiding enemies, make them targets that you should interact with for the game's objective.

 

[Yilin]

Check out Libra Heart's and Fullflap's games, Libra Heart in particular for MC not being raped (or at least, not hating the sex). I think they incorporate H into gameplay the best out of the games I've played. Going for H doesn't need you to deliberately play like an infant nor do you get punished for going for H.

Libra Heart's MCs are always succubi so they tend to be the one in control and initiating the acts, and heal from doing them, while Fullflap's action games go for acts that are initiated by specifically marked enemies but give small heals or net zero change.

 

[Tenma]

To answer your question, lewd pictures as rewards, I don't think it'll turn out as a good H-game. I seen more than a fair share of people be frustrated at not getting anything besides one CG at the end of a level.

As heads up. Good art is necessary, it's a bit hard to say as a customer to a developer in the process but if you're just setting out, look at a few other h-treads here. Even if the gameplay is on par with competitors, the better looking games will still receive more if not all of the attention. So figure that before starting out on a project.

That said, if you manage to cobble together some wonderful looking h-scenes, then you can expect some leeway. That being said, getting into making an H-platformer without rape will be difficult. Just getting the gameplay and artwork done.

 

[super_slicer]

Pixels always give consent, even if you can't tell for sure and even when they're screaming no, they always mean "Yes, I want to be sexed". And have signed a legal, notarized document stating such.

 

[obligitury]

I always just find in game rape to be more of a gameplay thing and less that the people who made it prefer rape altogether. I enjoy in game H-attacks since depending on the game, whenever Im satisfied with what I saw I can quickly go back to playing again, H-attacks to me are like a nice quick break before you decide to go back into the action again. tho when I find something I really enjoy that can technically be the "hurdle" that I have to overcome.

I do understand if you think gameplay H-attacks is to rapey for you to consider, but I do hope you find some alternative that allows you too add in game H-attacks and not only limit it to just progression or game overs.

 

[A Cat w/ Glasses]

This has definitely given me some things to think about. I could probably write my way around h-attacks to make them not come off as rape, though now I'm kind of curious about those from a game design standpoint. Does that shit not break the pacing? I feel like stopping to bang enemies / get banged by enemies would slow down the... uh, game aspect, of the game. Integrating the hentai elements into the gameplay more naturally than just "beat level, get picture" does sound like the proper way to do things, but I'm trying to wrap my head around working that with a platformer. I've mostly seen it in slower paced metroidvania types, I guess maybe I just need to crank my gameplay down to that more methodical style--most of my games so far have been very quick, run and gun timing affairs.

Graphically, this is the kind of stuff I do.



(It's a work in progress, I'm redoing the clouds.)

I can do full scale pixel art when needed...



but I'll probably just hire someone outright to do any CGs.

 

[Tenma]

More Leisurely games don't care about the pace, will slap you with a flat amount of damage, and allow you to do your business with the animation. Allowing you to escape at anytime. A few of the action focused game use a couple of different methods. Mashing out of the rape grapples (These attacks deal damage overtime, depleting the health quickly or slowly depending on the difficulty. While simple it works. These tend to be used in the games where the player's raping the enemy.) or press a single or random sequence of button(s) quickly. (These could, inflict a status effect, strip the players clothes, (etc.) and/or deal large damage if the players stroke hits the wrong key or takes too long). These should keep up the pace of the gameplay without breaking up the flow and allow player the ability to influence the outcome and damage taken/ health received.

On the artwork, that'll hold up nicely. In my eyes you can't go wrong with those sort of graphics.

 

[Yilin]

Yeah, the idea of having erotic scenes do directly run counter to a consistent and quick pacing generally. I tend to avoid all scenes and then dive into gallery mode when I'm done with the game, only doing scenes if there is a direct benefit in getting the scene (e.g. a means to heal the character).

Perhaps you could implement a "battle-fuck" style mechanic for specific enemies like bosses, where the character needs to fuck aggressively or defensively using moves or QTEs, which would allow the scene to be interactive and let the player still be playing instead of just waiting for the scene to end.

Mindless button mashing is shit, though

 

[stashar]

This has definitely given me some things to think about. I could probably write my way around h-attacks to make them not come off as rape, though now I'm kind of curious about those from a game design standpoint. Does that shit not break the pacing? I feel like stopping to bang enemies / get banged by enemies would slow down the... uh, game aspect, of the game. Integrating the hentai elements into the gameplay more naturally than just "beat level, get picture" does sound like the proper way to do things, but I'm trying to wrap my head around working that with a platformer.

What if a platformer is just the wrong genre? What if it were more like Overcooked, except with various H-attacks and trying to build a giant, sexy orgy pile? You'd use H-techniques to put various NPCs into status effects: Flashing them may have them come towards you, S&M whipping may repel them. And the overall goal is to create orgy piles.

I dunno, just throwing out weird ideas. Maybe its a matter of branching out to another genre entirely.

Erotical Night is the genre-shift I was thinking about. Its basically a game designed from the ground up to be a H-game. You "battle-sex" the opponent, first one to cum loses. If you've never played it before, maybe you should give it a shot for inspiration:

You must be registered to see the links

. Its not a platformer, but perhaps those mechanics would inspire you somehow?

 

[Fenril]

Probably your biggest issue with getting consensual sex in a platformer comes from the genre itself. Because how many platformers exist where ever other person or creature on the stage is a friendly character rather than an enemy? Yeah, it's almost impossible to get that without it being a glorified gallery platformer.

That's just how platformers are. It's you trying to get past a million goons until you reach the end of the stage and they're all your enemy. And when you throw in H elements, all those enemies have to do damage in some way in order to defeat you. Hence, the rape. That's why most people call them "run or rape" games rather than platformers. Many don't even have platforms or they have very remedial platforming... they usually give you just barely enough ways to dodge their attacks as you move from one end of the level to the other.

 

[Someone92]

Am I in the wrong business entirely, trying to avoid rape in an h-game?

Well, if I'm in the mood for regular sex I'll just watch porn. H games and other drawn / animated stuff is for the more disturbed kinks of mine. Dunno if this sentiment is widespread, though.

If you wanna include sex into a platformer one inspiration could be the various ways you "capture" the monster girls in Forest of the Blue Skin:
https://ulmf.org/threads/zell23-forest-of-the-blue-skin.6948/

 

[stashar]

Probably your biggest issue with getting consensual sex in a platformer comes from the genre itself. Because how many platformers exist where ever other person or creature on the stage is a friendly character rather than an enemy? Yeah, it's almost impossible to get that without it being a glorified gallery platformer.

That's just how platformers are. It's you trying to get past a million goons until you reach the end of the stage and they're all your enemy. And when you throw in H elements, all those enemies have to do damage in some way in order to defeat you. Hence, the rape. That's why most people call them "run or rape" games rather than platformers. Many don't even have platforms or they have very remedial platforming... they usually give you just barely enough ways to dodge their attacks as you move from one end of the level to the other.

What about a "Gal Gun" style game? All the girls are madly in love with you, and change the main character so they also want to have sex (ie: Incubus or Succubus setup). But the problem is if you have sex, then it takes time, so you probably "should" avoid them if you want to speedrun the game. Include "love gun" mechanics so that the girls cured of their love-sickness and feint.

 

[Bryanis]

Well, if you want consensual sex in a platformer, you can put it in the way of friendly girls (or guys) to rescue in each stage and they gave you a reward for freeing them.

There a lot of options if you read what peoples suggest. But I really think the best thing it to put down what you want for you game. What you want it to be, gameplay, map like.... then think about the kind of Hentai to put in it.

 

[kiko]

Well, there's a lot of existing mechanics like

- Rape on hit
- Rape on knockdown
- Reverse rape
- Charm/Seduction mechanic
- Rape on gameover
- Consensual sex with enemies
- Protag staggered > enemy touches you > you get raped
- Trap rape
- Only some enemies will rape you

It's up to you to choose. But if you want my honest opinion, making a hentai platformer/sidescroller without any of these is a waste of time. This is pretty much all existing mechanics, I can't think of another one, and I've been playing a LOT of these games

 

[stashar]

Well, if you want consensual sex in a platformer, you can put it in the way of friendly girls (or guys) to rescue in each stage and they gave you a reward for freeing them.

Doesn't even have to be a girl or guy. Could be a "consentacle" (consent-tentacle porn). Checkout the doujin "Tentacles Training" by Batsu, or the Card Game "Consentacle: A Card Game of Human Alien Intimacy". Imagine a Metroidvania where (consensual) tentacle sex powers up the female lead.

Each "consentacle" could give a new tentacle-based power: the whip from Castlevania, a shield-like attack (Megaman 2 Leaf Shield, except with tentacles), an eating attack, etc. etc. Death would be treated normally: enemies just kill you. The H-element would be the consentacle power-up scenes / alien sex. Or if you're a vanilla person, then make them Wizards and/or Witches. Have sex to gain magic powers (which is a mainstay in a lot of mythology and legends).

 

[super_slicer]

then make them Wizards and/or Witches. Have sex to gain magic powers (which is a mainstay in a lot of mythology and legends).

The internet told me otherwise:

I do rather like the tentacle powers idea, someone should make that metroidvania.