May Open Thread: Help and Criticism

If the first thread of the writing salon is anything to go by, we are going to have a lot of talk upcoming about people’s ideas. Thus the topic: what are some tips you have both for giving feedback on ideas and for being the person receiving feedback?

April Open Thread: Plot Twists

This was originally going to be an open thread for April Fool’s Day, but I didn’t want to knock down Lost Trout’s post so quickly.

The question: what is the best ‘twist’ you have encountered in AIF? Did it add a lot to the story? If an author chooses to use a twist in the plot, what steps can they take to make sure it succeeds (not saying it is essential, because it isn’t)?

To define twist via Wikipedia: “A plot twist is a radical change in the expected direction or outcome of the plot. It is a common practice in narration used to keep the interest of an audience, usually surprising them with a revelation.”

Open Thread: Authors and AIF Engines

There have been a few times on this blog were people have discussed the pros and cons of the different engines available for AIF, but I don't think we've had a thread directly about the topic

So I thought I'd address that: Authors (whether you have ever finished/released a game or not) why do you use the engine that you do? Have you tried others? What features do you like about the one you are using.

BTW, this thread is not about neutrality, this is about personal opinion. Why have you made the choice that you have?

Leap Day Open Thread: Time

Earlier we had the Valentine's Day Open Thread. Leap Year gave me another idea for one (I doubt this will be able to continue to any future holidays).

How important is time in AIF?

Games (not just AIF) can be criticized for everything seeming to stand still while the player runs around and does everything he wishes. Most AIF is like this where the other characters stand still while the player controls the actions.

Some though give more of a sense of time passing while the player moves about. Other characters move, surroundings change, and the player doesn't have infinite time to peak under every object.

In my attempts at authoring games I can say adding in other factors that respond to time passing increase the design difficulty substantially. Instead of one moving piece you have many. So, is that extra headache worthwhile for authors? Does a sense of time passing make for a better AIF? What are some of the best ways that authors can create a sense of time passing around the player?

Or does none of this matter and when given a situation with limited time you just undo/save scum until you get the perfect combination?

Valentine’s Day Open Thread: AIF and Love

Being it is Valentine’s Day I thought I would ask: what are your thoughts on love in AIF? By this I mean what impact does a believable intimate relationship between the player and a character(s) add to the game. AIF has sex, but do those sex scenes become better if the characters have developed a deeper relationship?

Feel free to give your opinion on the topic, but some suggested questions to answer:

Does a believable relationship add a lot to a game, a little, or is it unnecessary?

What are some things authors have done/can do to make great relationships in AIF?

What elements of AIF detract from believable relationships?

What is your favorite AIF relationship?

January Open Thread: Game Plans for 2016

After a great beginning to 2015 with a lot of entries this blog became very quiet. My open thread topics died off as I became very busy. There was actually a few times I signed on to start a monthly open thread, but then would get derailed by surprise events like Goblinboy's return (I actually went to post an open thread the same day Goblinboy made his first post in April and I chuckled about how it would look if I bumped his thread down the page).

Hopefully this blog can keep the momentum going through the year and I thought a good topic to get 2016 going would be for the authors/potential authors out there: what are your plans/hopes for releases for this year? Even if you just have an idea brewing and you hope this is the year, here's the opportunity to let us know what you're thinking. Give us as much or as little about the game as you want.

Feel free to err on the optimistic side for how much can be done: it's a new year, let's have high hopes.

Where did all these new games come from?

This will be a short post just to hopefully start a discussion, but I've noticed there have been a lot of releases recently. I don't remember a spontaneous busy period like this since... I don't know, maybe all the way back to 2005. Things were already going better than they had been, but then we got LLtL's project, followed by four games in this month so far. (By the way, is anyone keeping track of release dates these days?)

I have many questions and few answers about this busy patch. Is it just a coincidence? Is it a sign of more to come? Is the AIF author vacuum being filled? Has a big influx of new people been introduced recently? Can we find some way to ruin this again? Post in the comments if you have any ideas.

March Open Thread: Replayability

I've been reading through some old threads and noticed that talk about replayability of AIF games was pretty common. Most of the talk though didn't actually go into what made a game good to play multiple times, thus an open thread.

First: I don't want to imply by any means that a game has to be replayable to be 'good'. A good game might be great for just one play through, that shouldn't necessarily detract from the quality. I think though that many authors design for replayability for more of an emotional payoff (I believe I've seen both Palmer and BBBen discuss this). It takes a long time to design a game and it would feel better if it got multiple plays instead of just a single go.

Here are the questions:
In general, what elements makes you want to go back and replay a game? Quality, multiple paths, hidden scenes, something else?
Do you go back and replay games long after your initial play through?
What AIF game(s) have you played the most times and why?

February Open Thread: Failure and Challenge

I think the only AIF game I ever failed* at was BBBen's Pervert Action: Crisis. From the beginning I tried to have a diverse set of skills and interact with multiple girls. At the end, I ended up in a relationship with none of them.

A somewhat similar type of failure though happened in Goblinboy's games where I didn't get the ending/relationship I was shooting for. I think in my first play of School Dreams 3 I managed to piss both Becky and Molly off.

Now, for me, those setbacks just made me want to start again from the beginning. What are other people's thoughts on the issue? Does the potential for failure, and challenge** to get better outcomes, make the ultimate result more worthwhile, or just frustrating?

*I'm using a broad definition of fail here, I enjoyed my first play, so on that criteria I didn't fail, but I didn't get what I wanted (which was possible to get)
**I'm speaking generally. I think people generally agree that too much or too little challenge isn't desirable, so I'm asking in general is more challenge good?

January Open Thread: Dialogue Presentation

This is going to be a pretty simple question with only two answers that I can think of. I'm being selfish with the open thread here and asking something directly related to the game I'm working on.

Which of the following formats (script or book style is the best terms I can think of, not asking about the colors), in your opinion, is best in an AIF story (reader perspective):
Erin: I'm freezing. Isn't there anything we can use to warm up?

John: Here, I found this blanket.

Erin: Thanks!

John: Great, can we have sex now?

Erin: What? No, this is an example, not an AIF game.

OR

"I'm freezing," Erin said as she rubbed her arms together. "Isn't there anything we can use to warm up."

John opened up his backpack. "Here, I found this blanket."

"Thanks!"

"Great, can we have sex now?" John asked eagerly.

"What? No, this is an example, not an AIF game," Erin said as she pulled the blanket tighter.

New Year Open Thread: How did you get into AIF?

As we start off the new year, here is a simple question: How did you get into AIF?

As gets pointed out pretty frequently, AIF is a niche that occupys a miniscule portion of all the adult content on the Internet. I'm curious to hear people's tale of how they ended up here.

Some suggested questions to answer:
What led you to AIF?
What year did you first come across AIF?
What made AIF appealing?/Why did you stay with it?

October Open Thread: Relationships

No posts in September, so I thought I'd kick off October with a nice Open Thread:

"Does anyone else have any comments on relationship building during your AIF games? Like it, leave it?"
~Blue Satyr, Fetishes and Kinks thread

Let's talk about relationships in AIF. I think most AIF can be split into two categories when it comes to sex: romps and relationships (many games fall somewhere in between, of course). Romps mainly focus on sex, with maybe some puzzles to get to the 'action', while relationships focus upon building a sense of 'character' about the designated lust object. This sense of character can come in multiple different ways, making the relationship believable (giving a reason the two characters wish to have sex), giving depth to the DLO (making the player care more about them beyond their just being sexy), and creating a sense of build/courtship (having the relationship develop over time). I'm sure there are many more examples, those are just a few off the top of my head.

There are really a lot of different ways that this topic could go and I don't want to limit people, but here are a few suggestions:
How important is developing a relationship with girls in a game to its overall enjoyability?
What detracts from relationship building in a game?
What is an example of a game that did relationships well?
What is your overall favorite relationship in AIF?

August Open Thread: Twine

A few people on this blog have noted the growing use of Twine, mainly based off the mini-comp entries. Thus I feel like the obvious topic for discussion is what are the pros and cons of Twine as an engine. I'm primarily focusing on it from the author's perspective, as in what the reasons to use it/not use it compared to other platforms, but player perception is obviously an important part of that.

I looked at Twine awhile back, didn't like it because I didn't think it did enough, and then started playing around with it again based on the mini-comp usage and was impressed with how much could be done. While it comes off as a 'simple' engine for CYOA games, I think you could make many AIF games that are out there via Twine.

So why should, or should not, authors use Twine?

July Open Thread: Fetishes and Kinks

Note on Open Threads: This might be the last monthly thread I post here as there seems to be a general desire to move away from the blog format to reddit. I’m not sure if I’ll keep it going over there or not as this is the last of the original ideas for threads I had. I could probably come up with some more if people have enjoyed the monthly topics.

Topic: Sex in AIF? What fetishes, kinks, and situations do we need more of? There have been some discussions on how to write sex scenes, how much build up there should be, etc., but what I’m looking for here is when a sex scene happens what type of content do you want to see in that scene?

I’ve constructed a list based off story tags used by asstr and adultfanfic; if there is something I didn’t mention that you want to call attention to please do. I’m leaving out the more obscure concepts and things that are fairly universal (oral, regular intercourse, etc).

June Open Thread: Immersion

Does a game allow you to feel like you are the character? Should that even matter?

I’ve seen a few references on this blog to ‘immersion’ and it isn’t something I had previously thought about a lot as it doesn’t really matter that much to me. So I’m curious what other’s take on it is. To be clear (as there are multiple ways immersion could be defined, but I’m trying to stick with the context I’ve seen it in), I see immersion as does the player feel like they are the main character.

I don’t have a problem with immersion, but I also don’t find it necessary. If I don’t identify with the character at all it doesn’t really matter. Whether I feel like I am the character or if I am just guiding someone else doesn’t really matter.

So:

How much does immersion matter to you?

What are some good examples?

What are some bad examples?

May Open Thread: Hottest Sex Scenes

I am a little behind on the open thread summaries and posts I usually write, but while I was reviewing last month's open thread a question/survey/list came to mind: what is the hottest sex scene(s) you've ever played?

There are a lot of lists out there for best game and even best sex in game, but I want to focus on best scene, not the entire game (I suspect that this has been done before, but I am unaware of when). I'm not looking for technical merit or innovation, simply what sex scenes have you played that had the most impact on you (could be scene hit a particular fetish, was well written, or for an unknown reason it was just hot).

Feel free to give your top pick or a list, explanations or not, totally up to you, not asking for a formal 'vote' on best ever, just your personal take.

April Open Thread: Rub/Luck/ Fuck; any other options and/or how could it be better?

AIF has gone through a lot of changes and improvements over the years. Images, better engines, improvements in stories, but one of the (almost) constants has been the sex scenes. You rub the appropriate body parts, then lick them, then fuck (or suck, depending upon the body part). They don’t always need to be done in that order, sometimes the order will play into how each action is described, there may be multiple descriptions (orgasms), and authors may add in other actions (spanking) or body parts (hair). The steps of the sex scene are one of the most constant and similar activities between AIF games.

So, is there anything better that could be done? Cut scenes are an option (the entire sex scene described in one go), but from what I’ve seen in the past people find them less than ideal. Is there a different method that could be tried?

I’ll be upfront that this is one of my least favorite aspects of AIF; in many games I just enter all of the commands in a single go and then go back and read the text. I realize that I might be of the minority opinion here, so if you think the current system is great, but that the content could be improved, feel free to chime in with those ideas.

Open Thread Summary: We Need More … Depth

This topic exploded quickly with comments, but kind of slowed down as it became clear there was pretty overwhelming consensus on what was wanted. Depth was the clear favorite, though it comes in a couple of different types.

I’m going to outline a few of the ideas suggested, though for anyone who hasn’t checked it out, the original thread has lot of great ideas not covered here.

March Open Thread: We Need More of …

According to AIF List, there have been 354 AIF games made going back to the 80s. In addition, there are a lot of games that border/included in AIF territory such as RAGs and some commercial releases (ExLibris has an informative post all about this). What gems, what great ideas have you seen in that long history of AIF games? What lessons from the past (whether thirty years ago or just weeks) do you believe deserve more recognition? Now is the time to call attention to those ideas.

Note this isn’t a thread for Overlooked AIF titles; BBBen is already covering that. I think it would be helpful if we could discuss specific concepts, design ideas, plot points, or other elements that you wish were done more frequently. It could be a setting (fantasy, modern, school), a particular type of character (sister, teacher, wife), a way the sex scenes were written, a goal in the game, or any other element that when you played the game made you say, "That was a great idea, we should have more of that". This way authors can look to some prior works for good ideas, and maybe the community can help find you games that already exist that have the elements you are looking for.

Open Thread: Development Diaries

I was going to email the Editor with this, but I figure other people in the community might have some thoughts. There are so far two development diaries and I have a few questions/thoughts about what policies should generally guide not just them but future entries as well.