Is there a guide anywhere that describes the limit of how spicy a romance scene can be? Or a guideline warning if there are ratings we risk being tagged with on certain platforms if we include certain content?
And if my players read this then uuuuhhhhhhh I’m asking for a friend.
Most games here fade to black but there is an Adult section you have to register for that allows more explicit fare.
That’s the Choice of Games writing guide if you don’t already have it.
I’m actually not sure, I know there’s a certain threshold from when it enters the adult category, usually when it has explicit sex written. But I’ve never seen a real line in any of the IFs that have them, goes from just two paragraphs generally describing the act all the way to describing positions and adding choices.
I am interested to see what, if any, is the official line so to speak.
COG managed to publish All World pro wrestling, which is more spice than story. I wouldn’t be surprised if the game is locked after an age limit on some platforms or that it maybe can’t be played in all countries. But they still managed to publish it. The HG blood moon also has quite detailed spice scenes, and got published. @Barb do you know about how the spice scenes in blood moon impacted the publication? Did you needed to change something in order to get it published?
(Sorry, couldn’t help myself. It’s not often you hear adult scenes referred to as saucy but I love it 
)
True, but that was through HC rather than HG. I’m actually not sure myself what would happen if something in the adult section were to be completed. I always thought the app stores got a bit funny about X rated stuff. It could cause the entire omnibus to get age restricted if published there?
Stuff in the adult section has been published. I’m pretty sure both A Kiss from Death and Blood Moon were listed under Adult Content.
If Blood Moon, The Midnight Saga and A Kiss From Death can get on storefronts as individual apps I don’t think you’ll need to be too worried.
As for the forum, if there’s NSFW discussion, you’ll want to run an additional thread for your game in the adult reader section and direct people there when conversation gets saucy, or if the game is particularly saucy, it may be appropriate to move the thread there.
Based on what’s already out there (including dating sim apps downloadable from the appstore which include smut (Choices etc)):
Avoid mentioning genitalia: at least directly. You can mention ‘veins’ or ‘curves’ and textures but for some reason the moment you say ‘cock’ you are catapulting the smut scene into the porn category.
You can get away with describing the position and act (with fade-to-black button of course) if you keep it vague. It’s a balancing act - go too vague and you won’t need that fade-to-black button.
Focus on sensations, connection and emotion. Unless you are planning a pure smut IF your audience is probably there for a romantic arc. *Doesn’t apply to one night stands in the book, these need to be hot, not soulful - save the gazing for the eventual one-night-stand-to-lovers if that’s what you are going for.
Kiss from Death, APW and Blood Moon got away with a lot more than Midnight Saga, which was restricted in Germany. I’d have to play these again to be sure where the difference lies exactly but these are the safe tips.
I believe HC’s own scale is similar to romance.io’s. So you could use that as refence.
Ah okay, I’d be trying to do Open Door on a Hosted Game. We’ll see if it works out or if I’d have to tone it down.
It’ll depend on how you write it, obviously, but based on that I really do think you’ll be fine. I’d put Blood Moon for example in the “explicit and plentiful” category or at least “explicit and open door”. There are plenty of HGs and CoGs with individual storefront apps whose scenes could be described with that less-explicit “open door” descriptor.
No. There was no issues (as far as I’m aware) with publishing the sex scenes in Blood Moon.
For those who aren’t familiar: I used explicit and unambiguous language when describing the sex in my game. The player could pick their genitalla, position, and sometimes I threw in a few minor dom/sub rough/gentle modifiers for fun.
I gave the player a warning and skip button before each explicit sex scene in case they’d rather fade to black, but beyond that point, I wasn’t flowery in terms of descriptions or language.
I hope that helps. 
No significant spice limits in Hosted Games but they’re very precise about matters of hateful content.
You should also be extremely careful about enthusiastic and informed consent considering the unique audience-insert point of view that interactive fiction takes.
