Hey guys, I don’t usually post excerpts here, but I’m writing an intimate scene and… I’m not sure if I got the mechanics right. Which probably sounds worse than it actually is, but still. I’d appreciate it if someone took a look at the scene, especially someone well-versed in ornithology.
The Excerpt (kinda NSWF maybe?)
“Hey, I told you it’s fine.” Renfri pauses for a moment. “Although if you’re offering… You could try preening me. My wings have been itching recently.”
“Huh. I guess it can be a problem for a bird without a beak.” You start looking around the room. “Alright, let me help you scratch that particular itch.”
Using a blunt knife you luckily had lying around, you proceed to preen your girlfriend’s wings. You scrape away at the caramel feathers, those with waxy sheathes rather ones with blood inside them, cleaning the plumage and interlocking the barbules. You reposition the healthy feathers, open the sheathes on the rest, and litter your room’s floor with dried skin.
You wouldn’t call it the most romantic thing you’ve ever done, but Renfri doesn’t seem to share your concerns. She has avian instincts, she finds such an activity an endearing mating ritual. Just a normal thing partners do for one another. Just another thing you’ve signed up for.
Once you absolutely need to part, about an hour later, she thanks you quite enthusiastically. She feels cleaner, less overheated, and free of any ectoparasites she may have had. But her smile disappears when she has to say her goodbyes, and then you reply in kind, and then she’s gone.
Hopefully not forever, but… you know how it is. It’s hard to be an optimist at your age.
What do you think? Should I expand on something, delete something, modify something else? I’m new to this kind of thing.
Thanks. I’m worried because my only sources on preening are the wikipedia article and that one fanfic I read once. But if people find it amusing then I guess it’s fine, even if there’s a risk of scientific inaccuracy.
I would definitely appreciate reading a guide/collection of thoughts on intimate scenes in IF, if anyone were to write one. (Or start a thread.) Interactivity changes so many things — I feel like I’m shooting in the dark over here.
Lately I’ve been wondering if it’s weird to have stat checks and branching end states. Please tell me I’m not the only one putting fail states in intimate scenes.
I’ve been approaching it like any other action-oriented encounter sequence: i.e., choices raise stats, choices test stats, outcomes/delayed branching commence based on test results. Classic working the ChoiceScript machine stuff.
But I’m increasingly self conscious that intimate scenes in other games aren’t structured that way. Regardless of how explicit the description is, most have an “#I choose to be intimate/Narrator: You are intimate” structure rather than a protracted blow-by-blow.
I generally assume players welcome lots of choice interactivity and stats reactivity, but maybe not in intimate scenes? “Branchy and challenging, with possibility for failure” is how I prefer to approach all things, but I might be missing the boat here, is my concern.
If more static and scripted scenes are preferred, I’ve got so many darlings to cull.
I mean, my immediate reaction is… no thank you. But my better-thought-out reaction is that it really depends on how it works. Please forgive me for being a little crude but just to get down to the nitty gritty of the mechanics here, are we talking like, I get a relationship stat raise for choosing to give rather than receive oral but only if I do it successfully after a (dexterity?? endurance???) stat check for giving oral? Will I know what stat the check is testing? Will I have been given hints in prior dialogue that the intimate partner would want or not want the oral? How depressing are the fail states?
I’ve definitely seen intimate scenes that include choices but none that included checking or changing any stats and none that had fail states. I mean the idea of having a more… customized experience seems great but I’m just imagining myself playing, being like “oooh spicy” and then idk accidentally crossing a misunderstood consent boundary? or accidentally knocking over a lantern and setting a barn on fire? or just being really bad at fantasy sex? and I don’t think I’d ever recover.
I’m just dying to know more about this tbh; maybe others have seen it and I’m the odd person out here but I’d never thought of this approach so now I’m really curious.
I’ve seen stat (well, combat relevant variable) checks once in intimate scenes in a released game, in @malinryden’s Fallen Hero, and IMO it’s a nice little bit of flavoring (there the protagonist approaches sex differently depending on their fighting style, which is both neat and amusing). IMO this is the way that stats should interact with intimacy, providing flavor based on the character you’ve built. While you can have an actual stat check for how good the player is (@NickyDicky does this in his Path of Martial Arts, mostly as a joke), it imo mostly feels bad.
Where branching is good is directing positionality and areas of focus. Not all players are into the same things or want the same parts touched or used, so allowing player to determine who takes the lead, and where they go with it, can be a very nice thing. IMO this can be especially important with trans MCs, but in general no two people are the same on what they do/don’t want to have touched, so choice is good.
Still sick, hence why the late update, but I got some more work done compared to last week. Still not as much as my original goal from before I got sick, but I am getting better. Decided to add some options to the game for whether or not choices should show changes in stats/relationships and requirements in stats for choices. All 3 are chosen individually and can be changed any time from the stats screen.
sit back again, weekend was productive, I had a project to manage, but it can wait a bit so listening lofi girl & chess.com piece , letting my fingers fly and glide over the keyboard
An appetizer from a small pathway from yesterday to go
Luuckey Hood is indeed alive
*label walkthrough
While walking around the hood, the mood of the buildings catched your attention. Not a single building escaped the decay of the weather, time and poverty. Keeping the old logo in your mind pocket you wandered all around to get a glimpse of it.
*line_break
*line_break
You get a glimpse of the familiar figure you saw earlier in the hood. A youngster was running with a couple of friends, he is wearing a jersey of a premiere league club. He has curly hairs and a fair skin. They were passing by your side when you saluted them, not stopping the boys saluted back and the one with the jersey nodded.
*line_break
Your mind raced against time to remember where you had seen him. His facial structure and cheekbones were familiar to you.
*line_break
*line_break
Not long after they passed you realized who does the fellow looks like, mentally took down a note to inquire more about him. Time for the club meeting ${name} you said to yourself.
*goto checkpoint_save
“And Skinner…” Sparkgap says. “I admit he had actually some blame in getting categorized as a supervillain, but he still didn’t deserve what he got.”
“He did get Oakwood overran by dinosaurs,” Nachtweber reminds him.
“I mean, sure, he was responsible,” Sparkgap says. “But it’s not like he intended it to go that way. Get someone oversee his safety measures, sure, that I could agree with. But it definitely didn’t justify what they actually did to him.”
I mean, who doesn’t? Dinosaurs are awesome. I’m really looking forward to seeing a WIP topic for your project. Everything you’ve posted so far has looked so interesting.
Not gonna lie, I don’t think I quite realised how difficult it was gonna be to track a resource bar. In the way I’ve tried to implement it anyway.
First, players were managing to drop it under 0% too soon. Now that I’ve tweaked the numbers, people can’t get it to 0% even when they’re deliberately going for that to see the fun scene that happens!
so listening lofi girl & 
