So. I’m in the midst of planning/outlining my first project (have no touched any code yet). Some things I’m planning are certainly ambitious (at least I think so as a first timer. go big or go home, I guess). I hope I actually commit to them, but my question is more related in mechanics/player interest.
Basically, I’m writing a sci-fi romance, two of the romance-able characters are part of the same species and that species changes their gender based on who they’re going to “mate” with. (alien smut, woohoo) Contextually, they mate for breeding purposes not romantic purposes. So if you’re biologically female, they’d “grow” male organs and vice versa.
I want to give everyone the option to be male, female, or nonbinary as the player so my thought was that I could set their gender based on the genitals the player picks as I’ve seen that choice added in WIPS before so I’m not worried as that part coming off as weird which in the back of my mind was a thought.
I guess my other thought is, how would trans people feel about that route? If you can pick your gender, genitals, and pronouns, then you could play as a trans character but these two particular characters would be locked into a certain gender based on your genital choice.
My ultimate questions are, 1. is this a feasible thing to code and 2. does this feel particularly icky to anyone to the point where i should just scrap the idea and make them just gender customizable and come up with different lore for them.
Extra info, they will not be the only love interests they’re just kind of outliers to the rest of the love interests I have planned.
I’ve tried to be as clear as possible but if you’re confused then feel free to ask further questions lol.
I don’t know if I find it icky necessarily, but I do find it a bit strange that a sentient alien species would both change its body for sex reasons while also only using sex for reproductive purposes. I imagine it could make more sense to me in-universe and with more context? Basically it feels like quite a specific level of weird alien smut if that makes sense. (eg do they only ever do the alien equivalent of PIV - again quite specific given real world human and animal behaviour / is there a cultural stigma about having non reproductive sex even if their configuration could theoretically result in offspring, etc)
The main thing I’d say I suppose is if there’s weird alien gender stuff in-universe, it’s good to include non-alien characters that have gender stuff going on, and thinking about how trans or genderfluid humans in the setting might feel about the aliens and their culture.
These are some really awesome concepts to play with in fiction, but the way you phrase your question makes me think that you’re not really ready to think all the way outside the box in the way you’d need to to make this work. I’m going to suggest you start by doing some research on biological sex and reproduction, because what you’re describing doesn’t actually make sense - and then do some research on the difference between sex and gender.
In animal species that require a male and a female contribution to the process of reproduction, there are two categories: hermaphroditic and gonochoric. Hermaphroditic species are further divided into simultaneously hermaphroditic and sequentially hermaphroditic. Organisms that are simultaneously hermaphroditic possess both male and female reproductive organs throughout the lifespan; in these species, it doesn’t make sense to describe an individual as male or female, because they all have the same physiology. In species that are sequentially hermaphroditic, an individual has either a male or a female reproductive system, but they can change their form and role over the course of a lifetime. So it’s possible to identify a specific individual as male or female, but that’s a description of their body shape at the moment, not a fundamental property of the individual organism.
Most animal species, including all birds and mammals, are gonochoric. In a gonochoric species, every individual is either male or female, usually determined at conception, and this does not change over the course of the lifespan. My father’s genetic contribution included an X chromosome, therefore my gonads (ovaries) produce large gametes (eggs), and there is no way to make them produce small gametes (sperm) instead.
The alien species you describe sounds sequentially hermaphroditic, since they can take either the male or the female form based on the requirements of the moment. But in that case, it doesn’t make sense to talk about being “biologically female,” since only in gonochoric species is sex an immutable and inherent characteristic.
Finally, it’s important to understand the difference between sex and gender. Sequentially hermaphroditic species change sex. They don’t change gender. Humans are the only species that truly have gender, since gender isn’t about what genitals you have or what gametes you produce, it’s about how you understand yourself as an individual and a member of a society. A non-gonochoric sapient species, if they had a concept of gender, would have to have a radically different concept than any human society.
Don’t take this too seriously, I’m not as knowledgeable as the people above me, but maybe they should literally change their genitalia depending on who you’re playing. Like, not every female MC is interested in male ROs, and not every male MC is interested in female ROs. Making the difference in their sex/gender depend only on the MC’s gender cuts off players who aren’t playing a straight MC from those romances. And if they’re ROs, maybe they could change depending on the MC’s orientation? You know, once they get to know each other better and feelings are involved, lmao. Just a suggestion, of course.
yes, that’s exactly what I want to do! I’m definitely going to be doing more research on hermaphroditic animals and all that. My idea stemmed from fish lol so I have a very rudimentary understanding. thank you so much for such a detailed response!!
I feel so silly explaining my ideas, so I was pretty vague but basically, the idea was that yes, there’s cultural stigma about non-reproductive sex and they don’t have it until they choose their reproductive partner. once they choose their reproductive partner then they commit to a sex for breeding purposes. Up until then they are sexless.
I still have to figure out more lore stuff but I wanted a general opinion about how these type of characters might make someone feel.
Yeah this was a concern of mine. I want to be as inclusive as possible with each route which is why I planned to make every route have a gender counterpart so you can pick if you want a male or female RO.
My idea kind of limits the player for that specific route but there would be other romance options to be male or female.
I think the idea is cool and would love to play with it but like I don’t want to limit anyone either. I will continue to think on it lol.
Someone? There will be a variety of opinions from “someone”, and it will make people feel all over the place. What are you expecting to hear? Someone will go “yeah it makes me feel icky, don’t do that” and you will decide to rewrite entire idea based on one “someone” feeling icky? I do not understand what are you expecting from this. If you want this idea, write this idea. Just do it well.
Personal opinion, the entire gender thing is a human society contruct, so those aliens shouldn’t give a shit about it. You can write around preconcieved notions and just make a conflict around that idea if you are playing someone transgender for example, with said alien growing wrong organs and there being a conflict of intercultural acceptance or denial based on this. Maybe MC will rethink their opinion to be with their RO, maybe alien will, maybe both, maybe nobody.
I really appreciate your point of view! I wasn’t really concerned with one or two people deciding it wasnt for them but more so a potential general consensus being that the idea is too exclusionary when really I just want to make something inclusive and fun.
What an interesting concept, and the other replies have already pointed out everything that came to my mind as I read your post so I’m just going to say that as a player I don’t think I would go for these romantic options, but choose the others–I don’t want to have children irl so the mating part being such a core aspect of the ROs would put me off. That being said, I can see an alternative universe in which, as @CobaltAlbireo pointed out, playing as a trans/cis gay/ace character could bring up questions of what happens when your partner is expecting you to breed with them and be OK with the idea of impregnating them or letting them impregnate you (this sounds like sheer horror to me xD) and how the RO would react if they showed up one day with genitals expecting to use them on MC, and MC was like, “That isn’t going to happen. Ever.” The psychologic ramifications of growing genitals for somebody only to find out they don’t want anything to do with them is delicious. But this is me bouncing off your concept, not trying to convince you to add my ramblings in. Your game doesn’t seem to be about cis-straight expectations set on bodies, so yeah xD
Just write what you would enjoy, someone will be into these ROs.
I think you could get weirder with it. I suggest getting weird with it. What is your plan for how these aliens will look? Where’s the alien in alien smut?
While coding won’t be difficult, the amount of variation you will have to write might burn you out if you plan to go in detail, especially with multiple additional ROs.
As for looks they’re definitely not just going to be hot people with blue or green skin! The shape of water movie and Mass Effect game are big creature inspirations for me so they’re going to look alien.
I’ve already kind of accepted that coding is going to burn me out so I’m going to take it slow and try not to let my ambitions consume me. I already feel like my eyes are bigger than my plate, but I want to do my fun ideas sooo I’m gonna do them lol.
