The Biggest Flaw of Many Porn Games with battle mechanics

[GadenKerensky]

That is that they are too difficult, and lack a difficulty slider.

Some people want to add a lot of features to their game, make things interesting, and provide a little bit of challenge when it comes to playing. That is all well and good... except, often enough, they make it too much of a challenge, and end up creating games with steep learning curves. Now, this wouldn't be a problem for some, those who enjoy the challenge... but the fact that the game has porn in it (usually revolving around it), this typically means a larger amount of people only want a casual experience, something mainly to fap to.

So when the game becomes difficult, sometimes frustratingly so, the casual fap gamer is punished for their inability to progress past certain areas or enemies. Games like Forest Monster Victims and Medusa (with the unbeatable witch) can be annoyingly challenging for the horny. At least in those games, one simply has the option of cheating their way by clicking the hidden gallery buttons, so one doesn't have to fight the girls to get to the juicy bits.

A less pleasant example would be "Clixsposing Samus"... a truly shit game, it had 3 difficulty levels, and even the first was no cakewalk. And it was only upon completion of the infuriatingly hard third stage that the actual sex would occur... and what underwhelming porn animation it was. The payoff was negligible, leaving the gamer either angry and empty, or off fapping to something like Hentai Key Girl 5.

And then, there are certain other games which are great in execution and sex scenes... but have elements that can render the player rage quitting out of frustration and a lost boner (if they are male). Sakyubasu no Tatakai comes to mind when I think of this... GoRepeat had a pretty spot-on idea when he made this game, and the scenes were rewarding in their juiciness... but the game, for someone like me, was truly agitating in certain areas. It's biggest flaw was a lack of difficulty settings (something which Dragon Bride did quite well, with having an invincible mode and all), making some enemies truly frustrating; the triple wasps come to mind quite quickly. The addition of a difficulty level setting would've made the game far more enjoyable for me, the casual player who just wants to treat themselves.

It is perfectly valid to have a degree of difficulty in games, and I can see why designers would want it; it makes it more engaging on a different level... however, it is often at the expense of a casual fap gamers experience. High difficulty is often a flaw in the medium of flash porn games; there are not many people who actually want to work for their porn. Quite understandable. Those that do more often than not desire such for a more gaming challenge-related reason, rather than the labour of reaching the hentai. But a lack of a difficulty slider to allow for a much more casual, easy experience often degrades the experience for a good deal of people, having the frustration of beating a certain enemy overwhelm the payoff when the hentai is achieved. And when the hentai itself is poor, then there are generally bitter feelings all round... one doesn't want to work for their porn. For most, working for porn is working in the real world and using some of the leftover money after life expenses to pay for subscriptions.

So, in conclusion, I think any porn game that has a focus on challenge should also take into account that it is about porn; therefore, they should also possess the option of letting people breeze through it if they so wish; if this leaves the player feeling as though it were too easy, then they can simply up the difficulty level and play through again. If a designer doesn't want to make a difficulty level setting, or is unable to, then having a 'cheat' mechanism (ala Medusa and Forest Monster Victims) to simply access a gallery of scenes would suffice equally well. After all, porn is titillation, and should not induce rage quitting... that is simply a flaw on the designers part.

[GoRepeat]

But is it about porn? Is there a difference between a game with porn in it and a porn game?

[Lucky777]

Having to do a bunch of irrelevant shit to get to what you want is always an annoyance, but in this case it is one easily solved by having a gallery available regardless of in-game progress. That is, as you noted, a difficulty slider isn't the only right answer, though it is one possible arguably right answer.
I'm more partial to the gallery answer myself.

As in many things the "Witch girl" etc series has the answer right, though if the gallery is gated by a password you DO need to find that somewhere, unfortunately.

That being said, though, whether any design decision is an objective flaw always depends on what the designer's intentions are.

If a designer makes a game intending to irritate the fuck out of the playerbase and the playerbase gets irritated, that was "good" design insofar as it SUCCEEDED.

Probably a rare intention amongst designers - of porn games or otherwise - but just sayin'.

[Zeus Kabob]

Oh, I thought this was going to be a talk about how designers stick to very simplistic battle mechanics instead of branching out and trying new things with their combat.

Difficulty in a porn game isn't a bad thing, and though you'll always get more "casual" players, there's a good portion of people who like to work for their reward. A gallery is a good idea, but being able to unlock it all without playing the game isn't necessary.

It's all about what your intentions are as a developer. If your intention is to make an engaging and memorable experience, then you shouldn't shy away from adding difficulty. GoRepeat's Sakyubasu no Tatakai I and II are notable for this; their difficulty is one of the main staying points of the games, and that combined with their art quality make them arguably among the most memorable forum games.

Still, this doesn't mean that all difficulty makes for memorable, enjoyable games. Different kinds of difficulty and different kinds of experiences can cause different player reactions, and Sakyubasu no Tatakai I was a game where many people left feeling miffed about a very specific design decision: stun lock. When games are punishing and require flawless play or a long, drawn out loss, they lose a lot of enjoyment. Making the player loss quicker, or allowing for more small mistakes from the player do a lot to help alleviate this.

[evildumdum]

Speaking as someone designing a game that will be fairly challenging and include porn, i can see your argument, but i have to disagree. Difficulty sliders are difficult in themselves to include since it involves changing large parts of the script to effectively break your own game. Having said that, i do not oppose debugs that make the game easier for the player if they choose it. Having the option of things such as items that do insane amounts of damage or stat boosts is cartainly my preferred option, rather than having a simple "just win" option or making enemies pathetic. The whole point of a game is that you feel like you've achieved something, even if you kinda cheated. If the players wanted a simple hentai gallery with no effort whatsoever, they'd just go on gelbooru.

[MegaPlayboy]

Depending on how your game is laid out a difficulty slider is very feasible. In a side-scroller, for instance, there are monsters with health bars. Obviously what I have below is poor game design, but considering some guys just want to get off, it works. In my personal opinion, having to go through a bit of work to get to the porn creates sexual excitement, thus I prefer difficulties over galleries

(not real code)

Code: Select All Code

If difficulty == "easy" multiplier = 0.5
If difficulty == "medium" multiplier = 1
If difficulty == "hard" multiplier = 2

monsterhealth = monsterhealth * multiplier