Sacred sexuality, nature spirits, the God and the Goddess in a videogame

[oranssi]

I would like to make a videogame that has sexuality, reference to nature spirits or elementals and that plays around the concept of duality. In this case the absolute duality of God and the Goddess. Also, I don't want to sugar-coat the theme, if it has sex it should be explicit, but I in no way want the game to be associated to adult games. So this is one dilema.

How should I approach this idea for a videogame?

 

[YmirGF]

Um, explicit sex scenes automatically make it "adult". There really is no wiggle room here - pun intended.

The only way around this is to sanitize the scenes completely making them suitable for even a PG rating.

*giggles*

Imagines after the games release...

"Lunchtime, Johnny!"
"Just a second, mom, I'm bonking the goddess!"

Yeah... that works...

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

So... what would be the theme or genre of the game? Purely religious? A videogame needs to be entertaining and fun to play, before concerning about deeper - especially religious - messages.

 

[SabahTheLoner]

Sounds a bit like Wicca imo. Embracing duality and sexuality and being nature-based and all. You might need to keep in mind that Wicca is kinda a mainstream alternative religion. It's one of the first non-Abrahamic religions that people turn to when they want to be free from the church.

I think it would be impossible to sell a game with any amount of actual sex in it (just visual or actually getting the player involved) without a mature rating. Although reference to it is a different story. Maybe some food for thought.

How would the game be played? What genre is it? To be honest a "dating" or life simulation game might be the easiest genre to apply it to unless it's not the overall theme. But that's just from the theme you provided.

 

[oranssi]

So... what would be the theme or genre of the game? Purely religious? A videogame needs to be entertaining and fun to play, before concerning about deeper - especially religious - messages.

The theme would be a kind of a surrealistic game in the veins of The Talos Principle. But this is a puzzel game. What I'm planning / doing is more of a action adventure with combat. The love / combat dichotomy. Beside that between levels it would have abstract cutscenes kind of 2001 Space Odissea movie or seemilar to try to explain the story, altought the story right now is a loose plot...

No doubt about that, it has to be fun to play and somehow engaging. And that is also challenging because I'm no game programmer or designer.

 

[oranssi]

Sounds a bit like Wicca imo. Embracing duality and sexuality and being nature-based and all. You might need to keep in mind that Wicca is kinda a mainstream alternative religion. It's one of the first non-Abrahamic religions that people turn to when they want to be free from the church.

I think it would be impossible to sell a game with any amount of actual sex in it (just visual or actually getting the player involved) without a mature rating. Although reference to it is a different story. Maybe some food for thought.

How would the game be played? What genre is it? To be honest a "dating" or life simulation game might be the easiest genre to apply it to unless it's not the overall theme. But that's just from the theme you provided.

I wanted it to be a game that contains Wicca, Shamanism and / or Animism but would convey also the philosophical aspects of it. This might be out of my league as it is only me working in the game.

This is not for profit nor will I sell the game. I do have a fund raising page but it serves more as a blog.
And about the sex being censored or so, I think is lame. After all the concepts of the game likely no child will grasp. What is the purpose of a heavy game like this and censor the sex?

I also thought about the dating simulation, but there are so many out there that I thought I must do something at least original even if the gameplay is unfamiliar.

Would you prefer a game with a concret storyline or a loose concept and gameplay and going from there?

 

[VioletVortex]

That sounds interesting. It is unfortunate that sex has been associated with other taboo "adult" stuff, but that seems to be a current social ideal that is slowly withering. Try to keep the Pagan references as sincere and accurate as possible to avoid it looking like some sort of erotic games. Those do actually exist, and mythology is unfortunately a common theme in them.

 

[The Kilted Heathen]

Given the "as it harms none", I'm not sure Wicca is a good vehicle for a combat-adventure game...

 

[oranssi]

That sounds interesting. It is unfortunate that sex has been associated with other taboo "adult" stuff, but that seems to be a current social ideal that is slowly withering. Try to keep the Pagan references as sincere and accurate as possible to avoid it looking like some sort of erotic games. Those do actually exist, and mythology is unfortunately a common theme in them.

I don't know about the accuracy as it will be "fantasized". That is, own characters maybe.. The thing is that I want to juggle with the human psych and its inerent creativity. Exposing the spirits as a antroposheric dimension or maybe not.. leaving that open-ended.

Anyways.. I'm doing the script for the intro cutscene and if you like to, I can post it here to recieve feedback.

 

[oranssi]

Given the "as it harms none", I'm not sure Wicca is a good vehicle for a combat-adventure game...

I think I know what you mean. The combat in the game universe would be for "entertainment". At the end, it is a zero-sum game. It would be like the void of the Tao. What really matters is the in-betweens, the way, the action, the drama. Something like that, have to elaborate better the plot..

 

[VioletVortex]

I don't know about the accuracy as it will be "fantasized". That is, own characters maybe.. The thing is that I want to juggle with the human psych and its inerent creativity. Exposing the spirits as a antroposheric dimension or maybe not.. leaving that open-ended.

Anyways.. I'm doing the script for the intro cutscene and if you like to, I can post it here to recieve feedback.

I wasn't really talking about accuracy as applying to the sexual side of this, but it is necessary well. Keep the sex in normal positions, no weird reverse cowgirls or anything, that will make it come off as some kind silly erotic game.

I was suggesting that you make the mythological references as accurate as possible to make the game more serious.

 

[SabahTheLoner]

I wanted it to be a game that contains Wicca, Shamanism and / or Animism but would convey also the philosophical aspects of it. This might be out of my league as it is only me working in the game.

Hm, that might actually be cool. Just the fact it would incorporate those traditions would be unique in the gaming world. If you do your research, it might actually work.

Would you prefer a game with a concret storyline or a loose concept and gameplay and going from there?

Honestly with heavy concepts, I find it more entertaining to have a story line. But it doesn't have to be a concrete one. Maybe since your concepts have origins from Celtic cultures, you could have a story that loops around like many Celtic concepts. The God and Goddess themselves are in an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, according to many Wiccan traditions.