(I know I said I’d do a Round Table post today, but I realized I mis-read the topic, and need to start anew)

Bear with me as I work on writing a game design document. I’ve done plenty of design documents in my life, but never for a game. I’ve written a few computer games, but nothing substantial. It’s an interest, and something I want to work on. Also, a certain kind of game is the goal of this blog. So I need some practice. Feel free to leave suggestions, tips and other info on any of these posts — it will be very much appreciated.

The game is generally described here, and all the posts about it can be found under the sex butler category.

The overall tone of this game is lighthearted, which fits the casual-game origins of the design. Because of who I am, it’d be nice if it promoted safer sex and sex education (without being heavy handed about it), and was generally open to various genders and attractions, while letting the player guide that in the way that he or she is comfortable. I also don’t want this to be just a diner-dash style game, and want to mix in some tycoon-style sensibility to it. That is, it’s not just a click-fest, but between levels (or as part of an ongoing gameplay), there are business decisions about what sorts of rooms, open areas, products and advertising the player can offer.

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First, let me tell you a bit about our motives here at Cult of the Turtle. We are a search for fun, this is true, and we’re very interested in the integration of narrative and gameplay (and their output: story). But we’re also inherently sexual creatures. There’s erotica here, and games which involve sexuality.

Most of those games are titillating or juvenile, most are aimed at young men and focus on “boobies.”

Here at CoTT, we like boobies, we even like juvenile games where there are goals that involve getting to see more boobies. But we don’t fool ourselves into thinking that these are great games. These are the B-movies of the gaming industry, with some excellent-screaming starlet with a great set of, er, lungs.

We really want to see some games that are actually Mature. Bloody violence and overt pointless sexuality aren’t what mature people really want. Oh, it’s fun to wade into senselessness sometimes, but we’d like these topics to get a decent treatment without being boring or stupid. In other words, treated with maturity.

That being said, the sex game idea of the moment — Sex Butler — may or may not be that. It might be a bit titillating, and it might be fun. It certainly says something about our lives that I even thought about it.
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