Soundbyte: Why sex games are important and what makes a good one
Saxophone solo
Soundbyte is back, and a lot sooner than it took for us to get from episode one to episode two! In this one, we’re talking about sexy, sexy sex games, why they’re interesting, what the rest of the industry could (and should) learn from them, and the queer erasure that comes along with blacklisting these sexy things from storefronts and streaming websites like Twitch.
I speak to Robert Yang, NYU arts professor and renowned gay video game developer, about how he got started making games that explore queer sex, and the unexpectedly homophobic portion of his audience. Then, Christine Love tells me about the importance of consent, and negotiation through dialogue in her BDSM visual novel Ladykiller in a Bind. Finally, Kenzie Stargrifter shares her excitement that trans cyberpunk porn game Hardcoded is doing as well as it is. But I also talk to all three about queer representation in sex games and what makes a sex game good or bad.
You can listen to it above, or pop over to Soundcloud and download it for a rainy day. It’s also available on the RSS feed here, or on iTunes, Stitcher or Pocket Casts.
The music in order of appearance was: Protofunk, Intractable, Groove Grove, That's a Wrap, Just As Soon, Enter the Party, and Cool Vibes, all provided by the internet’s royalty-free musical lord and saviour Incompetech AKA Kevin MacLeod.
Disclosure: Robert Yang also writes stuff for us sometimes.
Links:
Ladykiller in a Bind Steam page
Astrid's thoughts on Hardcoded
Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim itch.io page