Preferences Update

I have completed the next version of Preferences, which is a little smarter than the original version.

It is here on the Preferences page.

Preferences 1.2

Immediately after designing Preferences I began to incorporate it into a game, because a) that's what it's for and b) that's the best way to test it.

I am therefore making some changes to Preferences based on what I am discovering. The specificity of starting sex, orientation, and sex partners leaves a lot to be desired. It's not specific enough. A player should be able to define his sexuality conditionally upon the sex of the character — to say, "I don't want to be attracted to men if I'm a man, but it's okay if I'm a woman." Also, a player should be able to define her preferred sex partners conditionally, as in, "I want my orientation to start liking boys, then switch to liking girls; but I only want to see female-female sex scenes."

I am therefore making suitable modifications to the Preferences files, both to the app and to the extension, which I will post by and by.

Preferences

This is it: the Preferences extension.

Download the latest version here in .i7x format and install it into your version of the Inform environment. You're ready to start writing stories that incorporate player preferences into your Inform title!

You will want to direct your players to the stand-alone app that makes it possible to save their settings, also. That is to be found here.

Release #4:

• Added preferred names
• Added retroactive change to history/reality to the transformation options
• Added a new category (willing) for reaction to transformation

What does it do?

• Automated loadup routine to import player's saved settings
• Tables to define the unavoidable content contained in the author's game
• Automated verify routine to check game settings vs the players

What are the settings?

• Sex of main character (male, female)
• Sex of main character can change yes/no. If yes, permits additional categories:
• Additional possible sex of main character: MTF or FTM
• Reaction to change of sex (eager, secretly eager, reluctant, willing, change for medical reason)
• Preferred names for starting sex (male, female)
• If sex of main character can change, can also set preferred names for (becomes female, becomes male)
• Sexual orientations allowed by player (likes boys, likes girls, bisexual, neither), can be set separately for each starting sex of the main player
• Sexual orientation can change yes/no. If yes, permits additional category:
• starts liking boys, becomes bisexual
• starts liking boys, switches to liking girls
• starts liking girls, switches to liking boys
• starts liking girls, becomes bisexual
• Main character has a history of sex change yes/no. If yes, permits additional category:
• History of voluntary sex change
• History of voluntary permanent sex change
• History of involuntary sex change
• History of involuntary permanent sex change
• Which characters are allowed to flirt with you (men, women, or depending on your current orientation)
• Other characters allowed to sex change or not (MTF, FTM)
• Transformation of main character:
• bimbo
• identity erasure
• retroactive change of reality/history
• breast enlargement
• corruption/evil
• gynoid
• age regression
• non-human or partially-human living thing
• inanimate object
• Other questionable content:
• mind control (player is victim)
• mind control (player is perpetrator)
• unwilling sex (player is victim)
• unwilling sex (player is perpetrator)
• bondage (player is victim)
• bondage (player is perpetrator)
• incest
• urine
• feces
• semen
• lactation
• menstruation
• pregnancy
• male pregnancy
• oral sex
• anal sex
• masturbation
• crossdressing
• girls with penises
• boys with vaginas
• Various sexual partners set separately for each possible starting sex (player is first-listed participant) 
• male-male
• male-male-male
• male-male-female
• male-female-female
• male-female
• female-male
• female-male-male
• female-female-male
• female-female-female
• female-female

Extension: Dynamic Clothing

This is the first release. It can do the following:

• Contains a dynamically-described body model for the player and other characters which can be defined by certain base characteristics. A list of such statistics and their ranges is given below.
• Many elements of the body model are calculated from the base statistics. For instance, the total breast size is calculated from natural breast size, implants, fatness, and whether the character is (or ever was) pregnant.
• Characters in the game (including the player) can be described automatically based upon their body statistics and their current attire. The automated description routine can be overridden completely if the author wishes to have a special text all his own.
• When a character has implants, the breasts may be described differently depending on whether the breasts are mostly natural, mostly implant, etc.
• Characters can be pregnant. This affects only the description of the character, his/her clothing sizes, and breast size (in a small way — currently pregnant characters and characters who have been pregnant have slightly larger breasts than they would normally have had). Pregnancy is rated by # of days/months as well as by the number of gestations (eg, twins).
• Sexual characteristics are not gender-specific. Both male and female characters can have defined breast sizes, cock sizes, or pregnancy.
• When the player uses a command like EXAMINE BOB, the character of Bob is given an overall description. This description is automatically prioritized by whatever is interesting about Bob — that is, whatever is outside the norm for eye color, hair color, hair styles, musculature, height, whether it is an old character with a too-young hairstyle, and so on. (Yes, the author does get to decide what "normal" is in his world if he doesn't like my value ranges — he could set a game in Japan where being Japanese is so common, it's not mentioned.) If the character has a classically ideal figure, the description will also make a comparison to a person with similar proportions (eg, from Marilyn Monroe to Brigitte Nielsen to Scarlet Johansson).
• The author can write an introductory phrase (such as "Bob is a good friend of yours that you've known since your time together in the Navy") which precedes the automated description. If there isn't an introduction, the description will just give something generic (eg, "Bob is a tall man with...").
• The player can examine individual body parts, including ARMS, LEGS, BACKSIDE, CHEST, and CROTCH, of any character. Body parts may be automatically described or, at the author's option, given a manual description instead. Multiple input terms are accepted (eg, for LEGS it will accept leg, legs, foot, feet, calf, calves, thigh, thighs, etc). If the player tries to examine certain body parts which the character doesn't have (eg, breasts, cock, pussy), the description will be slightly surprised, as if you expected to find such a thing and did not. For instance, in the sample game, try typing EXAMINE MY COCK.
• A large number of simple types of clothing have been pre-defined. Garments have standard layers, such that items like underwear are always worn beneath trousers. Also, different types of garment cover different regions of the body. Only the uppermost layer of garments is described.
• Clothing can also be defined by size: at the chest, waist, hips, bust, and inseam, where appropriate. Some garments (such as hats and socks) are exempt from sizing. Dimensions can be displayed in imperial or metric, although since sizes in both the UK and US are given in inches, body dimensions are usually given in inches. (This is easy to change, however.) The author can specify clothing sizes during creation by adding adjectives, like so: The pair of torn jeans is a hip-32 inseam-30 pair of trousers
• Pronouns are defined not by whether a character is[ male or female, but whether the character looks male or female, based upon body statistics and gendered clothing (eg, somebody with long hair and wearing a dress will get extra feminine appearance points). Pursuant to this feature, both brassieres and underpants can be stuffed to give the appearance of the opposite sex. However, if the character is defined as one the player recognizes (i.e., the player knows the true identity), then the pronoun will be the correct male/female pronoun.
• Also, upper garments have a certain amount of concealment; they can make breasts look smaller than they really are (if you have a female character that wants to appear to be a man). There is also a garment defined as a chest-bandage whose specific purpose is to conceal breasts. There is a limit to how much a pair of breasts can be concealed; natural breasts are easier to conceal than implants.Some upper garments can be described as overfilling, meaning that you can wear them, but if your boobs are too big you will spill out; if it's a shirt or a blouse, it won't button.
• Sometimes nipples will be visible, depending on many things: how cold the room is, what kind of fabric the top is made of, how many layers there are, and how big the breasts are. When there is a chest-bandage or a stuffed brassiere in place, this doesn't occur (naturally).
• If the character is not wearing a bra, this may be described, depending on how many layers there are.
• Clothing is also defined by a number of possible colors and fabrics, with different characteristics. These can change the description in predictable ways. For example, a dark-colored bra worn under a light-colored thin-fabric shirt may be visible, provided the character has light-colored skin. Also, a pair of pantyhose will not conceal an ankle tattoo
• Did I say tattoos? Yes, I did. A special type of garment, present at the level of the skin, is available. By default this is a tattoo, but it can be twiddled a bit to become a scar. Tattoos and scars will be visible if the character isn't wearing any clothing that obscures that region.

Body Statistics the Inform 7 Author Can Define:

• HEIGHT. From 148 cm to 206 cm, or about 4'10" to 6'9".
• MUSCULATURE. From 5 to 30. Roughly, muscles as a % of body weight.
• FATNESS. From 5 to 30. Roughly, fat as a % of body weight.
• MASCULINITY. From 3-6 (on males) and from 1-4 (on females). How broad the shoulders and upper body are.
• FEMININITY. From 1-4 (on females) and usually 0 (on males). Determines how much wider hips are than waist.
• NATURAL BREAST VALUE. From 0-63. Determines how sizeable breasts are. This is not a 1:1 correspondence to cup size; at the lower levels it is +2 for every cup size; then +3 for every cup size, +4, etc. Cup sizes are calculated from none to AA cup to HH cup.
• IMPLANT VALUE. If you want silicone breasts described differently.
• COCKSIZE. Size of genitals. The default is 0 cm for females and 15 cm for males (a nice real-world average value). There is no defined maximum.
• HAIR-GROWTH-TOP, HAIR-GROWTH-SIDES, HAIR-GROWTH-BACK: a height (in cm) for the length of the hair in various areas.
• CURRENT HAIR COLOR. Acceptable values are faded white, salt-and-pepper white, steely gray, bleached blond, platinum blond, strawberry blond, honey-blond, auburn, chestnut, cinnamon brown, chocolate brown, coppery red, fiery red, jet black, inky black, violent green, electric blue, hot pink, and neon orange.
• HAIR ANGULARITY. How straight or curly the hair is. Acceptable values are (from least to most tightly curled) straight, wavy, curly and helical.
• HAIR STYLE. Acceptable values are null-style, long, ponytail, flip, shag, bobbed, chopped, braids, French braid, pompadour, center-parted, side-parted, mullet, pageboy, pixie, pro, spiked, mohawk, buzz, afro, flattop, cornrows, moptop, ringlets, buzzpro, bald-wings, aging-hippie, bald-pated, tonsure, comb-over, and queue.
• EYE-COLOR. Note hyphen. Acceptable values are e-blue-gray, e-blue, e-gray, e-brown, e-hazel, e-gray-violet, e-green, e-gray-green, and e-black.
• SKINTONE. Hue. Acceptable values are (from most red to most yellow) Red2, Red1, Yellow1, Yellow2.
• SKINVALUE. Lightness and darkness. Acceptable values are (from lightest to darkest) Light2, Light1, Dark1, and Dark2.
• ETHNICITY and NATIONALITY. What kind of genetic makeup the character has; also, where the character might be from. Acceptable values are Caucasian, American, Black American, European, English, Irish, Canadian, Australian, German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek, Slavic, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, African, Ethiopian, Somalian, Kenyan, Asian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hongkongese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, Thai, Latin, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Cuban, Brazilian, Hawaiian, Polynesian, Native American, Jewish, Israeli, Middle Eastern, Persian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Lebanese, and Indian.

Not yet functional:

• Dynamic descriptions of the face will go in a different extension, which is already mostly built.
• Ensembles are not yet built.
• Beards are not yet included in the description routines.
• Clothing can have patterns and fabric types, but these are not mentioned in the descriptions.
• Description of the chest does not also include description of the belly when it is noteworthy (eg, when the character is fat and/or pregnant).
• It is possible to define both a natural hair color and a current hair color (if hair is dyed); this, however, does not affect the description (yet).
• Commands to DRESS and UNDRESS all at once are not defined.
• It should be possible to introduce wigs as a disguise element. I will try this at some point.

Later planned expansions:

• Expansion 1. Clothing details: breaking strain of different fabrics; bursting out of clothing and describing damaged clothing; describing wetness and translucent wetness; clothing drying out over time; describing body/clothing features based on local conditions (such as dresses that ruffle in the wind or what a white T-shirt does out in the rain).
• Expansion 2. Evaluation of the character's outfit. Identifying whether colors or patterns match or clash.

And here is a sample of what Dynamic Clothing can do. All of the descriptions of the characters are generated procedurally by the extension. The game itself merely defines the characters and what each of them is wearing.

Please note that the characters in this download do not DO anything. You cannot have sex with anybody, explore your body, or get seduced. This is not a game, this is a proof-of-concept for automated character descriptions. The only thing you can do is EXAMINE things and try on clothing.

When I have time, I'll post the completed extension.

In progress: Preferences

I have come quite close to a first release of Preferences, my app for determining the player's likes and dislikes in the Inform environment. This first release of Preferences will allow the player to specify a number of things he would rather not see in an adult interactive fiction game, including:

• Starting sex and sexual orientation
• Profanity filter on/off
• Which, if any, sexual pairings are acceptable (male-solo, male-male, three men, male player with a man and a woman, male player with two women, male player with woman, female player with man, female player with two men, female player with a man and a woman, three women, female-female, and female-solo)
• Which, if any, sexual fetish material is acceptable (such as crossdressing, urine, scat, lactation, menstruation, graphic use of semen, pregnancy, mind control, unwilling or forced sex)
• Whether the main character is transgender or has a history of previous sex change
• Which character transformations are allowed (sex change, age regression or youthening to less than 18 years old, intelligence loss, inanimate transformation, animal transformation, breast expansion, gynoid, corruption, identity erasure)
• How the character reacts to sex change (reluctant to change, eager to change, secretly wants to change but doesn't tell anyone, changes for medical reasons)
• How (and if) sexual orientation changes over the course of the game (starts liking only girls but begins liking boys, for instance)

Future Inform games will be written to accommodate the user's preferences, or at least to warn the user when the preferences cannot be accommodated.

Download release 2 of the Preferences app here. It shouldn't be long before the app is working well enough to release the extension for other authors to use.

Calamity John

I previously mentioned that I wanted to create a game with FTM as the central purpose — one where the main character begins as female and transforms into a male. My first foray into that area will be a game set in the Old West called "Calamity John."

Since I have been told that the FTM gamers might appreciate a world in which they can exercise their  new manly strength, sex, status, and sexual prowess, I thought immediately of the Western genre. It offers a high contrast between male and female: the clothing, the opportunities, the amount of power and prestige, and the level of strength and independence offered to each.

My plan is to begin the character in a mining town in the mountains. The railroad has not yet come through but a tunnel is being built nearby: a long route is being cut directly through the mountains, blasted out with dynamite. It will revitalize the town's fortunes when it is finished. But the citizens in town aren't the only ones who know this. The Naughton gang knows it, too, and want to take over the silver mine. When the train line is complete, they'll cash in.

You play Jane Simon, a young woman in town. When the Naughton gang starts throwing its weight around, someone must do something. With the aid of a slick traveling salesman and his Manly Recombobulator concoction, you transform into a male and can now try to strap on your guns, take back your town, save the pretty girls, and be the new marshal. Or — and I'm still contemplating this part — join the gang and help make the town your own.

This is the skeleton of the game environment, with room descriptions written in old-time Western lingo. Warning: this is an empty environment with no interactivity. Don't complain to me if you didn't read this and were expecting a full, playable game with sexy content, because it's not there yet.

Calamity John (incomplete, room environments only) va1

Games For Autoandrophiles (Women Who Want to Be Men)

Is this a controversial word? Yes. Yes, it is.

Most of you are going to skip this blog post, and that's okay. My polling shows that the population on TFGS (that's the Transformation Games Site) is about 90-95% MTF and 5-10% FTM. This is probably meaningless for describing the population at large, since the TFGS population is self-selected from among people who a) searched for and/or found the website, b) liked the games enough to register a username, and c) answered the poll. There may well be more than 5-10% of the population interested in women who transform into men, or women who fantasize about having a dick.

Some people call it autoandrophilia, some call it crossdreaming, or crossdressing, and others call it some form of suppressed transgenderism. And it may be all of those or none of those, for all I know. Some will object to the word "women" on the grounds that transmen are men who were born differently. Believe me, if I had said "men," some women would object on the grounds that they don't identify as transmen; they consider themselves women who merely have a sexual attraction to the fantasy of being men. I'm not here to settle the question of why it is, or what it ought to be called. I err on the side of letting people decide for themselves what their sexuality ought to be called. How would I know better than them?

That's not my point, anyway. What I'm really asking is how I go about writing a game for FTM players. Since I see so few of them, it's hard to get reliable information and feedback.

There is presently a contest to create a FTM game, with a few basic restrictions: one, the transformation is slow; two, no MTF is permitted; and three, it must be a transformation (no body-swapping). I am debating how to approach this.

Naturally, I have polled on this too. As of this post there were responses from about 22 different people, or at least that was the maximum number of responses to any one question. I hope they were FTM fans, not MTF fans tweaking the polls, but I can't be sure.

Most of the responses were pretty even across the board, as you can see, with respect to what gamers want to see. There were no strongly prominent choices other than having sex with the player's new cock. In other words. I'm going to have to rely on my instincts in making FTM content.

Nevertheless, I still intend to do so.

The Numbers

If you like numbers (and why wouldn't you?), here are the referring sites as of the latest data:

TF Games Site: 1,147
Head Roulette: 172 (my other blog)
Metamorphose: 52
4chan: 31
Fictionmania: 7

If you can think of another site that might be interested in a game like this, let me know and I can try posting it there.

Expanding Body Thief

Body Thief began as a simple proof of concept. I actually had a version, some time ago, that was confined to a single room whose description would gradually shift after you swapped bodies with DeeDee. It had no bells or whistles whatsoever, no conversation, no inventory, and no ending.

This version has been greatly expanded upon that general concept, but it is still at heart a proof-of-concept game. I'd like to expand it beyond those original borders, but I'm not yet sure how.

A swap other than Jake/DeeDee. If you had a person to swap with other than DeeDee (or Jake as FTM) then you'd be experiencing the same map through different eyes. However, the existing map is pretty boring stuff unless you like the intelligence shift.

A swap after Jake/DeeDee. This would involve creating additional map locations and plot points so you'd have things to do in your new body. Tracking down the person who stole your body would be the most obvious plot to follow.

Watching other people struggle with being swapped. This could end up as a large expansion, given how many potential combinations there are with even a handful of characters. Inevitably some of the combinations would be pretty dull.

More things to do as Jake/DeeDee. This seems the best route for expansion: more scope without adding too much additional length or complexity.

Let me know your thoughts on this in the comments.

Am I wasting my time?

Signs point to yes.

On the TF Games site, where there seems to always be a thread where people are complaining that there's not enough content, not enough free porn, too many unfinished games, and how content creators should work harder, make games bigger and better and more complete, I have posted 3 updates in 30 days.

Only five people said anything.

This is the same website, mind you, where posters are so adamant to receive new content that many propose (or support) the frequent suggestions that authors should hand over their creations to unnamed "others" so that beloved games could be completed or more content produced.

But I had comments only from five (5) people.

Okay, you might say, there probably is demand, just no demand for the things I like to make. And fair enough: I like the old-school command-line interface of Inform and the free-form nature of interactive fiction, compared to (say) the dreadful linearity of Twine; everything is clickable but nothing is interesting, and any link whatsoever can lead you down a one-way rabbit hole toward an ending — or, likely as not, the wet paint and exposed rebar of "this path hasn't been written yet."

If that's what people like, then that's what they like. But it does mean I'm wasting my time making what I like. I have tried to accommodate what other people might enjoy, but as it turns out, I should just make what I personally enjoy. And this whole business of compiling, uploading, updating, and promoting is a waste, too; it would be much easier if I just didn't post at all.

Am I wasting my time?

The Magic 8-ball says "yes, definitely."

Is it worth it? I have no idea, but right now, I'm not feeling it.

Is it a game, is it a puzzle, or is it porn?

I spend a little bit of time — actually, quite a lot — thinking about player motivation. This comes from being a gamemaster whenever my group of friends gets together for D&D or other tabletop role playing game. The players never do what I expect them to do. The story I want to tell isn't always the story they want to be in.

When it comes to interactive fiction it is similar, but trickier. The player is wrestling with the interface, the command lines, the available vocabulary of the game, the room layout, the non-static things in the game, and whatever resources he has been allotted. What he wants to do is not always anticipated by me, the author. What's worse, I have no way of receiving feedback from the game; I cannot tell what commands that players attempted, or where they got stuck. If players don't speak up, I can't tell what to fix.

Sometimes players getting stuck is exactly what I intend. It may seem cruel or uncaring, but it is my philosophy that the player ought to work for the thing he wants in a game. It shouldn't be handed to him. Therefore, the rewards of the game — the sexy content the player wants — shouldn't be given out like candy, but should be hidden behind the "correct" sequence of moves.

But is that always what players want?

Back to the title of the blog: maybe. If it's a game, I am giving the player resources to manage and rules to manage them by. One of those resources is the player's choices. If they choose to spend a choice doing one thing, I do not feel obligated to give them the other choice for free. It is a path; choose which direction to follow. If I view it as a puzzle, then I intend for certain content to be concealed until the right player happens upon the right combination. I leave clues behind and allow the players to find them.

Sometimes what players are looking for is porn. And that is completely contrary to the design goals of games and puzzles. Porn is an uninterrupted buildup of the player's enjoyment. Puzzles get in the way, and make players stop to investigate what went wrong. It is, I feel, more rewarding in the end to find your way there to the end; but not all players want to be challenged in this way.

That's why I have settled on my philosophy: I provide hyperlinks to the bare-bones choices of the story. There is more to it, if the player learns the interface. Simply clicking hyperlinks will not unlock every secret. That's the way I like it.

Porting from RAGS to Inform 7

I started a game in the RAGS engine which showed, to my mind, a great deal of promise. It stalled for a number of reasons, most of them related to my personal schedule, and some of which were related to the RAGS engine itself. If you have never made a game with it, RAGS is a blessing for players and a nightmare for coders. The programming, or perhaps I should say scripting, is done through a cumbersome graphical interface; the code is not reusable from game to game; it is far from modular. Worse, at least to me, is a reliance upon a player GUI where art occupies >50% of the screen. RAGS and similar games breed a type of player that depends upon pictures and mouse clicks as a crutch to actual gameplay, problem solving, imagination, and understanding. The kind of game usually produced in RAGS is one where any player could randomly click on things until pictures of boobs appear. One not even understand the story, read the text, comprehend the intricate possibilities, know the choices presented, or pick a path with care.

There are advantages to a primarily visual interface and I do not mean to say there are no good games in that format. I merely observe that players who rely on a RAGS-like system to play a game are not challenging themselves. Perhaps this is acceptable in a game that is primarily for sexual satisfaction; the goal of such players isn't to be challenged but to have an uninterrupted build-up and climax. I'd rather have the intellectual experience of figuring out what to do, where to go, and what it all means. This presumes, of course, that the challenges are intentional and not merely obstacles of poor game design, bad writing, or buggy code that must be worked around.

Therefore, importing the game "Anything You Can Do" into Inform will create a great deal more challenge than existed before. My writing partner and I will be able to introduce more complications, more random events, more varied text, more outfits, more locations, and more artificial intelligence (albeit primitive) than was available in RAGS. Partly this is because I am switching to a language that handles such variations, conditional statements, and branches more gracefully. It's also because I am abandoning the need for art. The precious RAGS version had some 200 images of the player, in all four available races, with multiple hairstyles, with three different breast sizes, with and without makeup, and depicted wearing various combinations of clothing items. Now that I am switching to a text-only format, the complexity of the wardrobe can be much more easily multiplied — and the game itself is leaner and faster without all the image files hogging up memory.

I am sure some players will say "go back and finish it in RAGS." I will let others do that; I am going to make the game as I want it; and if someone wants to rebuild it in a clumsy visual format, they're welcome to it. I'll send you the code.

What the player wants

Like the old saying goes, you can have it cheap, quick, or correct; pick any two. Work that is inexpensive and fast is rarely of any quality; work that is fast and good usually comes with a high price; and work that is both correct and affordable will rarely be done by your schedule. Something similar applies to finding out what the player wants in his game. The author can ask the player an exhaustive list of highly specific questions, at some cost of time; or quickly breeze through a few questions, sacrificing either completeness or comprehension.

This is especially true when we are dealing with games that simulate social activities like flirting, relationships, and sex. Humans rarely ask for what we want; our social rules do not always allow us to. Sometimes what we want is for someone else to take charge, to not ask us what we want, like a handsome stranger who seduces the player despite her breathy protests to the contrary. Paradoxically, what we want is sometimes the very thing that it is impossible to ask for. In the real world we insist that no means no, but in a fantasy we might wish for no to mean yes.

In order to solve the problem of making a game where no can mean yes, I am writing an extension for Inform called Preferences. It allows the player to specify, in some detail, what is encompassed in his or her sexual fantasies, and to exclude that which is not. It's impossible to be complete in this endeavor, for every fantasy has myriads of sub-categories that would take infinite monkeys, splitting infinite numbers of hairs, to define. And we can't be entirely accurate in every fantasy, since what constitutes a fantasy is somewhat variable from person to person. But we can eliminate the time factor. Rather than have every game ask the same basic questions, Preferences will let the player define these things once, for all Inform games.

I will have more to say about the Preferences extension as I get closer to a release date. I do know that Body Thief will be the first game to incorporate it.

Body Thief

This is a short proof-of-concept game that I built to test a couple of simple things:

• After you body-swap with a really stupid character, the text descriptions and your dialogue options get gradually simpler as you get dumber. Eventually, you forget your original identity.
• The Dynamic Clothing extension needed a test drive.

You can choose MTF (start as a male and become a braindead sexy bimbo) or FTM (start female and become a meathead jock). Either way, you gradually lose intelligence. If you hang around with the person you body-swapped with, they'll deliver some quips as they gain in intelligence. Try to get to your friend in time to swap out of your new stupid body before your brain drains completely away!

Planned for future release: quips for being in Jake/DeeDee body while not in motion; changing the run-away text for DeeDee/Jake; create obstacles along the path from the Curio Shop to the Triple Cross (on foot); fill in descriptions for those rooms; create variable descriptions for all items that can be examined; add wear/remove clickable links to items in inventory screen; random text encounters for men in the club; routine for making out with DeeDee/Jake (only when you lose the bus pass); drunk variation on nightclub conversation as well as the conversation in the shop.

Release 10, under construction:

• Fixed the bus dialogue so it only triggers when your companion is there. It was firing incorrectly.
• Combined the walking-around text with the drunken-walk text into a single routine so they do not fire simultaneously. This had the consequence of removing the DeeDee/Jake drunk text. I will probably move the routine back to its previous place (the "report going" rules) so both sets of the text show up as an alternative, not in addition, to the normal going rules.
• Added a hyperlink to exiting the area after DeeDee/Jake gloats and runs away.
• Fixed the talk-to hyperlink for DeeDee/Jake in the Banquet Room. It was incorrectly using the hyperlink to examine.

Known issues: the additional rooms accessible by bus (Atlas Street, Front Street Bus Stop, etc) have no content and no descriptions in them. It is possible to leave the Banquet Hall while naked and be unable to return to finish the game. The proprietor has no description and no clothing.

Release 9, version 0.45

• Conversation with DeeDee after entering the bus post-swap is mostly complete. You should be able to kiss DeeDee or flash your tits.
• DeeDee and Jake will now have a comment about buying a drink if you make it back to the bar with them. At present it only appears the first time you return, but I want this to be expanded.
• If you talk to Jake or Amanda after reaching INT<70, there should be a game-ending conversation node. I must test to see if this is working as intended.
• Multiple-window interface and working hyperlinks throughout are implemented.
• Going OUT while sitting on the bench on the Number 43 bus does not always make you attempt to exit the bus. I attempted a fix for this, which was not robust enough.
• A hyperlink has been added to the conversation with DeeDee/Jake that leads you out of the Curio Shop.
• A hyperlink for undressing has been added.
• After asking your swap partner about getting a drink, the conversation ends (no more conversation suggestions appear).
• Additional quips appear when you wander around the city in swapped condition. The purpose is to provide hyperlinks to help the player get (some of the way) back to the club. The player will not be given links all the way back to the club, as getting lost is an intended potential hazard; being told exactly what to do in each turn and being spoon-fed hyperlinks all the way to victory makes it too easy.
• Walking around the city after being swapped leads to random, location-contextual text that appears. These only appear when the player is in motion.
• When conversation is started with Ryan and Amanda, conversation suggestion now correctly appears.

Known issues: the additional rooms accessible by bus (Atlas Street, Front Street Bus Stop, etc) have no content and no descriptions in them. It is possible to leave the Banquet Hall while naked and be unable to return to finish the game.

Download:
Body Thief v9

Release 8, version 0.4

• It is now possible to order drinks while swapped. This command does not yet have a hyperlink but it is ORDER A DRINK (if you are alone) or BUY A DRINK FOR [person] (if you are with somebody).
• It is also now possible to drink too much. This is only possible after you have been swapped.
• A bug with Jake's clothing not fitting has been fixed.
• Also, a bug with Jake not being able to get out of the men's bathroom has also (I hope) been fixed.
• Some buggy text removed from examining DeeDee's ass.
• It is now possible to lose your bus fare (as Jake/DeeDee) if you have drunk too much.
• Some additional color text has been added, only in DeeDee's body, only when in motion. More is planned.

Known issues: the additional rooms accessible by bus (Atlas Street, Front Street Bus Stop, etc) have no content and no descriptions in them. It is possible to leave the Banquet Hall while naked and be unable to return to finish the game. Going "out" while sitting on the battered green bench in Number 43 will not exit the bus, only the seat (this is corrected for future release).

Download:
Body Thief v8

Release 7, version 0.35

• The range of player intelligence has been rescaled. Behind-the-scenes numbers: where before your INT began at 140, it now starts at 125. DeeDee/Jake has an INT of 60, and it was always possible to drain fully to that level if you simply wandered around doing nothing; but there was a threshold at which it was no longer possible to "win" (escape the body) because you forgot your old identity. Previously that threshold was 95; now it is 70. This means 1) the quips about decreasing intelligence appear sooner (at INT=121); and 2) the dialogue that kicked in at INT=80 and INT=70, which didn't kick in previously, will now do so.
• The player has 5 [correction: 10] additional moves before losing identity.
• Looking, examining, and taking inventory do not cost moves.

Known issues: the additional rooms accessible by bus (Atlas Street, Front Street Bus Stop, etc) have no content and no descriptions in them. It is possible to leave the Banquet Hall while naked and be unable to return to finish the game. Attempting to buy drinks while switched does nothing.

You will need an Inform 7 interpreter, such as Gargoyle for Windows or Spatterlight for MacOS.

Extensions

Inform 7 is my platform of choice, because it is modular. I can write an extension that can be re-used multiple times, without reinventing the wheel each time.

My current list of extensions under construction:

Weather [complete]. An extension to govern whether rooms are indoor, outdoor, or covered, and how they are affected by weather effects like rain, wind, heat, and humidity. Indoor rooms are defined by whether weather effects can be seen (such as lightning or rain on the windows), heard (like wind or thunder) or felt (like rain, snow, or cold). The author is allowed to define what weather effects are taking place, and when.

Dynamic Clothing [complete but being tested]. A complete model of the human body that can be defined by certain dimensions like height, muscle, breast size, shoulder and hip width, breast size, hair length and style; and other values calculated from them, such as inseam, waist size, cup size, shoe size, etc. Includes a layered clothing model where clothing is described based on what is visible; underlying hidden items are not mentioned unless there is reason to do so. For instance, wearing a black bra under a thin white shirt may be visible. The body model includes a 2-axis descriptor of skin tone, hair length in 3 regions, shaving areas of the body, pregnancy that affects waist size and cup size, presence of genitalia that is independent of the actor's gender, and more. Uses Weather (for rooms that are cold, nipples may be visible).

Basic Help [complete]. An expandable hint system that prints a table of commands that new players can refer to for assistance in Inform. The author can add new lines to the table for any custom new commands.

Body-Swapping [under construction]. An extension to automate the process of assigning a body to a specific actor. This can be used to assign a body, as when the player takes on an alternate form (such as Ranma Saotome's girl-form, or Mystique imitating someone); or to exchange the bodies of two characters; or to assign the player a specific predetermined body after a transformation (as with Jeykll and Hyde). Requires Dynamic Clothing.

Beautiful Faces [under construction]. Attempts to do for faces and makeup what Dynamic Clothing does for bodies.

Preferences [under construction]. An app and extension that allows the player to specify what kind of content he would prefer to avoid in Inform games. Authors who use the Preferences extension can read in the player's desires, and either accommodate them (that is, skip past content the player doesn't like) or warm him that such content cannot be avoided. Users can specify their preferences for many things, such as starting gender, starting name, post-transformation name, response to transformarion, and whether to allow content like unwilling sex, mind control, bodily fluids, breast enlargement, bondage, and many others. Requires Names.

Body Preferences [conception stage only]. A separate preference app to define the player's preferred starting form, and preferred post-transformation form, if any. Requires Dynamic Clothing.

Names [under construction]. An extension that contains thousands of common English names along with the appropriate formal, nickname, diminutive, and opposite-gender forms. For instance, Chris corresponds to Christopher, Chris, Chrissy, and Christine.

Links will follow (as well as code) when I get a moment to upload them somewhere.

Why a blog?

The website at TF Games Site is dedicated to games based upon transformation of various kinds, including gender. Why have a blog of my own?

1. I can talk about whatever I want on my own blog and post as often as I want to.

2. There isn't appreciably more feedback on the website than there is here — sometimes, none at all. There is thus no particular disadvantage to a low-traffic blog.

3. The kind of game engine I like to use, and the kind of games I make, involve actual writing: characters, themes, clues, challenges, branching paths, and making the player think. That doesn't always go over well with people who are only looking for a quick hit of image-dense porn that can be played with one hand.

4. I can post game links in addition to game code here.

Oh, I know: I can do many of those things on a website. But the biggest advantage is that this is a blog I can dedicate to the art of game design and creation, directed to other authors and people who actually play the games I make. By contrast, the TF Games website is mostly posts by fans, and mostly about games I'm not interested in, or that I don't play; or about RPing various fantasies while waiting for some game to update; or about issuing demands for more, better, or specific game content. Increasingly, the content of the website is just not interesting or engaging to me. If you love the site, good; I am not attempting to insult the site or its users. Rather, I applaud you for finding that which you enjoy.

Welcome

I like making games, especially interactive fiction. It is a form of collaborative storytelling, which I find fulfilling. As it happens, I also appreciate erotica, and specifically the erotic potential of a character that changes sex.

You might say, "So you're transgender, then?" No, not really — I have no intention or desire to transition. Strange as it might seem, I think it's sexy to imagine myself as a woman, but I have no interest in actually going through with it in real life. Sure, sure, I can hear it now: you're just in denial. Well, I say I'm not, and you're not in my head. So there.

You might also say, "So you're into transsexuals, then?" I didn't say that either.

It is called (by some, at least) autogynephilia. Some in the transgender community insist that it doesn't exist, because it doesn't comport with their own desires. Some others attack the term as being impolitic or medically inaccurate. I'm not going to rehash that debate here.

I'm just about making those games, boss.