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.