Sexy, flexible swashbuckling with Jemma Topaz
The Queer Games Bundle is a collection of nearly 600 items by LGBTQ+ creators and teams, nearly 400 of which are independent video games, all sold for just $60. I’m talking with creators from the bundle about their games and their making habits. Visit the bundle and consider buying it.
This interview is about an adult game! But the interview is SFW.
Jemma Topaz’s game Some Sword / Some Play is a swashbuckling, funny adventure erotica — it defies categorization, and Jemma labeled it a “smut-venture” — where you can fully customize yourself as well as your, um, sparring partners. I was impressed by the level of detail required to make all the different combinations of pronouns and body parts work in the same text, and I wanted to learn more about how she did it. (Jemma and I both submitted to the Forgotten Games Essay Jam hosted by Kritiqal, so I was even more excited to talk.)
How long have you been making games?
Looking back, it was 2015, back in the days a thousand years ago, when there was still a little optimism in the world. Most of my earlier games were under a different name though; gender stuff!
What tools do you like to use?
Ink for most interactive fiction stuff — for the things I do, it’s better than Twine. (Although it really does depend on what you’re doing; Twine’s great.) Bitsy for little pixel stuff. It makes it very easy to make a tiny scene that you can step through, and see what’s going on. I’m also really tempted by Bitsy-likes like Bipsi. I also use GameMaker and some Javascript; at the moment because of medical issues, I haven’t been able to concentrate on coding, which is a mixed blessing.
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
Hmm, I suppose a lot of trans themes; how you relate to yourself and others. The oddness of finding out things about yourself, later in life than you expect. And a lot of fun; just plain sexy adventure is an underrated genre, in my opinion.
“[T]here are so many great comments to the effect of ‘I’m A, have B genitals, and fancy C; I never find games for me!’ I mean, since we’ve invented code, annoying as it is, we really ought to use it for that sort of thing.”
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
My favourite part is the hard to describe moment when it just comes together; where all the constituent parts suddenly mostly work. The amazing thing about games is that even choices that are ‘meaningless’ actually aren’t. Even if points A and B are the same, it actually makes a difference if you take 5 minutes or 50 minutes between them, 3 steps or 30, 7 words or 700. Or just choosing the right pronouns; it’s not a ‘game’ decision at all, usually, but it is definitely meaningful. I enjoy seeing meaning appear from tiny choices. My least favourite part: code. I used to do it professionally, I even enjoyed it, kind of. But it was masochistic. Coding is bullshit. (Particularly now, with medical stuff making it much harder than before to spend the necessary time at the computer).
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
Every time Hardcoded gets a release I get to spend an hour or so in a lovely NSFW dystopia. It’s lovely because, though the world is crapsack, there are people getting by — more than getting by — having trans joy. It’s a theme it shares with a long-time favourite Perseids (although I’m friends with Freya, who made Perseids, and so she regards any praise as “yes, yes, I know you have to say that”. But, it really is an excellent story of trans joy that I will praise at every opportunity).
Some Sword / Some Play is a very funny, lovely erotic dating . . . adventure sim? How did you decide to make it?
I was writing some slightly spicy fanfic for the @JudithHunts twitter bot, and I began to think that a spicy game would be good. I began with the idea of two muscular girls arm-wrestling for a kiss, and went from there. I knew I had to make it flexible with regards to pronouns, etc, because most of my friends were various flavours of trans and non-binary. Of course, by the end of the game, I was too. (This is why it’s one of the games in my “An Incomplete List of Games that made me Trans” list.)
The three love interests are great. Who was your favorite to write?
Honestly, I’m not sure I’ve got one. Lumi: I want to…ahem, dance with. Bailey: I want to be my friend (maybe with benefits). Roan: I want to be so damn much. (In truth, I’m more the Marquessa than anyone, but temporarily embarrassed.) I don’t think I could have written them if I didn’t like them all. I was pleased to see in the comments that there was a fairly equal spread of favourites. I thought Lumi as the most conventional sexy sub would win, but a lot of people liked Bailey or Roan as well. Roan in particular got some very yearning comments.
There is a lot of detail in the sword and fighting moments. Was there research, or is this an area you know about?
I did a spot of research, since Roan was an expert, and I wanted to be convincing. I don’t mind a bit of research; it takes me out of any narrative when the author just obviously couldn’t be bothered. Whereas I like to do the ten minute’s worth of research that means that only actual experts are annoyed. And I like swords anyway, so it wasn’t hard work.
“[J]ust plain sexy adventure is an underrated genre, in my opinion.”
This game lets you choose pronouns as well as body features for yourself and the love interests. What was it like to code that?
Hell. All thanks to my playtesters, for spotting hundreds of places where I’d got it wrong. It wasn’t technically difficult: variables for the various pronouns, body features, etc. But it made writing sex scenes difficult; a lot of combinations to deal with; especially as I didn’t want to write completely different scenes. And then testing these scenes! It was worth it though; partly for myself — it became very obvious during testing which pronouns felt right to be. And there are so many great comments to the effect of “I’m A, have B genitals, and fancy C; I never find games for me!” I mean, since we’ve invented code, annoying as it is, we really ought to use it for that sort of thing.
It’s fun that it becomes a little rescue adventure in the last section. How did you envision and write the technical details?
Oh god, in authorial terms I’m a ‘pantser’. So, at best, I was thinking one move ahead; it was always “okay, then what?” I suppose that’s the tabletop RPG DM in me coming out, except as well as setting the deadly traps, I also have to write them out of it, somehow! I’m not saying this is the right way to plan; it’s all a bit Gromit-laying-out-train-track dot gif. But I get bored doing a proper outline! I mean, it’s based on old swashbuckling stories, so just having stuff there because it’s cool is completely on theme.
