In my previous post I introduced an adult board game design challenge based on a vampire theme. The working title is called Suck! It’s intended to be a foreplay game flavoured with tongue in cheek erotic horror. In this post, we’ll take a look at some design ideas leading up to a prototype board layout.
Board Game Design Constraints
As indicated in the previous post, Suck! is intended to work with EveryGame for the iPad. This introduces a few design constraints. There are also a few game elements from the concept outlined previously that should be worked in if possible. Although not “must haves”, they are factors to consider when developing the overall layout of the base image that makes up the iPad display and user interface. Here is a brief list of some of the key design constraints and desired elements for this adult board game:
- Base image size 1024×768 pixels
- Dice mechanism integrated into the board layout
- Sex dice type mechanism with action/target words
- Two decks of cards with flavour text, foreplay ideas & game play activities
- Vampire/Hunter symbols on board locations map to one of the two card decks
- Vampire/Hunter level indicators for each player (first to the top wins)
- Location squares/circles are large enough to display simple foreplay or game instructions
- Simple, clean design with minimal fancy graphics (my artistic skills still a little rusty)
- Minimal on screen instruction or label text
- Red and black primary colour scheme
- Designed for a couple (two players) in a sexual relationship
Note that there are still some more advanced features of the EveryGame system that I have not yet explored. In particular, I believe it has the ability to use larger or multiple board images and tabbed displays to show more game elements. But for this iteration of Suck!, we’ll stick with a single screen image. As you can imagine, this key design constraint impacts the board design and layout significantly.
Design Ideas
Take a look at the Oral Sex adult board game. With a few fangs and some alternate activities, it would be fairly easy to transform this board game into a vampire themed sex game. My original thought for Suck! Was to create a board design in the shape of a pair of lips with fangs or even just the fangs by themselves. After sketching a few trial designs, the graphics just did not seem appealing. With the other design elements I was thinking of including, the layout became a little cluttered.
A cross, coffin, heart or bat shape could also be used. With a bit more thought and stylistic flair, each of these shapes could be made to work but for me, based on my quick sketches, they were not looking the greatest.
A dungeon or castle layout in the form or different rooms or a maze was another possibility. Or maybe a country layout with various paths leading between a castle, church, graveyard, village and other points of interest. Although these ideas have potential, for this particular iteration of the game design I was thinking something a little less elaborate.
Referring back to my Strip Tease game, I pondered reworking it into a vampire theme. Instead of heading toward a central bed, both players would be striving to become the first vampire safe and sound in their coffin or tomb. A third “player” representing the victim/hunter could be added to interfere or help them in some way. I do like this concept since the existing game elements include a bit of strategic competition and involves chasing each other. Modifying the Strip Tease base image would be relatively simple. I could reuse most of the game mechanics and XML config files too. The cards would be modified to have flavour text more appropriate to the vampire theme. Various activity locations would be positioned along the board to add a bit more variety as well. This might include more BDSM type activities for instance.
Note that in the concept above, both players are vampires to start. Alternatively, both players could be victims trying to get safely home with a vampire hunting them down. But in this scenario, players would be sacrificing each other to the vampire rather than cooperating to save each other against a common foe. Could work but let’s not.
So, using the Sorry! style game, both players would be taking on the role of vampires. The winner would then become the vampire Lord or Queen and take “control” of the other player as their slave to service all their deviant desires. Sounds good. However, one of the game elements I wanted to include is the idea of the player transforming into either a vampire or a hunter based on their actions throughout the game. This would make it more interesting by giving players various choices and encouraging decision making throughout the game. Also, the activity cards could be made more engaging since they could tie in with this design element in various ways.
My initial thoughts for Suck! involved having two meters or level indicators per player. One meter would record the vampire level and the other would be the hunter. Essentially the good and bad in everyone that develops or is revealed based on the choices we make. The first player to get one of these levels to the top wins either as the vampire or the hunter. Which one of the two determines what they win. For instance, oral sex vs intercourse.
In this scenario, each player takes on the dual role of vampire and hunter/victim in kind of a training mode. You are not fully a vampire or a hunter until you reach a certain level. This retains a competitive element and gives a reason to chase each other around the board (otherwise it could be just a card game).
Suck! Board Game Design
After a number of paper sketches and a few layout attempts in Adobe Illustrator, I simplified the board design to a capture just the key elements in a fairly clean looking image.
As you can see from the image, it’s essentially a circular path in the form of a square. Only the two key icons representing the vampire and the hunter/prey are included. The corner locations are labelled with the intent that they be starting locations and target destinations referenced by the cards. The two level meters for each player are on the side (circles now but could be chain links or blood droplets). The location for the two decks of cards is obvious. The dice though are located where the two fiery eye like symbols are placed under the title. The two dice will be used for movement and random foreplay.
Players will start at opposite sides of the board and chase each other around the board performing foreplay activities on random turns. Landing on the lips or heart symbol allows players to perform a card based task to hopefully increase their levels or reduce the levels of their opponent. Of course there will also be a benefit for catching your opponent on the board.
Although fairly simple in design, the dice and cards will provide the basis for developing the vampire theme combined with appropriate levels or foreplay throughout. In the next post, I’ll go through a few design elements in more detail and discuss how they relate to the game play concept that evolved to fit the board layout. We’ll also look at some ideas for the cards and some initial rules.
See our next article Developing Suck! A Vampire Themed Adult Board Game Design
UPDATE: Unfortunately, the EveryGame app had to remove their customization feature. This encouraged us to develop our own sex app based on the adult board game design featured in this article. An enhanced version of this erotic game for couples called Suck! Me is now available for the iPad. The foreplay game design was updated and reimplemented using Swift. For more details, see the Sexy Vampire Game Overview. Download it today and give yourselves even more reason to lick and suck on each other.
UPDATE 2: Since we’re also having difficulty getting our sex themed apps approved, we decided to try a book based version. See our article Lovely Lickers: Vampire Roleplaying Sex Game for Naughty Lesbian Couples for the unique adult game design details. Our vampire themed sex game books are available from Amazon:
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Stimulate your passions and get your blood flowing red hot as you unleash the sexy beast inside you. Make your pulses pound as you hunt your prey and each other around the Castle, Church, Tomb and Dungeon. Add a touch of erotic horror to your adult play. Become the seductive vampire Master or sexy vampiress Queen and rule your bedroom tonight.
I hope you enjoy making your own adult board game designs. If you do order one of our apps or books, Thank You! Please give it a good rating and post a comment. Great feedback will help other couples find it so they can improve their relationship too. Maybe share ideas for spicing up any of the couples games you play. Your feedback also helps motivate us to continue creating adult game design content. It’s much appreciated.