What exactly is In Her Own Hands? (Scroll to bottom of post for tl;dr)
As we continue to create this game, we are certainly establishing our identity within the landscape. IHOH definitely feels a little bit different from other creations, a bit of a hybrid of several genres. Part role-playing game, part interactive erotic fiction, part sandbox life-simulator, with a dash of other things that pop up from time to time…
We wanted to take a few minutes to explore our intentions for the format of this game.
At its core, IHOH is an open-world “sandbox” life simulator. The main character can go where the player wants and do what she wants, when she wants. There is an underlying “map” of locations around the city, some of which have to be discovered through exploration because she is new to the town.
We want this part of the game to be realistic, first and foremost. But at the same time, we have made some intentional decisions to maintain enjoyability. For example, you may notice that this city seems completely devoid of weather. Even more significant, perhaps, is the absence of several physically necessary biological functions. The main character doesn’t use the toilet, doesn’t menstruate, etc. In a game, who really wants to deal with that stuff? (Not us!) Reducing the number of these types of ultimately meaningless details also removes the necessity of managing tedious tasks.
Next, we have the statistical aspect of the game. This part is borrowed primarily from role-playing games, but with our own little spin on it. There are four statistics that are most significant. Unlike many games, however, these statistics are not just based on actions that directly affect them, but are actually calculated in an interdependent way using the values of the other statistics with several “sub-statistics” that are action/decision-dependent. For example, the main character’s Inhibition goes down as her Arousal goes up. (The hornier she is, after all, the more likely she is to do something about it!) Drinking alcohol also temporarily affects her Inhibition… at least until she sobers up a bit. We plan to write a post in the near future more specifically discussing the way statistics work in IHOH.
Unlike a lot of other games that use statistics, however, not all events are statistically gated. Meaning, just lowering Inhibition or raising Corruption alone is not enough to make events occur. Some events are dependent on completion of other events. Some events are based on the player’s relationship with another character. Some events are time-specific (like the Halloween party that only happens on Halloween). And some events depend on things like what the main character is wearing (for example, you can only go to the club with Shaun if you are wearing a club-appropriate dress or the Halloween party if wearing a costume).
We also use statistics for a few other reasons:
- Wardrobe choices have their own statistical value. You may have noticed comments relating to the main character’s clothing choices in the “Jasmynn” storyline. (There are actually text changes when she meets Jasmynn’s girls at the bar, depending on what she is wearing! This offers some hints for how future dates might unravel.) This is one of the most obvious uses of wardrobe choice, because certain “dates” will require certain styles of dress. We have additional plans to expand this aspect of the game as well.
- Each NPC has two statistics that reflect how they feel about the protagonist: Friendship and Attraction. Certain events with characters are gated based on these statistics.
We also took one other important mechanic from RPGs. The CumPoints Sex System was inspired by the combat systems used by many role-playing games. We felt this added a new dimension to the sex scenes that was missing from the early versions of the game and missing from other games of this nature.
Speaking of the relationships with different characters and events like sex scenes, IHOH also draws inspiration from dating sims. Different scenes and events are at times unlocked by such interactions as holding certain conversations, giving specific gifts, improving relationships, etc., and scenes progress in a relatively linear fashion.
We are also very intrigued with the idea of ARGs (alternate reality games), games that play out to a large extent in the “real world,” using external online platforms or even offline phone numbers, etc., to host game content. While we have not really incorporated any game content in this way, we have dabbled a little bit with things like the in-character Twitter feed or the incorporation of Spotify players to listen to records in-game, as ways to “break the fourth wall.” (And we can’t guarantee that we won’t at some point experiment with going further as a means to unlock “bonus content,” if we can come up with a way it makes sense.)
Finally, IHOH is a work of interactive fiction in the erotica genre. Behind all of the game mechanics, role-playing statistics, and everything else, we have the story of a young adult, a woman, experiencing many aspects of life for the first time. Yes, the focus is sexy and erotic, but she also abandons her education–the only thing she’s really known so far in her life–gets her first job, moves into her first apartment, really “dates” and enters into various relationships as an adult rather than just a continuation of teenage infatuation. The player has full control over which of these things the protagonist pursues, and this “choose-your-own-adventure” quality pushes this beyond pure erotica.
At the same time, we wanted to create a game that was rooted in the erotica writing style to add to the experience for the player. Recent studies have established that 90% of women use “mental framing” (or scenario conjuring) to get aroused. Our female protagonist expresses her thoughts and emotions, shares her anxiety and arousal, and takes you inside her personal journey from schoolgirl to sexual adventurer. The adult interactive game universe is not always known for its writing, and we wanted to offer more in the immersive experience. By pairing the genre of erotic writing with the imagery of the game, IHOH offers the best of both worlds. The more typically-male visual stimulation in the media is accompanied by more context to the story, found to be more arousing for women, so there really is something for everyone as you play the game.
Sorry for being so long-winded, but we wanted to discuss the goals and direction of the game, at a conceptual level for all of our supporters and fans. This is the first of what we hope will be an ongoing series of introspective, self-reflective posts about IHOH. We hope that you like it.
tl;dr: In Her Own Hands is a hybrid creation, incorporating elements from several different types of games in different genres to tell a player-generated story in a unique way.
