Paseo, devlog

the original prototype from early 2017, with a weirder style to match the artist's vibe

A few months ago, a big record label asked me if I wanted to make a short gay sex thing set to one of their artist's tracks -- for a few weeks, I thought the collaboration was going well, but then one day they just stopped answering my e-mails. Oh well, that's just how it goes sometimes...

I still kind of like the basic idea, so I'm going to replace the music and expand it to be part of the Radiator cycle. It's tentatively called "Paseo" (but the name will likely change before then) and it's about stripping, which is a popular intersection of sex and money. As a male performer, you will do strip routines and incorporate beautiful dance movements, but you also have to work the crowd and collect your tips.

current version, with 12 different strippers to choose from (ignore his eyeballs bulging out of his head...)

The history of strippers in video games is relatively short, I think: from ogling pixelated boobs in Duke Nukem 3D (1996), to a surprisingly inclusive strip club dance in Saint's Row 4 (2013). I remember playing some random strip poker flash games as a teenager, I guess? We can also consider those old video kiosks in bars where you solve tile puzzles to undress / reveal a sultry photo, as well as Stephen Lavelle's amazing Striptease, which riffs on that tradition while commenting on sexual assault and male gaze.

My game won't be as dark, but I do want to invoke some sort of seriousness, as fun and exciting as stripping can be. Stephen Soderbergh's original Magic Mike (2012) is a useful touchstone for me -- it's half shameless beefcake delivery vehicle, but also half of a working class get-rich-scheme-gone-wrong cautionary tale. It argues that sex work is work, and just like any other job, sometimes it's fun and sometimes it sucks, and that's what it means to survive as a male erotic dancer in post-recession Florida.

Hopefully out in September or October, and hopefully releasing with VR support from launch. After that, I have to do Radiator 3 -- and then after that, I'll attempt my Moby Dick, that long-delayed gay bar game. Stay tuned!