Hey everyone. I’m really glad Complex Relations has managed to reach a lot of people so far, and that people have been enjoying the game, but the fact that we didn’t go public with the demo until it was so close to completion means there’s been that much less opportunity to keep people updated on its progress.

So, I’m going to start using this space to talk about some of the things I’m trying to do with Complex Relations which set it apart from other games, and give people a sense of what they have to look forward to with the full game.

A quick question to start things off. Have you ever seen a game which features characters cuddling in bed together? (If you have, let me know about it in the comments, I might want to check it out.) It’s easy to find games which feature kissing, hugging, handholding (I know, scandalous,) and of course, explicit sex. But not cuddling. Why?

Well, at what stage in a relationship are people actually likely to cuddle in bed together? It’s something you pretty much only see between people who’ve achieved a significant level of physical and emotional intimacy. And most games, even games featuring explicit sex, take a pretty limited approach to developing intimacy.

In a typical romance-focused JVN, what does the relationship progression look like? Usually, the characters spend a while as friends or acquaintances, giving the player some time to decide who they like best and whose direction to push the protagonist in. The characters gradually start to recognize attraction towards each other, drop hints about their feelings, and then eventually kick off their romantic relationship with a dramatic confession. If it’s an eroge, then shortly after (sometimes immediately after,) the characters will have sex for the first time. And then… that’s it. That’s as far as the relationship ever develops. They may mess around for a while in new-relationship bliss before some type of drama springs up to get in their way, but as soon as they resolve it, their relationship will return to the same status as before. Once characters reach the point of being lovers, their relationship is complete, and there’s nowhere to go from there but trying out new positions.

You can see essentially the same progression in other types of games, from RPGs (basically anything in the mold of Bioware,) to casual games like Hunie Pop. Games without explicit content usually just cut relationship development off at an earlier point, after the characters acknowledge having feelings for each other but before the point where they implicitly start having sex.

There’s something about this whole approach which I personally find really unsatisfying. I have a hard time buying that by the time characters acknowledge their feelings for each other and begin a relationship, the most interesting part of their dynamic is already over. And honestly, how many couples are already as intimate with each other as they’ll ever be, physically or emotionally, by the time they have sex for the first time? Is that where people usually stop feeling closer to their partners or learning new things about them? Or where they have the best sex with their partners that they’re going to have?

Honestly, I’d really like to see more games explore the sort of continuing relationship growth which happens after characters are ready to see each other naked. After all, it’s not like most of the work of building a lasting romantic relationship is over by that point. So that’s part of what I’m trying to do with Complex Relations. It’s not just a sex romp (although I’m not saying there’s not going to be a sex romp,) it’s a chance to explore stages of intimacy which don’t feature in most games, the developments which come after the ending of most stories which separate “happily ever after” from “breakup.” After all, if so many people in real life start to fall for each other, have sex (in one order or the other,) and then don’t stay together, doesn’t that suggest there’s still a lot more to be said?