BtS: Sex and Violence in Bound by Night

I've had a few questions lately regarding how far or violent things may get in Bound by Night, including in the sexual content. I also discovered the game was briefly tagged as having rape-like content on another website. The tag was quickly removed when people who had played the demo pointed out it wasn't an accurate tag, but it made me realize there might be some confusion out there. As the developer, that's on me and it's my responsibility to clear it up.

So, I thought I'd share some information here on what kind of boundaries or guardrails you can expect around sex and violence in Bound by Night. This post doesn't bear directly on the story, and is both serious and lengthy, so if you decide to not read any further, you won't be missing any content or context in the game.

SPOILER WARNING:  There are some spoilers here from Chapter 1 of the game.

What kinds of sex?

Bound by Night starts off pretty hot and heavy. What Alex gets in the game’s opening is a largely consensual experience with a bossy top but not someone who abuses or hurts Alex. In fact, I would say the other character was very attentive to Alex. There’s a budding dominant/submissive relationship there, but no bondage or heavy kink. That -- possibly along with the project's title -- may have you asking, "Is there going to be bondage and heavy kink?"

The honest answer is I'm not 100% decided on this, but I'm leaning against including a lot of bondage in Bound by Night, although there may be one or two scenes of that nature if I can make it work with the characters' personalities and if I feel I can write the scene properly. (I actually have plans for a tie-down scene but I can almost guarantee it's not what anyone is thinking.) Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but hardcore bondage just doesn’t tickle me down there, so I'm anxious about whether I could write an interesting and erotic sex scene that relied on a kink I just don’t share.

That's not to say the sex is going to be entirely vanilla. The project's name, Bound by Night, is intended to refer to how we emotionally and psychologically interact with one another, whether it's for friendship, romance or purely for sex. Those interactions can involve emotional and psychological ties (or bindings) and deciding to surrender control to someone else as a show of trust (or to assert control over another). Submissive, dominant and more fluid dynamics will feature prominently, and there will be a heavy psychological component to those that I hope will prompt some thoughts about what people consent to and when they willingly surrender power and control to someone else (or assert it over them). 

What about consent and rape?

In the opening splash screens of Bound by Night, it states:  "This game includes depictions of violence as well as sex between men, including some non-consensual situations." (Note:  The language for this splash screen was revised as of Build 0.4.) I left this intentionally vague because, at the time, I didn't want to get into a discussion about what constitutes rape or consent in a game that is, at least in part, about power-dynamics in relationships and whether and how to submit or dominate others with whom you share a physical, emotional or sexual attractions. And, to the extent there are serious undertones to this project, I'd like to prompt the player to think about what constitutes consent when someone is psychologically manipulating -- or outright gaslighting -- you. But, between the errant tagging on another site (since corrected) and some legal reasons (discussed below), I think I need to be more explicit.

As I mentioned, I'm hosting the development of this project on Patreon. Patreon's TOS and community standards explicitly prohibit rape-based content, and I have every intent of honoring that. (I'm not so sure about how compliant some other projects I've seen hosted there, but that's between them and Patreon. I'm responsible for me.) Further, to be completely honest, rape-fantasies are not something I enjoy watching/reading and I wouldn’t enjoy writing. But as a black-letter rule, it's also against the Patreon TOS. 

So, to put it bluntly, no, as far as I'm concerned, this game/VN will not incorporate any rape or rape-like fantasies.

So why include that disclaimer? What about violence?

Funny thing about modern society:  representations of non-sexual physical violence is apparently 100% fine. I see Bound by Night as more of a light psychological horror story, not something focusing on gore and dismemberment. But when you have vampires and werewolves and hunters, I think by the end of this story, there will have been some fights and one or more characters may have met a final end. 

There will be some erotic overtones or stylizations to some those scenes (Chapter 2 includes such a sequence), and I can see how that kind of scenario might be triggering for someone. And that is why I wrote the splash-screen language the way I did. Not because I plan to write a rape-scene, but because I can't possibly know what might be upsetting for someone and I don't want to re-traumatize someone with a triggering sequence that mixes violence with some stylized eroticism.

How often will there be sexual content?

In the opening of our story, Alex was almost immediately groped by his supervisor, ordered to get laid, got laid, then turned into a passive boy toy while things (both fun and scary) happened to him. I did that for a couple reasons. First, to see if I could even write and present an erotic sex scene that people would enjoy and, second, to grab the audience's attention and get people interested in this game. 

But, how often will Alex or another character be getting the Big D? It won't be every chapter or even every update. While it hopefully isn't obvious, the explicit scene in Chapter 1 is very much tied to the plot and the mythology I've developed for the game. It sets the stage for future events and actually contains a lot of hints as to future developments. I intend for every explicit scene to do that in some way, either advancing the plot or showing how the relationships between the characters develop. (And if it happens to be a turn on, so much the better!)

So, how often!? As often as I can write them to fit the story. That’s the best answer I can give you right now.

To what purpose?

I describe Bound by Night as an erotic horror visual novel. You could call it pornographic if you want and I wouldn't object to that adjective, but while there will be sex (maybe a lot of sex) I don't intend for it to be a sex simulator nor what I would call a porn novel (not that there’s anything wrong with either!) 😉 To me, the term erotic novel means there is a story and a plot that includes sexual content, rather than a piece of virtual porn that has a plot loosely draped over it. (I like porn, too, but I sure don’t watch it for the plot.) With this story, I hope you do care about the plot and the characters... and get turned on along the way.

So, I hope that offered some insight into what is in store for Bound by Night.