Putting it more specifically, how would you feel about a game where both a guy and a girl - fully fleshed-out characters, not self-inserts or nameless protagonists - could be the subject or target of weight gain shenanigans?
Without going into too much detail, I’ve been prototyping something that’s not entirely unlike how my first game jam title and more traditional life/’raising’ sims work: the male lead is tasked with whipping the female lead into shape over a set period of time, with random events, fixed narrative events, player choices, and ‘training’ choices in the narrative portion affecting stats in the gameplay portion, character relationships, how quickly the girl gains/loses weight, and even shifting the goalposts on her ‘target’ weight, how strongly she feels about losing (or gaining) weight, etc.
All that said, there’s a clear narrative opportunity for this to rebound, for the girl’s bad habits to rub off on the guy and have him gain some weight as well. It’s not really my cup of tea, but it’s also something different than what I’ve worked on in the past and it might be good to get out of my comfort zone. And it’s not exactly more complicated mechanically to apply all the same gameplay systems to a second character, either; since the guy is also involved in the gameplay portions to some extent, he has to have a good amount of shared functionality implemented even if I do nothing with it.
Of course, there are some drawbacks:
As a straight guy, I don’t know how well I can implement something of the sort narratively without it falling flat or feeling obviously like it’s taking a backseat to the girl’s side. I suppose I could seek outside help on writing once I’ve got most of the plot details and character voice firmly established.
Aside from simply adding new scenes documenting his changes, this probably requires a lot more dialogue branching, for things like reacting to events while at a certain weight level, especially in comparison to events showcasing the female lead’s gains or losses. But I’ve already accounted for needing a robust branching-dialogue system as the main plot milestones are already disconnected from whatever the female lead’s weight happens to be at, and would need her to react differently to certain events as well.
CGs/sex scenes become exponentially more complicated. Exponentially isn’t an exaggeration - if I have ten weight stages for the female lead and a fixed weight for the male lead, I need to render/draw ten variations of a scene (or more, if I want to spice it up with alternate locations/positions/outfits/etc., but that’s beside the point). If I have ten weight stages for the male as well, that’s ten variations for each of the ten existing scenes - 10^2, or 100 total. That’s not feasible, even with taking shortcuts like only changing out the character size for every couple in-game weight stages. If I draw/render the two characters separately and overlay the two into a single scene, that’s only twenty images, but it also limits how much I can adjust the scene to work with different character sizes without pesky things like math.
But the biggest question: do people actually want this? The majority of WG games focus almost exclusively on one gender, or even neutrally-gendered characters. Those that include both male and female weight gain as a simultaneous focus are much more rare, even more so if they’re sexually explicit. So I have to ask, is there actually an appetite for this sort of thing?
I am interested in a game with mutual gaining
I’m interested, but only if both sides have the same amount of content
Neutral/I don’t care
Would only play if male or female WG/fetish content could be disabled
Would not play even if male or female content could be disabled
If there is good quality weight gain content for female characters then I am going to play in the game. Probably, will just ignore content related to male weight gain.
I’m always looking for more games with mutual gaining, it’s my most sought after feedist topic! Not to mention the theme of corrupting fat girl influence is also peak. I thought I’d add that mutual gaining has nothing to do with gay/straight/bi/etc or even male/female, it’s more just about whether or not you feel you can write towards latent feedee tendencies. Even if the character is fully fleshed out, the male character for me would operate as a self-insert in the same way any male video game protagonist represents a power fantasy for normies. While male weight gain narratively has some differences than female in regards to how they’re seen by others, there’s still a lot of overlap (physical limitations, stamina problems, clothing problems, etc.). I think if you feel confident enough to write a female feedee, you could write a male feedee.
Personally I’m not a fan of male WG and I probably wouldn’t be interested in a game that forces the player to engage with it. (though your idea sounds pretty neat)
With that being said, it’s true that mutual gain dating sims aren’t that common. Even if a good portion of people aren’t interested; your project might stand out just for providing something that is somewhat lacking.
Another thing is thing is if you are a straight guy, I can imagine that the male part would be quite tedious at times. I know that I would never manage to push myself to do it because the inspiration wouldn’t be there. If it’s the only thing holding you back, you might want to find someone who may want to do a collab.
While the male gain side wouldn’t tickle any kinks of mine, I’d be interested in playing a game like the one described. I know at least one aspect by which it’d be different than the other games in the ‘girlfriend weight gain’ semi-genre that I’ve played, and novelty has value.
Don’t know if it’s pertinent, but I play Second Helping with MC gain turned on… and then use that as a challenge factor, trying to keep my character fit and slim while dating randos and turning the tables on the occasional feeder.
I enjoy unwilling mutual gaining where the feeder is not intending to gain weight as a narrative device, but I’m also uninterested in male WG. …and most who are fans of men are uninterested in women, but not all. It could be interesting in concept but I would definitely enjoy f/f more.
If feasible, your best bet might be a collab with someone who likes fat men, and you split the character writing/dialog work and have the genders for both be selectable, but even with someone else doing half the writing that adds a lot of work plus the mental load of working with another person. And they could always vanish and ghost you.
I can see why mutual gaining would stand out, especially since there don’t seem to be many games exploring both sides of the couple. The comments about player preference make sense too—some people will naturally be more interested in one side than the other. Giving players the option to enable or disable the male gain could be a good way to keep the concept accessible while still letting the mutual-gain aspect be a core feature for people who enjoy it.
As a straight guy, I don’t have interest per say in a mutual gaining game if it is just 3rd person point of view. I can actually enjoy games where a male is gaining weight if it is 1st person, because I don’t have to interact as much with the anatomy and it feels more like me doing it. But I wouldn’t really be interested in this type of game. As others have said though, there are very few if any of these types of games, so even if quite a few people aren’t interested, you may still find a nice niche.
I would be so down to see it! I’m interested in Male weight gain, but I have no problem playing something with female weight gain in it. The sentiment is shared among many other male enjoyers, as we are actually starving, there’s barely any male who games in general, so trust me when I say there’s an audience for male weight gain content of any form!
Also, female weight gain content is actually really cool as well if it is well-written. It’s sometimes fun to read, and being the gender I am not interested in, it sometimes lets me appreciate the writing as a piece of writing.
I’ve been playing Apostles lately. It has content for both genders, albeit mostly female. I think that one appeals to so many because it has such an interesting premise and story, not just the fetish content. I am genuinely very invested in the story!
Uhh so bottom line is please pretty please make it because I will play it!! It sounds like a great idea!