SPICY INTERVIEW: FLEXIBLE MEDIA

We couldn't wait to talk to Flexible media the team behind our July's game of the month: Paradise Lust. They have been on the scene for quite some time now and their game has gathered a fan base many developers would be envious of. The unique art of the game, Monkey Island vibe, the adventure, the lovely ladies that you meet, sure are the reason why this game is such a success. But still we have some many questions we just had to ask them...

1. How Long has Paradise Lust been in the development. How did it all start?

We started developing the prototype sometime around June 2020. Our first public build didn't come out until Nov 2020. The lewd community helped a lot in spreading the word out that Paradise Lust is now available for early access.

2. How many are you in the team?

We started the project with 3 senior developers. Chase (writer) and Droid (coder) together with Sven (art/animator). Once we are able to develop a prototype we then assembled our team consisting of

• 2 Writers
• 1 Coder/Designer
• 1 Artist
• 1 Animator
• 1 QA

3. Where are you from (can be a broad answer), What did you do before developing adult games?

We're now based in Asia (Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines) but before that, Droid and I worked together back in Europe, 20+ years ago. We went our separate ways since then, and 5 years later we decided to set up a normie studio together.

4. What led you onto the path of creating adult games?

Droid started doing adult games for fun, and as a way to intellectually recharge. (that became Love of Magic) I had no idea he was already into this when I mentioned I wanted to do adult games.

He immediately said YES while showing me his "Hobby". So we then started making Paradise Lust as a sub-branch of the main studio, which mostly does games for American housewives.

5. Can you tell us more about the story of Paradise Lust.

The game follows the story of the wreck of the Moby Dick; a pleasure yacht chartered by the Miss World Media pageant for a luxury promo cruise in the South Pacific. You play the role of the bartender of the vessel, washed up on the shore of idyllic Tuvatuva Island along with a cast of beautiful beauty pageant contestants and their friends. There you will sort out how to survive and thrive on the island while searching for other survivors, including your brother, who was captain of the vessel.

6. Tell us more about the island. Why is it a paradise if there are things that can kill you in it?

The island isn’t all that dangerous... Mostly it’s just remote and mysterious. Even the Big Ass Lizard would likely rather fuck (be fucked by?) the MC than eat him.

7. Would you like to tell us about the influences various books/games have had on the game? Also, how long have you been developing games?

I am a HUGE LOTR fan (have read the books almost yearly my whole life). I also grew up playing D&D, and being a bit of a slacker... So in that sense I kinda wrote a lot of that kind of “slacker nerd” into the MC. Additionally, when I was younger I played a lot of Leisure Suit Larry and Monkey Island... And I loved the light tongue-in-cheek way they dealt with character development. I’d be lying if I said we weren’t trying to replicate some of that. I’d also admit that when we started this project, I was playing a lot of Summertime Saga... I’m not ashamed to admit it was very influential in how we tried to plot out the story and action. All of that being said, I’ve made a lot of games. For a long time. In fact, we have people working in our studio that weren’t born when Droid and I started making games... and a lot of that time we spent making casual games for PC. So when you see a lot of casual game type subgames, like matching, sorting, jigsaw, etc... That’s no accident. It’s stuff we have been making for years.

8. Which aspect of Paradise Lust do you think improved the most since when you started the development.

Definitely the sex scenes. In fact, they have improved so much that we've gone back and redone a bunch of the scenes that came out of our first beta release, adding various camera panning and options for more interesting sequences. We’ve learned a lot making our first game, and one of the benefits of being in Early Access is that we can use those learnings NOW, instead of waiting for a next game.

9. If you were to go back in time, what one thing would you change about the game?

I've probably rewrite Gabby. When I started writing her, I was trying too hard to have her be “sassy” and it came out... Well, like I was trying too hard. The further I get in the game, the more natural she sounds, because I am not TRYING to make her sound in some specific way... She just sounds like Gabby. And it’s much better now.

10. How long does it take for you to produce a scene, broadly speaking? Do you go over it multiple times?

Art - 2 to 3 days
Animation - 1 day
Scripting - 2 to 3 days
So it takes about 1 week to produce a scene and another day or two fixing/polishing it based on feedback through our regular playthrough. But that’s just the sex scene. There's usually a week of talking about, planning, and writing the text before any of that starts.

11. What does the process of creating new characters look like? Can you show us an example of how you do your art? 

Do you maybe have any early sketches? We started developing the backstory of the characters first. Their likes and dislikes, personality, traits and nationality. From there, a quick Google search of "Sexy Texan Cowgirl" easily became Cath's reference for the art.

12. I know story writing, especially that has sex as one of the primary focuses can result in falling into having too many clichéd scenes or recurrent plot devices, so how do you personally avoid that?

Since the game is all based around the story, most of the additional features flow from the story. Droid, Chastitty and others do a lot of the design and writing as well. When you are focused on characters, and you give those characters real desires, hopes, and dreams... You aren’t looking at other things for ideas, you’re just letting them speak and explore. This avoids them becoming too trite or cliched.

13. How much do you pay attention to the feedback from the fans and How do you go about balancing on changes according to feedback and sticking to your original plans? Do player expectations play a huge role in your planning for the next updates?

A LOT! Once a month we usually do a poll asking players on what they would like to see next on top of what we already have planned for the next update. And we’re always looking at what they respond well to, and what they don’t respond well to. We have a roadmap for where we want the game to go, but we’re not slaved to it. When it looks like going another direction would be a good idea, we do that.

14. Who is your favorite girl in Paradise Lust, everybody has a favorite so don't try to trick us with we love all the same. Not buying it.

Well... Since the ex-JAV star Ryoko hasn’t been introduced yet... I guess I gotta go with Maria. When we first designed her, she was a bit of a social-climbing gold-digger... but I really didn’t like that voice for her, so I changed her into a dreamy, fun, imaginative girl who is all about self expression and having a good time. I’m pretty sure she’d be hella fun to hang out with.

15. Why is Grace so damn cute?!

Actually a few weeks prior to release, we did a playthrough and at that time we've noticed that Grace looked... off. Her head was at a weird angle, and her features looked really off... So immediately after the playthrough Sven revised the art based on everything we know about the art style. So in a way, she benefitted from all of the lessons we’ve learned more than the other girls, who were all concepted at the beginning of the game.
Also, I think you just have a thing for redheads. No worries. I feel you.

16. Can you talk more about the upcoming content. What can we expect in the future?

Each month's content usually includes a major storyline update for one of the girls plus other improvements from our earlier releases. It could be a comic, sex scene, minigame or as simple as a dialog/conversation piece. We’ve heard from our fans that they want to hear more about the mysteries of the island, and what happened to our brother Rob... So the next few months, we’ll be expanding that storyline a great deal.

17. Are there any particular fetishes that you're excited to introduce in the game? Do you focus a lot on trying to introduce any particular fetishes in the game?

I don’t really think of it like that. For me the characters are very real. I let their characters define what they are into or not into. It’s not just some laundry list of “Oh, I guess it’s time to do some weird foot stuff and check that off the list.”
For instance, Karen may be into butt stuff... but that’s a shallow description of it. Even when she is having pretty standard doggy sex, it’s different because of the energy she brings to it. So when I write a sex scene with her, I’m less interested in “what hole do I fuck” and more interested in the setup, the conversations, and how the sex helps further define her as a person.

18. Do you tend to play Paradise Lust often? Not for proofreading, just for having fun, that is. Any favorite moments you like to revisit?

I should do more than I do, honestly... But the monthly build schedule is a pretty big monkey to have on your back, so I spend most of my time writing. When I do play, it’s usually some of the new stuff we’ve made recently, so I can remind myself what the mood/feel is like for that character before I write more content for them.

19. How has your experience been in the adult gaming industry so far? What are the biggest advantages and disadvantages you've come across so far?

I’ve been amazed at how welcoming, friendly, and supportive people are. I used to work in AAA games, and I can tell you some of those users are super toxic. But our fans are always really understanding and supportive of what we’re doing. They beta test our builds, they make suggestions, hang out in our discord... It’s really a pretty nice community.

20. Do you play adult games often? If so, which ones are your favorites currently?

I try to keep track of new and interesting games; most recently Pale Carnations and Our Red String. I really enjoyed What a Legend, and went back to play after their recent update.

21. What is/are your advice(s) for the new developers that are just starting out with their games?

Start small. Everything takes several times longer than you think they do, and the lessons of bringing something out there, completing it and getting feedback is invaluable. Once you’ve completed one or two games you can always expand the scope, knowing what you now know about the tasks involved.

22. What game would you like to see as our Game of the month?

So many good ones to choose from... Hard to say. Honestly, something I don’t know anything about. I’d love to see the GotM a place where we can learn about smaller games that really deserve more press than they are getting, that I wouldn’t have found on my own.

23. Have anything to say to the members of Spicygaming? Now is your chance :blush:

Thank you SO much for your support, and help support Spicygaming! We need safe places to buy and sell adult games, find new games, and see legit reviews of quality content. And for that to happen, we need to support not just the devs, but the media organizations that are supporting the devs.

PARADISE LUST IS FREE TO PLAY, BUY AND SUPPORT ON SPICYGAMING!

Try it and if you like it, buy or support it. Throw a token their way and earn a place in paradise.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE DEVELOPERS IN OTHER INTERVIEWS WE DID