Stories let us experience lives beyond our own.

They take us on a journey from which we may return not quite the same person we were before.

Therefore, media does more than just mirroring culture.

WHAT A GAME OR STORY REWARDS, ROMANTICIZES, OR NORMALIZES, IT ALSO HELPS REPRODUCE.

Many adult games risk treating queerness as exotic fetish, bodies as objects and sexual access as a reward.

We from Rhycicle Studios aim to do things differently!

Our aim is to strengthen LGBTQIA+ visibility and create digital safer spaces for queer experiences.

Beyond this, our visual novels can also be understood as thought experiments: attempts to explore how adult games can represent intimacy, freedom, and queerness differently, without reproducing harmful stereotypes, power structures, or patterns of objectification.

These convictions shape the way we design our games are reflected in our design principles.

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

The characters we design for our visual novels are meant to have depth, agency, and boundaries of their own rather than simply exist to serve the player. They tell stories and open up new perspectives. These principles guide how we write and represent them.

QUEERNESS WITHOUT FETISHIZATION

Queer people are part of everyday life – not exotic, not a fetish.

CONSENT IS ESSENTIAL

Consent keeps intimacy meaningful. It must be freely given, explicit, specific, and ongoing.

PEOPLE, NOT TROPHIES

Characters have their own desires, boundaries, and stories to tell. They are not rewards to unlock or trophies to collect.

EROTICISM BEYOND THE MALE GAZE

Eroticism can be beautiful, diverse, and mutual without reducing bodies to objects.

TOXICITY IS NOT COOL

Manipulation, entitlement, and toxic behaviour are neither romanticized nor rewarded.

VISIBILITY IS NOT AVAILABILITY

Being visible, desired, or represented never implies availability or consent.