Sexual adventures on computers and game consoles have traditionally been aimed at male pleasure. The levels in Mystique’s Custer’s Revenge for the Atari 2600 were won when the man finished. Still, years later, the aim of Leisure Suit Larry was to bed as many women as possible. Titles under the guise of women themes, such as the lesbian-centric Fear Effect 2: Retro Helix, were less about female expression and more projections of men’s sexual fantasies regarding same-sex relationships. Women have usually been nothing more than props amongst hidden coins and power-up mushrooms.
Our lopsided history is what makes Lapis such a groundbreaking invention. Created by Ubisoft Game Designer Heather Kelley, Lapis begins with a cute bunny rabbit sitting in the middle of a grassy field. Players use the Nintendo DS touch screen to excite the rabbit, traveling higher into the big blue sky as they consistently rub. It symbolizes the rhythms of female stimulation.
Lapis is not a real game on the Nintendo DS, but, as Kelley says, “It is more of an experiment.” However, from the number of emails asking her to complete Lapis, she has obviously tapped into something.
We talked to Kelley about her game project.
Q: WHAT DO YOU DO AT UBISOFT?
I’m a game designer. My most recent project was level designer for Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. Before that I did Thief: Deadly Shadows with Ion Storm. I’ve spent eight years in the industry.
Q: WOULD YOU BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE LAPIS TITLE?
It’s actually not a title. Inside the industry, calling it a title would imply that it was going to be released. It is more of an experiment, an art project, or a creative expression.
Lapis is a game concept, kind of a prototype/demo, for a Nintendo DS system. It was created for a contest called The Game Design Challenge in Montreal – the object was to create a game idea around the concept of sex. Lapis was my answer to the challenge.
The game itself has a cute animal character – in the prototype it ended up being a bunny – that represents not a literal, but symbolic view of the female areas of pleasure. By playing the game you are sort of simulating the things that might make a female feel pleasure and succeed when you achieve that.
The idea is not to be pornographic in any sense, but to use sexual pleasure as a metaphor for magical freedom and flight, things much more about the imaginations, not looking at naked bodies or anything about that. It is about sex, but not overtly sexual.
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