There are few kinks quite as popular online as hypnosis.
Erotic hypnosis, or hypnokink, involves sexual and/or erotic gratification from undergoing hypnosis. Gaming seems to transfer pretty well to the kink; is there a better way to enter a trance state than repeating the same few tasks over and over again?
Nyx Gaming, a hypnosis game development team, seems to agree. Founded in late December, Nyx Gaming is part kinky development studio and part hypnokink performance art created from “a few queer game devs discussing their shared interest in hypnokink, erotic videogames, and making bad sex jokes online.”
“To be frank, we think that games are so suited for hypnokink content that we were shocked that so few other games have tried to explore it like this,” one game developer, Nyx Gaming Priestess Nebula-06, told the Daily Dot. “Everyone we talk to about this project suggests fun ways to incorporate hypnosis into games, from [role-playing games] that corrupt the player, to games that use the player as a mechanic instead of as the controller.”
The group’s first three games combine hypnotic trances with gaming concepts and themes, from a sadistic arcade game to a femdom aim trainer for first-person shooters.
The latter, called Gamer Training, tasks players with reflex-based target practice in a 3D pink holographic cube. As the training continues, a femdom narrator guides the player’s breathing, takes them through three separate gaming role-play sessions, and uses their trance state to control the player’s behavior and posture. Keep shooting, and Gamer Training will praise your skills dominating on the battlefield as the “good gamer” and “hypnoslut” you are.
Meanwhile, Psychic Damage combines hypnotic sadism with traditional hypno spirals to put “masochism back in the masocore genre.” “Masocore” is a genre of games that are purposefully frustrating and extremely challenging. True to name, Psychic Damage puts players in a trance stance as they try (and, more often than not, fail) to place purple triangles in a white circle while keeping out red boxes.
Prior to play, Psychic Damage’s training segment trances the player into a hypnotic state that imprints pain and trance induction suggestions through red and purple “sigils” placed onscreen, respectively. The end result is a game that’s not just challenging but sadomasochistically enthralling. Put a red box into the circle, and you’ll feel real pain. Hit a purple triangle, and you’ll fall deeper into your trance state like a good, obedient pet.
Both games introduce new ways of thinking about video gaming as a space to induce hypnosis erotically, whether through explicitly adult themes or hypnotic gameplay mechanics that imprint new ideas onto the eager, willing player.
“The intersection between BDSM and game design is stronger than you might think,” another developer, Nyx Gaming Priestess Null-03, told the Daily Dot. “The base reward/punishment structure of arcade games is already an engaging dynamic; tying it to hypnotic pleasure and pain suggestions in Psychic Damage seemed like the logical next step. Similarly, as Gamer Training hints, there is a great deal of overlap between the psychological states of game flow and hypnotic trance. While the two aren’t quite the same state, it’s very easy to use one to induce the other.”
Nyx Gaming isn’t the only game developer exploring the relationship between gaming and hypnosis. Nowthatsstrategy’s Dropitz Deluxe uses rhythmic gameplay with flashing imagery to enact players into a trance state, and Vinyl Dragon’s Hypnoscreen offers player-mediated hypnosis through direct input with the mouse or spacebar.
Minty_da takes the concept one step further with the retro Super/Minigame Collection, which places players into a series of kinky hypnotic video games where the player’s identity is gradually (and temporarily) lost through the Dominant hypnotizer’s insistence. In one segment, the player is gradually entered into a trance state with the traditional (if not stereotypical) swinging pocketwatch. Priestess Nebula-06 calls Super/Minigame Collection “a major inspiration for us.”
Other games may not intentionally erotically hypnotize players but accomplish similar effects. SoundSelf: A Technodelic is a virtual reality mindfulness project hailed by hypnokinksters as “incredibly fetishistic,” even if unintentional on the developers’ part.
Hypnotic game development is a serious undertaking. Nyx Gaming develops all of its games with careful consideration for players’ mental safety. Each project is “tested as much as possible” and implements content warnings “so players know exactly what they’re getting into,” the developer says.
For Nyx Gaming, games’ interactivity isn’t a gimmick; it’s a place where hypnotizers and their hypnosluts can come together and build some truly immersive erotic play. That means balancing out sexy fantasies with strong boundaries. Players can say no at any time and leave if they need to, or they can go deeper into their trance.
Players are responding positively to what Nyx Gaming creates.
“Soon,” Priestess Nebula-06 said. “Nyx Gaming shall either succeed at our secret goal of taking over all online leaderboards with our army of dedicated hypnosluts, or just keep making fun kink content. One or the other, we haven’t decided yet.”
