Second chance on critical choices?
Added 2024-08-15 18:00:07 +0000 UTCHey there everyone,
I hope you're all doing great! A topic recently came up that I wanted to get your opinion on:
Would you like to have second chances to stay on any girl's path?
Examples:
If you don't look through the hole in Chapter 1, you miss out on Amber/Alice content. That's why I made Amber appear randomly during the mall scene to give you a second chance.
When you tell Claire in Chapter 2 that you don't want private tutoring, you essentially lose her path. So, in Chapter 3, I plan to give you a second chance, where she asks you again (in a reasonable way, not just out of the blue) if you've reconsidered getting private tutoring with her.
I never intended to "disrespect" the player's choices (as someone called it), but rather to ensure that important decisions get a second chance.
What do you guys think?
Comments
And welcome the biggest conundrum of the century π
Cyber
2024-08-22 11:40:08 +0000 UTCIf you figured it out, tell me :D Can't just switch the male MC to a female one without changing the LIs to male ones, I guess.
DebatingPanda
2024-08-22 08:31:52 +0000 UTCTHAT is the part I'm trying to figure out, how a girl can be an MC without feeling on the nose or the typical futa routes that other devs think of. I think there's an untapped potential there, to find some story line where you can start as either the man or woman MC and maybe the other MC can be your rival or partner in crime etc (think of Pokemon male/female MC being the player vs their rival/friend)... i actually dont know the answer to that, all i have is anecdotes from girls that WANT to play lewd games, but can't find many titles that fit their explorations because they either turn into some Vampire diaries bs or romcom , lack substance, or straight up have to play a male/futa MC just to explore themselves lol.
Cyber
2024-08-21 19:01:56 +0000 UTCSandbox or open world games have their own advantages and disadvantages :D "Social feminist cancel culture card" so basically if a girl loves the mc, she agrees to be a part of a larger harem? I mean, how else do you want to develop it in a plausible way? :/
DebatingPanda
2024-08-21 14:08:19 +0000 UTCMaybe it's the new fetish local SM? But yeah that's more "open world". I think there was maybe lust theory that had a clear coverage of character plot lines that intertwine. Been a while π. That's like 17 games ago lol. I wanna eventually learn to build my own RenPy game like this because I know from my girl friend that she was telling me that there isn't enough women\diverse lead story lines. It's almost always a male protagonist harem and the female lead ones are usually too boring or trying to play the social feminist cancel culture card that she hates because she believes that expressing your sexuality in a safe environment is all about trust and communication and good intentions both ways. And she doesn't see that in games unless she's pretending to be a guy π
Cyber
2024-08-20 23:02:32 +0000 UTCYes, that's a very very bad thing to say xD. Which game was it? I think of something like Detroid Become Human, were you see your route compared to others at the end of a level. But that's way to much effort for a single dev, since I don't branch that much.
DebatingPanda
2024-08-20 22:14:44 +0000 UTCLol why do i feel like i just said the wrong name in bed LOL. Actualyl that positive and negative relatiosnhip points is what my brain was thinking about, but i think i added a bit extra from another game where it tells you like a meta-gaming report card OUTSIDE of the game itself (in gallery or separate entry) so that you can see where you could have made different decisions to pick up those extra points or change story lines... I remmeber liking that idea because it didnt break the immersion of the first playthrough, but made it easier to troubleshoot for "Completionists/fomo" for 2nd playthroughs. and replayability!
Cyber
2024-08-19 20:11:25 +0000 UTCHmm, that doesn't fully sound like my game. I have a progress bar which shows positive or negative relationship points, that's basically it :D
DebatingPanda
2024-08-19 14:16:50 +0000 UTCHahahaha I play so many different games but i can't remember if you're the game that has the "progress" bar on relationships and it shows that out of Y potential interactions (positive/negative/neutral), you did X points towards that person. If that's you, then I really like that because i get to experience the game as is , but then i can take a pause to break the 4th wall and then go loop back and experience other paths and cement my choices before Day++ moves along.
Cyber
2024-08-19 02:16:05 +0000 UTCGood thing I blur the thumbnails to avoid spoilers :D. The sexbot actually was pretty decent, a sex scene without the usual cast, which wouldn't make much sense at that point and also showing off how the world is built. Not sure if I want to open closed paths again once they're closed. When even full-time devs don't offer such option, I wouldn't want to even think about them. People will just complain about the time it takes to make the chapters vs. the content they see, when they are still on the path and I have entire scenes to naturally open a lost path again.
DebatingPanda
2024-08-17 09:26:35 +0000 UTCfair enough the heads up for non-mod experience. One thing i learned is that i usually take a sneak peak at the unlockables in the gallery if i see some thumbnails not unlocked and i skipped a few, i take a step back and be like "what did i miss, you sneaky little questonaire, you." lol.. also yeah i did notice the thing with the sexbox, thank you for that! She was actually interesting not just from lewdness but the lore behind what's happening in the world and the agencies... i feel like that information there is important for world building too, not just the lewd sexbot scene. also , thank you for reading my ADHD ramblings, i appreciate it, hope that the compromise between "immersive gameplay" and "more gameplay" is ironed out seemlessly one day lol for me i think that doing a flashback or "imagination" of "What could have been" and blending it with active memories, can hide the fact that a path was closed, and still present itself as an option for the MC to say "ya know, been thinking about this person a lot lately... am i feeling like i should check on them or am i just suppressing things that annoyed me? lol"
Cyber
2024-08-16 18:13:33 +0000 UTCI don't want to ruin the immersion by saying "Path A is lost if you don't choose this option!". This will only be shown if you play with the walkthrough mod :). But another example where I added a second chance was with the Sexbot, if you decline her first, you get asked again. This is how I handled it up to this point and it looks like I did the right thing here as people are voting for the second chances! You can obviously not tell if you like a girl from just seeing her, but I'll add multiple additions after important information got revealed to check what the player thinks about it. Thanks for the detailed comment! :D
DebatingPanda
2024-08-16 09:38:08 +0000 UTCPanda you already know where I stand about FOMO and completions, especially when you are offered contradicting options for content. I want to experience always "more" content and not lose out on content somewhere and have to guess and backtrack myself in a game of whack-a-mole trying to guess what choice broke the path. So if a path is critical, A- it should say "this will end X person's path until further notice" , and B- definitely should offer the opportunity to rekindle something. I've had multiple occasions where I'm interested in a character more at first because their character was originally upfronted in content and intrigue or taboo etc, compared to another character who's been a bit of a background character or even a turn off at first. Only to then start liking the other character more and more and regret not taking that path. The best example I can give for all you likeminded degenerates out there is Min's path in Fetish Locator (stop reading if you mind day 1 spoilers for that game). When I first met her in the university doing silly things and going by the name of squizzle, I thought she was just one of those "mean girls / popular rich brat with no personality that just stirs up drama and doesnt care about anything." I think I was flipping a coin back then to see if i should just not bother with that quest vs another quest that seemed more alluring at the time because of diffferent types of interests or kinks etc..., but fomo got the best of me and I said why not, and while her path is batshit crazy at first, I didn't stick on path for the gamified kinks, but i stayed accidentally on her path because she felt the most real out of all the people there and her secret backstory broke my heart. I accidentally ended up in her ending without even noticing that I strayed from the main story line, and seeing her ending made me 100% sure that I did not regret that ending at all, and in fact, even after completing every ending out there, that ending still is my favorite ending in terms of realistic gut punches and healthy relationship based on trust and transparency. THAT is something I would have never have experienced if i just missed that single quest at the beginning, so i'm glad I didn't back then... but it begs to question: how many other "Min"s did i miss out on in the past when playing different games without a walkthrough? So I definitely want chances to amend relationships, and even re-introduce content that was missed in chapter 1 with X person (that we didnt follow) and then reintroduce it in later chapters even if repackaged similarly, because again, I'm a completionist lol.
Cyber
2024-08-15 20:47:05 +0000 UTCYes, that's understandable and natural. I need to keep that in mind once the later stages of the game start, thanks for pointing it out! :)
DebatingPanda
2024-08-15 18:57:32 +0000 UTCI think that sometimes your opinion on a character can change throughout the game, so I'd like to be able to change my mind on someone later in the story if possible.
ChainZ
2024-08-15 18:10:41 +0000 UTC
