Let's brainstorm!

I like the idea B. Just a sandbox is not enough for me. I need a good story (even if the scenario is simple) to help me fantasize. I also like female protagonist as long is there is no only one choice in their sexuality (slut or saint) I 'am sure you can add love points in a way. The movie producer is just perfect. Iwil not repeat the same thing but i'm totally agree with the explanation of TOKA.

On the other hand, why not combine both ideas and make it a game abaout a dirty hollywood producer who wants to hire some fresh newcomer actresses (or former child-celebs, just turning 18) for his adult-erotic-thriller-movies, but the girls are so pure and innocent, comming fresh out of hosting the disney club or starring in kids-movies and now want to start a more serious movie career. So he hires a ruthless hacker dude (the player) to stalk and spy on them, find theire weaknesses and use them to influence them into lewd things (enter your plot device of choice her) and corrupt them until they are willing to act in the producers movies.

TOKA_浪人

I kind of like the sound of Idea A

PTha

Option A with an intense OMG fervor. That hits such buttons with me and is definitely behind my pledge.

Buster4MC

I know the Idea A screams 'mind control'. I think it more like the way we play Jennifer in the 'Lost and Found' quest in HnS2 but without the character being knowingfully influenced (what may be seen as mind control anyway). I thought it as an "excuse" to play as a female character. I like games with a female MC like in 'Good Girl Gone Bad', but we end up detached from the character, kind of just mind controlling her anyway. Well, at least is what I think what happens with a presumed straight white male audience (my dream is seeing Anita Sarkeesian review my games) Yeah. I also think there is space for new mechanics and new PoVs in idea B. I think mini-games are cool, but they took a lot of time that could be spent with these ideas. Lesson learned !

The Architect

Option B gets my vote

Balvenie1401

Uhm..Idea A isn't bad at all: potentially it can have a lot of variability and intricacy; being able to use multiple characters means you are more free creativity wise (aren't forced to a single male PoV) and you can build a much bigger game (if you so desire); you can test a new (darker) setting and provide us with a new one. These are all positives both for you and us. The only downside/challenge here is that it feels like mind control (and some people don't like it, as you can see with the "votes" in the comments:)). Potential solution to the last point: forget about mind control, and think about devices able to spy our "subjects" everywhere. You will simply switch the "mind control" from the device to the players (deciding how to roleplay each character, that will have their personality but will change it depending on the path we choose for them), and the darkweb guy/gal will be strictly limited on how they can tamper with their subject (because they have a code, right?), for example just sending a single photo/text a day. This way you will have a little voyeur vibe (that pretty much everyone likes), you'll still have a darker setting, you'll still be able to let us play from different PoV and still have a game with a bigger scope. It will be difficult to manage though, so plan a lot ahead. Idea B is good as well but as you know it will be a more of the same. Which isn't necessarily bad but you (and us) won't explore alternatives. Potential partial solution for the point above: forget about the hack&stalk and let us play from the actress PoV. (PS: I'm going to try the Tech demo right now)

Enrico

Hm I think you might be about to fall into a trap. Let me explain. Originally this was mainly an aither or, now you are trying to combine the ideas. This is not necessarily a bad thing but it can become bad very quickly. As both design elements might clash. I also was under the impression that you would like to try something new. My suggestion is create the Sandbox gameloop and focus on that until its fun by itself, then you can incorprate that into a story if you like. By going for something that has both elements from the beginning it might also be harder to have the game speak for itself until much later in development, which I think is not a great idea for a Patreon project. Now admittably I am always for more sandboxy, customizable and thus ultimately more replayable games. Not because I dislike story based game, I AM here after all^^, but its just my preference and it allows me to more adapt the game to my likes. So from your suggestion I am much more for Idea B. I actually quite like the lookalike idea. And lets me say what I would expect and hope for from such a game: I would think the game resolves around three parts. One part getting to know people, second part convincing the actresses, third part planning the video. Part one should be quite simple, maybe about making connections and be successful to unlock characters. Part two should be a little more involved and end up with max two or three scenes between the Mc and the character. (Mainly to seal the deal, or taking advantage or something along those lines.I Part three should be the meat of the game and it should actually be quite stat focussed. As a player I decide what scenes should be filmed, scenes tha can be unlocked through progress. But how well the actress performs is stat based. They should outrigh trefuse to do certain things until their experience/stats are high enough. And then the players is treated to images and maybe even animations of that film. (That at least is what came to my mind when I read your idea) Obvious problems: Whats the dream celebrity to some people is completely uninteresting to others. You need to be able to create many variations for the same scene. Depending on Male/Female partner andalso the stats. It should be obvious from the imagery that the character dislikes or likes is skilled or unskilled in that specific act. But if we, or better you, go that route, why not go all the way? Make it a Hollywood brothel manager. Most characters, that can be created/customized by the player, are not celebrities but rather want to become one. Celebs should be special characters with unique art and specific storylines. I actually quite enjoy another Patreon Project "Zum Damenhaus" which does a lot of things right for a sandbox game which is quite rare. I imagine something that would go in that direction gameplaywise. Hell a coop between you two creators might be a dream project for me^^ The thing is I think such a game might actually be relatively nice to develop. You only need to create the basic gameplay loop, the customzation and such and once that all works you can just add content and storylines. I would actually be willing to contribute, I cannot program neither can I do art but I can design gameplay systems (on paper) in fact I have created quite a few games myself (on paper). If you like I can expand a little bit on my idea and why I think that might be the best compromise while giving you the opportunity to start out with this project and not worry much about storylines and linear progression.

erni

I really like the sound of both ideas, espescially B! Maybe the option for character customization could be implemented in form of casting calls and so on, if it wouldn't be a huge hassle to render everything and so on (which I suspect it would). Celeb look-a-likes would be awesome as well. To build a little on what TOKA suggested, having some elements from business-management games, for example income from movies, increasing the fame level of the girls in order to get more income, being able to buy items to increase stats such as slutiness which will open them up to doing more things in the movies and so on could make for a really fun gameplay experience too.

Smileyfaceguy

I like the sound of Idea B. Celeb lookalikes would be great 👌🏽 I honestly prefer the DICK system though. Btw I loved HnS2! I replayed it multiple times to unlock all scenes. Keep up the great work! 👍🏽

Hmm, okay I share something I thought about over the last weeks. Its not really directly connected to your games, but more about Sex-Games in generell and the connection between western and japanese Sex-Games. For me there is a divide between Dating-Sims-Style Games and Trainer-Sim-Style-Games. Dating-Sims are the "pure" games where you spend the whole game to win over you girls so until you come to the great finale and have sex with them. These games are all about the build-up and getting teased all the way until you finally get the sex. (really good for making money on patreon too!) Trasiner-Sims are the "dark" games, where you get your girls immediatly at the start and than just continue to corrupt them more an more, getting them into more and more perverted sex-stuff. I myself always preferred the second one. Combine this style of game with a little side-gameplay like Managemend-Sim (Custom Reido, Custom Girlfriend, Custom Maid) or even Tower Defense (Custom Reido 4) or even Strategy (Daiteikoku, Rance) and you have the top of the cream in Sex-Games for me. You have a gameplay that is simply fun and you can play for hours and you have tons of sex to which you can fapp to countless times. One more game, that sadly only had the first point and lacks the good sex is WET - The sexy empire. But its theme somehow matches up with your idea for a movie-studio-game. Honestly, my dream would be to get a western Training-Sim that could compete with the japanese one in quality and quantety. For your ideas, I like the second one with the movie. Making it a kind of parody game with characters close to real life actresses would be really hot. Also I like the idea to give them some kind of "private acting lessons". Only thing i do not like about it, is that it more sounds like a Dating-Sim style of game, where sex with the girls would be the final stage. But since we are still on Patreon I should not have hopes for dark stuff anyways. Really, having all ths japanese Eroge just messed me up too much. Do you know this fantastic South Park Episode where they lost the Internet? Its just soooo true, if you get your self to the point where you experienced all this heavy Eroge-Sex, you never will be able to just go back to that western Hustler-style-porn and feel the same sensation. xD

TOKA_浪人

Continuing on with that idea into gameplay their could be a light or dark ending. The difference being whether the player chooses to get to know the girls they're corrupting and in turn their MC being influenced by their dreams and desires or the player could choose to keep their distance and treat them like dolls to be played with. The best part though is that this wouldn't be a choice of romance vs. kinky sex (which what happens to a lot of porn games) instead the player would simply choose whether they want any romance at all in their game with both endings leading to kinky sex.

Alexandar04

Also IDEA A doesn't have to be darker. Honestly it kinda annoys me that we automatically associate someone becoming more sexy/slutty as being a bad thing. If you really want to challenge yourself perhaps the MC for IDEA A also gets influenced by the girls he's corrupting (I'll use the superhero idea as an example). The MC could start out as just a mad villain/someone who's only doing this for a paycheck or because he's selfish however as he works to mold his harem/heroine into his ideal slutty girlfriend/s they in turn influence him into being a better person someone who comes to respect the hero ideology and even be willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good by the end of the game. Because that's what a relationship is all about, not just one side changing the other but all parties influencing each other to create a greater whole.

Alexandar04

So the problem I see with IDEA A is the lack of a greater theme/selling point. Mind control games like that typically tend to be incest driven (with one own's family as the main target) but I'm not sure if that's something you want to include let alone the annoyance of getting around patreon with that. However what I can also see working for a theme is superheroes (mind control powers after all). They could be based on comic book heroes or you can just make them up.

Alexandar04

So I'll write a full review of HnS 2 later (still replaying the game O.o) but you don't have to worry about character development. What you did in HnS 2 was perfect, any more and you run the risk of making us care TOO much about the girls (aka we'd feel guilty about the darker part of the fantasy). Large character development is normally reserved for more romance oriented games.

Alexandar04

I liked your the first HnS game and would like to see a continuation where the MC continues to corrupt and control the girl but this time also her sister and mother. And perhaps with the use of more plot devices like the pheromone pills.