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I am curious. When playing an Otome game, how soon do you think it should take to be locked into a "path"? I know it can be annoying to run into a bunch of guys that you aren't really interested in when you want to romance a certain guy or gal. What do you guys think? I am trying to structure my game and it would be super helpful.

Also: The game will be pretty lengthy, I am aiming for at least 100k words (though likely much more).

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From TVTropes' discussion on boys' romance comics versus girls' romance comics: "Shonen romances take the boy's perspective... and focus on the boy pursuing the girl, or trying to resolve the Love Dodecahedron. If it doesn't have that, a Shonen romance tends to end with a declaration of love and its acceptance. Shoujo romances, by contrast, frequently involve the heroine finding love early in the series, then stick around to watch the couple work through trouble in their relationship." There is no requirement that you must, or should, follow this pattern. You can go against your audience's expectations, such as surprising them by making them wait.

If your story is focused on the drama of love triangles and unresolved relationship conflicts, then it would make sense to wait a while before the main character girl has to choose between boys A, B, and/or C. If your story is more focused on the individual relationships, then you might benefit by letting your main character girl make her decision relatively early.

It depends on the timeline of your story. 1/2 of the game sounds good. Enough time to play the field and get to know everyone, and enough time for the relationship problems and commitment perks to brew. Of course, it depends on your story's pattern too. If your goal is to get a guy and there's absolutely nothing after that, you might want to make it earlier so you can have more exclusive date scenes. Things like having him over for Christmas, or something boyfriend-exclusive-ish.

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Deviantart | Sketchy Tumblr |

I think it depends on what you are going for, what your story is, how long the game is, etc. In my opinion:

For a game slowly focused on dating I think it should be closer to the beginning than a story line game, while a story line game should have potential scenes for each while not locking you into the route of one person until later (unless you want each story to be drastically different). Longer games should have a longer wait, to me, and shorter games a shorter wait.

I also think the two posts above me have rather good points.

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It depends on if your game is purely otome or not. I believe it should take some time to get on a perticular path, but I'm writing a fantasy involving politics. If there's a story except all this love, it can get longer, mostly because the obtainable guys would be somehow involved in the plot and they would just have to meet the player whenever she wants it or not.
But the most important is that it would seem natural. If you meet a guy three times you won't fall in love with him. It's also kind of irritating when after getting on one path you meet one guy the entire time and on other it's the other guy everyday. If on the second day I accidently meet Bob on the corridor it's annoying that during other path I meet James exactly the same place exactly the same time I get annoyed. I guess it's okay to meet someone as much as you can and get on his route as fast as you can as long as it seems natural.

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The Cave - fantasy otome in progress

First thing first: TV Tropes' assessment these days is hardly trustworthy, at least when you're trying to go for something original. I might be slightly biased there, but it's better to err on the safe side.

Now, the point I want to bring forward is that otome games are, broadly speaking, an art. And as far as art goes, details like the OP's question is essentially answered by a "Depends". Ultimately, the question you would like to ask is "Would route-splitting a thousand words earlier or later at all enhance my story structure, improve the pacing, give more room for character development or otherwise positively impact on the whole novel as a whole?"

It's not an easy question to answer - in fact, this is a highly subjective question and varies on a case-by-case basis. But it is your game. Your story. You decide. Other people can't really give an accurate and helpful opinion unless they've understood what you ant to do, and even then they should be taken with a grain of salt.

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One Province Minor - 120 class variables and still counting!

Because there is no such thing as too many variables.

I haven't played a huge amount of VNs (not as many as I would like), but I do believe I like choosing my path pretty early on. Give me one chapter or so (make it lengthy though) to get to know the characters and from there, let me get to what I really want to do. This is a really simplistic view of it though and I'm sure my opinion could change depending on the game.