In-Game Time Frame for a Dating Sim?

[RosyInk27]

Hi everyone! New member here and very recently introduced to visual novels. I'm writing a G x G Dating Sim with an affection points based system, but I realized halfway through my outline that I had no idea how much time I wanted to give the players to nab their love interest.

The way I planned the game was that all throughout the vn, there will be events at certain, context-sensitive points in the timeline that will either lower or raise the points of different love interests. If you get at or above the final specific level of affection points you need to gain her affection by the end of the time frame, you get a good ending but if you can max out that love interest's affection points meter by that same time frame, you get an extra-good special ending.

I truthfully haven't played any dating sims, so what are your thoughts on the matter? Would it be fair give them three in-game months? An in-game year sectioned off into weeks a la Long Live the Queen? How long is too long to drag out a courting period and how short is too short to develop it?

[Holland]

Doesn't this depend on how much can be done each day? We don't know how your game is structured or how far each day will go.
Let's say you have:

1) A max love meter of 200 points.
2) One conversation with each character per day.
3) Up to 5 points earned with each interaction.

That means you'll need a minimum of 40 days, but that would be unrealistic since the player would have to have a perfect response to everything. Plus taking into account possible points loss if they botch it, it may be best to give at least another twenty days. It's now 60 days.

But if your game is set up so that there's only one event every few days (like below), then you'll need a lot more time.

1) A max love meter of 200 points.
2) One event with each character per week.
3) Up to 5 points earned with each interaction.

Now, you suddenly need 280 days to get the perfect score, but more realistically a twelve to sixteen months to count for expected mess ups. That little set up has a major impact. Plus adding in cushion days after possible major point losses and accounting for timeskips.

If you're worried that the game is going to drag on too long before the relationship is official but want to have a lot of content from now to then, maybe you should try love tiers? Say there are four tiers. Maybe you start anywhere between 0-50 depending on the character.

50 Points - Friend Tier
100 Points - Crush Tier
150 Points - Confession Tier
200 Points - Dating Tier

Something like that would give you a chance to develop their relationships a bit more earlier on and bring in conflict with other characters who have also raised tiers. It'll make up for a longer courting period and hopefully gain the patience of the readers. I don't think any time is too long or too short so long as there is enough content between it to keep the reader interested and at the same pace.

[ark99k]

Typically these games take place during a month (30 days), but I feel like that isn't really enough time to get to know the characters. I prefer a year, but that's a lot to ask for if making a free game. I recommend a 60 day (2 months) timeframe giving events only once a week. I feel like less is very rushed unless the mc already knew the cast pretty well.

[RosyInk27]

BarabiSama, thank you so much! Seeing the typical layout broken down like this is a huge help! I truthfully don't know how to properly organize the game (and since it's only the seed of a plot/concept, I'm still struggling with this aspect) but I was thinking of structuring the romances with tiers before you actually put a name to the concept.

[Holland]

Rosy, no problem! I'm glad to hear it's helping. And to be honest, I'm not sure if that's the "technical" name for the idea, but I've always called them tiers. It's just an easy way to refer to it.

Good luck~

[hiko27]

Pretty much what Barabisama said, and surprisingly, that's what I had for my game. You should try out some games with those types of systems, like Love Revo or the POT Girls Be Gracious! one. A non-otome game with that system would be Persona 3/4. I do believe all four of these games work on a day-to-day basis (I'm pretty sure about P3/4), but as you mentioned, you can do weekly like Long Live The Queen. If you can play Japanese games, I suggest True Fortune for the PS2. That's mostly where my game was inspired, since it was the second otome game I've played (Hiiro no Kakera was first, which was shitty as hell ugh).

What I have for otoge-Real! is that there are four levels: (these are all temporary though since I still have to take into account the jealousy/threesome endings, as well as the VN making feature, and whether or not I want to keep some of these features)

Total days: 245 days, including 10 special events, before the decision point (which I decided to be Valentine's Day, technically the last day for the player to try and get more affection points); weekdays/saturdays, 2 times (lunch and after school); sunday, 1 time (date, or work on game)
Level 0: Acquaintance - 0 points
Level 1: Friends - 105 points
Level 2: Infatuated - 160 points
Level 3: In love - 280 points
Level 4: 100% - 350+ points

You also have to figure out how many points you'll assign to each response, and for the event choices as well. That, and also how many things can you even do in one day, as well as other features to the game (ie. for mine, you can get a part-time job, work, buy things, or work on your game, which will include research, doing the art, writing, coding, or maybe recruiting people to help you work on the game). Also, are you going to be putting in negative points for some of the responses? Take that into account as well ofc. The tentative level point requirements above are high because I assigned a lot of points for each response, as well as negative points for some (because I'm a sadist at heart and I want to make people work hard for the guys lol jk). And as I mentioned, jealousy/threesome endings, gotta take those into account as well because those types of endings will need twice as much as with just one guy.