Wow, 13 bachelorettes? That’s a very, VERY high number. It’ll take a lot of determination to finish all of their paths. Especially if you make every choice count by creating separate paths every time one comes up.
Now I don’t want to hamper your spirits, but you might want to consider starting a little smaller. As the others already mentioned, it’s a lot more work to finish everything than you’d think. The game I’m making only has 4 obtainable characters and that’s already becoming pretty overwhelming. Just make sure you don’t bite of more than you can chew
Because it’d be a shame if you started working on the project and put a lot and time and effort into it, only to backdown halfway. It happens too often and it’s really a shame.
Though I see your point in wanting to have as many bachelorettes as possible because it can be a lot of fun. But ask yourself if it’s really necessary? Would the game suffer a lot of you cut the number in half? 6 or 7 is still a LOT of characters, but it’ll be easier to tackle than 13.
Just think that to finish one scene, you’ll probably end up re-writing it 3 times or so (I think that’s my average of re-writing scenes.) Now think how many scenes you want for each character. Multiply it by 3. And then by 13.
I bet that’s a pretty high number, ne?
Now don’t get me wrong. If you are the kind of person who can really buckle down and write several good paths for 13 characters, then by all means go ahead and knock yourself out! But just don’t underestimate the amount of work it’ll take. Because it really is A LOT.
That aside, your plan looks solid so far. One thing I would suggest is to add a "one true ending path" or rather, an unlockable path/paths that can only be viewed after you have played through everything. This has been done before in such games as the largely overrated, but still competent FSN as well as in Ever17.
This is what I plan to do as well; I think it's a good strategy a developer as it gives the player something a bit more tangible to strive for than simply "I saw all the endings!", CG's aside of course.
I’m personally not a fan of this tactic. It’s like the game maker is forcing me to play the game over and over again just to get that one true ending. Truth be told, I think it’s a rather cheap technique to make the player continuously play your game. I do realize it’s a tactic that’s used often and I do understand why you’d want to do it, as a way to reward the player for finding all the endings, I get that. And for the smaller games with 4 – 5 endings I’ve learned to cope with it. But for this game, one that’ll feature 20+ endings, I think it’s a definite NO. That’s just too much work just to get the ‘true’ ending. Besides, in a VN where all choices really count, wouldn’t creating a true ending kinda go against the principle? It’ll be like saying “Sure, you’re choices count and determine the fate of the MC. But secretly THIS is the way it’s supposed to go and all that you’ve done was just a way of spending time until you could play the REAL story!”
... >.> Not my cup of tea.
(sorry if I want a bit on a rant here, but true endings just annoy me in VN’s where your choices are supposed to determine the outcome of the story >.<)
That's a bad idea, not because of the concept, but because it's impossible to make. Imagine all 13 of your characters going to school, living at home, and then throw in a hypothetical shrine omatsuri festival and a trip to the a swimming pool some time in the story. That's already 52 character sprites you need to draw, without counting different poses or expressions. It's hopeless for one person. It's probably hopeless for even a team of five to seven people.
So your saying that a sprite just HAS to have 4 different outfits? O.o? Or that a VN can’t exist without the whole cast wearing school uniforms, going to the beach or attending traditional Japanese festivals? Because if that’s the point you’re making, then I wholeheartedly disagree. Not all VN’s take place in Japan nor do they all throw massive beach parties.
Yes, having multiple outfits for characters is cool, but by no means is it a necessity for your game to work. It’s just a matter of what you (the creator) finds more important. Creating a whole new character, or giving that existing character a swimsuit? I’m not saying that one choice is better than the other, because there both good in their own ways.
Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that a game can function just fine with 13 sprites where they all have just 1 outfit and 1 pose. It won’t be the most dynamic game, sure. But it’ll work just fine nonetheless.
