Need help structuring a slice-of-life/dating sim style VN

[koteosa]

So! I started writing a romance visual novel (GxG) set on a college campus complete with dorms. It's set in a fictional small town that is vaguely North American, but with a gothic-victorian flair to it, because I can. I've established the characters and the setting so far; there are four romanceable girls, and they (+the protag) all live together in a dorm room, with five seperate bedrooms.

The problem I'm facing is that I don't know what to do after I've introduced everyone and had them interact within the dorm. What happens next?? What do VNs in this type of setting (college/dorm/small town) usually do for a main route?? I've played VNs before (most of them BxB, and a handful of them GxG; I hate GxB/BxG so I avoid them like the plague) but none of them were in this setting, and they all had fairly involved plots to go off of. BUT I don't want a big plot, like I don't want the girls to become secret agents or magical girls or solve a murder mystery, I just want them to do everyday stuff, and, y'know. Date. But I don't want to go the route of "pick a girl and ask her on dates/shower her with presents/flirt with her lots" as I'd rather the relationships progress slower, starting with friendship and developing into something ~romantic~

I also don't know that I want to do stat raising as it complicates things, I'd rather it were a branching narrative with no, like... exploration and stat raising, just, your choices result in you winding up on certain routes, that sort of thing... But I don't know what to have everyone DO to have the protag choosing whose route to end up on... I imagine that on a girl's route the protag could actually focus on the girl and learn about her and spend time with her and that would probably be easier to figure out but, while the protag is "on her own", so to speak....... what do........... I do.............................. I'm completely clueless help

[gekiganwing]

The problem I'm facing is that I don't know what to do after I've introduced everyone and had them interact within the dorm. What happens next?? ... I don't want a big plot, like I don't want the girls to become secret agents or magical girls or solve a murder mystery, I just want them to do everyday stuff, and, y'know. Date. But I don't want to go the route of "pick a girl and ask her on dates/shower her with presents/flirt with her lots" as I'd rather the relationships progress slower, starting with friendship and developing into something ~romantic~

Good question. Consider the following:

1. Write a list of ideas and plot elements that you want to *avoid*. In other words, write down things such as "Characters investigate a hidden labyrinth" or "Characters get involved in a political campaign." This could help you think of ideas and plot elements that you will want to include.

2. Think of an interesting key scene or an interesting ending. What sort of major events would be appropriate for your story and characters? What do you want to build up to?

3. Consider the characters' backgrounds, motivations, and relationships. What have they done? What do they want to achieve? Who are their friends, family, teachers, and other acquaintances? Have they fallen in love before?

So! I started writing a romance visual novel (GxG) set on a college campus complete with dorms. It's set in a fictional small town that is vaguely North American, but with a gothic-victorian flair to it, because I can. I've established the characters and the setting so far; there are four romanceable girls, and they (+the protag) all live together in a dorm room, with five separate bedrooms.

Sometimes it's good to consider your setting. It sounds like the events will occur on a campus in (near?) a small town. Ask yourself questions such as...

* How long has the town existed? What events have occurred there?
* Think about what makes the town distinct. Consider its terrain, climate, and other factors.
* How long has the college existed? Does it have a history? How does it relate to the town?
* Is it a girls only college? If not, what is its male / female ratio?
* What does "Gothic - Victorian flair" mean in terms of your story? Does the story seem like it takes place in a vague past, or a world which is not meant to be realistic?

I also don't know that I want to do stat raising as it complicates things, I'd rather it were a branching narrative with no, like... exploration and stat raising, just, your choices result in you winding up on certain routes, that sort of thing...

If you do not want to include statistic management and simulation gameplay, then do not create it. If you want to create a small amount of gameplay (such as walking around campus / a town, or choosing locations on a map), that is also fine. Just make sure that you design only the story or interactive segments which you think are relevant, and which you enjoy.

[MoonByte]

Well, if you want normal slice of life, then why not look at it?
Naturally,as long as there's no holiday, everyone goes to school. May sound momotone, but it really isn't, stuff always happens.
There is always that teacher or classmate that's got it in for you. There is your best friend that runs up those two floors to the chemistry lab where you are to tell you about the shit their brother had been up to again.
False fire larms, tests, disgusting weather. Regarding the dorm, there could be power outages, water leaks (or no water at all), arguments with other tenants.

Sure, it is a bit difficult if keeping it natural, but in the worst case, look at soap operas and what they do.
Beverly Hills, Friends and such.
Think of your own life and what you found interesting, what spiced up your school life and wasn't a monster mecha fighting dinosaurs.
Maybe one of the girls has some private issues that influences everyone?
Maybe the MC has something?
I'm not talking about superpowers, more like needing regular medication, having a disruptive phobia, stuff like that. It can cause a bit of drama without making it unrealistic.

And though I admire your intent to work entirely with branches, I think that's gonna be extremely hard (unless you use at least variables to somehow check for interactions).
I work with Twine regulary and I'll never branch further than three paths and try to return to one regulary, simply because it is incredibly difficult to keep track (unless the other girls just get ignored and abandoned once the MC dates her dream lady and it's only matter of getting a good or bad ending with her).

[RotGtIE]

It sounds like you're at a crossroads in deciding how to initiate your route split. Two obvious methods come to mind: the omnibus method as seen in Kanon or Katawa Shoujo, or the fuck-it-just-keep-picking-the-heroine-you-want method seen in Da Capo or Majikoi.

In the former, you simply write a mostly linear path which takes the player through an introductory chapter which establishes the characters and setting, taking a lap around the possibilities for each route and offering a few small choices to the player until they can indicate which route they are most interested in through their choices. Each route can simply branch away from this main line, making "omnibus" a bit of a helpful descriptor, as the player is essentially on a bus tour through the plot until they get to the stop they want to depart on. This method is useful for keeping the player immersed and setting the expectation that the player will be making choices which will have consequences. If you plan to build your routes with choices in them, especially significant ones leading to good/true/bad endings, this might be how you want to kick off the route split.

On the other hand, you can grant the player some very obvious choices to simply pursue scenes involving desired heroines after the introductory chapter. Da Capo does this somewhat elegantly, I think, in that the player is presented with a map populated with the locations they can seek the next scene in, and which heroines are in what locations. Choices are sparse in the actual scenes themselves, so the player is really just choosing how they want to see the story develop in a more direct way. This works a little better for stories which are mostly kinetic, with very few or even no choices outside of "which heroine do you want the protagonist to pursue," as it helps set up the expectation in the player that they will not be expected to make important decisions in the middle of reading a scene, and when they are expected to make a decision, they will know exactly what that decision is and will result in.

If it's not the method of storytelling, but rather the content which is causing a hangup, I'd say it's time to do some worldbuilding. If you know a few things, or anything, about your setting or any of its characters, but not enough to flesh out a story, then you need to start asking some questions. Asking questions to yourself about your characters is like pulling on a loose thread, with the notable trait that you are the one who determines how that thread unravels. Some curiosities I have are regarding the gothic/victorian theme of the small town - what would cause a town to take on such a dated aesthetic? Is there some kind of tourism going on there? Perhaps there is an old castle in town and much of the town's business is centered around emphasizing that? The dorm situation strikes me as noteworthy as well, as all of the romanceable heroines and the protagonist somehow live in the same dorm - that's a pretty unusual selection, since people typically have to venture a little farther than their own dormitory for dating prospects. Is this significant in any way? Are there circumstances which put all of these people who might be attracted to each other in the same dorm all at once? Is this perhaps a statement about the protagonist, that she is most likely to search for romance only in the places which are the closest proximity to her? Is she a homebody?

Whatever you don't know about your story that would be relevant to its development, you need to be curious about. Start asking yourself things that you think the audience would wonder about when presented with what information you give them, and build from there. Storytelling is basically a back-and-forth between generating the audience's interest and satisfying their curiosities, so as long as you keep doing that, you shouldn't be able to go terribly wrong.

[koteosa]

Some curiosities I have are regarding the gothic/victorian theme of the small town - what would cause a town to take on such a dated aesthetic?

What does "Gothic - Victorian flair" mean in terms of your story? Does the story seem like it takes place in a vague past, or a world which is not meant to be realistic?

The entire world looks like this, not just the one town. It looks this way because I wanted it to and no one can stop me :P The world is fully modern otherwise.

The dorm situation strikes me as noteworthy as well, as all of the romanceable heroines and the protagonist somehow live in the same dorm - that's a pretty unusual selection, since people typically have to venture a little farther than their own dormitory for dating prospects. Is this significant in any way?

This choice was for two reasons:
1. I don't know much about meeting new people and generally can't form close relationships unless the people are close by and I see them nearly everyday; such as going to school and seeing them in class/at lunch, being in similar online social circles, living together, etc, in which it's still complicated for me to make new friends unless it's through other people or getting sat next to each other in class or, something. I don't leave the house much either, and when I do I keep to myself. I was thinking of making the protag someone who has trouble making friends to reflect all this and give her some sort of goal/motivations, like: Go make friends! Talk to the girls! Find one you like, do your best to befriend her, etc
2. I wanted to write domestic stuff; eating breakfast together, seeing the heroines early in the morning while everyone is still in their PJs, sleep overs, etc... Plus the girls have a lot of quirks that are much easier to find out about when they live with you.

And though I admire your intent to work entirely with branches, I think that's gonna be extremely hard (unless you use at least variables to somehow check for interactions).
I work with Twine regulary and I'll never branch further than three paths and try to return to one regulary, simply because it is incredibly difficult to keep track (unless the other girls just get ignored and abandoned once the MC dates her dream lady and it's only matter of getting a good or bad ending with her).

It sounds like you're at a crossroads in deciding how to initiate your route split.

This is what I planned on doing:

There would be more flags, major choices, and girls, but this is my format. In the main route, I don't want to branch off much at all; I just want certain scenes to play out SLIGHTLY differently, but activate a flag which counts towards what route you end up on. There would also be either a tiebreaker choice at the very end of the main route, or a bad end "you wound up sad and lonely :(((" BUT I kinda want to limit bad ends (or not have them altogther because I don't want to write them, BUT that depends on how things go, I might figure it out and do it anyway who knows).

My main problem that I was having was that I literally did not know what to have the protag do next. Should she go to class? But what happens there? Does she explore the town? But what happens there?? Does she hang out with all the girls more? But how, and what happens there??? Is it too soon or exactly on time to start pursuing someone, or should it happen differently? Etc... I was hoping there were tropes/cliches for this and I could just take one because I'm not taking this story very seriously, like most of it is made up on the spot/as I go along, so using tropes doesn't matter to me.

I'm now considering taking the route of having the protag deal with one or both of two problems along the main route/the entire story, perhaps:
1. Making friends, as she is in a new place with new people, and this is a very simple way to push her at one of the girls; for simplicity, I can make her an introvert who wants one close friend in preference to many close friends, which is why she will focus on one girl despite not wanting romance initially (but she will, eventually). I'd still like her to befriend everybody, as I like their antics when they all hang out, but routes will focus more on one girl for the most part
2. I established at the beginning of the story that the protag is dissatisfied with the college she wound up in because she thinks she deserves better (not in an entirely stuckup sort of way, just in a "I worked so hard and this is what I get...?" sort of way) and I feel like this should go somewhere, it'll probably be a part of the protag's development/backstory/personal story ?

Also: Thank you all for all your help thus far, it's put things in perspective and I think it'll be easier for me to progress !!

[Klawzie]

You seem to have a pretty strong idea of what you want and don't want for the game. That's really good and it'll help you out more than you feel like it is now. I feel that frustration of being on the cusp of a full fledged idea frequently.

My suggestions/thoughts - and obviously, I don't expect this is what you necessarily want to do, but might get you thinking in the right direction.

Why is your homebody MC at the school? I wrote a few lines here before looking at your post again and seeing that it seems like she couldn't get into a college she wanted - but why is that? Were her first choices better colleges closer to home that she could have commuted to? Or did she specifically need a school she could live on campus for so she didn't have to commute and could just walk? Was she encouraged to get out of the house by someone else or did is she ambitious enough that she was willing to go somewhere further away if it suited her needs?

I don't think she necessarily has to be shown going to classes unless you think there's something interesting that can happen in them. All your examples of things you really want to do seem to be more homey slice of life stuff, which could lead to some really cute/wonderful interactions that I personally don't see much. You could easily set this story as happening before classes start and have your MC get used to the dorm and a daily routine with people she isn't familiar with. Or, alternately, perhaps these girls are the ones who stayed behind at the dorm over some holidays (you can even make one up - it's your world) that everyone else has gone home for. Now you have a reason for it to only be these girls there and a reason why they're suddenly interacting instead of a more communal situation of going to the cafeteria and blending in with the others... the cafeteria is closed for the holidays and they have to make-do with the dorm kitchen. Now she gets to know these girls she's seen in passing over the first few months of college and never took the time to get to know.

A lot of the things your characters can do in the story can be informed by the other girls, not necessarily just the MC. If Heroine A is an insufferably chipper early riser who likes morning jogs and your MC is a grumpy sluggabed, you now have a set-up. Maybe Heroine A slips on the ice and hurts her ankle so she can't get her jogging fix and to cheer her up, the MC can promise to go jogging with her when she gets better (special one-on-one bonding scene!), bring her tea/coffee/cocoa (a bonding scene, but doesn't commit the MC to that extra scene), ignoring her, or snarking that that'll keep her from being annoying in the mornings for awhile. Same idea for the other girls. What are they into? Do they have a hobby or passion that they might want to involve the MC in on? What is their personality like? Would they be the kind to be quietly supportive, drag the MC around to force her out of her shell, or be oblivious unless approached? What is going on in their private lives (if anything) that the MC might be dragged into or feel compelled to involve themselves in because they've bonded with the girl enough to want to? What do the girls think of each other? Maybe Heroines B and C are super competitive and you have a special scene where you mediate a competition for them. Maybe Heroines A and D used to date and now things are awkward.

A template/formula might make things easier, but honestly - just having that flow chart and having an idea of why everyone is there and what they want is pretty good. The way that's working for me right now is to have a basic flow chart to keep me on track, the characters figured out, a few endings in mind, and an idea of some of the scenes in between (not necessarily even for the ends I have in mind). I'm more on the "as it comes" sort of writer, more than a planner. (But having some sort of idea of where you're going is even more necessary when writing a VN than in other types of stories.)

Hope any of my rambling helps.

[koteosa]

Why is your homebody MC at the school? I wrote a few lines here before looking at your post again and seeing that it seems like she couldn't get into a college she wanted - but why is that? Were her first choices better colleges closer to home that she could have commuted to? Or did she specifically need a school she could live on campus for so she didn't have to commute and could just walk? Was she encouraged to get out of the house by someone else or did is she ambitious enough that she was willing to go somewhere further away if it suited her needs?

The idea is that the MC is hardworking/intelligent (or considers herself to be) but she can't afford tuition to most nicer schools. I've thought about making it so she didn't do much extra stuff (extracurriculars and whatnot) due to being more closed-off/introverted so her college apps weren't Super Appealing anyway. Maybe her grades weren't exactly straight 100s either.
I'm thinking of adding in that her family wanted to encourage her to branch out and meet new people/experience new things so they encouraged her to school out of her hometown. This also makes sense considering I established that she expected the dorm rooms to be solo (introverted) but somehow never found out that they're all shared, 3-5 people at once (maybe she's a little bit of a space cadet?).

I don't think she necessarily has to be shown going to classes unless you think there's something interesting that can happen in them. All your examples of things you really want to do seem to be more homey slice of life stuff, which could lead to some really cute/wonderful interactions that I personally don't see much. You could easily set this story as happening before classes start and have your MC get used to the dorm and a daily routine with people she isn't familiar with. Or, alternately, perhaps these girls are the ones who stayed behind at the dorm over some holidays (you can even make one up - it's your world) that everyone else has gone home for. Now you have a reason for it to only be these girls there and a reason why they're suddenly interacting instead of a more communal situation of going to the cafeteria and blending in with the others... the cafeteria is closed for the holidays and they have to make-do with the dorm kitchen. Now she gets to know these girls she's seen in passing over the first few months of college and never took the time to get to know.

The beginning of the story is set an ambiguous number of days before classes start, but I wasn't sure how long I should drag that out or if I should hurry up and get to the point. (Afterall, why have a school setting if it's never used in the story??) Although I just realized that I could've written early morning shenanigans as the next thing that happens, so I'm going to make note of that.
I want to follow a calender to some extent to make events that the MC can do with the other girls (or just one of them) and have the protag work up to them, such as gift shopping for Christmas or planning out dates or something. Half the cast (approximately) are extroverts who like to be out and about, but as I can't relate much to that sort of person I often wonder how much is too much in terms of, them wanting to hang out with the protag/all the girls at once, and asking people to go out and do things... PLUS I don't want to focus too much on any one girl before the main route ends. I think their personalities/archetypes are loud enough that the player can easily choose who they like without delving into them too much.

Same idea for the other girls. What are they into? Do they have a hobby or passion that they might want to involve the MC in on? What is their personality like? Would they be the kind to be quietly supportive, drag the MC around to force her out of her shell, or be oblivious unless approached? What is going on in their private lives (if anything) that the MC might be dragged into or feel compelled to involve themselves in because they've bonded with the girl enough to want to? What do the girls think of each other? Maybe Heroines B and C are super competitive and you have a special scene where you mediate a competition for them. Maybe Heroines A and D used to date and now things are awkward.

I have a few ideas in mind for what I want the characters to do together, and I've established interests/hobbies for most of the girls. One really likes to cook (so she can eat; it's more that she likes to eat), one really likes composing music in her spare time, etc. At least two of the girls would want to drag the MC around to go do stuff, while one would be more likely to need the MC to show some initiative, and one, well. She's never far off, let's put it that way.
Some of the girls have never met before they moved into the dorm and some of them have known each other for a year or two, and you can sort of guess how close they are based on context clues (I'll go into it in more depth later, but I'm talking about what I've already written). So far, all the girls have more-or-less positive relationships, although one girl tends to test everyone's patience ^^;

A template/formula might make things easier, but honestly - just having that flow chart and having an idea of why everyone is there and what they want is pretty good. The way that's working for me right now is to have a basic flow chart to keep me on track, the characters figured out, a few endings in mind, and an idea of some of the scenes in between (not necessarily even for the ends I have in mind). I'm more on the "as it comes" sort of writer, more than a planner. (But having some sort of idea of where you're going is even more necessary when writing a VN than in other types of stories.)

I like to wing it, too. I find writing is more interesting if you just plop your characters down and see what happens! I'm trying to base the mechanics I talked about with my flow chart on what I've seen in other VNs and just mash them together into what I personally consider to be the easiest to follow.

Hope any of my rambling helps.

Quite a bit, actually! It's thought provoking, reading what other people have to say about all this. Thank you!

[Kielenx]

Sounds cool!

[koteosa]

I'm finding it really funny that this was the first forum post I randomly chose to read, because I'm also writing a slice of life dating sim set in college about wlw!

My MC is a transfer student, so her general plot is kind of fish-out-of-water, trying to fit in, getting used to this new school (she's going from a big state school to a small women's college), etc. Then each of the girls has her own plot that is focused on for the rest of the VN. So like one girl is an exchange student from Latin America, one is having to pay for her tuition all by herself and is working 2 jobs on top of a demanding courseload, etc. Then each girl has a happy ending and a bad ending based off of a small series of choices (I'm not gonna do stats or anything, just maybe 2 or 3 choices within the game.)

I'm so amused that someone else is writing such a similar visual novel! Let me know if you wanna chat / bounce ideas!

Ohhh that's really cool! I've been hoping for some GxG games that are more lighthearted and not super plot heavy, just cute girls loving girls. I haven't been working much recently as a lot of things have gotten in the way (I have a lot of hobbies) but I'm definitely planning to return to working on my game eventually.
I'd enjoy discussing some game stuff! It would help a lot to be able to bounce ideas, and maybe it could get me through the main route (which is giving me the most grief at the moment). And of course I wanna hear about your girls too !!