Time I should give to player before choosing otome lover?

[Cakey]

I had an idea that maybe I should divide my set of romancable guys to couple of pairs so player have a little more time to decide who she wants to actually chose. This will be after prologue. My question is If people wouldn't think that this kind of possibility is a crap idea becouse they don't want to waste time with other characters after they decide on their love interst? What do you think?

Since it is only four of them I thought that I would do choosing:
1
2
3
4
And then add another one into consideration. Like:
1 with 3
2 with 1
3 with 4
4 with 2

Is it good or bad idea?

[APkittis]

I like this idea, but I think implementing something like this depends on other factors in the game, like:

• How long the game is (or is planned to be)
• How the player gains relationship points with the romanceable characters (whether they need to talk and hang out with them every available moment, or follow specific choices and events)
• Whether there's a story outside of romantic interactions, or if following one character's route becomes the story
• How many romanceable characters there are, and their relationship to their potential pair-partner (and/or the protagonist)
• Maybe some other stuff I haven't thought of yet

.

Have you ever played Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side? It featured a mechanic similar to your idea.

[Cakey]

I like this idea, but I think implementing something like this depends on other factors in the game, like:

• How long the game is (or is planned to be)
• How the player gains relationship points with the romanceable characters (whether they need to talk and hang out with them every available moment, or follow specific choices and events)
• Whether there's a story outside of romantic interactions, or if following one character's route becomes the story
• How many romanceable characters there are, and their relationship to their potential pair-partner (and/or the protagonist)
• Maybe some other stuff I haven't thought of yet

.

Have you ever played Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side? It featured a mechanic similar to your idea.

1. I don't know how long it will be. I end the game when the plot will end. It might be medium, long or very long.
2. There are no points. I plan to compose plot in way that points wouln't be necessery and the choice of guy would have one to two endings. I want player to experience the story not thinking If the choice was objectively good but rather If protagonist acts as player would act in situations that can be tough to accept like presenting her ownb opinions or reacting to controverisal things.
3. Routes would come from friendship with sexual tension to romance. Final choice will change their from friendship to romance.
4. There are four of them and pair partner would stay probably as a friend afterwards or will react in some other way but nothing extreme.


I played love tangle but gameplay don't look like I plan to do it and plot is simply about romance and nothing else.

[gekiganwing]

Regarding how long the reader should wait before they choose the protagonist's love interest:

* Give the reader enough time to understand who the characters are, and what they want. What kind of people are they when the protagonist is not nearby? Who are their friends, family, foes, and so on?
* Let the reader see the protagonist interact with the love interest. Why would they like each other? What do they have in common? What can they teach each other?

I want player to experience the story not thinking if the choice was objectively good but rather if protagonist acts as player would act in situations that can be tough to accept like presenting her own opinions or reacting to controversial things.

Will the reader be asked to roleplay? Will they help determine the protagonist's personality?

I believe it's wise to consider how many choices in your visual novel will be immediately easy to understand -- the reader can guess the result of each option, and it's clear which character will benefit. Likewise, consider how many choices will be difficult to understand -- the reader will not always know what will happen, or who will benefit.

[Cakey]

I wouldn't say that it would help to determine protagonist personality but to some point obviously it would work like that(since our goals and opinion of the world is part of it). The thing is that I don't want people think about what characters WANT to hear but speak her mind instead. For example: There is a disscussion about if protagonist thinks that characters choice was right or not. It does not change what other character will do but it will help player empathize with the protagonist and maybe it will be topic of disscusion with the love interest in the future.

[Katy133]

For the sake of brevity, production constraints*, and good storytelling ethics, I'd say: The time you give the play to get to know each lover interest should be as long as it takes to get to know them. And to be honest, if you use good storytelling guidelines (like using a good character establishing scene to introduce each one), you can introduce each character and give a taste of what each character is like in a relatively short amount of time.

*Making a VN is always challenging, whether you are writing it yourself or hiring writers. If your VN is already going to be quite long (and if you're new-ish to making VNs), you should probably be trying to keep the VN as short and as manageable as possible.

As an example, a VN demo I recently played was Phantom Ban Detective Agency. It's a good example of introducing characters' personalities within a short amount of time. Riley is hot-tempered, but is a loyal friend. Daemon Hunt is an overconfident, eccentric detective. And Allie is a competitive swimmer who is popular, successful, and friendly. The demo is extremely short, but I have a good overall picture of the tree main characters.

I wrote another post about character establishing moments on another thread here.

[Cakey]

Thanks for your reply. That helped me a lot.