How do you like your Unlockables served?

[Kato]

My co-producer and I are at that sticky stage in development wear we have separate thoughts and ideas on how we plan to reward the player and more importantly, when we plan to reward the player. One side is in favour of the drill sergeant, you have to work for the content, approach and the other is leaning towards a more relaxed, easy to obtain approach. To be specific we are torn between having the player need to finish all endings (up to 3 possibilities) for each "obtainable character" to unlock the respective extra content or if just completing one route through each characters arc (or perhaps the best possible ending) should be enough to unlock the content.

There are plenty of pros and cons for each. We want the player to experience all the endings but we don't want to bore them away from never seeing the unlocked content. So the question is:

What are your thoughts on this?
Would having to see all endings to unlock content be too tiresome for you to bother?
Should there perhaps be Unlockables for both partial and full completion?
What would you personally like to see as unlockable content?

I understand pleasing everyone is impossible but any opinions and answers to the above will be greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to hearing people's thoughts on this subject!

Thanks in advance!

[Googaboga]

Here's my thoughts :>

-Would having to see all endings to unlock content be too tiresome for you to bother?

It depends. I used to be a total completionist when it came to VNs a few years ago. But nowadays I don't have the time to complete a game for the sake of completing it. Now I only get endings that I want to see and that's it. If I really care about the game I'll want the unlockable content and will want to get all the endings so either way it works out. And if I don't care all that much about the game I won't get all the ending and won't be bothered if I don't get unlockable content.

How long it takes the get the different endings would also be a big factor. If the game is long completing endings you don't want to can seem like a chore. But if the game is short, seeing all the endings and getting unlockable content can feel rewarding. It wasn't a big deal that they had to complete some endings they weren't especially interested in since it didn't take them much extra time and now they can say they've fully completed the game.

-Should there perhaps be Unlockables for both partial and full completion?

I think that'd be a good idea. Letting people see as much as they want to see and giving them a little thanks (in the form of unlockables) for the time they did put into partially completing the game is always nice. And it might encourage people to play more endings more than putting all the unlockable content at full completion would. Since seeing some of the unlockable content might make them want to get even more.

-What would you personally like to see as unlockable content?

Concept art and bonus scenes generally tend to be my favorite kind of unlockable content. But I also like things such as extra CGs, info on the game making process, and things from fans of the game :].

[Tyrantauranox]

It depends more on whether or not I'm having a good time, than anything else. Unlockables can push me reach parts that I'd normally avoid, though (like bad endings).

[Milkymalk]

Obviously one of you has "the vision", i.e. an opinion of how the game should be played. Don't do that. Let the player decide how much he wants to play the game and don't keep him from the extra stuff just because he doesn't want to invest the time to make everything 100%.
Requiring a "not bad" ending is ok. Requiring ALL endings of a character is just asking for frustration, to the point where playing the game can become work and stop being fun.
Requiring a certain part of the endings could be a compromise, e.g. 2 of 4 or 5, but you should mention that somewhere in the game.

I enjoyed a lot of VNs that I didn't even remotely played all routes of. Long games take too much time to play through multiple times so if I get 3 endings that's plenty, short games often don't offer enough variation between endings.

As for what extras I enjoy: (scrapped) concept art, voice bloopers (if the game has voice acting), rants from behind the scenes, illustrations, of course a CG gallery.

[Katta]

I hate locked content - of course it's fine to unlock a "Several years after" short story after finishing the character route and probably I can understand if it's unlocked only if you get an exact ending (the story from which the sequel is continuing to tell), but forcing players to reach all possible endings is bad and can't be justified imo.
Except extra scenes I like the idea in Tokimeki where after you've finished a guy's route he greeted you when entering the game again.
As for the concept arts and info on development process I don't see any reason why it should be locked.

Oh, I remembered the only type of unlockable content I like - achievement trophies on the title screen, f.ex. like in Cinders - it's only decorative so it doesn't annoy me but gives a feeling of accomplishement at the same time.

[SinSisters]

What are your thoughts on this?

In general, I like unlockable content. Above all, I'm a gamer, so receiving little trophies during a game, or staying until after credits at a movie theatre to see bloopers, end of game extras... I love unlockables. They're an awesome reward for the player. As for the rest... See below.

Would having to see all endings to unlock content be too tiresome for you to bother?

I recently played a game where you had to complete ever ending to unlock something. I've actually played many games like this. My thoughts? I hate bad endings. I like completing a game to the full, but I detest bad endings. I don't like horror movies or movies that make me cry. So would I say seeing all the endings tiresome? No, just frustrating. Every time this has occurred, I've skipped through all the dialogue blocks to see the unlockable content. And skipping through gave me a guilt trip, too.

Should there perhaps be Unlockables for both partial and full completion?

If by partial, you mean has not even completed one path? No. If by partial, you mean has completed at least one path? Yes. Because at the end of a playthrough, chances are that the reader will not start up another path right away. It's nice to see a little 'reward.'

What would you personally like to see as unlockable content?

Nothing that would create too much work for the creators. Developer comments, cute little 'epilogue's, voice acting bloopers... all good. Personally, I would love to see one big happy CG of all the crew that you would be weirdly out of context in the game itself. I know, CGs are a lot of work as it is, but our minds can compute images much faster than anything else. At the end of the day, I would say that the unlockable content should be anything that the creators would consider appropriate for their game as a 'reward'. (Because to be honest, any kind of reward is sweet. "Thank you for reading our story." "No, thank you for making it!")

-Nat

[CSV]

I hate locked content - of course it's fine to unlock a "Several years after" short story after finishing the character route and probably I can understand if it's unlocked only if you get an exact ending (the story from which the sequel is continuing to tell), but forcing players to reach all possible endings is bad and can't be justified imo.
Except extra scenes I like the idea in Tokimeki where after you've finished a guy's route he greeted you when entering the game again.
As for the concept arts and info on development process I don't see any reason why it should be locked.

I agree with Katta. It makes sense to me to have locked content if it is an epilogue to the "best" end or something along those lines, because that is like a small bonus. On the other hand, I hate having to play through bad ends (if they are bad ends, isn't it my goal to avoid them?) and/or routes of characters I don't like.
I usually like to have a CG gallery and extra CGs as unlockables, as well as epilogues, and maybe the concept art with artist/developer's notes...