*Replayability for BoB its a lot more than a change in verbiage in routes. You can for sure miss major H-Scenes depending on choices you make. Heck its possible to play the entire game and not have one H-Scene. There are at least two routes PER GIRL right now. Some with more, like Janice (4) and Gena (4) for example. That all said if I was to do it over again I'd likely not design a game like this b/c the work to return is deminimis. Players don't generally seem to increase financial support for more complexity/choice and the amount of work to deliver such a game is exponentially more. Fantastic, thoughtful conversation. Excellent.
It's fine to design branching choices for AAA games, but the work is not worth the hassle for independent studios imo. You basically work [number of routes] times, yet the players only see 1/[number of routes] of the game.
This is why harem games in general are more popular, since you get the full huge content with each update.
Choices do add more substance to the game & gives more player control to shape the story, which will always have a positive impact on the perception of the story. The trick is to figure out to what extent to go.
I think the girl route branches are fine: They allow you to approach how to deal with the girls, which increases player interest (since it is
their choice). Also, they still get the same content & not miss anything (either path, you still get the abby date, janice scenes etc- just different variations) so the only downside is increased workload on your side, but avoiding the player being forced to miss a scene.
Another thing to do is to cut down redundant scenes that take too much work. Like the lunch variations. No matter which 1/4 you choose, it's basically a sofia route with same variables. But the sofia route takes the most extra resources since the other 3 are basically the same with slight dialogue variations & shared render assets. You have the same conversation with sofia either way, so you could save a lot of time by not doing the sofia-only scene. You could have janice overhear mc & sofia & then force them to go to the team dinner(makes sense, right, with janice being janice). The conversation with sofia remains the same, the lead up dialogue establishes the sofia date concept & makes janice more 'bitch boss'. And you basically just saved 50% of the work by removing the extra renders (renders for team lunch variations are basically the same & dialogue in all 4 includes the sofia date dialogue) without the players feeling any significant change (their date is hijacked by janice, but they still make it work & chat with her)
So in the girl routes(or any alternative scenes) you can try to keep the scenes similar to save resources, either render assets or writting time. The abby date is a good example. It has slight variations such that you can just copy one version then make changes to change the tone from rom to dark. But just that change makes it feel much customised to the player's route choice. Most players won't replay the game for the other variation anyway, so as long as the tone fits(rom vs dark) doesn't matter if it's basically the same scene to save resources.
Some feedback on that date tho: Instead of a incest movie, the movie could've been more relevant to abby's situation: a girl in dire straits gets rescued & dominated by a guy with money. Basically a corruption version of 'pretty woman'. Or 50 shades of grey. Maybe add some sick family. That'd add more impact to the abby scene. I suggest you still replace it & save the incest movie assets for lana(sister) dates.
For this game, you already spend so much on branches for each girl. So try to avoid exclusive either/or choices which cut down the content per release even more. Instead go for inclusive yes/no choices so players still feel the ability to shape the game but not forced to miss anything.
For example, on day 9 you have to write+render kori & abby dates & then the variations for them. And the player can only see 1. So much work for 1 scene. Lazy devs spend so much time & only give this much content in update(relative to time taken) ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
However in a yes/no choice players can see both kori & abby scenes.
Players can choose if they wanna stay with kori, & then choose if they want to show up to abby late.
For charm path you spend more charm to convince abby you were working late, on dark path you spend d.charm to to show up so late & take her to a 'late night movie' (fits more for the dark route movie imo)
That way ppl get even more choices (whether they wanna go home after kori, go to abby ignoring kori, or try for both if they have points/money) instead of the game defaulting to a route based on a previous choice-giving the player more ferling of control over the game(which is good for vns, trust me) and are not forced to choose only 1of the 2 scenes, so technically day 9 now has 2 dates available instead of 1=double the content. Ppl still have restrictions on getting both (maybe add more money making options to balance? Charm seems to be fine) but they
can if they play the game well, which will make the game feel better (reward for skilled play to gather required money/charm=sweet endorphin release)
Replayability for BoB its a lot more than a change in verbiage in routes. You can for sure miss major H-Scenes depending on choices you make. Heck its possible to play the entire game and not have one H-Scene.
The trick is to make that
possible but not mandatory. So ppl feel some challenge & the satisfaction at overcoming the challenge(have enough money/charm to go on 2 dates=successful guy). Either/Or choices actually provide less freedom of choice since they only provide 2 choices(abby or kori) while yes/no choices provide 3 (abby yes, kori yes,
both)
Right now it's not only possible, but mandatory that you miss a date scene on day 9.
Which do you think people would prefer? Games that take 2 weeks to release 1 date scene or games that take 2 weeks to release 2 date scenes (given they assume 1 week to create 1 date scene)?
This is why harem games are generally more successful in this setup & why I dislike exclusive choices in VNs which release in piecemeal updates. They cut the content for each release in half or worse.
Not to say this doesn't make games better. Choices add a sense of creating your own path in the game. I just feel exclusivity shouldn't be hard-coded in the game, but left up to the players.
Let them choose if they wanna hit up genna late at night after returning from stacy+cher date(cost charm/d.charm). Let them choose if they wanna go home to videocall gena to say goodbye or go to the concert. Or maybe they videocall the next night if missed(similar to how the genna bootycall repeats for 3 days)
Let them choose abby or kori or to try for both.
Let them get more options to make more money/charm to spend, so they feel they can
win in the game. (Stock market or something? Bets?)
Don't spoon feed the content ofc, or make it mandatory to view all scenes. Just make it a possibility, a challenge to overcome if desired, while still being possible to decline any LI not interested in. (Ofc they miss h-scenes that way, but that's the player's choice, the reality: playboys get a lot more action while steady people have better sleeping hours)
Basically allow ppl a path to get to all the content you are working on in one play-through so they can actually play the full game content you guys worked hard to create.
That'd be my advise anyways.
Hope that helps & good luck for the future
PS: "Very nice" to whoever came up with the repeating genna bootycall. You can use this method to give more variations, like eg: genna video call keeps repeating until done so players don't miss it & can appreciate your work on that.
Or, you can have a filler scene that triggers if you have an empty night (by declining a LI), keeps running for a week until triggered, and then triggers on the last day anyway, if not triggered before (last day event designed to be compatible with a 2nd event) so ppl don't miss it (make it a choice so ppl can still decline it if not interested.)