What I honestly want to know is why is DPC going to bother implementing a choice between working at the pink rose or continue the granny sitting job. Unless there ends up being something there that makes that choice worth it very few players will bother picking it. It's practically going to be like the 2nd version of staying with Derek in episode 4.
DPC
How do you balance developing and telling a cohesive storytelling structure with a narrative game's branching elements? Do you prioritize taking the plot and characters arc from A to B with somewhat limited branching, or you plan strongly defined diverging paths that can go from A to B, C, D, E...?
When you develop a game like Being a DIK and need many branches, the most important part is to have a backbone story. No matter what choices the player makes, which girl the player goes for, the main story is always there to carry the game forward. That way, branching becomes manageable, and you can plan whatever structure you want for the branches. It’s not necessarily just an arc going from A to B; you can have multiple outcomes for it, as long as you plan to take care of the outcomes when you’re done with the branch.
One good way to end branching is to store its outcome as a variable and use it later to affect the story. It’s an easy way to introduce a system where choice matters, and it allows you to kill branches without making the player feel they did something for nothing, as the choice is respected later on in the game.
The balance of it comes naturally to me; I try to include characters in the story, even if the player has no romantic interest in them.
dalli_x
I think in the beginning the MC will just clean in the Pink Rose with his DIK's. This will make the meeting of the MC and Madame possible.
Theory
What if the MC gets a good offer from the Madame?
For example the offer of a partnership or even the complete takeover of the Pink Rose?
As a deposit he has to pay only 5000$. The number seems somehow familiar to me.
But this way the MC will earn enough money to support Maya, but he will not complete his family tree. He will probably lose a lot of LI's but at the very end he will have a lot of fun with the employees. Or maybe even end up with Envy?
