There is this urge to please everyone but then where do i go from there?
Nowhere, so you starts by fighting as hard as you can this urge, and send it to the trash can.
As
Nicke implied, whatever you'll do, there will always be someone to complain. Therefore, do the game that would please you, and in the way that would please you.
If there's content too hot (like mini-games by example), and kinks/fetishes a bit extreme globally speaking (Futa/Trans, water sport, etc.) try to make them optional as a gesture of appeasement and conciliation with the public, but it's all. You do a compromise in the most problematic parts, and as author the rest is your decision and your decision only.
Should there be a path of pureness or love?
Well, like you present it, yes there should.
Or, more precisely, there should be two main paths, "pureness/love" and "full corruption", each one being a limit between which the game will effectively stand. Players who don't want to corrupt the MC will always stay on the high limit (pureness/love). Those who want everything will always stay on the low limit (full corruption). But most players will stand in between, more or less near to one or another of those limits.
Ideally, it should looks like that [it's a shortened version to show the global idea]:
Python:
# Internal narrative flag - Do MC watched porn videos when searching about sybian ?
# Will be used as reference to bring back a past action in order to have the story more
# reactive to player's decision.
default sybianWatched = None
# Internal game mechanism flag - Have the player agreed to have content with sybian ?
# Will be used to know if the content should be presented to the player, or replaced by
# something else, or replaced by a filler, or just skipped, depending of the context and
# what you want.
default sybianActive = None
# Narrative flag - Do MC own a sybian ?
# Will be used to have the story more reactive to player's decision ("Oh yeah, a sybian,
# I have one at home"), and to know if some "at home" scenes are available or not. The
# player can agree to see content involving a sybian, but think that the MC is not
# corrupted enough (yet) to ride one on her own.
default sybianOwned = None
label whatever:
menu:
MC "When [someone] told me about sybian..."
"It raised my curiosity, perhaps should I learn more about this.":
[MC browse the net and learn about sybian]
menu:
MC "Hmmm, I guess that I get it."
"But I should watch some videos to see it in action, just to be sure.":
[MC watch come porn video with sybian]
$ corruption += 1 # due to her watching porn
$ sybianWatched = True
menu:
"Nah, definitively not my thing.":
$ sybianActive = False
"Yeah, it could be really fun to ride one":
$ sybianActive = True
"And it's really not for me.":
$ sybianActive = False
"And I want one.":
$ sybianActive = True
"I thought that she was crazy ! What the hell, I don't even want to know that it exist !":
$ sybianActive = False
[...]
label sexShop:
if sybianActive:
menu:
MC "While I'm here, perhaps should I by a sybian."
"What the fuck ?":
if sybianWatched:
MC "Ok, I admit that I was turned on while watching the videos, but..."
MC "What the hell was I thinking when I thought that it could be something for me ?"
$ sybianActive = False
"No, at least not now.":
pass
"Yes, of course.":
$ sybianOwned = True
Then eventually you can have a counter representing how much she like riding a sybian, but it's not necessary.
Note that I used three flags, but it's for the demonstration. You can perfectly have a generic object storing MC "liking" decided by the player, or one dict by liking. In the last case you would have something like:
Python:
default sybian = { "active" = None, "owned" = None, "watched" = None }
There's other ways to do, all are relatively legit as long as it correspond to the way you think and is easy to use for you.
How many slides does that need or is the best approach to still follow the main approach of the former but nuanced maybe even violent.
It's totally up to you. You can have:
Python:
label analSex:
if not analSexActive:
MC "Out of question, I refuse categorically !"
[MC go home]
MC "I still can't believe it ! How did he dare ask me for anal ?!"
MC "Rhaa, I'm so angry, but I better go to sleep, it's late."
jump nextMorning
# implied "else", but it's not needed since you /jump/ out of the label right above
if analLove > 20:
MC "Anal sex is the best sex. Would it be my choice, I would only take it in the ass."
# No increase, the counter is maxed.
[the scene as seen with MC being addict to anal sex]
elif analLove > 10:
MC "Hmmm, anal sex... I like this so much."
$ analLove += 1
[the scene as seen with MC liking it]
elif analLove > 5:
MC "Well, why not."
$ analLove += 1
[the scene as seen with MC tolerating it]
elif analLove > 0:
MC "Well, if you insist."
$ analLove += 1
[the scene as seen with MC not really liking it]
else:
MC "I... I never did it before."
$ analLove += 1
[the scene as seen with MC loosing her anal virginity]
But it can also be:
Python:
label analSex:
if not analSexActive:
MC "Out of question, I refuse categorically !"
[MC go home]
MC "I still can't believe it ! How did he dare ask me for anal ?!"
MC "Rhaa, I'm so angry now ! I need to do something..."
if sybianOwned:
MC "I know, one hour riding my sybian should give me enough orgasms to forget about this"
jump sybianRide
else:
MC "Well, I guess that I'm good for an intense masturbation seance."
jump masturbation
[same than above]
Or it could also be:
Python:
label analSex:
if not analSexActive:
MC "Out of question, I refuse categorically !"
guy "Ok, so no anal. Can we still do it doggy style ? I promise that I'll not touch your ass."
jump doggyStyle
[same than above]
As you guess, the length of the replacing scene will totally depend of the way you decide to handle this.
In the first version she goes to sleep, so there's near to no content.
In the second she masturbate (with or without her sybian) so it would be a short scene.
And finally in the third version they still have sex, therefore it would be a scene of same length.
If so, it would take me years to actually have right from the start a different path that is different to the main path.
It will take longer yes, because you've more works to do. How much longer depending on how you want to handle it (see above).
But in return you'll have a game more dynamic, more fitting to player's liking, and therefore more appealing for the public.
I know we talked about it already in some form or another but what makes a game a game?
To this question there's nearly one answer by member on this forum.
But a global answer could be "anything that don't make it a kinetic novel", therefore choice.
This isn't a science project but the question how much influence a player should have so he/she is happy.
To be happy a player should have 100% influence, and should be typing himself every sentence said by the MC, while facing an infinite number of choice. In 50 years perhaps...
But in between, having some control over the story, and seeing the game remembering his previous decisions, is the closest you can do.
I read through the forum on some topics and i got the impression that there are several camps.
Of course there are.
Some don't want story at all, other need a story, and there's those who want a real game (the platform, shooter, etc., kind of "real game"). There's some who don't care about choices, and those who can't stand when there's none. There's those who can't stand when they choice "this" and one in-game day later the game already forgot and present them "that", and there's some who don't even notice that the girl yell at them because MC peeped when she was showering two minutes ago, while in fact they choose to not peep.
And I'm probably forgetting some.
So of course i wouldn't make it so i could please everyone. I don't think that is even possible.
And as I said in introduction, you shouldn't even try.
Doing it is opening the gate to failure. You would feel that you failed because there would still be someone to complain. You would feel the need to do more and have a nervous breakdown. And, probably the most important, working on your game would feel like a constraint while it should be a pleasure.
So stick to this last word, do the game the way it please you to do it.
But how much choice matters. How genuine has the choice to be?
It depend, really.
There's games where I feel overwhelmed by the number of choices, and others where the same number make me feel that I don't have much control over the story.
Technically speaking, all choices should be relevant. But look back at my sybian example... MC deciding to look at porn video isn't really something relevant. It's more a narrative choice than something else, yet I felt that it have its place there and at that moment.
What matter is that choices aren't forgotten, at least unless they are purely narrative and no chance to be brought back on the story. I used a variable for the video watching, because it can come back, and it came back in my example. But when it's something like "how did you slept tonight", there's no real reason to remember what choice the player made ; at least unless you have the intent to talk again about his night later that in-game day.
Same when the choices regard the corruption increase. I didn't used flag in my anal sex example, because it don't really matters. With "analSexActive" we know if she had anal sex or not, so there's no need for more, except the increase in her liking for it. Liking counter that, should be said, can perfectly also represent her experience. She can have done it enough to be experienced, and still don't like it.
Do games have a real second choice. A pure path that avoids everything that is intended or have instead a romantic route?
Yes, not necessarily the majority, but there's many that have it.
Good Girl Gone Bad have a purity root by example, and it's far to be the only one.
And it's not just a question of second choice. Take a game like
Karlsson's Gambit by example, that is actually the game with the most choices. You play both a male MC and a female MC, but I'll stick to the male MC here.
You've four main routes, depending on what sister you decide to follow. Then for each one, you've two main secondary routes, depending if you submit or not. To this add variations routes depending how good you did in the initial test. This mean that the game have 16 main routes. And to them you've to add the secondary routes, as well as variations, that depend on your interactions with the other characters.
Of course, you don't have to go this far. I mentioned the game because it exist and prove that it's possible to do so when you have a good control over your story.
I played some games and mostly there wasn't a real choice.
Weren't they there, or were they there but you haven't felt them ?
Ideally a good game should make you feel like it was wrote for you and your decisions. And it's only when having parallels playthrough, by example one where the MC decide to try everything, and one where she decide to avoid everything, that you effectively see the differences.
Look at my three examples for the anal sex scene. There's six different scenes, one with no anal, and five with different degree of liking/experience. The player will only see one, and it will be the scene that correspond to his previous choices. But if he have only one playthrough he will never know that the game adapted to him. Instead he will believe that, so far, he only picked all the right choices.
It's only when you play a bad game that you understand how important choice, and the way you handle them, matters.
Above I gave the example of a girl yelling at MC for peeping, this even if the player decided to not peep. Well, it's not a made up example, there's a game here where it's the second scene you see... And, alas, there's many of those games.
When you play a game to its end, and feel that none the choices you made matters, because the story was consistent and coherent, then it's in fact the opposite. All choices mattered and the story you had isn't necessarily the story another player had.
But in your case you don't have too much to worry about this.
Go back again on my anal sex example. It's what I talked above when I said that there's two limits (purity and full corruption) and that most players will probably stand in between. If they agreed to anal sex, they'll have a different story that if they don't, and they'll stand closer to the full corruption limit.
For each scene, you write an "I agree" version, and an "I disagree" version, that's all you need to do. Then each time it apply, you rely on "analSexActive", "sybianActive" or whatever to present the scene that apply.
Add a bit of "anaSexActive" to also tweak the dialogs when it apply, and you are good:
Python:
label whatever:
girl "I you permit, I prefer to stand. [guy] ravaged my ass this morning, it was good but I don't feel like seating right now."
if not analSexActive:
MC "How can you have a dick in your ass ? It's so gross !"
else:
MC "I understand you."
You, as author, only put two routes in your game. But due to the different "[whatever]Active" flags, the players will face way more variations. As long as you take care to those flags correctly, you've done your job.
It's when you include more significant variables (the relationship with a character by example) that it starts to be difficult, because you can't just have a "she like me" and a "she don't like me" scene, you also need at least a "she's madly in love" one, and a "she tolerate me" one. And you've to do this for all girls, what mean that you would potentially have to face a situation like:
- neither girl A nor girl B like me.
- girl A don't like me, but girl B tolerate me
- girl A don't like me, but [...]
- girl A don't like me, but girl B is madly in love
- girl A tolerate me, but girl B don't like me
- [...]
- Both girl A and girl B are madly in love
