Game progression. Grinding points or unlock content linearly?

[Girm Ork]

I am talking about simple H-games without a complex plot. Something like arcades, puzzles, or match-3 games. Because, you know, in visual novels or RPG/action games the linear approach is always better.

Let's imagine a simple hentai puzzle game. In the first case:
1) You have to unlock puzzles one after another. You can't go further if are stuck somewhere. But the next puzzle is always more difficult and with a cuter girl then the previous one.
2) You can unlock any puzzle, but you need to earn points for this. When you solve the puzzle quicker you got more points. But it is possible to just grind points and unlock the final puzzle with the cutest girl right away.
Which one do you choose?

 

[Sparky~]

It all depends on how you introduce your game features, and how difficult it actually is.

1. If you think the game has a progressive difficulty curve, then choose the first option, because if the player can't beat Level 5, you can't expect them to beat Level 6.
   
   
2. If you think the game difficulty curve is rather arbitrary, then choose the second option, as the order you unlock the levels doesn't really matter.

Don't forget it's always good to include some cheat codes so players who aren't interested in gameplay can enjoy your game too.

 

[woody554]

combine both. make tiers of girls with varying points/hotness. can't get to next tier before some criteria is filled, but you can go for the biggest reward of that tier right away. so there's a choice between grinding easy points and hard points, the hard ones giving more but also punishing harsher for failure. (I think punishing for failures should be there so the player can't just click-spam without concentrating).

 

[Girm Ork]

combine both

Yeah, I've decided to go this way.
I've decided to make Day 1, Day 2, ... Day X. When you enter the Day, you can play every stage in it. But you can't go to the next Day if you don't have enough Points.

there's a choice between grinding easy points and hard points

On each Day we have easy and hard stages. If you play an easy stage then it is almost impossible to lose and you will definitely get some points. If you play a hard stage, then you could get a lot of points, but it possible to lose and gain nothing.