Rex Blue
Thanks for the review. For clarification on how I see the story and game, there was a shift around v0.4 IIRC, maybe sooner, where I realized I really liked storywriting, so I decided to begin expanding the world and characters. The characters and how they were written was and still is for the most part one of the most common compliments I receive, so I leaned into that more. I also think sex has very small limits and isn't very fun to develop all the time. Of course this is a NSFW game and I will always continue to support that.
I also want to add that this is my first project and I was definitely aimless at the beginning. But your review mentions your issues lies in the last patch or two, when things have been escalating. There is also a shift in the overall plot that is currently going on that has been planned for quite some time.
Here are my vague plans for the current scope of the story:
(The current scope excludes the beginning and later/end parts of the story)
As these characters have mostly resolved their personal issues and begin forming a communal bond, they look outward at the system that bred their pain. They look to understand it and change the world for the better.
My plans before this scope have been to connect the player to these characters, to form an emotional connection so their struggles feel real and you want to see them overcome these issues and live a happy ever after. I feel like forming the emotional connection makes the justice a lot sweeter.
As for the very beginning, it's unfortunate to hear that you think they were wacky caricatures, that was never my intention but I did base them off common personality types I thought would fit well with their story. It was my goal to make these characters feel... like they're not fully explained. I'm struggling to come up with the right terms, but Ashley for example, she "wore a mask" to feel accepted. But now in the story, most of them completely trust you and are willing to tell you anything about themselves.
I have no plans to stop the ongoing story to return to the very beginning of the story. Small problems with quick available solutions have been solved by this point in the story and it hasn't been my vision for this game in quite some time. Slice of life will still remain a big theme in the story, but they were never simple lives.
For extra information, I also have an internal guide I try to stick to when developing main character stories. I generally try to shoot for 3 story events for every 1 lewd scene
Friendship 1 - 10: Beginning, getting to know them and an inkling of something more.
Friendship 3 - 15: Introducing lewd stuff, unlocking basic lewd content
Friendship 10 - 15: Introducing their problems, how the world sees them, the beginning of an emotional connection
Friendship 10 - 20: Their personal issues are shown more, how they deal with them, possible hints to greater things
Friendship 13 - 20: As MC/the player understands the character more, sexual content rises, penetration occurs if it hasn't already (Unless there's a story reason for otherwise)
Friendship 15 - 25: MC tries helping and the healing process begins. The character feels like they have a connection to MC in some way, and this is reinforced by issues being fixed. Also, other characters begin showing up a bit more to offer their unique way of helping.
Friendship 15 - 30: Sexual content is expanded, training begins. This is usually paired with...
Friendship 20 - 30: Their world expands, outside influences begin showing their faces. You see how the world effects them, and in a sense, created them. The problems they have left are no longer able to be fixed by 1 person. Help now usually comes in the form of multiple characters, and connections between characters are expanded.
Friendship 25 - 35: Stakes are risen, characters have to react to the world and are placed in situations where they need to grow, usually with the help of their new friends. Connections also grow quite a bit here.
Friendship 30 - 40: (This is where most characters are now) Stakes begin to fall, or do fall, but not to the bottom. After growing themselves and their connection to the people in the hotel, they're usually given a new outfit. ( I call them Tier 2 outfits). They've grown so much that a new look to represent them is created. This is usually the time skip arc in anime, but the effect is the same, the characters are stronger, more developed and refined. Their main issues are no longer mostly internal, they've become mostly external. They decide to look outward at the system that bred their pain for reasons, answers, resolution, justice. (F&E just received their new outfits, but aren't done developing their inner character, Juliet was a step up though.)
Friendship 30 - 50: Romantic sexual content, or kink exploration.
Friendship 35 - 45: Stakes rise a bit. The characters are able to change or influence the world in small ways. You see the problems first hand, you see how things are connected in the chaos, the world begins to make a bit more sense and as a result, the characters make more sense. And they will find or begin to find their "purpose" in the world.
Friendship 40 - 50: Since this goes into spoiler territory, and hasn't even been written down, I will be very vague. The main characters will work within their purpose to change and influence the world (One provence in Syl'anar, really), finding their groove against the grain. Building or using their unique skills to fix/help their unique problems within the world (Lin has slavery, Ashley has poverty for example). By this point, these characters have become quite independent, especially where they started off. But MC remains as a supportive role, aiding these characters in their path forward.
Friendship 45 - 55: Stakes should be risen a lot by this point, things will start happening. Since the characters began focusing on their slice of the world independently before now, this is probably when their friends will come to aid them, and they will begin working as a team again, but with a more united goal.
This list misses a lot of nuance and details, so please don't think too much about what I haven't included here. The list above are basically arcs within the main story. Within those arcs will be series of events with more variety, ups and downs, vacations, romance, that sort of thing. But what is written above is probably 50% - 60% of the entire roadmap, just a guess. This roadmap is also fluid depending on the character, some are slower, some start arcs before others.
My growing pains were mostly in the beginning, now I'm very happy with how things are going. I get to flex my artistic muscles in so many different ways, and I'm excited to learn more about story writing structure, cinematography, emotion, and everything else. I'm currently very limited with the visual aspects of the story, but I hope to change that for my next games. But nowadays when I watch a movie, my mind is focused on the cinematography and what the writer is trying to say rather than the story presented haha.
Anyway, I hope I didn't scare anyone off with this wall of text, I'm curious to know what you think Rex, and what everyone else thinks of my plan.
