So how do you guys plan and write a game before you start rendering and coding?
There's many answer to that, because there's many different things to cover.
At first you obviously need an idea story.
That, you already have it, but an idea by itself isn't enough. It shouldn't be just something like, "it's the story of a man that do THIS while struggling against THAT".
You need to have :
- a start : How the main character of the story ended in this position.
- a goal : What the main character of the story want to have achieved at the end of the story.
- a motivation : Why the main character of the story want to achieve that.
- a relative twist : How it will change main character of the story 's life.
Be noted that the notion of "main character
of the story" is really important. It's the character that will play the main role in the story, and it's not necessarily the "main character
of the game" that is the character played/followed by the player.
Then, you need to split all this in chapters. It don't need to be effective chapters, but you need to know the different stages of the story.
By example, for an incest game with the MC, his mother and one sister, where the sister is the corruption factor, it can be something like :
- the discovery: The MC realize that his sister his hitting at him and clearly want to have sex with him.
- the deny: The MC fight against this, while the sister try to make it accept it.
- the acceptation: By dint of being so often put face to his sister's lust, MC realize that he also lust for her, and now face a simple question, "why not ?".
- the act: They now are doing it, starting by some intercourse to forceful brutish sex.
- the fear: It seem that the mother have some suspicion, the MC want to slow down in order to not be caught.
- the corruption: The sister try to plant into MC's mind the desire to also fuck their mother. She also start to prepare her mother.
- corruption, the following: The MC gave in again, they now both try to corrupt the mother into acceptation.
- the fall: They succeeded, the MC now start to have sex with his mother, while trying to make her want to have sex with her daughter.
- the climax: It's done, they all have sex together, the house is now a lair of debauchery.
As can be seen, here the "main character
of the game" is the brother/son, but the "main character
of the story" is the sister. It's not the story of a guy that succeeded in having sex with his family, but the story of a girl that succeeded in having sex with both her brother and her mother.
Then you need to have characters.
You know that there will be three main characters in this story, the sister, the MC and the mother. But so far it's all you know about them.
Therefore, now you need to give them a personality and a past. It doesn't matter if the past will be effectively known in the story or not, they need to have one, in order to strengthen their personality. What happen in their life is the reason why they are like they are now. If you have this in mind, it will help you to put yourself in their shoes and find the right reaction for this or that situation.
Their past will also have an impact in regard of the story. By example, if the mother have divorced after discovering that her husband was a cheater, the MC can try to corrupt her by saying that, being her son, he's the most faithful man she can found. And if the mother have an history of being cheated too, before, during and after her marriage, then you can play with this fear to introduce the daughter in her bed ; it's not cheating if even the mother have sex with her.
Once you've their personality and past, you need to define what they look like. It's the moment where you create their visual model.
When you look at those models, you have to feel their personality and past in it. Not all their personality and all their past, of course, but a mother of two that raised her children by herself for many years feel more serious when you look at her, than her daughter that want to have perpetual orgy with her family.
At this time, you'll probably go few back and forth between the writing and the visual. Seeing the model "like that", can make you want to change some traits of the character, while changing the traits can give you more idea for the visual. You stop when you're satisfied with both.
And now you need the key points of the story.
You already have the different chapters, but they tell a whole part of a story that will have important moments. Take the first chapter as example, when the MC realize that his sister want to have sex with him. It can be something like :
- The MC randomly run on his sister in just her panties. She react as if nothing happened, not trying to cover herself, not yelling nor asking him to leave.
- The sister run on the MC while she's only wearing really revealing underwear.
- While the MC is showering, the sister insist to enter the bathroom, she really had to pee and don't bother the context.
- They are watching TV together, a wild hot scene appear in the movie and the sister start to talk about it. It's a HBO tv show, when they see the actor's dick, she say that the MC have a bigger dick ; remember, I saw it the day I had to pee while you were showering.
- Few days later, while they are alone the sister talk again about the movie, saying that she wonder if MC's dick could give her as much pleasure as the girl seemed to have had in the movie.
Obviously, other things happen between all those scenes. Between the moment where the MC saw his sister with just her panty and the moment where she show herself in revealing underwear, the MC saw her in various stage of dressing, while the sister didn't cared this much to hide herself when they were alone.
It's just the key points, the moment where the story take a turn, that will be expressed by the filling scene before the next key point.
Here I described them shortly, you should expand a little more their description. For more regarding this you can have a look at
this post.
It's time for the main locations.
Having a story and models for the characters isn't enough. They'll not live in the wild, so you need to define the different rooms and locations where the story will take place. Using for this the indication gave by the key points of the story.
By example, you know that the sister will talk about MC's dick, that she saw when she had to pee. Therefore, the bathroom should be organized in such way that :
- It's not possible to unlock the door without leaving the shower ;
- It's possible to see the shower from the toilet ;
- It's not possible to fully hide while in the shower.
Once again, like for when you were working on the visual models for the characters, you'll probably make few back and forth from the writing and the visual.
You can feel impossible for a situation to happen because the room arrangement need for it make no sense, as well as you can have an idea of new key point, or for a big change in a key point, because the room you have in front of you is really inspiring.
Again, you'll stop when you're satisfied by both the key points and the locations.
The real works starts with the code.
Now that you've the base for both the story and the visual, it's time to think about the game.
What game mechanism do you want, what stats value will you need, how will you handle the different choice, and all. For each one, you'll write a test code, and works on it until you're satisfied and it seem to be bug free. You'll also create the variables you'll need, and all.
It's a vast subject by itself, too vast to be effectively detailed here. But globally, test everything beforehand, before you need it, before even you start to make the game. There's not much things more frustrating for a player, than an author that promise that the Moon will rise, but still use a pocket flashlight to simulate it when the game end.
This mean that you need to know first if you are able to do what you want, then if you can easily maintain the game this way. Don't hesitate to go back and forget about this or that, if you see that you struggle doing it. It's better to have a game mechanism downgraded in regard of your initial intent, than loosing hours struggling every time you've to works on it.
For your side, what matter is the pleasure you take, and for the players side, what matter is that the game is finished one day. The "look how great my game is" part is secondary. If it prevent one or the two others to happen, then it worth nothing ; what is the interest to make a great game that will never be finished, or that will be a pain in your ass ?
Now, place to the final touch, the decision tree.
You've the key points, that will define where the story goes and how it evolve.
You've the characters personality, that will define what need to be done in order to progress from a key point to another.
And you've the base of the code, that will define how this progression happen.
It's time to go back on the story and take care of the "decision tree". Among this generic term can be many, many things. Some use an effective tree to represent it, others many piece of paper, it depend of what you feel the most as ease with.
What really matter is that you know what are the decision that will effectively have an impact into the story
and the characters reactions, and also when then apply.
You go back to your key points, and you extend them including the main decisions that can be made by the player, and their consequences. And for each key points you describe them in different way, according to all the decision took previously.
By example, if the MC is reluctant to open the bathroom door when his sister want to pee, it will mean something else than if he opened it without hesitation. In the first case the sister will have to works harder on her seduction plan, in the second she succeeded more than expected and can directly pass to the next key point.
You can also let the player decide to not open the door. This will make the sister go back from one key point, because she haven't worked hard enough. It also imply a branching in the story. Either a new key point appear, where she'll see MC's dick, or she'll not be able to compare it with the one of the actor during that movie night, and so what is needed is a new key point to introduce the idea of the MC having sex with his sister.
Basically explained, it's something that look like :
- if MC open the door
- if MC do not open the door
- Few days later the sister find a way to unlock the the door, and enter the bathroom looking like she isn't fully awaken yet.
- They are watching TV
- ...
You're ready, write your game.
Extend the key points into a really scene, fill the blank between each one of them, and never forget about the characters personality and the decision previously made.
