How to Make Your Episodic Plot Not Suck

[hoobatooba]

This is something I posted in another thread about Yet Another Game that was poorly written and had a mess of an ending. It's kind of weird how many games this applies to. They just start with the character cliches ('bitchy but hawt younger sister', 'horny MILF' ) and throw together some plot and scenes with zero consideration, just making crap up as they go, then some character gets unexpectedly popular so they pivot to be more about that character (or at least squeeze in more scenes) and by a couple chapters it's a complete aimless mess which the author has no idea how to resolve (or even progress) in a coherent way because there was never any plan. Then it just ends badly or is abandoned and when they start their next project everyone keeps mentioning how the last one tanked. Sound familiar?

Sure, you can say 'hell this is just a porn game who cares?' but if you have significant amounts of dialogue and it's not just a stupid Miel wankfest then obviously you care and some of your readers get invested and care, and they're disappointed when it all just turns to shit at the end and hold a grudge. Just from reading the comments, a lot of people care, and those invested people are the sort of people who tend to subscribe.

So, to actually be helpful instead of just whine, here's what I do. Of course other people have their own opinions and methods, and you can change this however you want, but it isn't tough and it works:

• Come up with your ending and what kind of plot you want to tell. Then come up with your beginning.
  • There can actually be some minor stuff (epilogue) after the 'ending', technically what I'm calling the 'ending' here is the 'climax', where it all comes together. But 'climax' is too hur hur for a porn game.
• This does not have to be brilliant genre-defining (or -busting) stuff, generic popular plots are popular for a reason. Feel free to rip off any movies, series, or games you like. It's probably better than what you could come up with yourself.
  • It will help if you can then work in one clever twist to make it memorable and not a complete ripoff, but not required.
• Figure out your core characters, in depth. If you ripped off the plot, at least change the characters significantly.
• Figure out the plot points (checkpoints) along the way you need to get from your beginning to your ending - these become your episodes / chapters. It often helps to work backwards from the ending.
• You don't need to write any dialogue yet or figure out any supporting chars. In fact, do not!

All this needs to be done before you even start! Now you're ready to start doing stuff:

• Figure out your supporting chars, maybe your MC needs a bitchy younger sister. Maybe you need an evil cop for this one plot point. You can be a lot looser with the supporting chars, just make their personalities consistent.
  • Try to avoid an explosion of support chars. Maybe some can play several roles?
• Now you can start writing.
• Make sure your core characters stay consistent! Keep a 'character bible' where you at least list the things you've established about each character ( '- dropped out of college due to harassment', ' - Had pneumonia when she was six' )
• You can actually be kind of loose between checkpoints as long as you get there, so sure, squeeze in an extra scene or two with popular character. Just make sure you're always working towards the ending and the checkpoints.
• Keep track of any dangling plot threads you leave (make a list), and try to minimize them. Unless they're cleverly part of the ending, you probably don't want them.
  • It is very bad to just leave an open plot point / cliffhanger dangling long. Invested readers notice and are frustrated.
• You can even change things, maybe significantly, along the way. Hell, it's almost guaranteed!
  • Just make sure it's still consistent with your ending (or change the ending) and consistent with what you've done so far, and make sure you modify your checkpoints as needed so they're all still consistent with getting from start to end.
  • You can even add or remove a couple checkpoints as needed when you come up with something better, just avoid Game of Thrones / Wheel of Time Syndrome. There is rarely an excuse for one checkpoint to turn into ten (odds of ending up ending badly or never skyrocket).
  • Sometimes a support char becomes super popular and you want to 'promote' them. Just consider what this does to your ending and checkpoints.

And that's it. This is not really much work compared to the writing, scripting, animation, modeling, etc... and doing the above will make the difference between an okay porn game and a great porn game where people are looking forward to your next one - or at least between trash and 'well, okay at least I didn't hate it.' As an added bonus, if you do need to cut the game short, then you can just rush through all the remaining checkpoints and still arrive at your ending in a single chapter/ep. Everyone will be able to tell it was a rush job, but at least the ending was satisfying and consistent. And all this goodwill will help you with your next game.

If doing this is too complicated then just reduce it to 'have an actual ending and your core characters planned first, then work towards it consistently.' Do not just start with 'these are all my fetishes then I will have shit happen randomly' because that is always disaster.