Looking for advice about game mechanics

[Niteowl]

Long story short, I was thinking of remaking a harem renpy game I was quite serious about two years ago but ended up abandoning
https://f95zone.to/threads/future-fantasy-harem-part-1-v1-0-niteowl-games.44544/

BUt I'm not here to talk about that specifically.... more like, what do you guys think are some interesting mechanics that could be used in harem games....?

I mean, most harem games have something like
- Do the girl x times a certain way (or talk to her/interact with her etc) x times and the level goes up - new scenes become available - rinse and repeat


I guess another would be like when we have certain choices in dialogues, and what we say will affect how a girl reacts, whether she becomes available etc....
(my game had some dialogues where the MC can kind of steer the story in different directions)
sure, there are minor variations, but that's how most harem games seem to like...

What other mechanics do you think could be fun in a renpy game? How can we make any game, realy, more intersting or challenging for the player? Any thoughts?

 

[Synx]

I'm not the biggest fan of harem games, but the ones I do like are games like Harem Hotel. Each girl has their own story you follow, instead of doing the same thing over and over but with a different character. It makes the girls much more interesting and give them a personality. It's like a hybrid between an Harem game and a VN.

It's not exactly what you asked, but I don't think Harem game needs a game mechanic. Unless you can create a complete and interesting system somewhat comparable to normal management or sim game, the game mechanic will most likely just be more annoying then adding anything to the game. Doing the same event 10 times to level up a character isn't really interesting game design.

 

[Niteowl]

I'm not the biggest fan of harem games, but the ones I do like are games like Harem Hotel. Each girl has their own story you follow, instead of doing the same thing over and over but with a different character. It makes the girls much more interesting and give them a personality. It's like a hybrid between an Harem game and a VN.

It's not exactly what you asked, but I don't think Harem game needs a game mechanic. Unless you can create a complete and interesting system somewhat comparable to normal management or sim game, the game mechanic will most likely just be more annoying then adding anything to the game. Doing the same event 10 times to level up a character isn't really interesting game design.

Okay, I do like Harem Hotel and actually the fact that the girls have their own individual story is one thing also in my game (honesty, that part was originally inspired by Harem Hotel)

And yes, I agree doing the same thing ten times to level up is not much, but that's kinda what I mean.... what can we do that is more interesting?
For example in some games you must collect certain objects before you can do other things....

Let me rephrase it... let's say all the characters have their own stories...... but what are some ways of making those stories more interesting or challenging?

Edit: I also just thought that, yes, eventually my game does have some management elements (some of the girls can be made to work to gain extra cash, stuff like that)

 

[KiaAzad]

Don't add items and inventory. Defining a bunch of items will take tons of consideration and time. The same goes for fights, balancing a fight system alone will drive you to madness.
Minigames are an easy way to spice up the game without adding tons of complexity to the gameplay.
Calendars, point and click and quests do push you into using items and inventory, but if you keep them simple, those are also a viable option.

 

[Deleted member 5189987]

Minigames are a hard thing to do right. In my opinion, minigames should tick all the following boxes to be enjoyable:

- They should not be forced, but optional.
- Finishing a minigame should reward the player.
- Not the same minigame the whole time.
- They should not take too long to finish.

It also depends on the engine, game engines like Unity have a lot more tools to create minigames, in RenPy it becomes messy quickly.

 

[sliveart777]

The only Renpy games I like are management sims with actual gameplay. Renpy isn't really an engine designed for intriguing gameplay most of the time. I would steer clear of minigames especially if they're repeatable for some arbitrarily long grind.

 

[Niteowl]

The only Renpy games I like are management sims with actual gameplay. Renpy isn't really an engine designed for intriguing gameplay most of the time. I would steer clear of minigames especially if they're repeatable for some arbitrarily long grind.

thanks for the feedback....
My game does have some management elements, I guess I could make those more prpminent.
Mini-games were just an example... I'm really just trying to think of ways to make Renpy games more interesting bute yeah, it's a fairly limited engine (and of course my programming ability is also limited)

 

[sliveart777]

thanks for the feedback....
My game does have some management elements, I guess I could make those more prpminent.
Mini-games were just an example... I'm really just trying to think of ways to make Renpy games more interesting bute yeah, it's a fairly limited engine (and of course my programming ability is also limited)

There are plenty of successful renpy games with basic minigames. My earlier post was just about what I prefer personally.

But renpy is rather limited in many ways especially if you don't have programming knowledge. With python programming, you can technically make pretty much anything in renpy it's just going to be a miserable experience.

This is one thing RPGM is better at since the built in scripting logic is easy to learn and you don't have to code anything. But again, it becomes limited if you want to deviate too far from RPG mechanics.