multiple main characters

[Notretsam]

I slowly furthering my knowledge of daz studio and working towards my first VN, at moment am in writing stage, and been wondering what do people think of Multiple Main Characters?

very much like a film or a TV show, where you don't always see it from perspective of same person, each character have its own story arc that will sometimes cross over with other characters.

I seen one game with multiple characters but not something I seen a lot, most of the time its always one main character, so thought MMC would be something different and I think it be more interesting for me to write.

Rather get some feedback before deciding.

 

[Kthulian]

That's refreshing idea since it's something rare, if you can pull out a nice story (and other stuff) I don't see why it won't work. Good luck

 

[Abîme]

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this game use this idea in a good way, sadly now abandoned.

 

[freedom.call]

I'd want to try something like that, unless the same scene is seen from many characters....that would probably get old fast.

 

[Notretsam]

I don't mean same scene seen twice , therefore from different character perspectives.

As you said, it get old fast and it just get repetitive, but if it makes sense story wise to do so, then maybe but certainly something I look to be avoiding.

 

[Akamari]

It is certainly something I haven't seen anyone do justice around here.

It depends on the writing and the design, but as a concept I like this. Especially, as opposed to games that have one MC, but show scenes in which he/she is not present too much, so it's like they don't have any.

 

[Vanaduke]

Dual Family, two protagonists, two perspectives of the same dull story which is a huge drawback. Notwithstanding the painstakingly glacial development phase. 1 year and still no official update. 1 year. 1 bloody year.

 

[DawnCry]

Just saying but having multiple main characters means a LOT of work. We are talking about doubling the work you have so that 2 storylines advance at the same pace.

It isn't like it's impossible to do, but I would say it needs more than a one man army.

 

[Joraell]

I slowly furthering my knowledge of daz studio and working towards my first VN, at moment am in writing stage, and been wondering what do people think of Multiple Main Characters?

very much like a film or a TV show, where you don't always see it from perspective of same person, each character have its own story arc that will sometimes cross over with other characters.

I seen one game with multiple characters but not something I seen a lot, most of the time its always one main character, so thought MMC would be something different and I think it be more interesting for me to write.

Rather get some feedback before deciding.

That is the way how I want making my game Betrayed, but for now I must focus mainly on main storyline. For developing it more wide will need much more time or bettermore people.

 

[polywog]

I slowly furthering my knowledge of daz studio and working towards my first VN, at moment am in writing stage, and been wondering what do people think of Multiple Main Characters?

very much like a film or a TV show, where you don't always see it from perspective of same person, each character have its own story arc that will sometimes cross over with other characters.

I seen one game with multiple characters but not something I seen a lot, most of the time its always one main character, so thought MMC would be something different and I think it be more interesting for me to write.

Rather get some feedback before deciding.

My first film, a school project... Started with one character, and then when they interacted with someone, the camera followed the new character transitioning into the next scene. It's a great way to combine multiple short loosely related, or unrelated stories.

The movie Pulp Fiction combined short stories, but they broke the timeline in editing, When a character is killed in one story, and then he's alive again in the next scene. Some people appreciate an intellectual challenge, others rage about continuity. Controversy is good, get people arguing over your story, it could become a cult classic. In other words, piss off the critics, do it.

 

[Hadley]

I don't like it unless its a Story about Twincest and you get to know the thinking of both Characters. If its like two different Chars with two different Stories it will be kinda weird since most people will only be interested in one of them. And if a Story breaches out too much its gets too complicated to follow the Story, especially for Games that only updated every few month.

 

[HalGLC]

Wouldn't be my first pick. When I play a game I project myself on to the MC, so if I'm playing as guy A then I'm suddenly playing as guy B and I see guy A and I'm like "Hey, that's me" and then-why does everything smell like copper?

 

[HopesGaming]

Those kinds of games always feel a bit disjointed for me.
I like to be invested in a story. Once it changes to another pov it ruins the momentum a bit.
Feels like a restart of some sort.

From a dev perspective, it can also lead to problems. If there are some states such as love and all those standard shenanigans, then it would be troublesome to make it for all the main characters.
It requires a lot of characters which each their own backgrounds and plots. The arcs for each MC will also feel thin if split over 3 story arcs.
Like, if you focus on one MC in 0.01 and switch it over to the second in 0.02 then the first MC will only leave the intro arc at 0.04.
If done all characters for each update it would simply become too lacking as there is only so much time in the world to be able to make content for all three paths. Hence it would feel like there is not enough content per update.

It can be done of course. And can become a success. But it would really need an impactful and quality strong 0.01.

 

[Notretsam]

Lots of great feedback so far, thanks everyone.

Just saying but having multiple main characters means a LOT of work. We are talking about doubling the work you have so that 2 storylines advance at the same pace.

It isn't like it's impossible to do, but I would say it needs more than a one man army.

Its going be the same amount of work you are able to do no matter how many MC you have, but I suspect you mean something similar to what @HopesGaming has said, that there the potential for people having to wait a few updates to play as a MC again, hence it more work to try and get new content for a MC in each update.

Which is a very good point and something I hadn't thought off, it most likely be something like a Soap Opera TV show or even Walking Dead is a great example. Currently Walking Dead is focusing on the Hilltop community and people there, but one episode will catch you up with people from Alexandria community, then next episode catch you up with people from the Kingdom community.

Hopefully people watch walking dead and will instantly know what I mean, but if you don't , there is 3 main groups of survivors (Alexandria, Hilltop and Kingdom) , in each episode of the show you sometimes won't see anybody from a specific group, but you will see them next episode.

Could possible be like that but mostly am thinking it be one male MC who the story mostly focus on, but it sometime flip over to a female MC, they both have separate story arcs that will possible be combined and then you see them together. Hard for me to say for certain until I actually write it but that is what am thinking today.

The male MC will have a best friend who you see him with, sorta could be like two male MC's you see at same time.

 

[desmosome]

Depends on the scope of the plot. If its a standard contemporary setting, I don't see the benefit. If its an epic tale or journey, there is a lot to be gained by having different perspectives. If you played Banner Saga, you get different protagonists for each game in the trilogy and the party splits into different caravans at certain points within each games too.

 

[215303j]

I like it. You can influence the story line by the actions of multiple characters. I don't see the problem with more scenes, because you don't need to show the same scene twice, but there may be a problem with branching paths. Controlling branching paths based on the actions of one MC is already complicated, more MC's is more complicated. But it does give you more opportunities to influence their interactions.

Have a look at Intimate Relations. You control mainly and always the MC, but also some important side characters (daughter and wife) and control the relationship between the MC and these characters by making decisions for the wife and daughter.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Three examples come in my mind :

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, where you play the game mainly from the MC perspective, but sometimes switch to the girl's one. Despite the game itself being globally cheap, it's handle correctly. It's an effectively addition to the game that let us see, time to time, what's on the daughter's mind and provide a better understanding of what happen and the progress the MC made.

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, where you alternatively play as the brother and as the sister. Personally I don't really see what it add to the game. Mostly it's two, parallel but different, stories that cross each other time to time. But perhaps is it because of the small amount of content in each update.

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, which is more like a live documentary of a small community where you often switch MC. It end being really confusing, not only because you've multiple stories to remember, but also because many of them cross, when you don't simply go back on a story, but from another point of view.

There's also few examples with other game engines than Ren'py, notably some with RPG Maker, but I remember less of them. The only one I remember was made by Daniels K, if my memory don't betray me, and you where cycling between all protagonists day after day. It was really difficult to follow the stories and stay invested.

So, there's pros and well as cons, and before everything else it will depend of how you'll do it.

 

[Notretsam]

I think how you transition from one MC over to another MC is a very interesting point, as people say it has to make sense for having more than one MC and how would you do it.

I think I would have it that the MC's run into each other most days, like they stay in same street, so maybe see each other there or other common places, and whenever the run into each other is when the switch from one MC to another happens.

So you follow Male MC for 2 days, then he runs into Female MC outside a bank, they talk about recent times in there lives, then go there separate ways but now you follow Female MC until they bump into each other again. Maybe the Male MC talking about his life influences the Female MC going forward.

At least I think that is how I would do it but I am starting to think I have two separate stories (VN's), which is certainly not a bad thing but not sure there is much depth to them separately.

 

[Ataios]

I like the idea of multiple protagonists, who may even be enemies. I don't think in a porn game, it will ever be possible to switch characters like in GTA, it will be more like a book with chapters telling the tales of different characters.

My idea for a multiple protagonist game would feature a powerful woman seducing a milf and the milf's son as protagonists at least initially hostile to each other. While the lesbian lover tries to make the woman who had been straight up to this point in her life sexually dependent, the son tries to bring her back to her family. It would most be set in a cyberpunk world and both protagonist would be rather powerful.

 

[Silver]

It's a bad idea as I personally think, unless you have multiple people to support you. when you use multiple protagonists, your effort is divided between them, it slows down the progress of the story of one character. Let's say if your game takes a year to complete? now it takes 2 years to complete, but if you felt like oh this needs a lot of effort, so you will probably end up using less content per protagonist, which lowers the quality of the game. I am not saying it's entirely bad if you can do it well, but I don't think most of patreon creators are able to pull off something like that. GTA V was successful, because rockstar has a big team.