I get what you mean, but my main concern is about the clarity itself. Using the example above, if I get scene A, as long as I'm aware there is a scene B that I missed and I know why I missed it (therefore, knowing what different choice to make in the replay/other save to get scene B if I want to), then I'm 100% fine. But if I'm not aware there is a scene B that I missed, I wouldn't have known that I missed something and I wouldn't have known what to choose differently.
Now this is a great example of clarity question. While it's good that we don't need to get Mia scene in chapter 1 to be on her path (sorry I really don't remember who Mia is, I'm just using her name as an example here), would the player be aware of that? Or in other words, how would the player know the importance of a choice between something that is fairly inconsequential and something that must be picked?
Sorry if I sound like I want to be spoonfed the information in-game, I really am not asking for that. It's just that when it comes to branching in traditional games, they are often fairly obvious (ex: if you choose to spare the dragon instead of killing it then it'd come back and help you later on in the game, or if your character is X class then you have access to this side-quest, etc), but it's totally different in VN format where there are often TONS of choices and we don't necessarily know the weight of each choice unless we look at the code. And as the game grows, there are only going to be more and more choices and variables.
Maybe a good compromise is in-game Gallery? It's good enough to tell the players what they miss (if any) without really giving away all the answers as to how to get them. This is all just food for thought kind of thing though and definitely not a priority by any means. I know you already have a lot on your plate.
This makes zero sense. You, as the player, decide who you pursue and bed. If your definition of romance is not pursuing and bedding many women at the same time, then choose the option to only pursue and bed 1 woman. Take ownership of your own action rather than blaming the game for giving the option to pursue and bed many women at the same time (not saying that this game does it btw).
Sorry for the late response, have been busy and wanted to wait until I had time to properly answer this bc it looks like it might get a bit complex, we'll see.
With this first example, I don't figure it'll be immediately obvious you've missed a scene depending on what choice you made. Here, you'll get scene B if you establish yourself preliminarily on character B's path in ch1. Otherwise it defaults to A. If you have established yourself on B's path, you'll still get a yes/no choice to get this scene with them, where a no would again default you back to A. This is because the scene itself is necessary, but the other character involved isn't. The difference in the scenes are a change in background information on characters, so what and when you learn things about certain people.
With this example, the option were essentially based on the idea that people interested in character B can opt into the scene with them, and people not interested in B will get A instead. So in this instance it's not going to be obvious that there's a completely different version of the scene.
This is partly intentional. While I appreciate clarity of information is important, particularly for the big decisions (I don't intend to Alex's pen anyone), I also kind of want people to miss some stuff. One of the things I personally love about Being A Dik, to use as an example, is there's a bunch of stuff in that game I've never fucking seen. And while this isn't going to be anywhere near the scope of that game, I do enjoy the way that that is reflective of real life.
In the example with Mia, that's a slightly easier explanation I think. For the scene to be available the player must have made however many Mia-positive choices to have her interested, and then choose to go to the gym with her. And it's pretty straight-forward from there. A player who is enamored with Mia early on will quite likely get this scene and be on her path. But if a player didn't like her that much, but changes their mind later in the playthrough there will still be a jump-on point. In this instance, it should be relatively obvious that there's a scene with Mia earlier on, seeing as just make pro-Mia choices up to that point pretty much leads to it.
Now, is it necessarily obvious which choices are pro-Mia choices? No, not really. Generally speaking, being nice to someone will probably make them like you more, but in this game I've tried to give the characters some level of individuality, so some things will work better that others.
Again, I'm not trying to Alex's pen anyone, but there is going to be a certain degree of obfuscation to what does and doesn't work, because I'm trying to write things vaguely emblematic of real life. Overall, though, when it comes to pursuing love interests, it should be pretty easy and obvious to at least be on the right track.
Very valid point about the weight of choices. I think I partially covered this already, but for the sake of clarity a lot of the choices are minor. They'll influence how much a character likes you, and you'll need to be liked by a character to a certain level at certain points in the game for things to be available. As far as I can tell (and this might change as I actually write and code stuff) there aren't any unreasonable cut offs that won't make sense or feel arbitrary. Major decisions I think are going to feel major, because they'll be decisions that noticeably hold more weight (i.e. opening up to people, revealing or withholding certain information, and also pursuing certain other people, for example). My hope is that if you're interested in a girl, you should be pretty easily able to be on their path. It should feel intuitive, assuming the player is able to read the girl's personality of course and gauge what will and won't work with them and what their boundaries are. This is easy to say while making ch2, of course, where things are still pretty open. It might get a little hazier in the future but I hope I've planned things out well enough that I'm not going to make any major story/continuity/coding/whatever mistakes.
For what it's worth, coding is the thing I am most concerned about. I'm very happy with the story, I'm improving with the art side of things (even if I wish I could make that go quicker) but coding is my weakest point. I'm slightly concerned about managing variables in, say, five chapters time, because I just don't know what it's going to look like. I'm optimistic that things will go smoothly but I just can't tell. So far, so good, though.
I have considered adding a gallery, and tried coding one in. Based off of what I just said above, you can probably guess that things didn't get too far. So right now that's on the backburner.
Hope this isn't too confusing. I thought things might get a bit complex, and looking back at how long this reply ended up being, yeah, it did. So hopefully I've explained things at least somewhat well. It would be easier to talk about it once ch2 is actually out, because then I can literally point at choices and go 'this means that happened, that means this happened' but it's a little tricky with having to be so vague. I guess the overall point is that the real major things should be relatively obvious, particularly when it comes to being on/off a girl's path. But some of the intricacies may not be immediately obvious on a first playthrough.
