Thank you for the suggestions. These give me an idea what players are thinking.
As for 3), would you think the skip button on the mini-game help decrease this grinding? Once you have one very successful/high-score attempt on the minigame you can just keep pressing the skip for money. (It gives you 80% of your best attempt before.)
As for 1), I have received a number of feedbacks on this and I understand this is something needs to be resolved. However, I dont really understand where this confusion comes from.
-. The conversation with Lilith on the second bet has suggested the player to take a look at the izakaya(restaurant) and conversation with some ppl on the street also reckon player to enter the izakaya. (Here player unlock the first 3 episodes of the stories.)
After the story 3, there is a notice pop up giving hint for the alley.
After the alley, there is no more direct hint here for the players. When players do not know what to do next, they should think about what they can do. Since there is a skill4 not unlocked yet, player will try to unlock it and see what happen. After the skill4 is unlcoked there is notice suggesting talking to the dudes on the street. During the conversation with those dudes, you know about the exhibitionism at mid-night.
After the exhibitionism player lost their direction again but with a few attempt it wont be hard to find out the stories can continue in the izakaya.
- Besides the above, we leave a questlog type of thing for players as well, which is the little doll on the shelf. It is giving hints telling almost what you need to do. "Enjoy a night with her"-> so you need to call her at night. "Alley is a good place for crime" so why not take a look and see what you can do in the alley? etc.
I am wondering if spoon-feeding is really needed because the trials and errors cool ppl down? Looking for some more explanations.
The skip will help reduce the grind. Having an alternate mini-game to play for money might help too.
Hitting skip feels a little like cheating though.
As to 1, I would have some good exposition in the protagonist's thoughts.
"Well, I have her enjoying it on the balcony. That's a big step forward. She's not as scared as she used to be and is starting to really get into it, even with the big risk of getting caught. I wonder what I should do next? If she's getting all hot and bothered doing it on the balcony, perhaps I should try her out with some mild exposure play. Need to find someone that is like me who would watch, and someplace safe. Maybe downtown? But I really want to work on the NTR. For that I need to get to know them better. If I want to get her enjoying her shame, I have to learn more about their relationship, and get close enough to the both of them that I have more chances. I can't just visit, that would be creepy, but maybe I could invite them out to a meal? Or drop in when they are out. Think they go to happy hour or something..."
With one possible path, this is pretty blatant. If you expand on different activities you could do with them, this could be a list of hints on how to move forward.
"I wonder if I should do costume play to warm her up to the exposure play first? Start small. Or skip that and work on the NTR aspect. Or both. Wonder if I could find a place in public where I could meet both and still mess with her...What should I do..."
Also with the error message, you could say something like "She won't come yet. You don't know her well enough yet to push the mental buttons that would convince her to take this chance. You need more info on their relationship." or "She's not going to do this exposure walk yet. It's too big of a step. Let's warp her a bit more first."
The doll on the bookshelf is very helpful, but knowing that the alley is the next site of the action doesn't connect well to "take them out to eat". Since its new, you start to wonder if its bugged or what could I possibly be missing.
Also, "do this 3 times" is not clear. You could have a message at the end that says "Well, that went well. A few more times and I'll have what I need, I think..."
The calendar also needs a bit of work. I could see the buisiness dinners and happy hour marked out, but I thought at first it happened only 2 times a month or so. Might want to note special events on the calendar (one time, or once a month, like "Shota goes away to Tokyo to report to corporate this weekend") and have a notation that every Tues is a business dinner, say.
You don't need to spell out what the player should do, but laying out options and hints about how you are thinking of this should be built into the action. For better or worse, a bunch of folks will skip the dialogue with secondary characters in an attempt to get to the naughty bits faster. Build hints into the after-action dialogue, and drop hints on whether its a one-time thing or needs to repeat further.
If you want to get them to read more of it, build it into dialogue with the Heroine. You can flirt with her and drop hints there:
"Do you like the idea of having sex with me while Shota is off working?"
"T-that...its not that..."
"Or do you just love my cock that much?"
"No way...Shota is just as good because he loves..."
"Or is it just because you get a thrill of risking being caught..."
"Tha-" She blushes beet red.
"Perhaps I should find a way to combine the two." You say with mock seriousness.
She giggles in frustrated exasperation, giving up as a shiver runs through her body.
But you notice that she can't meet your eye now, and she is suddenly much tighter.
Perhaps I should look into getting her naughty while Shota is working nearby...
The player will read this because its part of the fetish.
Well, that's my 2 cents.