Yeah I do fully understand the need to have a realistic game instead of a fapquest, but with how little gay stuff we have to begin with compared to straight games out there I'd want a fapquest lol. I'm a guy, can ya blame me? :| But in all seriousness you're doing fine. You have your own thing you wanna do and are ACTUALLY doing it (in this world of dead games that's almost more than enough) so I guess I can't complain TOO much~
I hear you on the dateable guys too. Right now the game does feel a bit too dragged out for me in terms of excessively long conversations, but I guess the realism thing justifies it somewhat. But what about even just one-night stands or solely sexdates and fuckbuddies, not necessarily fully dateable romanceable characters? The cockteasing might be a bit easier to bear in that case.
One of the major reasons I don't have this game as a "fapquest" is because I don't find that as stimulating tbh. I'm writing a game that I would like to play in a way that's never been done before. Even if I'm watching a porn video, I always enjoy those with a story or a lead-in before they just fuck. I find the relationship interesting and how the characters really interact with one other--otherwise, it doesn't really seem like a "visual novel." If there's no story, what's the point of calling it a "novel?" That being said, when I first made this game, it didn't really have an identity. I feel like anyone can write a game where people just fuck with no personality (there's a ton of examples on here right now). I feel like my approach is unique and I like that. Don't worry, there will be fapping material...but it all has to be part of the story for it to work.
Not sure if I'm way off base with this, but if you wanted to add more sex, you could always do a cliche wet dream sequence and have it be with a different guy. Let the player choose from a few different options. This could give you an easier way to introduce that if you really wanted. It would also make the "jump to the next day" part of the game less of a process and more of a fun thing to do. Also, this wouldn't have to happen every night, or could be triggered by an event from the previous day. You could also introduce some inner dialogue with regards to this like "this is so confusing, why would I dream of getting fucked by Mikhail when all I want is Braden".
Then again, it might be a silly idea.
I thought about this, too. It was an actually an earlier suggestion by someone else (I can't remember if it was on the this forum or not). The problem with that, to me, is --as your said-- it feels cliche af. One thing I've tried to do is surprise people with the story so that it's not as predictable as you may think. When I do use something cliche, I want that to still feel like a surprise because you were expecting something
not cliche. That being said, I'm not master of writing here so I know I'm amateur. But: like I've consistently said, I wanted to inspire people to change up the approach again. In reality, there's one route in this story because ultimately I'm writing this game for a specific reason and to interject more guys into the mix my distract from the original intent of the story and point of what I'm doing. Ultimately, I can't let my dick write the story.
However, I haven't ruled out even brief side-routes like you're suggesting---but, they have to work with the characters. I have no plans to put them in as of this reply but I've changed my mind a litany of times already so who knows. While I may want that as much as you do sometimes, I can't compromise the integrity of the character. Honestly, the majority of my following are people that dig the slow build and the story. In all the messages I've ever gotten, I think counting these last 2 posts suggesting more sexual content bring the total to like 4 people. But, I'm with you. God knows I've made my share of dirty pictures on my computer for my own guilty pleasure but when the ink dries--I gotta be consistent to the story
That being said, long-term: I gotchu guys--I'll embrace my pervy side. I'm just not compromising the project for it. I know my approach isn't for everyone and I'm sorta ok with that. Sure, it would be sweet to make millions writing a Patreon story that caters to what people want, but I gotta take a little pride in what I do and the story part of this is what I enjoy doing the most.