Survival and building mechanics for an adult game

[Blaspheme]

I do enjoy real gameplay in adult games, and to be honest, I get easily bored playing VN. But I prefer when the gameplay is about the sex, like training, having dialogues who help develop the background and the possible path for the character, etc.

As a rpg fan, I love skill points, characters sheets and crafting. Crafting is a powerful tool to keep the player invested in the game: he feels like he's really doing something, advancing in the story and develops gameplay.

For example, I really enjoyed Cost of Survival: different characteristics, some "survival" elements (hunger, sanity...), and it's not really crafting per se, but you unlock rooms and stuff, who unlock gameplay. Sold Girl Town also has some very decent gameplay, with training and money management.

As for survival, I'm not sure how to do it. Something like day/night gameplay, with gathering/crafting during days and sexy-sex during nighttime? But the main problem is the same: how to have two parallel gameplays without spending 5 years in development? Mini-games seem the obvious answer, but how to make them interesting and relevant is another thing. Or the good old: "sending your girls in gathering missions", but what does the MC during this time?

 

[DreamBig Games]

I do enjoy real gameplay in adult games, and to be honest, I get easily bored playing VN. But I prefer when the gameplay is about the sex, like training, having dialogues who help develop the background and the possible path for the character, etc.

As a rpg fan, I love skill points, characters sheets and crafting. Crafting is a powerful tool to keep the player invested in the game: he feels like he's really doing something, advancing in the story and develops gameplay.

For example, I really enjoyed Cost of Survival: different characteristics, some "survival" elements (hunger, sanity...), and it's not really crafting per se, but you unlock rooms and stuff, who unlock gameplay. Sold Girl Town also has some very decent gameplay, with training and money management.

As for survival, I'm not sure how to do it. Something like day/night gameplay, with gathering/crafting during days and sexy-sex during nighttime? But the main problem is the same: how to have two parallel gameplays without spending 5 years in development? Mini-games seem the obvious answer, but how to make them interesting and relevant is another thing. Or the good old: "sending your girls in gathering missions", but what does the MC during this time?

The idea I have in mind, for survival, would have a day/ night cycle. This cycle would drive the schedule of the NPC's, allowing for different repeatable events ( like A at 12:00 is gathering wood so you can go in the forest and fuck her against a tree, or B at 09:00 is taking a shower under the waterfall, so you get a sex scene there ) and also will affect the energy and needs of the player ( water, food, rest ). That is all about survival, as long as you have food, water and take some rest, you will survive.

As for not spending 5 years, yeah, that is the question... To be honest, with Unreal Engine, I can use a lot of premade resources ( code, meshes, materials, etc ) that I would just need to buy and incorporate. So, the survival and building mechanics should not take 5 years. But, animations, yeah, this would take a long time. Right now I'm animating for the current project and it takes a long time to do a decent animation.

As for sending girls on gathering chores, yeah, this is what I plan. Every NPC will have some jobs to do around the colony.
Like: A is a forester, she gathers and prepares wood for fire and as a crafting material.
B is a farmer, she will plant, water and harvest plants.
C is a cook, she will cook food and drinks.
etc.

The idea is that in the beginning, the player will have to do a lot of these tasks, but as he gets more NPC's, he can assign them to chores. However, the NPC don't have the same efficiency as the Player, so if you want to speed up a project ( like build a new house to be able to bring NPC E in the colony, you will either wait a long time for A to gather the necessary wood, or help her gather faster. ). So, here will be stuff for the player to do. Also,the player will need to spend some time interacting with NPC'c to advance the relations.