- As far as breaking my own rules concerning the man at the bowling alley. Without getting into spoilers as far as anyone knows he doesn't exist.
I don't remember all the details but there is a conversation the MC has with his "landlady" about male witches, and there is a line where he basically asks if it's possible there are male witches in the world that just no one knows about since most witches give up sons for adoptions and even if they don't, they never reveal magic to them or test them for it. And the "landlady" basically says it's possible but not likely because they would find out about a man using magic. As soon as I heard that I was like, *DING,* game just setup the possibly of another male witch! It was subtle and then when the scene in the bowling alley happened, I just thought to myself how good of a setup it was. Nice work, you didn't break your own rules, in fact you set it up brilliantly, that's good story telling.
- Anna and the MC are broken up. But not because their relationship wasn't working but because of distance. I still have plans for her and "porn logic" being what it is, one way to have her be okay with a harem is to be turned on by the mc having sex with other women.
It may be wishful thinking but I'm hoping that Anna got knocked up and so she'll basically have to come back. But aside from that I chalk her inability to be even attracted to anyone else now up to some magic that now connects the MC and her. Sura basically says she and the MC are connected after they have sex and I'm betting it's a similar thing that happened to Anna but because she isn't a witch it might even be more potent. Though as I think about it, Sura could mean that she and MC are connect because he knocked her up too... having a kid defiantly connects people. Just some speculations and ramblings...
- I am thinking about how to implement more impactful choices. That said giving multiple compelling options while still telling the story I want is very difficult. I remember seeing the Mass Effect devs mention that 90%+ of all people played paragon and for me, with limited time, I don't want to spend weeks on content if less than 10% of the players will pick the option.
I'm writing a VN right now, still learning Daz to do the art so mine is a way off before anything could be even close to release, but I'm having the same kind of thoughts. Choice is good, but if the choice doesn't matter then why have it really? And if almost no one is going to pick it anyway then would it be better making more content that more people are going to see? It's a hard thing to figure out, you have to find the best path for your story and so far, I think you're doing a great job.
On the note of choice though, I wouldn't let people get you stressed about unavoidable sex scenes as long as they aren't niche fetish scenes. I would usually say most fetish scenes should be avoidable or at least skippable, but the two in this story are integral to the plot. How else could you have done it without changing the whole premise of the story?
A final thought I have about Sura: she's such a great character. I keep thinking about how she volunteered to test the MC. I don't know what others thought (or even if this was your thought process) but when I heard that all I could think about was what that meant for her. She was basically volunteering to have her life changed forever no matter what happened to protect her fellow witches. There were, in my mind at least, only three ways that could play out.
One, Sura kills the MC and becomes a murder, killing a defenseless man who wasn't what the dryad leader (I forget the title) thought he was and knowing Sura she would hate herself for that.
Two, the MC is who the dryad leader thought and Sura basically gets bound to him for life in a way by having sex with him.
Three, the MC is secretly a bad guy who is a super powerful magic user (or even just loses control out of fear or something) and kills Sura.
So, for her to volunteer when those are three of the most likely outcomes (as far as I can tell) shows a real strength of character.