You have to be careful here. Lots of people will insist that they want freedom to explore over a structured story, but sandbox games get harshy criticized for being a mile wide and an inch deep. More engaging stories require a more structured approach. If you're looking at the extreme ends (a sandbox that's really just some quick set dressing for porn gifs or w/e vs. a visual novel type of game that has no real exploration aspect) then you need to ask yourself whether you're trying to do a specific type of game with a very particular experience, something that does get plenty of praise when it hits the right notes, or looking at the sandbox structure because you don't have a particular idea in mind and want to have room to do a lot of little things.
Most answers are going to fall somewhere in the middle, though, and that's where we really get into the substance of this question. Most games, whether lewd or not, find a mixture and the idea is to essentially give the player breaks from more intensive reading or gameplay that requires their attention to let them play around for a while. That's where exploration can be used to great effect. Think about what the main appeal of your game is and then, if you're adding exploration, allow for smaller bites of things that support it as some stuff to do while the player is in break mode.
If you don't consider this you could end up with a grindy clicker game whose 'exploration' aspect is just needlessly gating your progress. Ideally you want the player to be engaged enough with your structured material to want to continue it (so that they're not so detached that they'd rather just screw around) while also feeling relieved rather than annoyed when they're returned to a hub or w/e.
Most answers are going to fall somewhere in the middle, though, and that's where we really get into the substance of this question. Most games, whether lewd or not, find a mixture and the idea is to essentially give the player breaks from more intensive reading or gameplay that requires their attention to let them play around for a while. That's where exploration can be used to great effect. Think about what the main appeal of your game is and then, if you're adding exploration, allow for smaller bites of things that support it as some stuff to do while the player is in break mode.
If you don't consider this you could end up with a grindy clicker game whose 'exploration' aspect is just needlessly gating your progress. Ideally you want the player to be engaged enough with your structured material to want to continue it (so that they're not so detached that they'd rather just screw around) while also feeling relieved rather than annoyed when they're returned to a hub or w/e.
