Choosing dates vs replaying content

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Is it better to choose dates and need to replay or to see everything in one play?

I'd rather choose.
90
70%
I don't like replaying content I've already seen.
39
30%
 
Total votes : 129

Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Dolphin-BR » Thu, 16Jul07 00:42

I'm always for more content. So, in an ideal situation the player would have a few dates to choose from on day 1, and different dates to choose from on day 2. Those dates not chosen on day 1 the player would only see in another play through. The same thing happens on day 2.

But if the game has only two dates, I prefer to be able to see both in just one play through.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Jiimbojones » Thu, 16Jul07 04:25

Maybe

Intro

Date1 ->DateA OR Date2 ->DateB

Ending

would be a happy middle ground.

I may be misremembering earlier games, but I fell like the different paths in your games are usually slightly different versions of telling the same story, maybe just completely branching off at one point will allow for the gameplay people to be happy and still tell your story.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Godsh » Fri, 16Jul08 15:42

I'd rather choose who I'm dating and replay the game for sure to see more of its content. Once you finished the game at least once, you know pretty well the game mechanics and it should be a bit faster/easier to go on another path. It adds some replay value, that's mostly what it keeps me playing or restarting the game even though I got one of the several endings.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby lath » Fri, 16Jul08 17:48

My like is the option to skip replaying the whole game over and over and over again just to get an extra picture or two.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby ltpika » Sun, 16Jul10 21:55

lath wrote:My like is the option to skip replaying the whole game over and over and over again just to get an extra picture or two.


Exactly! I hate when the game is 90% the same, if you have branching paths, they should lead to very different branches. Not the same scenes with boobs.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Asdref » Thu, 16Jul21 13:08

Hi here,

To me, if we can see all the content game in a one time, so it's not what we can call a game. By definition, in a game we have to replay some parts of the game.

Therefor, sometimes I really don't like to replay all the game. And, as an other user had confessed too, when I really don't understand why I can't have a particular end, so I take a look to the data/image game.

As I said in my first post, currently I am creating a "date" game, so I think about this problematic too, and I am happy to see this thread. I'm not sur to have the solution, I think it's a question of balance and feature.

Perhaps an advice for your next game tlaero : I have noticed sometimes you put 3 answers but only 2 have an influence in the game. So, why not only put 2 answers ? I think that put an answer which doesn't influence the game add only confusion in the game.

I think that at a moment in the game, the gamer must understand how it is built, where are the branch and, so, how he can make the whole of the game. Sometimes, when we are creating the game, we want to hide his architecture, but it's probably a mistake.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby LJames713 » Thu, 16Jul21 15:51

What if the game allowed for both dates to intercede/interrupt one another, allowing for "cross-pollination" of the two story arcs?

Meaning (if I'm following you, correctly), you are on date a, but don't wish to have date b.

However, certain choices (or, potentially, a very cryptic, hard-to-find choice arc) allows the player to experience the story from date b to also occur...but at a place in the story that would either take place later in the story arc IF the player had chosen to go on Date B instead of Date A OR the "new" Date B would be a slightly less intricate affair, presenting intimate scenarios wholly different from the original, more "well-known" and (I would think, lengthier) Date B.

Of course, I'm thinking of a synergistic, symbiotic cross-pollination of both characters, that could facilitate confluences that could "distort" the outcome (a sci-fi/Twilight Zone-like date story, involving a man going back and forth in time within a 24-48 hour period, wherein the choices he makes send him to different places in that time-stream, 'so as to make different decisions that change the outcome each and every time, as he attempts to date and make a good impression on one of two women...or both, simultaneously, as he learns more about them? I'm thinking "Groundhog Day", with the space-time continuum rupturing violently throughout the game, with "randomized" features that make the game play truly bizarre and a weird send-up of the entire genre)...?

I don't know...I've enjoyed your work in the past, immeasurably, by the way. Thank you for your capacities in this field...!
Last edited by LJames713 on Fri, 16Jul22 03:33, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby TheBrain » Thu, 16Jul21 19:05

Asdref wrote:By definition, in a game we have to replay some parts of the game.

This is not necessarily true. There are many adventure games that have a linear story, but where the player cannot die or got stuck. The challenge in those games is to solve the puzzles in order to move the story along.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby tlaero » Fri, 16Jul22 08:06

Asdref wrote:To me, if we can see all the content game in a one time, so it's not what we can call a game. By definition, in a game we have to replay some parts of the game.


Consider a modern day shooter like Halo. One path through the story, no real need to replay, but clearly a game. The gameplay there is the gun combat, not the progression of the story. Similarly, consider a puzzle game like Inside. Again no real replay (okay, the secret ending) but the gameplay is solving the puzzles. It's very possible to have a game with a good story that doesn't branch. You just need there to be some sort of gameplay mechanic to it.

Which brings us to this:

Asdref wrote:I have noticed sometimes you put 3 answers but only 2 have an influence in the game. So, why not only put 2 answers ? I think that put an answer which doesn't influence the game add only confusion in the game.


All 3 answers influence the game. Two help you proceed. One helps you fail. Think of these situations as the relationship game equivalent to shooter game gun combat or puzzle game puzzles.

I would argue that a game with a branching story but no gameplay mechanic isn't a game. It's just multiple visual novels twisted together.

Now, you can argue that relationship game gameplay mechanics aren't good enough. There are people who play shooters and puzzle games without paying attention to the stories, because the gameplay mechanics are fun enough to stand alone. I doubt there are many people who play relationship games for just the "choose the right thing to say" mechanic. Collectively, we in the erotic games genre haven't come up with a really compelling gameplay mechanic for our games yet. People have tried a number of things, from "find the hidden spot to click" (i.e. Shark's games) to "say the right things" (i.e. my games) to "build stats" (i.e. Leo's games) to flat out "play a standard game" (i.e. strip poker style games).

If anyone has any ideas for good gameplay mechanics that integrate well into the stories of these games, I'm interested in hearing them. Note that I'm specifically asking for the gameplay here, not "make it branch more." We've already had that discussion.

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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Jack_Smythe » Fri, 16Jul22 12:03

tlaero wrote:If anyone has any ideas for good gameplay mechanics that integrate well into the stories of these games, I'm interested in hearing them. Note that I'm specifically asking for the gameplay here, not "make it branch more." We've already had that discussion.

Tlaero


I just wanted to state that with the types of games you are making Tlaero, being the HTML-picture-based-hot-spot style dating game genre, there is a pattern used by most developers. I LOVE your games! Great stories, excellent scenes, hot erotic moments! I think that Wolfschadowe hit an element of game play with his BEW game that I found very appealing for the "click the spot on the html graphic" style game and I think it may compliment your games very well.

In Wolfshadowe's game, you can play entirely through it and not make any progress with the women and likewise you can play through it and make what you think is progress with a woman and end up in a sex scene but in reality there is far more content that you may have missed even though you think you did it right. For example, Natalie in the strip club. That whole scene has multiple outcomes based on your decisions. It is possible to go and just watch the girls strip and not have any encounter and the story progresses. It's possible to go and have an erotic encounter with Natalie while she's on stage. It's possible to watch to Candy have sex in the bathroom and then have a heavy erotic encounter with Natalie later in the night. There are tons of possibilities, creating tons of replay value, but no matter what, the story continues without really penalizing. The game basically allows the player decide just how erotic Brad's week is going to be. Wolfshadowe's scenes have LAYERS.

Your games are very similar, Tlaero but they seem to have a far more linear PATHS. But a game play mechanic that you may wish to look closer at is freedom of exploration and not so obvious consequences for player "error." Ariane B did this very well. BEW does it very well. And I am not talking BRANCHING...I'm talking of LAYERS. The choices a player makes may indicate just how far in the erotic encounter they can go...not just whether or not they get one. Or maybe inclusion of prior seemingly non-game changing choices in dialogue options do come back and have an effect during the encounter, for example a dialogue option while chatting during a lunch date may be to mention that you had a crush once on a professional soccer player...maybe the object of your desire will remember that when it comes to the erotic scene and have an extra picture or event where they dress up like a soccer player and role play a bit. Something that gives the player the sense that the game is more open than they originally thought and that the somewhat benign things actually effect the story or events later on.

I do think that freedom is a game play mechanic. I see branching as more of a choose your own adventure where you go off on separate paths. I'm suggesting taking the one scene and adding layers to it that can be, but don't have to be, unlocked based on how the player handles themselves, with the story progressing regardless. Does that make sense?

I'll love and play your games either way since your stories are excellent and your content very erotic. Good luck!
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Draga » Fri, 16Jul22 14:20

It always depends on the game and story, doesn't it?
I mean, if date1 was a success why do you want to go to date2 with another girl? (Except that you find girl2 hot and you just want to screw her [img]images/icones/icon15.gif[/img] )

For me, I always prefer games where you have choices to make. They just feel more "real" and it's easier to get into the game. But linear games could be great to, if the story is good.
It also depends what kind of influence your choices have. There could be little/fake choices where the only differents in your choices is the way something happens in a very short amount of time. (For example another sentence, without any consequences) but there could also be big choices that completely changes the game and brings you to a completely different path that you wouldn't have seen if you choosed the other choice.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Maurice » Fri, 16Jul22 14:30

disclaimer: all puns regarding the filling of boxes are unintended.

@ Tlaera

I couln't resist suggesting this gameplaymechanic when you asked for ideas for gameplaymechanics.

The box with the holes with different shapes.

Every toddler loves that game (for a while).

Image

The player can be treated to an image or snippet of story for every block he/she succesfully puts through the corresponding hole.

Since the game ends when a player runs out of blocks the player can be dealt different and a different amount of blocks each playthrough.

(A lot of rules can be added to spice things up. Like different boxsizes. That way the player can also run out of space to put the blocks besides running out of blocks as a way to end the game.
eg.
To make it more exciting the player could be enabled to fill the box of both the protagonist and the antagonist of the story.)
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby Asdref » Fri, 16Jul22 19:07

tlaero wrote:If anyone has any ideas for good gameplay mechanics that integrate well into the stories of these games, I'm interested in hearing them. Note that I'm specifically asking for the gameplay here, not "make it branch more." We've already had that discussion.


I will publish the first part of my game really soon. All my gameplay is not created yet, but in this first part you will see some minor changes compared to your games. It's not a revolution, but I have changed what I dislike in actual date/novel game. Hope it can inspire you.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby TheBrain » Fri, 16Jul22 21:33

tlaero wrote:If anyone has any ideas for good gameplay mechanics that integrate well into the stories of these games, I'm interested in hearing them. Note that I'm specifically asking for the gameplay here, not "make it branch more." We've already had that discussion.

I always found games that use conditions that depend on events rather than points to be more intriguing. Stuff like if the player chooses to kiss his date when saying hello it allows choosing a physical action earlier in the date, compared to: if the player scored 5 naughty points the physical action becomes possible, for example. Most of Goblinboys games use mechanics like this, where the big choices the player makes can have a big influence on the story, while the minor actions usually don't matter much. And Gift of Phallius 3 shows that that kind of gameplay logic does not prevent the story from being mostly linear, with varying degrees of success along the way.
A successful playthrough then becomes something like "find out about A, do B, avoid C, be successful at D, etc.", instead of "+1 A, +1 A, +1 B, +2 A, etc.". In the last type of game I usually find myself cheating at least once to find out about the right choice somewhere.
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Re: Choosing dates vs replaying content

Postby tlaero » Fri, 16Jul22 22:23

I'm a big fan of both ArianeB and BEW. However, I'm not currently interested in creating either of those types of games.

While Ariane was absolutely earthshatteringly groundbreaking and genre creating, I feel that apparent freedom doesn't have enough content to make it worthwhile. All of those intricate paths lead back to a relatively small number of "rewards" (in that case, sex scenes). The first few times through, I enjoyed taking alternate paths even though they ended up in the same place, but my enjoyment waned as I did more.

As for BEW, the kinds of stories I'm currently telling don't lend themselves to games where you can date multiple people. I'd rather create Dreaming with Elsa, then Redemption for Jessika, and then Finding Miranda (not out yet) than wait until all 3 are done and release them together in one game. Also, the stories I'm telling require differing player characters. Jason couldn't have helped Jessika. Marc wouldn't have been interested in Elsa. Etc. That's not to say that it's impossible to do a game where one guy is attractive to multiple female characters. BEW is doing that very well. It's just that that's not a story I'm interested in telling.

As for non-point aspects to these games, I'm a bit torn on that. For, instance, I wonder how many people even saw the Male-Male-Female sex scene in Redemption for Jessika. That was separate from the point system, and the game progressed normally if you didn't meet the criteria for it. I'm not sure the game is really better for it. Some people probably really enjoyed finding it, but I suspect most don't even know it exists. Etc.

The block suggestion kind of reminds me of the mechanic in Living with Keeley. That game was all about playing in any order you wanted, and using events not points to impact what you could do. Later games were much more popular, but I wonder how much Keeley's lackluster reception was owed to the fact that you played a woman compared to the differences in gameplay.

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