New Gameplay Mechanism

[richard]

Please look at the game Veto (http://www.fatamorgana.ch/fatamorgana/veto/index.html in German, sorry). It's a nice little innocent game where you have a kid and have to make decisions about upbringing. Essentially, your kid tries to do something, and you can decide to veto or not.

Now imagine a re-theme: You play a woman on a date. The man tries certain actions, and you veto or not. Adding a few pictures may enhance the appeal. (Or the game does not simulate a date, but perhaps a relationship.)

In the original veto game, there's no explicit goal, but different endings. If you want, you can create your own goals (like make your child as succesful as possible). In the dating game, you could try to get a lot of gifts before you sleep with the guy (or marry him, depending on the scope of the game). Or you could try to get him to do kinky (or normal ;o) things. Etc.

In most adult games, getting the girl is the goal. But it would be funny to make that part of the tools.

What do you think?

[Salamandastron]

Getting the girl is still (and I suspect will always be) the biggest incentive in this 'genre' of games. It's a primal urge, and one of the best carrots to dangle in front of a guy, in real life or virtual. Using the mechanism you suggest could be of interest to players, and have a certain appeal to female players that is missing in traditional adult games.

But the question is - do the majority of players get anything from the mechanism? The gifts that the female protagonist earns from teasing the guy, do they feel an adequate reward for in-game effort? Will the player have invested enough in the game to really whether the characters marry or not? Most importantly, what major reason does the player have not to jump straight into sex, if that option is available to them? I usually find that when playing AIF games with a female protagonist (Duchess of Desire, Academy of Spies), there's always that option to jump straight into sex and it sort of hinders the game experience for me, even though that mechanic actually makes sense in that context. I guess I'm more comfortable playing a male protagonist that has to earn the attention of the female characters in the game.

If your game is large enough, you could an incorporate a mechanic wherein if she sleeps with too many men, she gets a reputation as being promiscuous (double standards, I know, I know) and may not be able to seduce some of the higher level characters as a result. That way, the player has to pick and choose carefully as to what they do. That's one way I can think of to try balance the mechanic a bit. Anyway, different approaches are always a good thing to try out, so kudos.

[ozguy]

Sounds like an old c64 game, Alter Ego.
You went through life choosing different paths, and that determined your future.