Looks like other replies were made while I worked on mine, and I saw some thing I have to give strongly disagree with and provide a counter perspective for.
the players aren't always right, there's a few game develop conference all about game not just good practice, like constantly having your game played tested and implementing changes to make the game different but better, but also knowing that there is a limit to this before player input becomes detrimental (couldn't find the gdc video detailing this...). But as you get more and more into game dev you'll learn to filter out what information best suits you in different situations. I've been trying to make a game on this site for a few years now, no 'game dev' tag yet but you might be able to notice I'm not new to the subject.
A good example being those who want to be able to quickly skim through the story, and wanting that fast click or skip option. players do this when they don't respect the story. part of a game developers job is to figure out how to get players to be interested enough in the story (aka respect the story) to actually want to read it and enjoy it how it was meant to be enjoyed. a player who doesn't respect what the creator is trying to do will only give advice on things they like, suggesting the game be a different game, but those who do respect the work give advice on issuse and the different ways they could be solved (ie any youtube video where someone critics a show or cartoon they like, or more general videos like
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. ie someone who respects story writing starts to learn story writing and understand the pro's and con's, such as my example regarding pacing, I may not like it when the game gets in the way of my playing, but I know sometimes I'm being a bad player and right now the mood and pacing should be more important and as such I respect pacing because i know its trying to do something, and knowing how pacing is used I can tell if it is being used correctly or not and make suggestions with this mind set and not the mind set of a bad player.
The people who say sex scene must be option are
1 wrong,
2 that's probably true for games more focused on general smut and unlocking characters, which is most so sure I could see why
The Rogue Trader would bring it up (but I strongly disagree, sorry to call you out, nothing personal
),
and 3 for games where you really need to make a point, tell a story, etc. are an exception (sort of)
again a situation where you have to understand the subject to know how to use it, just blanket ideas aka saying 'all games' or 'convention' doesn't work. I say keep the sex scene as it is because
1 I didn't get freaked out because I'm not a socially awkard nerd, in fact I really liked how that scene was, it really matched the character, fit the deeper message you are hinting at, that and I was seeing things more from the girl's perspective anyway.
2 That and naming the MC, don't do that, it sounds like you want to explore your own deeper ideas and philosophies with this project, so the MC has to be a certain type of character, sure the player is controlling them, but the player isn't expressing themselves through the character, this is a game where the story is important, not the player. having an MC that players rename is good if the MC is just an avatar (see
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for in depth character writing and knowing the difference between a character and an avatar), but its obvious with that intro that James isn't a place holder avatar for the player, sure James may not be a special character like Geralt from the Witcher. we play witcher so we can RP 'as' Geralt, but that's a special kind of character, as mentioned in the video. James however is the inbetween character, not just an avatar, but not a famus character we want to roleplay as, he's just himself, he contributes to teh story by being himself, and that includes having a name that matches his personality. I say this also is good as it is and you shouldn't have to worry about it changing.
anyways, these are just counter points, a different perspective. there are many ways to improve a project, but don't get overwelled with having so many small things all at once.
