Feminine Wiles - Dating Sim

[ringinAlarmClock]

Hello, I would like to tell you a bit about a game idea I’m currently working on.
The working title is “feminine wiles” and it is a dating sim with some twists. First, you are playing as a girl and the dating is forced upon you as you must tame your ever-growing horniness while at the same time taking care of your reputation. If your horniness grows to high or your reputation falls to low you lose, so you will have to get laid while being as discrete as possible. The storyline gives you plenty of opportunities to do so of course. The story itself is supposed to have several possible endings and side events. You will be able to decide if you want a stable relationship or not and how much you are willing to do to promote your professional career.
The second twist is that as you are playing a girl your looks become very important and you will have to dress up every day, put on makeup, and sometimes get changed during the day for different events. To go shopping is an important part of the game as you will spend time to look for outfits that fit you.
When I started with this game I was relatively new to programming and it has been challenging and at the same time very rewarding to work on the dialogue and clothing system which are two of the main parts. The game is right now not playable as I have been focusing on the main systems, also it is ugly as fuck (programmer art at its finest) so please excuse me for not posting any pictures, but I’d rather not scare you off just yet XD
However, as I’m building this from scratch with GM: Studio I’m quite happy with the progress so far.
I would like to get some feedback on my ideas and I would love to find someone willing to collaborate on this. Ideally this would be an artist and/or writer. So, if you like the game idea (or have ideas how to improve on it) please let me know.
Also, if you want to know anything about the game feel free to ask.

[Ungawa]

I have a few questions about the type of city you're going to put this in:

1) If you decide on going through with this idea, what social taboos will you implement to affect your character?

2) How will this affect other characters if you decide on discretion?

3) What's the difference between this and other games such as Krystal Village which have similar ideas?

I'd certainly like to see an expansion on the idea, but I don't know how you can maintain it without some sort of base understanding or plot that keeps players motivated...

[ringinAlarmClock]

Thank you for your questions! I haven't talked to many people about my game and as I have carried the idea in my head for quite a while I often forget to explain important parts because they are so present to me as if everybody knew them.

The game takes place in Fairview, a small village whose biggest employer is the local wine company, almost two thirds of the habitants of Fairview are directly or indirectly working for it. After graduation, you struggled to find a job until you were invited to Fairview to work for this very wine company in sales. So, you move there, find a tiny flat and start your new job.
The game has a realistic setting, no fantasy/magic/furries/egg planting (sorry).

Now, to answer your questions directly:

1) If you decide on going through with this idea, what social taboos will you implement to affect your character?

There are going to be the typical social taboos of a small village where people know each other and everything different is frowned on and talked about. You won’t go to jail for having sex without being married but your landlady might kick you out if you bring men to your flat. You might be tempted to give in to your skirt chasing co-worker to lower your horniness, but if it happens at the weekly bar night with the other co-workers around you can be sure to get a certain fame in the company. At a certain point, your boss will not tolerate this anymore.
I try to give a feeling of how this might actually feel like for a woman, having to live with the problem that your sexual liberty is looked upon as a negative thing.

2) How will this affect other characters if you decide on discretion?

You will be socially more accepted and have less trouble with the authorities (landlady, boss, priest..). Also, there will be the “secure-option”, someone who will fall in love with you and that you can have a healthy relationship with. If your reputation goes down he will lose interest. There might be more characters like him later.
Even though knowing how to play your cards well might take you further than just playing by the rules.

3) What's the difference between this and other games such as Krystal Village which have similar ideas?

I have done a quick search on the forums but I’m not sure what Krystal Village game you’re talking about. But I imagine it is one of those “dating” (aka Krystal needs to have sex with the lizardmen to survive but soon finds pleasure in it) games using the assets from legend of Krystal. The difference is that it is set in our world and you face situations a normal woman could face. Imagine, you haven’t had sex in several weeks and this handsome guy in work is all over you. He brings you home one night and things are going really well. You kiss in front of your house but when you’re about to ask him to come in you see your landlady is watching you and you know she might kick you out if you take him in. So, the choice is up to you. You can take the guy inside and have sex and maybe you will be able to convince the landlady that you’re a good girl by going to church on Sunday. Maybe you should send the guy home, take care of you needs yourself tonight and pray you’ll get laid soon before you explode. Or maybe you should just have him park somewhere you can’t be seen and have sex in the car.

I hope this give you a better idea of what I have in mind. I know, some pictures would be very helpful at transporting my idea and a playable version would do an even better job but unfortunately, I’m just not that far yet. And I really appreciate it right now to be able to talk about the game, I think that might help me advance even if I don’t find any collaborators.
Please continue to ask me anything you’d like to know!

[Ungawa]

Hmmm... From what you're saying, I think that the one job may be too limiting. Having her build relationships with everyone and being a marketer will probably give you a very limited view to work with.

To get into the Krystal stuff quickly, I used that as an example of how a game can be made about one person working in a society, gaining skills and effectively becoming proficient in the society which might have some relevance to what you want to do.

By chance, have you ever played any of the Princess Maker games? I think that if you work on making characters that tutor your MC in different fields, you can greatly expand what you want to do as well as create a vibrant town that can impact the MC's growth. By making it so that the jobs influence her outlook in the society, you could explore these different relationships in a greater detail. Granted, the complexity of the game increases, but so does the social outlooks you can explore.

As a marketer, you're expected to control for certain taboos and scandals, and probably have access to tamping down such rumors. But what if you are a day laborer in the same company and your background is different so you pull a waitressing side job? Perhaps if you choose marketer or CEO, you can keep a social life separate in another city. By having different jobs, these can be explored, ala Princess Maker.

Again, it's just an idea but it seems that you could do a LOT with that as an option whenever you get started.

[ringinAlarmClock]

Thank you for the input! I did play princess maker and it could be interesting to be able to choose between several jobs, in fact I have thought about it a bit already. However, to start with I would like to keep it simple, I can always expand it in any direction. For now, I would like to have a playable version with 3 coworkers that you can have sex with (the good, the bad and the girl, no ugly ) plus some special events / pickups from the bar. Once this is completed there is still an infinite of possibilities and I have many ideas how this could be expanded, but as I said, for the beginning I want to keep it simple, this way it is easier to advance. Still I'm glad for any ideas and input so I can see what other people would like.