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Customizing the LI (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-16 17:34:10
Imported:
2021-10

Content

Another survey from me!

This has to do with future otome projects. Indie otome games keep focusing more and more on custom content that the player can change. So I want to see how much interest there is in customizing your own LI versus sticking with premade designs.

Please fill out the short survey here:

https://forms.gle/NTfFFMjGkX1oCK5eA 

Thanks!

Comments

Angelina H.
>>70226985

Love the idea of being able to adjust the "intensity" of the romance, Even if it was just something as "asking before touching/kissing" - it would be nice to feel more involved in how far the game gets. And I don't think the "virgin" option does much in the newer routes. In Gray's route the MC was going all the way and I personally felt that this was unpleasant for me, as I had no say in it at all. I don't want to read a book when I play a game - to have options at all is something that's important for me to feel comfortable with the game and the chars.

PancakeLady

I think as long as there are some premade options, it would be great. Like for each character there would be a default version of them with a predetermined look and personality, because sometimes people get lazy(like me) and just want to play the game immediately without spending possibly an hour on customizing the LIs

Anonymous

I hate this sort of thing, frankly. To me, it screams "we don't care about the world we created and can't be bothered making interesting characters, so you can do it for us!" I greatly prefer predetermined LIs.

Anonymous

I played a game recently in which we could customize the LI to some extent, but it wasnt drastic. It was called "Our Life" or "Our Moments" and it jumped from different periods of time in life (from childhood to teenage years etc...and there was a single LI that we could customize but it stayed the same character at heart. We could choose to remain friends with him or go further, we could choose if he was more cold or friendly, but despite playing multipule routes, I still felt like the LI didn't change his "soul" despite how much you could customize him. He stayed very endearing, sensible and meek for the whole game - so even if we could customize him, I still felt like there was a "true" intent and story behind the game still. I agree with the previous comment mentionning that it can come off as sort of lazy/unconcerned. I think it would take a HUGE amount of planning and writing to obtain anything close to your usual game quality if we can make up an LI or MC from A to Z. Especially when it comes to personnalities and backstories - I kind of enjoy minimal physical customization, because it greatly helps if you want to self-insert. But it's mostly for aesthetic purposes. I'm kind of conflicted about this survey actually because I wonder how many stories you could write if we could totally customize both the MC and LI. The amount of potential work really puts me off for you and your team though....so I don't know what to think, truly.

Anonymous
>>69919759

Or, you could try thinking about it from the perspective of a creator who has already made a lot of choices in their game and is thinking about giving players a chance to become even more immersed in the world they created by letting them curate their experience in a way that makes them want to play even more. Not to mention it actually takes a lot more work on their end to create multiple looks and/or personalities to program into a game when they could just pick one. That's not lazy at all.

Anonymous
>>69919759

First of all, calm down. Second, this was not even close to being a demand, but an opinion, which is what Celinna asked us for, and there wasn't anything even remotely offensive about what I typed. Further, yes, I am of the *opinion* that it *is* lazy, as I've played quite a few entirely text based novels that did this same thing, and found the characters lacking as a result; I'm hardly the only person, either. Celinna asked because she's curious, and if she wanted blind yes-people, she never would have bothered with this post at all. She's made a number of changes based on player feedback (some I was "meh" about), which is indeed her choice as a creator, and I've never once stated otherwise. I'm hardly surprised that someone just jumped on me though, given this is the internet, and apparently any sort of discourse, regardless of how it's phrased, is somehow unacceptable. Only constant praise is ok, apparently. :P

Anonymous
>>69920419

Pretty much my thoughts on the matter. Yeah, there's the amount of work involved as well. Taking the level of customization into consideration that some people desire is frankly... unreasonable. It can extend development time to a ridiculous degree, and would likely be exhausting to actually put into practice, resulting in, as you said, a lower level of quality. EDIT: Forgot to mention your Cove example. In his case, he works because his level of customization was relatively minor, and he was the only (as of this post, since the other two eventual LIs aren't even out) LI, so the devs could focus entirely on fleshing him out. As nice as it is to have many LIs to chose from, this can result in other LIs getting less screen time than the rest due to the large scope of the cast which = lower quality. Personally, I'm ok with a smaller cast since it typically results in each LI getting their time to shine.

Anonymous

I'm not interested in this sort of thing. Maybe changing simple things about their appearance but for the most part I feel like if It goes further than that, it takes out the element of surprise as the character is developing. Sims covers the other stuff if you are into that.

celianna
>>69919759

All opinions are valid, including yours and the person you're talking to. Please refrain from making things personal. Let's try to get along ❤

Anonymous

As much as I love this idea, I would be much more interested in customizing the MC rather than the LIs.

Anonymous

I like seeing LI as their own person. If I customize them it takes that feeling away for me. I care mostly about customizing the MC's personality as I don't act anything like the passive/submissive MC that is popular in otome. I want to take the dominant/lead role in the relationship, otherwise I feel like I'm spectating a story that I'm not really a part of.

Allender Lynch

I love customizing the MC and the more the better. I like the idea of being able to customize the appearance of the LI, but I prefer their personalities to be preset. I do like how in Our Life, your experiences and interactions kind of molds Cove's personality. All of these features makes the game more immersive for me.

Hattivatti

I don't like customizing the LI's personality or looks, since it feels like it's more of a creator's job. Like if I'd want a specific type of LI, I could just create my own thing instead. I prefer learning about premade LIs that the creator(s) has/have come up with; characters that don't necessary cater to fans of archetypes, but rather become their own thing without the limits and "contrivements" of the archetypes. Ironically, somehow it feels the more options there are to customize, the more of a blank slate the original character becomes.

Anonymous

Customization is good, within a limit. (I'd probably make everyone look like Sephiroth!) I'd want the customizing to be focused on my character, their relationship dynamics, and history. Like I can decide that the premade character Ben is my childhood crush who doesn't know I like him. Or I can decide I'm a goth and people in the story will have their own reactions to it. If I was a goth and wanted to date a football star it would be hard. Or if I choose to be a girly Dallas girl cheerleader the outsider guy will turn his nose up at me.

Anonymous

I would like it like Our Life where you can change a few traits due to different experiences influencing him, but he still has a defined personality. If he doesn't have a defined personality without my choices it makes it too obvious I'm dating a program and I'd get taken out of it.

Anonymous

I guess I’m of the opinion of the few because I love the pre made world you have designed. I have little to no interest in pre making the li. I really enjoy customizing my character and would love to see that more fleshed out. I also love designing the clothes and would love to see more options in that direction. But so far I have loved all the LI’s you have created and I don’t feel I could do better than what you have already created. Just my thoughts. Edit: I also want to say I think making too many decisions about personality traits and so forth will take the soul out of your writing.

EvilChani

Personally, I don't want to have any say in the LIs (though I won't complain if I can choose their gender, if they aren't male!). The characters are yours, and I think it's better to have them shaped by you and your writing, rather than us being able to change them to our whims. If I have to design a LI for my MC, I may as well write the romance myself. Like Andrea said above, I think it would take the soul out of your writing to do that. That said, something that *might* be of use is the ability to choose how the sex goes, to some extent--some people may not like dominant LIs, while others (myself included) avoid the submissive types like Aiden. But, if you had options/variables that could be set at the beginning to tone down those qualities or ramp them up--even if that simply results in seeing that side of them or glossing it over--it might end up with players being more willing to give certain routes a go. The premise for Aiden's route sounds cool, but sub guys are a turn off for me to read, even when I write more dominant MCs, so I just avoid it altogether. If that part of it could be glossed over, faded to black, I'd probably try it to see the story. On Grey's route (and James's route), I'd love to see even more dominance from them, that I'm sure is in there somewhere. Whether or not you want to write that, I don't know, but if you were considering it, once again, having an option at the beginning of the game would be welcome (something like being able to choose the LI to go: full-on dom as he wants, tone it down, fade to black on those parts; and having the same options for subbies). Other than that, I don't really want to control the LIs at all. You excel at keeping them in character, so to speak, and consistent with their personalities, without things feeling forced (i.e., I don't feel like you let the plot control your characters, unlike many other romance writers). On the other hand, I would *love* to have more control over the MC--there are times where the MC I've developed doesn't really see an option that fits, and her reactions are... discordant with her personality, for lack of a better description. So yeah, if you want to give us more control over anything at all, I'd prefer it be of the MC.