feedback wanted!

[jack1974]

Well the problem is that I'm sure whatever character I move, an user will complain. If I move Amukiki, tomorrow I'll see messages of someone "oh no". And so on
About Selith, the idea was to keep a fair amount of old/new characters, also in the first part for plot reasons there should be enough new characters (though this part could even be changed if really must). So makes more sense to move two old characters in the second part so is more balanced.
As always, making everyone happy with the romances is the most difficult part of the game development (and not doing the RPG itself)!
Anima idea could maybe work only if we do it this way: for the old romances, assuming they continue from previous game, you'd get the romance CG in the first part. For the new ones, you would get to know them in the first part but get the CG romances in the second part (doing 12 new images + variants is totally not possible).

Anyway, will speak with Aleema and decide, based on what she is more comfortable, since ultimately the game story must be cool and don't want to put too many restraints. The feedback was still useful since got some ideas

[DunKalar]

Yea, but your players will talk mostly about the romances ;-D

Chamby needs to be in the first part

[Nighteye]

They're both good, with a slight preference for option A. I don't want to wait too long for all the new characters.

[Svanhildr]

I'm fine with Anima's idea. I don't want the new romances to go too fast, I want to know them and get the feeling like time passes so they also learn about eachother before even considering rolling in the hay so to speak.

[Makoto Naegi]

Given the options, I'd choose option A. But here's my issue: let's say I play this game for the romance options, and I want to romance character X, who was in the first game and will be in the first sequel batch. Now, I'd like to play the second batch too, but what motivation do I have if I can't romance the character I want too? I'd like my character to have... well, not necessarily a happily ever after, but at least some closure to their relationship at the end of it all, rather than the second batch treating it like the previous romance didn't count/exist. In this respect, I'd honestly say that I'd rather have one large game that costs $50 so I could get the entire story, rather than 2 games at $25 each when I only feel encouraged to buy one of those games.

[jack1974]

Haha thanks, I must admit is somewhat reassuring, in this moment of "this game at $1 is too expensive!" to read so many encouraging posts (it also puts a LOT OF PRESSURE, but that's the other side of the medal).
Aleema and I are still brainstorming, probably the best would be to have all the old romances in one game, and all the new ones in another. Since it seems clear to me that there's a lot of people that want to continue/see the old characters (makes sense), and another group that is looking forward to play with "the new guys" (they don't necessarily don't care about the old, but are curious also about the new ones).
I think though that for now we'll just start the game and make it so it CAN be splitted in two, and then we'll see how it goes since is hard to make long-term previsions. To say the truth, a reason I wanted to split in two is because I might need to release a new game sooner for financial reasons (depending though how other games and business in general goes next year) rather than wait 1 year (or 18 months maybe...) and release a huge big game.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, was very interesting for me to read. And I must say I'm very lucky to have a bunch of awesome people like you motivating me every day in my indie journey

[P_Tigras]

Well...of all the old romances, my favorite was Loren, and Chamby was runner-up. So after hearing that I'd unfortunately have to wait until part 2 to see Loren again, I was looking forward to at least seeing Chamby in part 1. On the question of old vs new romances, that matters to me less than whether or not I find them interesting. Of the two romances that caught my interest in part 1, one was old (Chamby), and the other was new (Jul).

Whether the CG's for the new romances are in part 1 or part 2 matters less to me than that the relationships develop seemlessly though both parts. I'm fine with the CG's for the new relationships being placed in part 2, but I don't want to feel that there are sudden changes in personality as the new characters become romanceable in part 2, or, for that matter, that the old relationships are forgotten about and allowed to languish in part 2. Regardless of where the CG's are placed, opportunities to develop the relationships should exist in both parts of the game, at least for characters present in both.

[jack1974]

As I said, we're still thinking about it, and I think we can start writing the beginning of the story so maybe we get some inspiration... however, I might be reconsidering Anima suggestion: while I can't do twice the CG amount, I remembered that I was thinking to do some pin-ups. So I could just have a pin-up image/event in the first game, and the final romance in the second! Doing a pin-up image is cheaper and faster, since only features the character and not all the various combo with Elenor/Saren. So in practice I wouldn't need 24 new CG but "only" 16 extra CG (one for each character excluding Elenor/Saren), which might be possible

[P_Tigras]

As I said, we're still thinking about it, and I think we can start writing the beginning of the story so maybe we get some inspiration... however, I might be reconsidering Anima suggestion: while I can't do twice the CG amount, I remembered that I was thinking to do some pin-ups. So I could just have a pin-up image/event in the first game, and the final romance in the second! Doing a pin-up image is cheaper and faster, since only features the character and not all the various combo with Elenor/Saren. So in practice I wouldn't need 24 new CG but "only" 16 extra CG (one for each character excluding Elenor/Saren), which might be possible

Sounds good to me.

[DunKalar]

Awwww I wanted my life-size Chamby Pin-Up as a special

I still think that there will be complaints how ever you will decide unless you make one big game (which I would also buy) or you divide all romances into two independent parts, so that you can "finish" your romance with your favourite npc in the "first" part of the game. Otherwhise you will have to include a long intro for the second part to satisfy all the custumers who just do not want the first part because Chamby is missing . And imagine all the bragging of chamby's and amukiki's fan army, if they are not romancable in one of these parts .

I suggest that you include all romances in both parts (if you want to split the game) but prepare something like a waypoint for all of them, which will be a conclusion to the romance somehow but can be resumed in the second half. This gives you the oportunity to tell a long romantic story, without the old .... how did you call it .... "omg I just met you, please take me here hard" .... from the first game. Otherwhise you have to write short but hellish rides of a story for the new charakters and find a good solution why the players should not romance someone else out of frustration while they wait for their hero(in)es to reappear in part two .

Just my two cent.

I know it is a pain in the ass to write such a story If the Yuri writer from Nicole is good, maybe he can support some routes?