I have a q-- is this research recommendation for checking out stories that are exclusively romance (like romance novels or VNs)? I have trouble with those, but I find plenty of romance in stories with other main plotlines to be incredibly compelling. The first ones that spring to mind are Ed/Winry and Mustang/Hawkeye in in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood and Gwen/Miles in the Spider Verse movies but that is off the very tippy-top of my head and there are a LOT of other instances I’ve loved over the years.
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My advice is to push your boundaries depending on what you want to write! I haven’t seen either of the Spiderverse movies so I can’t comment on those, but while I too am a big fan of the FMA romances they are fairly backgrounded so while they’re good, if you want to start writing that kind of thing I’d look for media that goes one step further in terms of romance-plot balance. I’d say look for stuff where the romance is weighted more or less equally to the main plot if you’d like to write something with a strong romance subplot. It’s easier to spot when it’s got more screentime, but you do have to enjoy the research or else what’s the point?
Most of the works that fit the bill off the top of my head are niche lesbian anime that I’m not sure anyone else cares about, but in terms of mainstream stuff I’d say The Mummy (1999) falls right in the sweet spot.
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I think a big thing for people doing romsims is to be careful not to make what I call an “oc showcase” where the player has little meaning or impact on the story, people have brought it up like above in different ways but that’s always my oh i see its one of these gdgdf. Like the characters introduced have established dynamics and outcomes and it wouldn’t matter if the player character is there or not, you’re mostly there just to see the artist’s characters or a game’s lore/mechanics and get invested in them and it’s like, well, a character sheet could do that too. A non-interactive book could do that! Whether the dev is making a baked in character with a name that the player is playing or an insert character, its like important to keep in mind it’s as much about simulating personal attention as it is creating a dynamic mechanic or routes. Like, who is the game “for.”
(Another little thing is when you pick an option and the next dialog box repeats the option picked like wow my fave thing Eva to read the same sentence Again. This is more of a problem with visual novels, tho. )
I guess overall a good romance if is one that I believe the dev is also invested in, that they’re not just doing it cause it feels like a thing they can flip fast or get attention for? I want them to be invested in their ocs but also that the player has ways to impact the world and change the dynamics of a relationships. I think having an Art Thesis is critical, like you can just write a thing without meaning like a cut in paste meat and potatoes whatever sort of standard game but if you’re also like, working towards something in it, and all the parts of the game compliment that. Just like, what’s good for game design is also good for romsims. But I guess this is a long winded way to say have a plot gdgdfgd with themes and Stuff, its just not enough to stare at/read about a character and click through text (I mean, it is for some people, I suppose).
I think too its about understanding that the love interests are also “people” in the sense that their routes will feel full and alive if you think about how they might react in extremes. (It def depends on what kind of game you’re making, like a cute story might not have something like this! In which case, thinking about the feelings you’re trying to capture with it, how might the game focus on like a coffee date or whatever.) Like what would it take for someone indifferent to fall in love, what would it take for them to do something that would make them unrecognizable to the person we’re originally introduced to. Even if the game doesn’t go there, like what would a “Bad End” look like for a character, how would the route look to get there. If you know you’re not going there at all, what needs to happen to avoid that? Why does the mechanic that boosts Like+ increase when you do x, every little bit of it should carry the story you’re trying to tell.
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I really strongly disagree with your take, and my evidence is Will Not Let Me Go.
I do not think that romance routes are the only way to do romance in games or IF.
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I agree that “plain” romance is hard to do - similar to “plain” erotica. If you’re in a romance (or in a sex scene) there’s really no place else to go as for many people being in love is the endpoint and often where most movies fade out. Ideally you want a character who isn’t in their ideal situation to arc to the ideal of companionship/partnership/relationship.
A romance sub-plot can work really well as a parallel story to something else, in both romance and erotica. If it’s just romance and bubble baths and cuddling on the couch it’s hard to find an arc. Unless you have sparkling and entertaining conversation - which makes it almost play-like. Or it becomes the jet-setting dating fantasy which some people likely enjoy also. I think that’s why so many romance novels tend to hinge on “will they/won’t they?” or “enemies to lovers” tropes.
And I also think that’s why romance games tend to be dating-sims or “harem” games where the plot action and agency is a choice of who you want to be with.
In IF and in some novels there is the chance to go meta on a romance as the gameplay gimmick: time travel, body switching, dialogue manipulation. Magical realism in many cases requires something simple like a trope romance to riff on.
That’s kind of the reason I’ve been unproductive lately at writing even “simple” AIF. The last time I tried writing the simplest scenario I could - Sex on the Beach - which was that, I decided to write a simple branching “how you got here” scenario and that turned out to be the most fun and rewarding thing in the game to write and the lead-up became nearly as involved and complicated as the payoff.
Same with RSPM. “Wouldn’t robot sex be interesting?” [proceeds to encase it in an entire dystopian fantasy murder-mystery setting that sidelined the sexy parts]
Since romance (and intimate relations) tend to be what most people think of as a goal, it might be hard to write pure romance - a game with gameplay only about romance - without it becoming “cuddleporn”. “No you hang up first, no you!” “No, you take the last bite of cheesecake no you!” “You fixed my car? How can I ever repay you!? [smooshy kiss sounds][fade to black]”
Not that there would be anything wrong with cuddleporn, it sounds delightful, actually.
Infocom gave it a try with Amy Briggs Plundered Hearts which is wrapped in pirate swashbuckling tropes.
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Stealing a page from Japanese manga (and anime) can be helpful. There are two kinds of romances there: “shounen” (for boys) tends to treat becoming a couple as the end point, but “shoujo” (for girls) romance frequently starts with the two falling in love – or they get together in the first story arc – and then follows the couple through their relationship as life and complications arise.
I don’t think I’ve seen that style done in IF (yet).
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Yeah, my statement probably should be “For many American forms of media, falling in love is the endpoint of a story arc…”
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3 posts were split to a new topic: Piergiorgio on Romance