Max/Dominic and Anne/Sally Romance Paths

[RileyFinn1999]

May I ask why you chose to not have a Dominic romance path for Max or a Sally romance path for Anne? I know I would really love to play both of those.

[Lonestar51]

Maybe, just maybe Sally and Dominic are straight?

[jack1974]

Yes exactly. Besides, already as it is, the game is over 200,000 words and has an insane amount of scenes (if you check the beta testing thread you can see the crazy amount of work behind it). Adding new romances/character takes a lot of time & resources. If the only reason was "because I like/don't like" it, it would be too easy

[RileyFinn1999]

That makes sense. I mean, even though I would love to play those romance paths, I know it is a lot of work for you guys and you have to create the characters how you invision them. Thank you both for answering.

[Asonder]

I've seen a lot of debate over whether all romantic interests in a game should be made bi/pan/playersexual. I personally am not big on it, since you get what I like to call the Dragon Age 2 Effect (or just the Bioware Effect). It feels forced and a bit gimmicky to me when there's no variety in the different characters' romantic/sexual preferences, and they're all just kind of arbitrarily attracted to the player even if it doesn't make a lot of sense with their character. I like there to be something for everyone that they feel is unique to their choices, if that makes sense?

Not criticizing your wanting these romances at all, by the way. There's always going to be that one unattainable person that we just want so much I'm just pointing out another possible reason that it might not be the wisest choice writing-wise to make all characters romanceable by any player. But it's a matter of of opinion really.

[jack1974]

Yes, basically is one situation where:
- I make all (or most) characters bisex = gay people complain because there are no true gay characters, and others can say that is unrealistic that all are bisex, etc
- I make none (or few) characters bisex = people complain saying that would have liked to romance character XYZ, that could have been bisex, and that I'm EVIL!
both are right/wrong for different reasons but ultimately as you said is a matter of tastes/opinions.

The hard life of the indie dating sim creator!

[Choklad]

Well, I'm perfectly happy with your choice to not make all characters romanceable for both genders. That said, I'd looove a Max/Dominic romance. I'm really fond of the dynamic between them. All that bickering. Opposites attract, right? Someone write me some M/D fanfiction, right now!

[theqrin]

I was thinking of making a thread suggesting this, but then I saw that this one already existed.

Have you considered implementing a clearly labeled cheat that enables all romances? If it could also change all the pronouns (he to her, her to him etc) that would be great but not even necessary. Since it's still clear who's really gay and that to enable the cheat would be a reality hack, it avoids the two issues you mentioned. Obviously it would be immersion breaking, but so are most cheats. And people do seem to want that sort of thing. For instance, there was a very popular mod for the first Dragon Age that does this. It's really nice to have if you don't have the time to play through a game twice, and makes the player feel like they aren't locked out of any content. Plus some scenes actually end up working surprisingly well as is!

(Just to clarify, I would love to see this in your other games as well, particularly Loren and Planet Stronghold, which take a while to play twice)

[nightshadengale]

I was thinking of making a thread suggesting this, but then I saw that this one already existed.

Have you considered implementing a clearly labeled cheat that enables all romances? If it could also change all the pronouns (he to her, her to him etc) that would be great but not even necessary. Since it's still clear who's really gay and that to enable the cheat would be a reality hack, it avoids the two issues you mentioned. Obviously it would be immersion breaking, but so are most cheats. And people do seem to want that sort of thing. For instance, there was a very popular mod for the first Dragon Age that does this. It's really nice to have if you don't have the time to play through a game twice, and makes the player feel like they aren't locked out of any content. Plus some scenes actually end up working surprisingly well as is!

(Just to clarify, I would love to see this in your other games as well, particularly Loren and Planet Stronghold, which take a while to play twice)

Not sure I see the point. The main characters have different personalities, so the dialogue wouldn't fit, and unlike the cutscenes in 3D games you can't just swap out the character in a CG. Would people actually get enjoyment out of playing a CG-less romance full of sudden personality shifts and misplaced body parts/pronouns?

(It also wouldn't really reduce the number of replays you need since you need to start focusing on the stats for one romance from the start.)

[theqrin]

Not sure I see the point. The main characters have different personalities, so the dialogue wouldn't fit, and unlike the cutscenes in 3D games you can't just swap out the character in a CG. Would people actually get enjoyment out of playing a CG-less romance full of sudden personality shifts and misplaced body parts/pronouns?

(It also wouldn't really reduce the number of replays you need since you need to start focusing on the stats for one romance from the start.)

First off, as to the personalities, you're probably right about that. This would probably work better in Planet Stronghold for example then Roommates. I brought it up here because there was already a thread on the subject.

I do think it's something that people would want though. The Dragon Age mod was as primitive as not even changing the pronouns for a long time before anyone got around to modifying more, and it was still incredibly popular. I can only speak for myself as to why. Say I'm only going to do one play through of "game" as a girl character, and I am primarily interested in romancing Female Love Interest 1. There's enough time over the course of the game though to romance two other people, maybe to completion, but maybe not. I'm interested in Male Love Interest 1, but not the other male love interests available. I am however, very interested in Female Love Interest 2, who is normally straight. Obviously this isn't something the game is designed for, but that's why I suggest it as a cheat. It's more like a convenience feature, but that said if you've got a powerful enough imagination you can sort of just modify the lines as you read them in your head to fit your own personal cannon. It's something I've seen people enjoy having in games with mod support, and it seems easy to implement. If I'm wrong about that and it would actually be difficult then yeah, forget it, the effort is probably better spent elsewhere. But I think it would be a good cheat to have, and help end this issue if not for everyone, at least for a lot of people.