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Appreciate your interest in our game!
So does that mean there currently isn't a romance level of the relationship system currently but will be added later in the development, or that romance wont be added to the game during development?
IF there is one thing I know about rpg players is that Romance/relationship features done well will pull absolute droves to your game. Definitely worth thinking about!
I think you will find there is a not insubstantial portion of the audience who will only buy these types of games - not to mention who are more inclined to buy them at launch instead of on sale - if romance is an explicitly supported feature. I am one of these people. I will not even wishlist a game like this unless it has romance, because there are plenty of options WITH romance that I could spend time with instead.
For me personally, LGBTQ+ content and support for consensual polyamory are also big bonus points and I will buy a game just for that alone even if I never play it. A big part of RPGs at least for me is seeing myself reflected back at me in a more fantastical and heroic context. The more represented I feel in an experience, and the more connected to it I am, the more effective it is as a form of escapism. And while I'm not sure you'll find quite so many with my particular preferences, I think it's why romance as a whole is such a popular mechanic. It gives players a platform wherein they can feel individually recognized, and also gives them a good incentive for emotional investment in the characters and their concerns.
I'm not normally interested in this type of game at all, but the fact that there's character creation -- fredom to make my own character -- I LOVE THAT. If there's romance in the game, I hope it offers the same sort of freedom.
I like romance! It's an aspect of character relationships and I enjoy seeing those aspects of characters being explored. I would like to see romance for party member to party member stuff too.
I hope you consider it.
Thanks everyone.
Wow that was really unexpected, I'll buy this game at launch for sure!
Feedback? Well prepare for a very, very long one.
Out of what I like to see in romance, I'd say the following is really critical. Specifically it's important that...
- The relationship is fleshed out and well-developed over a number of steps, and on a deeper level than simple attraction (be it romantic or sexual). It feels really bad if you just like flip a switch and you're ready to jump in bed together or get married. Romances in terms of the progression in your relationship with a character should not be much different from friendship. More importantly, there should be room for conflict and disagreements that don't outright destroy the relationship, and the characters you are romancing shouldn't make every romantic conversation ABOUT the romance instead of things that are happening in the broader narrative. That said, while the relationship progression shouldn't be significantly different from a typical deep friendship with a character, it is also important to have an occasional unique scene for a romance. I think it's especially important that a scene or two is dedicated to completely innocuous interactions, not everything needs to be a "big scene". It helps feel closer to characters when they "let their hair down" and play a game of cards together or have a picnic and just be themselves. To be honest, I think this is actually important in a broader sense beyond just romances (something I feel is underappreciated outside of Bioware games), but it is particularly important in this context.
- Other characters in the story acknowledge that a romance is happening. Reactivity is hard and really expensive especially for something that can fluctuate so heavily between players, but you can actually do a lot with surprisingly little. Even just a character being like "oh you two are together now, that's neat!" or something to that effect can be a hugely impactly touch. It's also particularly critical to have some reactivity in the latest parts of the game as the adventure is coming near to a close. Heartfelt conversation before the final battle, a sweet epilogue slide describing how your relationship progressed into the future, maybe even tying love interests into the plot in some way. I think it's also very important to let the player discuss their future together after the game ends with their love interests.
- The romanceable characters are playersexual. Now this is going to be a controversial take from me, but there are very few mechanics in RPGs that are more "fantasy"-focused than romance. Since this is a fantasy, there are certain things from real life we don't have to recreate. One of those is being rejected over something completely arbitrary like gender or a preference for certain relationship arrangements (IE polyamory). I do think there's room to lock certain options behind these gates if it's important to that characters core storyline/personality (such as Halsin in Baldur's Gate 3 requiring polyamory or Dorian from Dragon Age Inquisition requiring you be a male character), but a lot of the time blocks on romances don't have anything to do with the characters actual story. For example, Gale and Wyll in Baldur's Gate 3 both strictly require monogamy, but this commitment to monogamy adds nothing to these characters or your interactions with them to the point that it genuinely comes as a surprise when you run into the gating. If something is gated, you should be able to see it coming. There is no way you reach the ability to start Halsin or Dorian's romance without seeing that you're going to get blocked a mile away, because their preferences are a really important and integral part of their stories. If your character isn't like Halsin or Dorian, let the player decide what works for them instead of having the character be resistant for no actual reason. To be clear, don't let the addition of romance distort or constrain a character from being themselves (sometimes giving players what they want can be taken too far and make things less believable), but if you're going to take away the player's authorship in an RPG there should be a very good reason for that.
- I just want to reemphasize the first point I made because I think it's the single most important thing, to the point that you should sacrifice all the others. If you make 1 really fleshed out and developed romance with a lot of reactivity to the player characters decisions outside of the relationship or 5 comparatively shallow ones that have no impact on the story, make the 1 really fleshed out romance. A lot of games sacrifice quality for quantity in this department and it's not a worthwhile trade-off. Does not being able to romance characters you like suck? Absolutely. Being able to romance them and having that experience be extremely disappointing is way worse. Obviously there's a balance to be struck, having more romances with less content is fine as long as the content in the romances you have is good.
Now all of that is how you make romances good, but I do think there's a lot of ways you can make it GREAT. And out of all the features in your game worth making great, I genuinely think romance is a good choice because people love their romance interests in video games and will totally word of mouth market your game if you make for a really good experience. To be clear, while the previous stuff about being important is meant in a more broad sense, some of these things are going to be specific to me but I'm going to start with the stuff I think creates broad appeal. So what would be great is to...
- Not boil down "romance" in a singular predictive vision for a relationship dynamic with a character. Every relationship should be different and so every romance should be different. Some characters are tender and prefer to engage emotionally in the typical hollywood way of romance, but other romances can be fun or flirty or exciting or even way over on the opposite end and be subdued or even downright stoic. A lot of video game romances have romance be a checkbox, but there's so much more to relationships than that. Plus, it's nice to have a balance in your relationship type. Like you can have a genuine friends with benefits type relationship with a character that doesn't devolve into drama for example, or you can have someone you romance where you very specifically do not have sex with them (because you're ace or you have a platonic bond with them) and that's an important part of your story with them, that kind of touch can be super immersive.
- Let the other characters have agency. And by that I mean, let the characters have relationships with each other. This doesn't necessarily have to lead into polyamory, but romancing a character who is in an active relationship with someone else can be a really interesting source of conflict or interesting relationship dynamics. Pathfinder Kingmaker has this really interesting dynamic with the characters of Octavia and Regongar in that they have an active relationship before you romance them. You can change their minds to monogamy or you can choose to respect their relationship separate from your own or share. This is really great stuff and another great thing about it is that these situations inherently have the other characters have to interact with and engage with the identity of the player character, which has a knock on effect in that you identify with your character and become more immersed.
- Building off of that one (and this is a personal thing by the way), but if the game does support polyamory it is really amazing to have characters with agency. Having characters express and engage with characters other than you helps your relationship dynamics with other characters feel less like an artificial power fantasy. Plus as a polyamorous person it's always annoying to me how actual polyamory often ends up being conflated with harem building. Not that I have anything against that kind of story, but I think it's bad for stories that want to be taken seriously.
- Have a reserved fade to black option AND a very steamy option for sex scenes. A lot of RPGs hang the middle ground on this, but I gotta say I genuinely think there's no actual middle ground here as it comes to peoples opinion on these sequences. Everyone is going to prefer having it one way or the other, and it's not a lot of extra work to cater to both audiences. Especially in a text based game when the more desperate side of that equation will happily spend money for just the smallest bit of content. Throw them/us a bone and I guarantee you our wallets will be here for you, open and waiting to spill out sweet, sweet cash. I promise you, there is little point in trying to be classy about it beyond just respecting the characters no matter what situation you put them in. Just my opinion on this one though haha
- And finally, this is going to be something that seems not to relate to romance much, but absolutely does: your current character creator (from what I saw in Mortismal Gaming's video) has a gender selection option. Please do not lock visual customization options of any kind behind this choice. I'm not saying you have to give a separate pronouns selector (though I'm also not going to say that wouldn't be super appreciated even if you buried it in a sub-menu away from the character creation screen to avoid the potential inane controversy), but even for cis player characters it's really annoying to have options for your appearance arbitrarily locked behind that type of choice. It's an RPG, it's important to let us look how we want to, so that we can better identify with the player character and thus feel more engaged with something as deeply personal as romances. There is genuinely no upside to locking certain appearance options behind a male or female assignment, and in games that do I am particularly tired of having really nice hair options taken away from me. I still remember the days when I still picked male characters for myself in RPGs and the female characters always had all the best hairstyles -_-
And that's all I've got! Sorry if that was long, but it's definitely a topic I care about, and since I felt at least partially responsible for having you guys change your direction on this I thought it was important to offer my input. Good luck, and I can't wait for the game to get its full release! (sorry I don't buy Early Access games on principle lol)
I mean, the character writing seems pretty solid from what I've played, it it could add a whole new dimension to the characters if you guys do it right, I think would be awesome! It would be cool if it wasn't gender locked too.