Thing of the day:
Carré by Piche
:)
It has been a while! I feel like I say this each time. Anyway, you're here to read about the dating game, aren't you????
I've been wanting to make a produce-style game for a while. At first, I wanted to make an idol one and got to seriously work on it after SideM's announcement that they'd be turning away from games. But, while making the project I kinda realized the scope was too grand for just me, or even for my friends & I. We'd need so many things, and while I don't doubt we could make it, I know for a fact the final project would probably have some big mistakes and I don't want that idol game to be my first released game ever.
Therefore, I got to work on this project, my ideal dating game taking on from games like Love Plus. My initial inspiration was, not gonna lie, just Love Plus. I wanted to make Love Plus, but with a new audience in mind (me.) So i got started in September 2024, and had some things working! I sadly had to stop working on it because school was just absolutely overwhelming me with work and I needed to make some personal projects at the same time.
After finishing school (not willingly. I just ran out of money and couldn't afford to take a new loan.), I decided to work on my projects a bit more. (I want to get back on video editing as well grrghrkjgdhfg!!!!!)
So at first, I wasn't too hyped about this project anymore because something just felt off. I had written almost the entire story for one of the characters, but it felt wrong to have him be the main for the game. And that's when I realized one of my other characters, whom I had written only small ideas about, fit that role perfectly!!!
But something was still not working right. The entire game, it's design, just nothing felt right! And that's when Umamusume's EN version released, and while playing it, thought: "But what if I went with a similar modern Producing approach with the Dating Game? Afterall, it is quite almost the same type of gameplay!" So I went and analyzed what I loved about Love Plus and Umamusume, trying to combine both of them.
I put these ideas somewhere in my brain and then crashed out for like a week just trying to recover from school, lol. These 3 years of school were absolutely tough, but they made me become so much better, and gave me so much confidence, and that mindset which makes me feel like I can do anything. I might fail, but I can also succeed! So let's try!!!
A few days later, I went ahead and started writing an actual Game Design Document, because I had never done that before. And writing that, I kinda realized how essential they are to game making. Like if you're making an RPG with a game engine you might not need it solely because the gameplay elements might already be given to you, as well as the game balance. But when you're making a game that you'll have to write from scratch: It's absolutely ESSENTIAL.
Format it however you'd like, but it'll really help! especially since you don't know what could happen, what if one day you decide to take a month-long break and you come back not remembering CRUCIAL elements about your game?? BOOM! GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT, BABEY!
...But yeah, I made myself an entire database for the game. Even had a mediawiki for a while (made me want to get back to sideM wiki editing. ty meri for single-handedly carrying the entire sideM eng fanbase)
And now, I'm making the prototype for the game!
There's one thing I want to make clear: I won't be posting much about the characters or stories. I'm literally going to change them constantly for sure, since nothing is definitive, and extremely early work.
UI PISSED ME OFF TODAY so i went and tried to design it some more. Did more assets, only to realize at the end of the day that i wasn't satisfied at all. So instead, I went to look some references online and thought of Beatmania IIDX. They all have their unique style, and THANKFULLY someone had made videos of all of them with each of their screens in action. the ones that stood out to me for my project were IIDX 18 and 19, also 16 Empress but kinda out of topic.
I had also thought about Saisuta's UI Design.
But, most important part being that I think I should really focus more on the base UI and THEN possibly add variants for each timeslot. Make the UI memorable by it's design, not it's features.
Went to bed at 2am. Realized I could also just draw on my tablet. I was like "damn if only i had a small tablet i could just draw on im too lazy to get the big tablet out to prototype" oh you mean your iPad? dumb fuck?
Thank you for reading! I love you (as a concept) and have a good day!!! ❤️❤️