hello, this is my first post here so let me know if I’m doing anything wrong!
I’m planning my first IF and I have an interesting problem. My preferred type of romantic interests in IFs are the ones that either hate me or have terrible personalities. Bonus points if they’re a villain or rival. I like lots of angst potential and I get a kick from making characters that hate me fall for me via their route.
However, while this is interesting to me, I want to write something that people who aren’t me can enjoy. The thing is, it’s hard for me to be objective about what “types” I should include that will appeal to others. For example, right now my roster includes…
a flirty person
a grumpy guy & girl
a stoic leader guy (who hates you…)
a crazy girl
two nice/sweet characters (but one or both turns out to be evil…)
There’s more nuance to these characters that make them different in my eyes, but I’m worried that readers might not see it that way. I know there are maybe more popular RO archetypes out there that I could use to add variety but for the life of me I can’t think of any, I feel like I’m getting tunnel vision.
Has anyone else had this problem, or something similar? Any ideas for “types” that stick out as missing from this roster? Any feedback is welcome, I’m very new at this.
A character’s disposition towards the MC comes from their backstory, personality, personal beliefs, their current circumstances. This disposition will not necessary stay the same for the entire game. They might treat different characters (including different MCs) differently based on any number of factors. Finally, the character itself might change over the course of the game.
Therefore, my advice would be not to worry about the archetypes, but to come up with interesting characters that you’d want to write about, and see what dynamics they have with different MCs.
(unless you’re writing a heavily romance-focused game that explicitly revolves around having these archetypes)
And good luck with your writing
The ROs should be characters in the story’s world first and foremost. So write the story, flesh out the character and see how they as characters interact with MC, not as designated ROs.
It’s best to start out with thinking about the role the character will have in the story and how the player will interact with them, rather than making characters to fill out a slate. That way they’ll feel more fleshed out and embedded in the story and setting.
I’d also recommend taking some time to think about what you love about all the characters - not just what you think other people will like. If you don’t feel personally enthusiastic about the characters (which doesn’t have to be that you’d always choose to romance them yourself!) it will be harder to encourage players to be enthusiastic about them too.
Oh, something else - it is good to have variety so that the characters and roles don’t blur into each other. For example, is a grumpy guy, grumpy gal, and a stoic leader who hates you, necessary? Could the two sweet-but-secretly-evil characters be merged into one? etc. Obviously it’s OK for characters to have things in common, but I sometimes see character lists for games that feel repetitive in dynamic and I wonder how exciting they would feel once they were in the game.
Honestly just go for Major most popular troops that are out there like those in anime tsundere, yandere smth I guess and others, majority will like it some won’t like,
Honestly just go with the flow, latr when people start giving opinions u can recreate or correct it.
While this is an important consideration, I also think there is nothing wrong with writing exactly the types of characters you like best.
That being said, if you do want to make sure you have a balanced cast, I wouldnt worry so much about the arechtypes you use. I only use tropes/archtypes in the very intial planning , but by the time I actually start writing the characters are their own people completely independent of the original archetype I wanted them to fill.
I agree with most of the others, define the character and go from there. What do they want? Why do they want it? What are they willing to do to get it? While it’s possible someone’s goal might be to fall in love and they’d be willing to do anything to achieve that, for most people that’s a secondary concern. Defining a character primarily as “flirty” or any other single adjective runs the risk of creating a stereotype rather than a person. I’d focus on motivations, first and foremost.
EDIT: I think one helpful thing to do is to set aside the idea that they’re ROs, initially. Make them full characters that contribute meaningfully to the plot. Who will they be and what will they do if the MC doesn’t romance them? Because if you have three ROs, two of them aren’t going to be chosen (barring poly routes.) The more believable they are as people with their own goals and inner lives, the more fulfilling their romantic route will be.
