I’ve run into a bit of a rode block with the story, I have the “Love interests” and the “Player characters” done with their bare bones backstory and personality but I really need some ideas on what the main story should be. Nothing I can come up with is appealing to me, so I’ve decided to come here and see if anyone here might be interested in giving me a basic story pitch.
The basic idea is that this is a Merman/Mermaid dating sim, sadly for now the romance options are male only but the player can choose between a female mer or a male mer, their siblings and no. One of them is NOT going to like die or anything. I am also thinking about making it a possibility for the player to help the sibling fall in love to but now I’m just getting of topic.
The player is a shark mer who gets trapped in garbage debri that some humans unknowingly tossed into the ocean and onto the player and their sibling, the gunk from the trash was closing up the their gills basically drowning them when just as they begin to black out someone or something grabs them and that’s how it all starts. I’ll now give you guy’s the basics of the love interests~ This goes from easiest to hardest btw.
Aldrik plays the role of the “Best Friend” suitor. He’s the one who rescues the player and is the easiest to romance.
Ace plays the role of the “Nerdy” suitor. The Healer of the this mer pod and the one who nurses the player back to health.
Adar plays the role of the “Snobby” suitor. The prince of the pod and soon to be King.
Cadao plays the role of the “Flirty” suitor. A musician and a heartbroken mer, left by a previous lover now jaded by it.
Lea plays the role of the “Loner” suitor. He is the outcast and is cursed with bad luck, anyone close to him gets affected by it to.
Pearce plays the role of the “Rival” suitor. He’s basically a tusundere, he picks fights with the player and pulls a ton of pranks on them and just does his best to make the players life in the reef miserable.
I’d love to hear your guy’s ideas for a story line with these guy’s! I might make a future addition to it where the romance options are female but for now this is how it’ll be! Thanks so much for helping me out!
If you’re making what will essentially be an otome then a villainess character is a must.
Being able to romance that villainess character is something too.
Whether you have multiple villainesses for each route, allow gender customization and have other characters become the villain/villainess of that route or whatever else, you’ll need a good villain.
If you want to go down the route of trashy copy+paste light novels, you can have the PC be the villain stealing away the ROs (or the Heroine ).
A villainess character huh… That might work.
Perhaps a villainess for each rout that the player has to compete with for the affection of the Romance option… And make them possible romance options too… Mmmmh I now have a lot of thinking and planing to do!
Customization is something I want to have but I’ll also have a default look for the player and the sibling (For those who don’t want to bother with customization) But for now I’ll manly focus on making sure I actually have a sound plot for the game.
There’s so many different stories you can make, it might help if you kind of pinpoint what type of story you’d like to write? Like are there any specific points or interaction you’d like to put in the story? Or is there anything that has really inspired you that you want to try to recreate (not copy of course!). Genre?
Did you want one overarching story and each route takes a look at that story from different viewpoints? Ie Let’s say this is a mystery and you’re trying to solve a murder. If you go with Ace you’d go look at the scene of the crime and question any witness, but if you going Adar you’d go to the royal palace and try to get info there. The story line is the same, its just a different way to the conclusion if you will.
Alternatively did you want each suitor to have a completely unique path?
In any case some random ideas:
You mentioned pods, maybe there’ are different pods and they’re at war with each other and its up to you to start/stop it
Since PC is shark mer, maybe trying to overcome prejudice from other sea animal mer
Humans vs Mer since they dump the trash into the ocean its dangerous for mer folks now and that’s gotta stop
Trying to find the sacred city of Atlantis (or whatever you want it to be)
Something about pirate Merfolk cuz that sounds rad the more I think about it
I mean there’s so much potential for storyline and characters that I’m gonna stop before this gets suppper long. You can always PM me if you want to talk about it more.
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