New Gameplay Element Poll

For this month's poll, I wanted to get some feedback on a couple of ideas I have as side content in the game. Basically, things to do that aren't just seducing women.

I'll go through the ideas, and then you can vote for whichever one you like the most. Feel free to comment any specific feedback you have too!

Idea 1 - Collectables
For those that don't know, I primarily used to do colorings of other artist's linework. And by other artists I mean I colored LMSketch's lines. I liked to go a little crazy with the variations too, so I have a bunch of these just sitting on my hard drive. so I thought it would be fun to throw them in the game as collectables.
Basically, you'd find the colorings hidden throughout the game. Then there'd be a collector at one of the shops looking for the colorings. You'd be able to sell them to the collector for extra cash, and once you turn them in, you'd be able to look at all the ones you've collected so far by talking to him. Netting you a huge sum of cash for finding all of the collectables in each area.
This also leaves the possibility of collaborating with other artists later in development. Instead of just using my colorings, I could maybe add in artwork from other games or from other artists I like. Of course, I'd reach out to them and ask, so it'd be entirely up to them, but it's a possibility. But in that case, I'd be able to continually add new collectables with each update.

The biggest plus for this idea, is that it would be implemented very quickly and not pull away from normal development very much. Since all of the artwork exists already, I'd just be putting it in the game. Which would largely consist of just placing an item somewhere, and making the turn in NPC. Which once they're made, it would just be a lot of copy pasta for each new collectable. It would also make progressing through the game a lot faster and easier, if you go seek out the collectables. You could take that money to hookers to level or use it to boost through the first couple of tiers by buying the apartment and house very quickly. All while completely avoiding grinding.
However, all of this is also potentially the biggest downside. The artwork is all from sketches, and I wasn't as good of an artist back then, so the artwork isn't quite as high quality (in terms of the coloring anyway). There's a lot of variations of the same colorings too, so it would be a lot of different versions of the same thing. And if you can skip chunks of the game, it may not feel as rewarding or fun. I could balance that out a little bit by only letting certain collectables appear once you've done things like buy the apartment, house, etc. However, there would always be that big boost you can get by getting all the collectables right when a new tier opens up. I could balance it per update, but for anyone playing the full game or starting on a much later version, they could be used to break the game pretty easily. I could maybe come up with a way to better balance it, but as of now, that's how I see it. If you do have an idea on how to better balance it, be sure to let me know! 

The for sure biggest downside, is that I would have to remove at least all of my colorings for the official release, and replace them with just items with no artwork attached. They would literally just be there to find and make some money with. This is because the colorings are all fanart of existing characters. The plan is to sell the game places like Steam and DLSite once it's done, and I can't do that if there's copyrighted characters in it. So they'd need to be removed. The same is true if there's any collabs that use fanart of established characters. 

So this would be the quickest and easiest to implement of the three, but could also create the most problems for the game balance. And if I'm not able to collab with other artists, be potentially the worst quality overall, in terms of the artwork. And on top of all of that, it would really just be a sort of unofficial/early supporter kind of thing. Oh yeah, here, I'll show some examples so you can see the quality the colorings are.

This one of Rosalina is one of the oldest colorings, so it's on the lower end of the quality spectrum.



And this is one of the more recent colorings.



Hopefully that gives a better idea of the quality range, and also that not all of them will be H scenes. Some will be more like pinups.

Idea 2 - Alternate Play and Art Styles
For this idea, it would open up after you finish the lab storyline. At the end of the intro lab storyline, a machine explodes and portals to other dimensions open up around the city. Right now, these portals are planned to lead primarily to other dimensions where you can seduce more succubus style women. Like the ones that show up in the intro lab storyline. However, these other worlds don't have to be limited to that. Instead, they could have entirely new art styles and even some different gameplay elements.
For example, one portal could lead to a world where seduction mode doesn't exist. Instead, you have to w00 women like you would in an old school flash game. By spending energy to talk to them and give them gifts. Then on top of that, it could be a completely different art style. Instead of the anime style, it could be something like DCAU style, or comics style, or even look like an old flash game. With each portal having a different art style and different gimmick. That being said, I have to explicitly say that I can't do existing characters. I can do something like emulate the DCAU art style, but I can't add in an established characters like Wonder Woman in the official style. The idea is to sell the game on platforms like Steam and DLSite when it's done, and I doubt that I'll be able to if I include very obviously copyrighted characters. However, like the first idea, I could potentially collab with other artists instead. If the game gets enough support, I could even hire other artists to do all of the work, if they don't want to just collab too.

This one would create a lot of variety for the game and help to keep things interesting for me. However, it would be probably the most time consuming. Researching and emulating art styles can take a lot of trial and error, which takes a lot of time. I may have to do 2-3 full pieces in a style before it starts to look right. If not more. Making for either a couple of characters looking weird, or just 2-3 illustrations that I have to redo. And again, it's not like I can add established characters and worlds. Collabing or commissioning other artists would speed it up and even potentially speed up the process, but that's only a faint possibility. The game would need to be extremely successful to make enough to not just pay my bills, but also hire another couple of people, and then still have some money left to commission artists. So I'd say that this is the highest risk, but highest reward idea.

Since I gave a sample for the last one, I'll give on here too. This is from the original version of one of my failed games, A Perfect Ten. It was originally a Batman Beyond parody game, then it switched to an original game with the same art style. This is Angela in that style, and would be the kind of thing I would be doing for these portals. Using original characters while emulating the art style.




Idea 3 - Raising Sim
The final idea, is part of an idea I had for a different game. Basically, an alien crash lands on Earth looking for their friend. The tl;dr is that you find them and offer to help, if they have sex with you on camera so that you can post the videos online and make money. So basically, it would be a raising sim that would help you make money quickly. You wouldn't get exp for scenes with her, but you would still need to use stamina. But instead of exp, you would make money. As she levels up, more scenes would become available, and they would net you more money.
In the original game, the alien was able to transform into other people, but that would be a bit too much here. Instead, she would just have the one form.
Much like the first idea, this would help you make money. But unlike the first one, it would be a permanent way of generating cash. It would also create a storyline to play through, where you track down their friend and then at the end, be able to train them as well.

The best part about this idea, is that it would be effectively an entirely separate game in the game, and wouldn't be that hard to implement. It would create a steady stream of money, and would preserve the balance of the game, since I could just wait to have her show up until later, or add caps to unlocking her scenes until you get to the next tier. That way it can't be abused. Making it the safest option in terms of balance and gameplay variety.
The biggest potential downside is that it's only going to appeal to some people. The collectables are simple enough that even if someone doesn't want to actively look for them, they can still maybe find them sometimes by accident. And the portals will add so much variety that someone is bound to like at least one. But if someone doesn't like raising sims or doesn't like the character design, they're not going to engage with it, and it will be like it's not in the game at all.

And since I showed something for the other two, here's the original designs from the game that the idea was originally from. I was going to use VaM for the scenes. I actually got pretty far into starting this game as my project, but I ended up going with Waifu Wonderland instead. Mainly because I wanted it to be animated, and I couldn't get RPG Maker to play the animations like I wanted. And while VaM is great, especially in VR, my PC isn't good enough to make the stills look good enough to stand on their own. For animations it's good enough, but 3D stills need to be exceptional quality to stand alone. Because if they aren't, then there's no real reason it shouldn't be animated IMO. Before I start rambling about the technical side of 3D work, here's the designs.

The alien version - 



The human version - 



They're literally the same model with different skin/makeup colors, and clothes. And I took away the pointy ears for the human version. It's just always kind of wild how much different colors and clothes can make a character look.

Anyway.

Those are the three ideas. 

There's always the possibility of adding all three eventually, or possibly simplified variations of them, but like all things, it entirely depends on the amount of support the game gets. If I'm able to basically hire a team, I'll be able to fairly easily implement all of these. But I'm working under the assumption that it's only ever going to be me. So at least for now, only one idea will be implemented.