[ Oshioki Gakuen 2 ] A New Game (Interest/Thoughts) (Abandoned)

[zae]

Okay, some people might remember Oshiokio Gakuen (Punishment Academy). It was more an experiment than anything else. Also, apparently there is a manga that has that name. I guess that's what I get for picking something as generic as that. No matter.

So I'm thinking of... sort of remaking it. Except on a grander scale. So the basic idea is the same, but the characters are different, and there are more of them, and there's a bit more variety through the game and so on. I'll call it Academy of Correction or something. Which is hardly better, but I won't stand for "Days of Idealisation" or some such nonsense, the title should give some clue as to what the game is about.

So people might be thinking fuck yes. But here's the kicker: I'm studying full-time in a course that might pay off, and is saddling me with around $40K in student debt, so the things I do in my free time need to be rewarding. As such, I'm going to ask for general interest first, and then look into developing it. Here's the breakdown:

It won't be free.
I'm looking at charging $10 for it. Let's break that down:
1. I intend for a single playthrough to last around as long as that of Sakura Chronicles or similar. You know, you could do it in one sitting, but 2-3 is more likely. That game costs $10 as well, by the way.
2. It will not be as polished as a professionally made game like that, which has a team of staff, specialist software for creating music and quality art and so on. Look at my general art quality: that's what you're getting. Sound will be free midi music.
3. By the same token, the game will have more ero-ero content than SC, and more replayability. There will be multiple endings (and not in the Mass Effect 3 sense. OH, BURN!), and often a choice will mean getting a completely different scene, and your average scene will have a few options for the specifics you take.
4. Compared to doing commissions, this is a bargain. $10 of commissioned art from me (indeed, from most) will get you 1-2 pictures. The other side to this is you don't get to make any decisions about what the art is.
5. I'm not selling this over Steam or anything, meaning I don't have to censor it or anything. And also meaning the sales here are all I'm getting. If I'm so lucky that ten people buy it, that's all of $100, also known as "a nice bit of spending money for a week" or "snacks for a fortnight", but not "worth noting for a holiday". Consider the number of hours going into this.

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For the record, no I am not looking for other crew. I work best on my own, and besides, if there's a mixture of art styles it'd just look weird. If you offer playtesting, the answer is no. I'll playtest it as much as possible, and people aren't getting a free copy just to play through it and assure me they did rigorous trialling. If you offer to provide ideas, I will tell you to go fuck yourself because ideas are the easiest part of a game, you're just telling me to make your game for you.

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Ultimately, a playthrough should have around 30 scenes, but the whole thing will probably need around a hundred to provide for real choices and options and replayability. There will be a fair number of characters as well.

So, at the moment I have two questions:

1. Who here is interested enough that they're reasonably sure they'd be willing & able to pay ten dollars for it?
This is not a locked-in thing. If enough people say yes, then I'll move forward, and start putting up character ideas and so on, and more people can say "actually yes I like where this is going" and people can also back out. I just need a vague sign that it's worth the trouble.

2. How would you prefer the ending system to work?
Option A is where it looks at the "progress scores" for all the girls (instead of them loving you and gaining love just by you choosing lighter punishments like in the previous game, it's their general attitude growth and respect, based on you choosing appropriate punishments) and picks the one with the highest. Many dating sims do this, as do the Atelier _____ games (which are almost dating sims). Oshiokio Gakuen did this, but also had a boring generic "you're not that great" ending and was kind of screwed up in awarding points.

Option B is more your Bioware thing (NOT INCLUDING MASS EFFECT 3) where at the end, it gives you a brief ending for each of the girls, checking their progress score as a pass/fail sort of thing. So if you garnered respect in only three girls, then the ending would talk about where you go from there, and the three success stories of those girls, and the other ~7 girls who end up not doing that well.

In future I might specifically ask for other preference-based input.

[Izumi]

the game sounds great and option A looks like the better approach,would there be a way to keep track of the scores? That was the downside of the earlier game you made.

[FapFapFap]

Very ambitious. I'd definitely drop 10 bucks to play that.

I'd probably prefer a bioware-esque (cough, fallout did it first, cough) ending. I'm not a fan of dating sims or their strange mechanics, and I'm never going to actually play a nice teacher if I'm given the choice

[johny741]

I would also pay the ten dollars for this

[sss]

Id pay, and Id think option B would work best

[Izumi]

I think it is safe to say any member that is a fan of Zae's style will be fine paying ten dollars for a game by him

[razzy234]

+1 from me, sounds neat.

[KathyKane]

$10? Can I get a physical copy for $30? Count me IN on this project!

I'd like the second option personally, as I've never finished a dating sim with the ending I was trying for.

[kony83]

I am also willing to pay ten dollars, although I will probably need some guide how to do that.

[monkeytoster]

I'd pay for that, and I'm with Kony83. Would payment be through Paypal or something else?