Cyclops (V.O): Previously, on Sexy X-Men Dating Sim. We jumped forward in time, because the first three episodes of The Phenomenals launched! You can play them for free on the Dorian app, available on both iPhone and Android.
Today we’re jumping back in time to talk about the creative decisions that went into episode one. Let’s do the time warp again…
Jubilee has the worst luck at the mall. Why the sparkle-shooting teen keeps going back to the same mall over and over again, after being attacked by security guards, giant robots, and alien psychopaths, is beyond me. Isn’t there another Delia’s in her area?
Amanda and I decided to kick The Phenomenals story off at a big box store, partly in homage to the way X-Men: The Animated Series opens with Jubilee being attacked by Sentinels at the mall. We also thought it was a smart way to show our player character was an ordinary, relatable person. Our player character, by the way, is you. Yes, you. The reader! Y-O-U. I love using the first person perspective in narrative games. It’s a very common trope in visual novels. First person perspective gives the conversations an immersive feel, like you, the player, are really having conversations with sexy squirrel people or whatever the game is about.
The player character can be anyone, but playing it again now, I think we ended up writing them like a woman in her mid-20s struggling to get her shit together. We thought it’d be funny if the player character was returning an air fryer that caught fire to Damien, the bored clerk at Supersales, who’s acting snotty about it. One idea we had was to give the player a choice to use their psychic abilities in this aggravating everyday situation. Explore the fantasy of being secretly more powerful than a normal human. You can force the clerk to take back the broken air fryer. However, we also figured there was a risk that the player character would expose their identity as a “phenom” in a world that hates and fears phenoms. Should the player use their powers knowing there are inherent risks?
Originally, we opened on the scene described above with Damien. Jess, our main contact at Dorian, gave the first version of the game to an internal editor, who wrote up a list of notes and suggestions. We didn’t have to take any of them to remain part of their Art Accelerator program, but I was genuinely curious to know what a seasoned dating sim developer would make of our story.
The editor thought the opening scene was very funny, but she suggested the first scene should feature at least one of the love interests. This would hook the player right away and dispel the idea that Damien was a dateable character. It never occurred to me players might make that assumption, but then again, we’re living in a world where you can Date Everything, so love interest clarity is important. We wrote a new opening scene in a parking garage, where the player may or may not awkwardly catch Gleam’s eye. Gleam has green skin and a beast-like appearance. We tied the scene thematically into how isolating and dangerous it can feel to be different, which contrasts with the ending of episode one, where our heroes – Gleam, Sureshot, and Fever – invite you to join them on a jet ride.
In terms of branching, we wanted to give the player an opportunity to spend equal time with each of the love interests, but we also wanted to give them agency to make their preference between them known. First impressions are important in romance. We wanted to honor that moment.
So I came up with a framework where the player is asked to shadow one of the three heroes on an impromptu mission taking place within Supersales. The player gains favorability with the hero they choose to shadow (a tip in the tip jar), but no matter who the player picks first, that hero will send you along to a second hero, and the second hero will send you on to the third. When the player has shadowed all three heroes, the story moves forward and the player escapes with The Phenomenals to the rooftop.
🎲 Your Turn: What’s your favorite pilot episode of a TV show? What did you like about how the episode was structured and introduced you to the characters and their world?
📨 Next Week: I’m going to play a few awesome games from this year’s IFComp and talk a little about why I didn’t make a game for this year’s competition.