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Perhaps you are interested in creating a cute story in which the main character can end up with one of several love interests. Maybe you want to prove to the world that you can make a full-blown [[Dating Sim]] without problems like illogical choices (or gratuitous sex, though [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether that is good or bad). Or perhaps you want to mix some relationship elements into your mainstream video game. Regardless, read on.
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1. Heterosexual male. Yes, you may have [[Seen It a Million Times]]. However, there's more out there than sex romps. Boy-meets-girl(s) stories exist in all sorts of flavors. They can be silly, they can be cute, they can be tragic, they can be twisted...
2. Heterosexual female. As of
3. Gay male. If you're working in the [[Boys Love Genre]], then your characters will be somewhere between androgynous and feminine. If you're working in [[Bara|the lesser known gay genre]], then your characters will be [[Manly Gay]].
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[[Mary Sue]]: if your main character is female, some fans may be quick to label her a Mary Sue, or as some sort of stand-in for Fangirls. Don't overcompensate to avoid this. Just show the audience that she has plausible strengths and real weaknesses.
Stereotypes: some character lists in bishoujo and otome games can seem like checklists of fan-favorite character types. [[Patient Childhood Love Interest]], [[Meido]], [[Ojou]]''/''[[The White Prince]], [[Not Blood Siblings]], [[Troubled but Cute]], [[Token
If your story takes place near a school, and nearly every important character is under twenty years old, then there's a chance that your story may seem trite even if it's original. Strive to add distinct elements to your game/story which will be obvious from the very first scene.
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A patch for ''[[School Days]]'' is in the works. Until they get completed, though, be sure to study their anime and manga spinoffs. Think about the ways these stories deconstruct the [[Harem Genre]].
How much time will your story cover? Will it continue on after the honeymoon's over? Do some research on ''Memories Off 2nd'', which is all about breaking up, or the latter segments of ''[[Clannad (visual novel)|Clannad]]'', which cover life after school years are over.
== Writers' Lounge ==
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=== Suggested Themes and Aesops ===
It's entirely possible to write a game which initially seems feature a harem, but once the player gets to know the story, it is much more like [[True Companions]]. [[The Power of Friendship]] might help in resolving conflicts which stem from love triangles. An example would, again, be in ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'', although you certainly don't have to disembowel the [[Token
Your game/story could be a (delayed?) [[Coming of Age Story]]. Consider writing a story in which the main character grows from an [[Accidental Pervert]] or a [[Fan Girl]] into someone more mature. Or if your game will have statistics, see if you can portray your main character as someone who grows as his/her stats improve. On a similar note, your main character could grow in maturity as he/she changes from indecisive to committed to one person.
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== '''The Greats''' ==
This section is hampered by the fact that several critically acclaimed ren'ai games not only lack official translations, but also lack fan translation patches. (To be more specific, as of
* ''Quartett!''. One of two games that sent littlewitch's popularity skyrocketing. It focuses on the lives of various young men and women who strive to be world-class musicians. Despite the slice-of-life pace, it still has incredibly powerful drama and romance aspects, making it a very satisfying coming-of-age tale. A complete English patch has been released for it.
* ''A Midsummer Day's Resonance''. A translated doujin game with no choices. One of the few visual novels in English with a female protagonist.
* ''[[Elven Relations]]''. A fairly serious fantasy story which is also a harem story. It contains optional RPG battles.
* ''[[Mitsumete Knight]]''. It's already unusual for a [[Dating Sim]] to take place in a medieval-fantasy setting, but this game also has rich background story, notably of the [[World Building|world it's set in]], and of the war taking place, which are as important as - and sometime overlapse with - [[The Hero]]'s quest to win the girl's heart. Also, the game can go far enough to [[Killed Off for Real|kill]] some girls off, [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|even during dating event]]. The end result, a solid plot which will captivate even those who aren't interested in [[Dating Sim|Dating Sims]].
* ''[[Katawa Shoujo]]''. It sounds like a sick fetish game, with your love interests being crippled, but it's actually a well written visual novel with characters that are interesting and fun, with an awesome soundtrack, themes that are well-researched and taken seriously, and moments that make you want to smile and cry at the same time.
== '''The Epic Fails''' ==
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[[Category:Write A Dating Sim]]
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