Chaotic_VDG wrote: My initial plan was to basically aim for a 3D version of
Maddison, though not necessarily with that character. You'd meet your date, then visit various locations, take her back to your place if she likes you enough, etc etc. There's a couple of problems with this though. a) I've done it before, but b), and more importantly to me, I've done it before in my 2D games. If it's just going to deliver that, why bother making a 3D game at all? It has to be worth the effort of making it with Unity.
I think the effort of making the game in unity is that it can free you from the one date limit that many 2D games have. To expand on a point I made before, you could have the first date be very hard to have sex. The way to do this is to put a small window where if you don't score enough "points" (or whatever other metric you use to define how successful the game is) she doesn't like you enough to have sex with you, but if you score too many points then she likes you too much and wants to hold off on sex so she doesn't risk losing your interest right away after the first date. This narrow window can get a bit larger if the girl is more adventurous or smaller if she is shy. This way getting her to have sex with you isn't about maximizing you points but being strategic in your point selection. Basically on the first date the difficulty is set to hard and on each successive date it gets easier. If you don't get laid by the third date then she's just not that into you and she doesn't return your calls after that. There could also be different sex scenes available depending on which date you do manage to score. If you score on the first date the girl may be more experimental because she doesn't see you as long term relationship material and you're just a fling she is having some fun with so she is willing to do more things, or the opposite may be true and she may be more reserved because that trust hasn't been established yet and more sexual acts may be available if you wait a bit. That would depend on the personality of the girl and affect your strategy on how you approach the dates.
Instead of the point system a variation of the Date Arianne game mechanics could be used as well. In that game you have four separate meters, Smart, Sexy, Funny and Nice. Certain dialogue choices gave you one point in each of these categories. You could get slightly different results by choosing to fill up one meter over another. If you filled up a meter too much though the date would end. Too sexy and she thinks all you want is to get in her pants, too funny and she feels she's not being taken seriously, too smart and she thinks you're pretentious and if you're too nice you get friendzoned. You could modify tolerances based on the tolerances of the personality of the girl. One girl may like funny men, another may like smarter men. Also what happens on the date may change if you decide to focus on one trait over another.
In short you're now playing the long game instead of the short game on the date. Is it better to hold off on sex for later or go for sex on the first date? That's going to depend on the personality of the girl and will change from girl to girl. It adds further complexity to the game and is a general advancement of the dating simulation game.
The open world also means your perspective isn't as forced so you can better hide things in the world (instead of using the pixel hunt method to hide things). You could find a romance novel under the couch in her apartment to give you an idea of her sexual tastes. Before a date you may be on your computer at your home and happen to stumble upon her dating profile. Someone else you talk to in the world may know your date and can give you helpful (or inaccurate and non helpful) advice. Having that option to move around your environment and check things out creates a lot more options for conveying information to the player. You can hide clues to a girls personality in much less obvious ways making exploration of the environment rewarding for the players.