You know those Japanese VN games?
You know the ones. The dating sims that teach you absolutely nothing about dating. Yeah, those. I freaking love those!
But through all the visual novels and dating simulators that I've played, I've noticed something. All the romances forged, the love, the affection, it was all pretty disposable. Like, I didn't form a strong connection with any of the romantic interests (except for that one time I played Katawa Shoujo).
So I thought long and hard. How can I make a waifu feel alive? ... Then it hit me. If you wanna give something life, you gotta promise it death.
And so Valentine's Tomb was born! The dating sim with permadeath.
So here's the premise. You and a random girl are sent into a tomb as sacrifices to the goddess of love, Valentine. You'll fend off monsters and vile afflictions while you build a meaningful relationship along the way. Also, you're only given a limited amount of rations. So eventually, you and your waifu will die. And when that happens, you both stay dead.
You see, what makes this game special is that the girls are randomly generated each run. So if you get attached to one and she dies for whatever reason, she's gone forever and you'll just have to deal with it. It may sound depressing, but that's the point. The bond with your waifu will become much stronger if you know that your time with her is finite.
But really, that's a tall order.
I totally understand that what I'm going for is a bit ambitious for an indie dev. Yes, one indie dev. I'm working on this alone. Some potential problems are, but aren't limited to:
- The randomly generated girls being predictable after a while,
- All the dialogue that I'll have to write,
- The combat system not being good enough,
- The unreasonable scope of the game bearing down on me and my personal life.
But either way, I'll still try my very best to create the best product that I possibly can. Cause really, I think that this is such a great idea. And it'd be a shame to let it go to waste.
