Big McIntosh Dating Sim (From: Official My Little Pony topic)

Entry posted by Lyichir August 21, 2013

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Sooooo... I finally broke down and started a silly little project I'd been contemplating for a while. It's a Visual Novel-style Dating Sim, where you play as Big McIntosh and get to date each of the Mane Six (except Applejack, of course). The catch is that your only choices for responding to questions are "Eeyup", "Nnope", and "...", and partly due to that each date ends rather poorly regardless of what decisions you make.

Story-wise, I'm trying to keep the whole thing in-character and close to the spirit of the show. There'll be some minor mature themes, mostly expressed through innuendo, but in general I'm trying to keep it about as lighthearted and innocent as a game that revolves around heartbreak can be. The sensuality that is there will be mostly for the purpose of tracking progression and enhancing the disappointment when things don't work out in the end.

For example, in Twilight's story she goes on a dinner date with Big McIntosh, while reading from a book about dating. Afterwards, she invites him home with her, since the book recommends that after a good date. Just as she finishes preparing a bed for the two of them, she starts to ask him some questions that don't have yes or no answers. When she realizes that Big McIntosh has such a limited vocabulary, she points out that it wouldn't work out between them and sends him home.

I'm putting it together in Microsoft Powerpoint (which is probably the worst tool I could use for the job, but it's also the easiest for a non-programmer like myself to figure out), and it's coming along well. I have the Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy routes fully scripted; Twilight's and Rarity's are mostly scripted though I'll need to go back to them and make them longer; I'm making progress on Pinkie Pie's, but it's been the hardest for me so far and I still am unsure exactly where I'm going with it. I have color coded text boxes but no art, although a friend who worked on Double Rainboom says she told some of the folks she worked with about it and some of them expressed interest, so fingers crossed.

I've been trying to keep it low key. It's just a silly little thing I'm doing to see whether I have what it takes, as well as to poke fun at a lot of the shipping involved. I hope some people might play it and be impressed, but the last thing I want is a disproportionate amount of hype that the finished game (which is ultimately more about the illusion of choice than a true variety of choices) will never be able to live up to. Nonetheless, I felt I could share this idea with you pony folks here at BZPower.

So, does anyone have any questions? Opinions? Suggestions? Diagnoses of lunacy? I'm all ears.

Source: Official My Little Pony topic