What is an immediate red flag for you guys?

[seneya]

and a third "friendly" option that's borderline just being rude

"Can't you see I'm in the middle of some CALIBRATIONS here???"

Bonus:

characters talking in therapy-speak.

"Your feelings are valid, now please put both halves of that man down."

 

[AwooChan]

God-Cursed.
Speaking of, games that suggest that instead of growing a spine and learning to face adversity, MC should surround themself by a harem group of people who protect them and do everything for them out of pity love. In other words, infantilization of MC.
Edit: Connected to that, characters talking in therapy-speak.

Hey man, if I had terminal god cancer I'd build myself a harem too!! Jokes aside though, the therapy speak and over emotional characters is pretty jarring especially in a medieval inspired fantasy setting

 

[mminty607]

i think this should be an enough incentive to reduce the number of ROs and provide sufficient variations for immersion points. because this just alludes to another red flag for me, which is the huge number of ROs that to some degree end up looking discouraging. like from the get go i know that i'm abt to be faced with caricatures in place of characters just to fulfill some check list, as well as choices that bleed into each other with how similar they are. also it also one of the reasons authors could give up.

I think the reasoning behind having so many ROs is to fit the preferences of a wide amount of readers. But I personally think all you need are 2-3 well written ROs. I mean, even just one RO written extremely well with a lot of variation in dialogue and dynamics would be amazing. I get the appeal behind romance in IFs but sometimes it feels like writers are using the setting/lore as pretext for the romance. Or you know, the story is really good but the romances feel tacked on. OR there are so many romances in the IF that the writer can't give them all enough care and you're able to tell which one is their favorite or they have the most inspiration for when writing. You're also able to tell which character they weren't really interested in writing due to how little content there is for them. So yeah, a lot of these issues could be fixed if ROs were limited in some capacity. I always anticipate that the ROs are going to be lackluster if the IF has more than like, 5-7 ROs. And even that amount is pushing it in my opinion. Often times it feels like a character was conceived by the author for the sole purpose of being romanced and with little thought to how they'll contribute to the overall plot.

 

[f8butterfly]

I am glad this seems to be uncommon but another red flag of mine I've just remembered is when authors create a romance-focused story and they've marketed their game as such but then come out and say that the best option to play in their game is to not romance anyone at all or to break up. I've noticed a few IFs and VNs that say this and I would prefer to not play a romance game if that is what they have to say about their game and its romances. Especially when they hide behind an excuse like saying friendships are just as valid. No one said they weren't. You're writing a romance game, that has nothing to do with your audiences opinion on friendships.

 

[685Zek]

when authors create a romance-focused story and they've marketed their game as such but then come out and say that the best option to play in their game is to not romance anyone at all or to break up.

That's the dumbest thing I've ever read and I'm glad I never came across this being argued in the wild. What's next, a racing game where the best way to play is DNF'ing out of every race?

 

[Serpent]

I am glad this seems to be uncommon but another red flag of mine I've just remembered is when authors create a romance-focused story and they've marketed their game as such but then come out and say that the best option to play in their game is to not romance anyone at all or to break up. I've noticed a few IFs and VNs that say this and I would prefer to not play a romance game if that is what they have to say about their game and its romances. Especially when they hide behind an excuse like saying friendships are just as valid. No one said they weren't. You're writing a romance game, that has nothing to do with your audiences opinion on friendships.

This honestly reminds me of those stories that are supposed to be "dark and angsty" and whatever else, but end up being neither of those things

 

[bdatzmr]

I've recently been trying out new IFs but it's been kinda hard cuz either they immediately raise my red flags, or I just end up dropping them



• Too much ROs
• Has too much wips/starting on a new IF when they takes ages to update
• Obviously started an Patreon/Kofi when most of the time its just prologue/chapter 1
• Their Tumblr is flooded with horny asks (bro why we having the ros dih size, shaved or bushy, they whimper or grunt info when we haven't even met them yet? )
• Genderlocked Mc
• Forced interactions or relationships (plss i cant take another infamous/BoC forcing me to interact with characters i hate/dont care abt LOLL)
• Useless mc
• And this one is new; IFs tagged as "dark romance" but the dark is one sided cuz its just Mc being the one abused, manipuled, bullied, helpless and submissive towards ROs and even side characters.

Mc NEVER can be toxic as well or either they will be scolded by narrator, other characters (or mc themselves??) as if they were the villains of the story instead of just fighting back or... treating Ro/characters the way they treat MC??
+ Mcs on those IFs always seems to be insufferable and have childish personality, so Ros always has a "excuse" to be an **hole, but mc can't be! (and ofc, they also are useless that cant do anything without the ROs, and they will be treated bad for being useless lol)

 

[kecap asin]

Author making multiple paid-only povs from different character. I swear they be milking that one chapter that for some reason has 10 different persepective.

 

[Parallax]

I've recently been trying out new IFs but it's been kinda hard cuz either they immediately raise my red flags, or I just end up dropping them



• Too much ROs
• Has too much wips/starting on a new IF when they takes ages to update
• Obviously started an Patreon/Kofi when most of the time its just prologue/chapter 1
• Their Tumblr is flooded with horny asks (bro why we having the ros dih size, shaved or bushy, they whimper or grunt info when we haven't even met them yet? )
• Genderlocked Mc
• Forced interactions or relationships (plss i cant take another infamous/BoC forcing me to interact with characters i hate/dont care abt LOLL)
• Useless mc
• And this one is new; IFs tagged as "dark romance" but the dark is one sided cuz its just Mc being the one abused, manipuled, bullied, helpless and submissive towards ROs and even side characters.

Mc NEVER can be toxic as well or either they will be scolded by narrator, other characters (or mc themselves??) as if they were the villains of the story instead of just fighting back or... treating Ro/characters the way they treat MC??
+ Mcs on those IFs always seems to be insufferable and have childish personality, so Ros always has a "excuse" to be an **hole, but mc can't be! (and ofc, they also are useless that cant do anything without the ROs, and they will be treated bad for being useless lol)

I see **** from this category constantly popping up on Tumblr as "upcoming". Absolutely hate it. The only consolation is that many of them are going silent and never even release a demo. OR die after just a few updates of demo. Good. If amazing IFs die, the shitty ones should too!