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The two genres I have chosen for this game are visual novels and dating simulators. I will look into these two individually and see what types of tropes and techniques they use to appeal to their target demographics.
Visual Novel
Visual Novel
This genre is very diverse and describes more of a visual style or aesthetic than any kind of plot or gameplay. Wikipedia talks about how visual novels "[...] combine a textual narrative with static or animated illustrations and a varying degree of interactivity". Essentially, visual novels are characterised by two things: being almost entirely roleplay/storyline-based and having very little interactivity. Some visual novels have so little interactivity that some might not even consider them to be video games, but more akin to an interactive book. Other visual novels might include more interesting game mechanics, like multiple choice, adventure elements, or even AI. Something that a huge proportion of the genre features is an anime style of art, as the genre of visual novel was popularised in Japan. This is not mandatory, however; for example, the visual novel "Florence" is in a much more Western, simple art style. Some visual novels subvert this even further by using photos and live-action characters, such as "AKB1/48: Idol to Koishitara".
Some examples of the most famous visual novels are Danganronpa, Phoenix Write: Ace Attorney, and VA-11 HALL-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action. What separates a good visual novel from a great one, in my opinion, is the inclusion of alternative gameplay mechanics. Take Danganronpa, for example; this is a visual novel that includes interactive elements both in the characters' downtime and in its well-known trials. The player is able to piece together the mystery of what's happening by playing minigames and interacting with characters in particular ways. This is what the game is known for, as well as its compelling story and characters.
The video game publishing company Manga Gamer put out a survey in which they got some figures on the target demographic of visual novels. They found out that:
73% of the respondents were male, and 23.5% were female.
86% of the respondents were between the ages of 18 and 30 (with 62.5% of those being 18–24).
When asked the most important aspects of a visual novel, "story" and "art" were considered the most important.
The inclusion of erotic content (which is a fairly common theme amongst anime-inspired visual novels) was much more important to men than it was to women.
This can tell you quite a lot about the target audience of this genre. For one, men in college seem to be the most popular demographic; this is not surprising, as the majority of visual novels are anime-based, which is (at least in the West) mostly consumed by men of this age. When it comes to non-anime visual novels, however, I think it's worth thinking more about storyline than aesthetics, as even the most simple art styles can be made engaging by a decent plot. When it comes to appealing to this target audience, given that my art style is not as anime-based as a lot of the more popular visual novels on the market, I would be looking to focus on an engaging story and complex characters, as opposed to just making it more erotic (although given that the other genre I'm going with is "dating simulator", there will of course be aspects of that).
Dating Simulator
Dating Simulator
Wikipedia describes dating sims as a "video game subgenre of simulation games with romantic elements. While dating sims share a similar visual presentation as visual novels, they are distinct genres". As this description would indicate, the two genres have a lot of crossover; obviously they are not mutually exclusive, as you can have a dating sim that is not a visual novel (for example, the dating sim "Crush Crush" is an idle clicker game), and you can have visual novels that are not dating sims (as discussed, Danganronpa is a good example of this). But they share a lot of similarities, with dating sims being the most engaging when you're able to delve purely into the different characters' personalities, which can be best achieved through the visual novel genre.
Something that makes dating sims distinct in gameplay from other subgenres of visual novels is that a lot of dating sims have a points system, where the more you talk to a character, the more you are able to connect with them. A lot of the time, you have to talk to a character a certain amount, or in a certain way, before you are able to unlock them as a romantic candidate. This is distinct from the more straight-forward plots of some visual novels, where you may unlock different endings depending on your choices.
Some examples of popular dating sims are Monster Prom, Arcade Spirits, and Boyfriend Dungeon.
Just like with visual novels, the uniqueness of a dating sim can make all the difference in how popular it is, which means that the more interesting game mechanics, the better. This is never more obvious than it is in the mobile game Mystic Messenger. This is a game that I played as a young teenager (which is this game's target demographic), and I think it has one of the most distinct and well-executed game mechanics of any dating simulator out there. It seems like a regular dating sim/mystery game; however, it utilises chatrooms that sync up with real time in order to give the game an added level of immersion; for example, a chatroom may open up at 3 a.m., with the characters questioning why they're up so late. The player must enter at least 50% of the chatrooms in a day (there are around 10 open every day at various times, and the game lasts for 11 days total) in order to unlock true endings, and once you have entered a chatroom, you can pick between multiple dialogue options in order to gain hearts with the characters, like in a regular dating sim. Once you gain enough hearts with people, you are able to "call" them, where you listen to an audio clip of them talking. You collect pictures of the characters, try to solve the mystery of one of the characters' deaths, and have downtime where you just talk with the characters as if they were your friends.
The popularity of this game shows; it has over 5 million downloads on the app store, with 4.6 stars overall. The interesting game mechanics, combined with the game having a total of 62 endings, make this an incredibly engaging and immersive gaming experience, and the complex characters and stories make for a dating sim unlike any other. Making a game feel real is all the appeal of dating simulators, as it allows the players to feel connected to the characters emotionally. Mystic Messenger does an excellent job of this by making the characters realistic, complex, and fun to talk to.
Looking at online sources to try and pinpoint a target audience for dating simulation games is a bit of a landmine. Of course, there is a huge amount of overlap between this genre and the previously mentioned genre of visual novels, and so naturally, their target demographics are going to be similar. However, looking at data specifically for dating sims, you start to see a real split between two very different audiences: dating sims targeted towards men and dating sims targeted towards women (more commonly known as otome dating sims).
The sources that discuss dating sims targeted at men seem to be talking about traditional, anime-style games of Japanese origin; these games are often shallow, sexist, and written through the "male gaze". The target audience for this brand of dating simulator, as I discussed in the visual novel section, tends to be college-aged men who put the inclusion of erotic content above most everything else. I won't go into too much depth about this particular target audience, as it makes me incredibly uncomfortable to talk about and is not the type of audience I am going to be directing my game concept towards.
The previously mentioned otome video games (meaning a game targeted towards women and girls, usually with romantic aspects between a main female character and a secondary male character) are more the angle I would like to go for. This subgenre of dating sims is similar to male-centric dating sims in all the key ways; however, it seems to put more of an emphasis on playing through the game multiple times to unlock all the endings. Otome dating sims quickly became an area of exploration for game developers and often include fantastical elements such as mythological creatures, supernatural powers, and even sci-fi elements. This paved the way for more story-based dating sims as a pose to those purely reliant on erotica, and these are the dating sims that made their way to the West and became more popular in America and Europe.
Now, the target audience for Western dating sims is generally teenage girls and a good portion of the LGBTQ+ community. Games like Dream Daddy (which I will discuss in more detail later on in my research) are specifically targeted towards queer men, and a lot of the more popular dating sims are satirical on the original genre, such as the game I Love You, Colonel Sanders.
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