Should I Throw Away the Transformation Elements?

I've been thinking very hard about my game for the past few days. There's something I'd appreciate a bit of input on.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist. If something doesn't fulfill my internal quality-control, it's not likely it's going to get done. I get a nagging feeling in my chest, something that tells me that something is wrong. I get that feeling when I work on this game. I think I understand now what is bothering me.

#1: There are people who are more interested in the soccer elements and not at all interested in the TF elements. Others are more interested in the TF elements and not at all interested in the soccer elements. It appears that the latter group is in the minority. It is bad game design to have one half of the game barely tolerable by half the players. There's just very little demand for soccer sims with TF. People just seem much more excited about the soccer and very "meh" about the TF.

#2: There is a debate in AIF as to how much the PC should be a reflection of the player and how much they should be a character in their own right. The former camp says that the protagonist should be basically a nameless shell to allow the player to reflect them as accurately as possible. The latter camp argues that nameless PCs are never practically going to provide a satisfactory level of freedom to players, so you might as well make them interesting characters in their own right. I am in the latter group, but this game would have plowed brave new ground into my side. Ultimately, I was getting uncomfortable with the amount of kinks, neuroses and so forth I was imposing on the player, and that was required to move the story forward.

#3: The scope of the game was too large and varied to accomplish in any sort of timely or quality fashion. There needs to be no contradiction between quality and quantity if one is willing to sacrifice their lives to work on something. I'm not that sort of person. Me wanna haf fun.

What needs to be understood is that I started this game out as a TF game with a soccer mini-game thrown in to add a little interest. Now, the main draw appears to be the soccer mini-game. A soccer management game with sex thrown in hasn't really been done before, and I think that sounds like a lot of fun. And, I might as well add the soccer mini-game is pretty technically sophisticated. It took about a month of (intensive) development to create. You can download it off the AIF Archive.

So, if you haven't guessed already, I'm considering tossing out the TF elements and focusing purely on expanding the soccer management elements. You're a male, from start of game to end of game. I haven't decided if that male character will be named or unnamed; Erin, formerly the PC, will become an NPC. You manage a girl's soccer team. The characters will be the same. You train the girls, you can romance them, you resolve their differences to make them a better team.

So here is the new premise I'm considering:

Erin, star player for the Easton Egrets, has disappeared, leaving her old team in a state of chaos. Interpersonal rivalries have reached a breaking point, and everyone's been neglecting their training. An outsider needs to come in to reform and restore the Easton Egrets to being the greatest soccer team New Suffolk has ever seen.

If I choose to do this, I won't exactly be starting from scratch but I will be basically throwing away months of work. I'm fine with throwing away months of work. God knows I've done it before (...though... I do have plans for saving some of the sex scenes I've already written... B-D ). This will also mean I'm returning to the working title of "Soccer Game", although hopefully I'll come up with something a little more creative soon.

So, if you have any suggestions about what I should do, now is the time to let me know.