There is a number of key points when designing any video game. One of it is very simple, yet very elaborate anyway: what's the exact gameplay and what would the main game UI look like?

For us, that was exactly the third question in mind, right after the base objective and the game setting. And it's a very interesting topic, since the exact gameplay is not set in stone for the whole development process. While some rough ideas and rough mechanics are decided upon from the very beginning of development, the fine details, and even things like UI colors, can in fact change during any phase of development - of course if there is a reason for such change. 

Do you maybe know Yandere Simulator?

It's a very interesting video game about an anime schoolgirl (what a coincidence!) with a lot of design concepts and mechanics which a player can exploit in order to achieve Ayano's main goal, which is to keep all the other girls planning to confess to her Senpai away at all cost. The core mechanics were implemented in the first years of development, but from that point of time there was still some UI and gameplay look-a-like changes, the last one not even a month ago - about colors of the day-progression animation. And we're all sure those changes will always occur, at least until the game would eventually be mature enough! (For now, only a demo is accessible, but we're looking forward to seeing the full version right after it'll be released. And we all do playtest the demo in our free time, and even take part in project-related discussions and occasionally make suggestions directly to YandereDev.)

So, how does this actually influence our game?

Our vision of the gameplay of Kibou-chan: The Adventure is to be a crossover between a classic adventure game, a non-linear visual novel and a puzzle game. Player has seven kinds of choices, depending on what's actually going on at the time:

• where would the protagonist go,
• what would the protagonist do.
• what would the protagonist talk about,
• what would the protagonist tell to a character,
• what item would the protagonist carry/use,
• who would be the person the protagonist would spend his time with,
• if the protagonist would engage in additional activities.

Also, the game is about music. And it's about the Music Club.

Have you read the question Kibou-chan had put in the game description? If no, time to repeat it loud: the protagonist will be able to join the Music Club himself! This would add new gameplay scenarios, new choices, new places to be and new items to carry/deliver to other places. Also some sidequests and... the music minigame!

The minigame would be playable using both a keyboard or a gamepad, and it would require a total of 8 different keys to be pressed in a correct order repeatedly until the song finishes. We are going with a similar vibe like the 2010's 3DS dance game Michael Jackson: The Experience, with four different difficulty levels. But... we aren't dancing here, we are playing slapping! And of course, the thing we slap here is the BASS!

Why bass, you may ask? It's actually pretty simple. Kibou is our singer, songwriter and composer. Midori plays guitar. Sakura and Kiyomi are violinists and Satoshi is a drummer. So, what is the missing instrument here for any rock-like band? The answer is pretty simple now :)

Some other minigames are also planned, but we are planning elaborating on this matter later. Keep up and thanks for following the development!

This was a part of a longer series. We'll be succesively releasing some new comments on How do I play it? once questions arise or we have some meaningful knowledge to share.