This is game idea I have worked out, but not yet playtested (or even finished working out all the cards that might be involved). I'd love people to share their thoughts, particularly on some of the ideas I mention at the end.
For those who aren't familiar with the theme, dating sims and harem animes are generally typified by a single male protagonist (usually teenaged, of course) surrounded by a number of female characters, most of whom are potential love interests.
In LMVU (a working title until I find something a little shorter that still has that Engrish feel), players take on the role of one of the girls looking to snag The Guy (who will probably be given a suitably bland name). Each player starts with a Character card and a hand of six cards, while the table starts with a Scene card, with The Guy at the scene. Each turn, players draw 2 cards and play up to 3, with the aim of collecting enough Heart Points to play a Confession. At the end of a your turn, discard down to 8 if necessary.
The general types of cards are:
Confession - Probably all the same, play if you have 8 Heart Points and your Character and The Guy are alone together to win.
Scene - Can be Indoor or Outdoor, Day or Night. When you play a new Scene, discard the old one and move all characters out of the Scene. You can choose for either or both of your own Character and The Guy to enter the Scene.
Hearts - If your Character and The Guy are both at the Scene, play for Heart Points. Each Heart card has 1-3 HP on it, with the 3HP cards usually requiring some special situation to play - e.g. must be at a particular Scene, or characters must be alone together.
Events - Come in three types, represent "plot events" to help your own Character or hinder others.
Normal Events - Play, resolve, discard.
Lasting Events - Stay in play until some condition is met - e.g. "Butt Out!" - All Characters except yours and The Guy leave the Scene. While this is in play, no Characters may enter the Scene. You may not Confess this turn. At the start of your next turn or when the Scene changes, discard.
Sudden Events - Reaction cards that usually cancel a card just played, particularly Heart and Confession cards.
Other random rules and thoughts:
At the start of your turn, your Character can enter the Scene. I don't think there's a huge need for allowing Characters to leave the Scene without changing it.
I have it as playing 3 cards per turn, but I'm wondering whether to specifically make it that you can play 1 Scene, 1 Heart or Confession and 1 Event card, possibly in any order. This would help in stopping people from spamming Hearts followed by a Confession too early or playing a bunch of Events that mess everything up.
Given that there will be a fixed number of Heart cards in the deck, I'm wondering whether the requirement for Confessing should vary depending on the number of players - at the moment, I don't have many cards designed to destroy a player's existing Heart Points, so there should be enough Heart cards in the deck that everyone has a chance of getting enough without one player locking the others out.
I'm also considering whether to include a rule that says if you empty your hand by the end of your turn, you get to draw extra cards at the start of your next. While this may become more difficult with a "Play 1 Scene 1 Heart/Confession 1 Event" rule, it would also further encourage players to do as much as they can in a turn.
That's an interesting take on it, particularly your suggestion of a theme change. Unfortunately, I'm more wed to the theme than the actual design of the game, but I agree that the alternative theme has some merit too.
Certainly I'm not aiming at a big market - this is more the kind of thing that, if I get it nicely printed, I might try to get included on a club's table at anime/pop culture cons for a modest profit, not sold at all good gaming stores near you. I think you underestimate the market a little, though, because I think there's a good overlap between "anime-liking girl" and "board game-playing girl", particularly within the subset of "person who can laugh at the silliness of something they like".
You did get it right that it's meant to be fairly silly - it's going to be based more on the wacky examples of the genre like Love Hina, so lots of slapstick comedy stuff. I like your suggestion of some kind of "Freak Out" on behalf of The Guy who's getting too many love letters and chocolates, maybe an "everyone discards a card from their Heart Pile" or something. I do want to keep it in the fun, silly, PG area of things, so probably won't have anything like a One Night Stand.
Thanks for the initial feedback!