Well that all sounds awesome and it's good to know you were already thinking about some of this too.
To comment on just a couple of those points:
- I'm totally good with a manual; I had suggested tutorial since that's just more common now, but as long as how to play the game is conveyed somehow, that's the most important thing. If you made it like a manual from the late 90s - early 00s where you expanded on the lore like how the Love Rocket competition works in-universe and bios for the characters that would be sick. Seems like that's what you're going for and as someone who got way too excited to rip open the box and read the manual as a kid I'm totally onboard.
- That's actually what I was thinking for the BGMs as well. Introduce with lyrics, then loop the instrumental, then maybe bring back the lyrics at critical moments.
- Don't know how expansive the roster is going to be down the line, but another potential option for Cheshire is giving her another set of levels too. If she's one of your favorites, that would be a way to expand on her background and her and Algie's relationship, and it would also make sense canonically since she's supposed to be really good at this game, so a rematch in another tournament/event final would be plausible.
- I think there are a few NSFW chatbot sites out there, but spicychat is the only one I know of that allows free accounts, which is a plus. I've used it a bit and it does the job for me. Maybe someone in your discord has more knowledge though.
Looking forward to the updates, keep it up man.