The game I'm creating, Villainess Lifesim, is a cross between the villainess webtoon genre and Bitlife. Similar to other life simulations I want my game to have many unique events and dialogue responses. These responses to a player's action bring the game to life and makes us anticipate what random event will happen next.  Without them, the in game world feels dead. 

The problem with creating unique responses

I'm working on 100-150 unique responses per interaction and currently, the main issue is time. Since I'm solo developing the game, I'm working on a lot at once and with limited time in a day. Moreover, Villainess Lifesim is set in a time period I know very little about. As a result, I'm spending time researching, creating a list of dialogue events, adding them to the dialogue tree, and adding them into the actual game.

How I'm realistically creating over 1000 unique dialogue responses

While working on this, I decided to keep two things in mind. 

Firstly, don't try to make it perfect because there's always time to change things. In fact, change is inevitable for a game. As I learn more and grow, I can update the dialogue that appears in game.  

Secondly, set a limit. Without limits, we become lost. Its well known that constraints improve creativity as well. To start, I've been adding 24 different dialogue responses and only for social interactions.  

<span class="NormalTextRun SCXW66054420 BCX0" <then="" <="" span="">Then I'll move on to other parts of the game that needs updating, before returning to the dialogue again. </span> 

So far, this has worked well for me. I don't feel as overwhelmed, and it stops me from spending too much time on one section. 

Don't reinvent the wheel

The other issue with writing so much dialogue is keeping ideas fresh. At some point I feel like I can't come up with anything original. I get annoyed. I want to give up. But then I remember the saying "Don't try to reinvent the wheel." Instead of thinking up completely new ideas, I re-use old ones and add a spin to it. For example, I would change the location, add a negative or positive reaction, add another character, or add a problem that players can solve.

 In the end, creativity is taking what exists and moulding it into something different; but the core material hasn't changed.

Hope this helps whoever is reading.