Early games borrowed heavily from the iconography and story conventions of 'retro shoujo manga', 'the archetypical girly heroines, the emphasis on pure, sexless, tranquil romance and on a peaceful, stable setting', but as the category expanded, other narrative and gameplay elements were introduced, including action, adventure, combat and plots in which 'the heroine can 'save the world' and 'get the guy' at the same time'. In 2006, Famitsu's listings for the Top 20 selling love games included seven otome games.
Angelique is credited with 'set up the specifics and conventions of women's games: a focus on romance, easy controls and utilizing other multimedia.' In 2002, Konami released its very successful Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side, which brought many new fans to the still-new genre. The game was originally targeted to pre-teen and younger teenage girls, but became unexpectedly popular with older teenagers and women in their 20s. The first otome game is generally acknowledged to be Angelique, released in 1994 by Koei in Japan for the Super Famicom, and created by an all-woman team. This genre is most established in Japan, and is mostly made up of visual novels and simulation games particularly dating sims and life simulation games. Generally one of the goals, besides the main plot goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female player character and one of several male characters. An otome game ( 乙女ゲーム otome gēmu, literally 'maiden game'), sometimes contracted to otoge, is a story-based video game that is targeted towards women.