Initially set at a high school where Frankenstein’s monster and werewolf-style figures are all romanceable, 2018’s first game saw you try to find a date before the titular event, but the concept has since expanded-first to a camp in Monster Prom 2and then a road trip in Monster Prom 3. Relatability aside, a fear of the fantastical hasn’t prevented Beautiful Glitch’s Monster Promseries from growing. “Respecting the player’s time results in a more memorable experience, so I try to keep things moving at a quick pace.” Luckily, similar to Dialtown, Short ensured this was never the case in Boyfriend Dungeonthanks to some snappy writing. Following this, it’s important that players are never bored by suitors. “Each should make you think, ‘Ooh, what’s THAT person about?’”. “They shouldn’t look samey,” Short makes clear. You don’t want them to appear too similar, and it starts by ensuring a good degree of visual variety. “But we actually had to move it to be more contemporary for the dating and writing to still be relatable, and it felt like normal date places (cafes, restaurants, gyms) was the best way.”Īs well as being informed by the type of weapon they are, the team at Kitfox Games had to think carefully – as any studio making a dating sim should – about how to differentiate between each romanceable character. “Initially, I had planned to make the whole thing happen in a traditional fantasy world, partially to escape the various traumas associated with modern dating,” she says. Otherwise, these usually inanimate objects would be tough to connect with. “Some people say defeating him was cathartic, which is a huge compliment.”įor as far-fetched as dating your weapons appears, Short believes there must be familiar elements players can recognize. He also does cartoon villainy (kidnapping, mad doctoring, the usual), but part of a real antagonist is that they make you feel uncomfortable.” Regardless of how far removed from reality a dating sim is, certain players can’t help but be deeply invested. “I just wanted a well-written antagonist that felt like a real person with real flaws. “I wasn’t trying to be edgy or tackle any particular issue,” reveals director Tanya X. I’d love to take that to a restaurant and get to know it on an emotional level,” then this is the game for you.īoyfriend Dungeon caused quite a stir upon release for its portrayal of Eric, a stalker-ish character that ignores your advances in a potential rumination on how dangerous dating can be. If you’ve ever looked at a dagger and thought “Phwoar. Combining the romancing with the gameplay of a conventional top-down dungeon crawler, it’s a refreshing take that quite literally lets you date your weapons, in between all the hack-and-slashing. “Finding unique ways to convey that surrealness can be a great way to set your story apart from that don’t tap into the mundane eccentricities of life.”Īnother dating sim unafraid to combine life’s mundanity with an oddball take on love’s pursuit is the aptly-titled Boyfriend Dungeon. “Dating, and hell, life itself, can be surreal sometimes,” posits Dogman. In addition to each phone’s specific personality traits, however, it’s the Blackadder-esque humor and the overall surrealist vibe that offers up a zanier dating experience than is traditional. From Hatoful Boyfriend’s sentient pigeons to the Dead by Daylightserial killers seen in last year’s Hooked on You, no species, object, or monster is seemingly off-limits when it comes to finding love in a video game.ĭialtown follows the typical dating simulator formula of presenting players with a set number of romanceable characters, having them make choices, and selecting different dialogue options to affect the final outcome of the story. These games emphasize text-heavy decision-making and dialogue options in favor of action but affecting the outcome of which potential partner you end up with can be just as engaging.īut what happens if human-on-human relationships are suddenly done away with in favor of wooing supernatural candidates? The basic tenants of getting to know potential suitors remain the same, sure, but a breed of supernatural dating sims is on the rise. No style of game captures these sentiments better than the aptly named dating simulators, called as such because they let players form romantic relationships with fascinating digital characters (each with their own set personalities, responses, and preferences) in a similar way they would real-life suitors. Modern dating is scary, surprising, and oftentimes a bit bizarre. This article appears in the new issue of DEN OF GEEK magazine.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |