6.8x10^14 First Dates

[got-quiet.livejournal.com]

Name: 6.8x10^14 First Dates
Status: Complete (?)
Site: http://lycaontalks.itch.io/6-point-8x10-to-the-14-first-dates
Rating: PG?
Pairing: ?/M, ?/F, ?/Other

Description: A procedurally generated first date game, done in Twine.

Art: None

Writing: There's no real plot, and since the content is procedurally generated the question becomes how smooth is it. The parts that work work well. You're basically going through a story that's been built on the fly and changes a little with every redo, but there are some dead ends and scripting errors as well. It's interesting to run the game through a dozen times real quick and see what changes, but that's about all there is to it.

And at some point the singular they was accompanied by singular verbs, which was extremely jarring. ("They looks you up and down.") There were a few other cases where pronouns switched a little too.

Choice: If you end up going to dinner there are no choices at all. If you go to the amusement park there are a couple choices, but there's an issue where the text ends up hidden under a div and you can't continue without full-screening it. The movie date appears to have one choice in the beginning and that's it.

So, choice is limited and kind of a formality. It doesn't have much effect on the story.

Gameplay: None beyond a few choices.

Overall: I'm very interested in what procedural generation can do for games focused on relationships. I think this and Hot Date are both poking around that area. This game makes use of the system in a very basic fashion, and the player is just a passive reader throwing dice every time they start a new game. But it was written in a one month period for NaNoRenMo, so it would be unreasonable to expect something overly polished. It's a little rough in spots but a nice little experiment.