Tender: Creature Comforts

Tender is an intergalactic dating simulator where you take on the role of a traveling recently single astronaut. The idea was inspired by my own adventures attempting to date in NYC on the numerous available apps. 

In Tender, I use interactive storytelling to explore themes of loneliness, failure, and frustration. It includes 75 characters and over 80,000 lines of branching paths.

Break Up With Me

FMV Dating Sim

Break Up With Me is a live-action FMV dating sim that puts you in the driver seat of a first date with your potential soul mate. The game centers on the difficulty of deciding what to say and how to understand a partner’s response on a date.

Here is a potential path in one scene.

PLAYER

What’s your relationship with your parents like?

SAM

My parents are divorced.

PLAYER

2-3, 11-13, or 18-20?

SAM

Haha wow great guess it was when I was 13. I mostly lived with my mom for the following years, my dad isn’t super good at taking care of himself. 

They’re both chefs.

PLAYER

Mhm.

SAM

One time, my mom walked in on me crying.

PLAYER

Sorry.

SAM

That I was crying?

PLAYER

Sure.

SAM

I don’t even remember what I was crying about. She looks at me and she starts crying too, just sobbing.

PLAYER

That’s sweet.

SAM

Right.

Then she starts saying “I didn’t know, I didn’t know. I thought it was going to be fun, I didn’t know I was bringing sadness into the world too.”

PLAYER

Ouch.

SAM

Right.

Yeah.

PLAYER

*laugh nervously*