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I've just handed my financial records over to a dishwasher aptly named Dishy in Date Everything. Sassy Chap Games' co-creative lead and voice actor Robbie Daymond prefaces my meet-cute with the kitchen appliance by calling him the "closest thing we have to a villain" in the studio's debut dating sim, so you could argue this is quite a rash move. But hey, sometimes you have to take risks to find out if you can make a love connection, right? I can talk to the dishwasher and give him what I'm sure is very necessary information thanks to a magical pair of glasses known as "dateviators". The special shades make the house I'm in come alive, and I mean that in the literal sense, as I can essentially fire hearts at objects to transform them into anthropomorphized versions before my eyes.
Producer and voice actor Amanda Hufford says the dishwasher is "a little unhinged", and I soon discover what that actually means. Dishy begins downloading my own "dishwashing experience", which begins with the sentient appliance saying "beep boop bop" in an unending cycle. Daymond points out that Eric Bauza, who has also played Bugs Bunny, is the voice of the character. I can't help laughing along with Hufford and Daymond as the beeps, bops, and boops go on and on and on. Just when it finally seems to be at an end, Dishy declares he's at last downloaded… one percent. No way. After all that? Now I have the option to quit this interaction, or keep it going, and I opt for the latter. I have to see how long this will actually go on for.
And boy does it go on, with so many beeps, boops, bops, and brrrs, I start to think it'll never end. But the chorus of laughter between us never stops for a moment throughout, with Daymond and Hufford cheering me on as I keep persevering. In fact, by the end of my time with Date Everything, I realize that I've laughed more during the demo than I have playing any other dating sim - and as someone who plays a lot of them, that's really saying something.
Follow your heart
I haven't really stopped thinking about Date Everything since my demo at Gamescom. Nothing motivates me quite like romance in games, which has naturally led me to play countless visual novels, dating sims, and RPGs featuring characters you can have relationships with. So the idea behind Sassy Chap Games' sim instantly speaks to me. Not only does it promise to offer up a healthy dose of romance, but there's just so much possibility when you really can date everything. There's a diverse array of characters, each with their own stories to discover and personalities to swoon over. And if romance isn't for you, you can try to form platonic relationships with anyone you meet through your magical glasses.
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"It is Date Everything, but each character has three endings, three paths you can take, but you'll never know what path you're on," Daymond says. "You can get a love status ending with them. You can just be platonic, you can get a friendship ending. And you can also get a hate ending. And it's very dependent on your choices, and it's not always obvious. Every character has a different pathway to their own adventure, and it's really however you choose to play."
"There's a lot of nuance," Hufford adds. "Within all of those characters having three endings, that then impacts the core narrative or through path. And you can get multiple different endings for that core narrative, and it changes what is unlocked to you based on the number of characters you've awakened and gotten endings with. And so you do have stats in the game, your stats are impacted by getting endings with the characters. And so there are certain options that won't be available to you if you don't have high enough stats in certain aspects."
As Hufford explains, the core narrative will allow you to learn more about the lore behind the glasses and how you're able to bring objects to life. But just like everything in Date Everything, that is also optional. If you just want to pursue one character and see their ending, you can. Or you can explore the core narrative, or try to follow the story of multiple different characters. Ultimately, every choice you make and how you play the game is left up to you, which just adds to my excitement. I can already see myself playing it many, many times to try and experience every character's story and every possible romance on offer.
Love-tinted glasses
As I found out during my demo, one of the great joys of Date Everything is seeing what's around the house and then discovering how Sassy Chap Games' personified designs creatively feed into the various objects you can transform. As an example, I try out my special glasses on a globe, which brings to life Gaia, a woman from Newfoundland with an adorable personality. Not only does her outfit decorated with a map print reflect her object form, but her personal task does too. Despite being a globe, she's never traveled, so she asks me to go and talk to lots of different people from all over the world. In another encounter, I use the dateviators on a ship in a bottle and fall head over heels when it transforms into a surly, brash pirate called Jacque who blushes when I'm nice to him.
There's plenty to uncover in the house, with Daymond teasing some "secret areas" to find that are home to more objects to potentially date. Some are even said to be "corporeal or meta things", and I can't wait to see who else I'll meet as I explore. With 100 characters all fully voiced, I take the opportunity to ask how challenging it's been for the team to write and bring to life such a big, diverse cast.
"The core writing staff at the beginning was about 25," Daymond says, "so we tried to cast them with appropriate life experiences, but also gave them opportunities to branch out from where they're from and who they are. And we took those ideas, and then Ray [Chase, game designer and lead writer] weaved them into the overarching narrative so they all fit together. We made sure that they were all telling different stories."
"We made the joke that there's 8 billion people in the world, so we could write 100 of them," Daymond adds, smiling. "We wanted to take a real dating sim where you're gonna meet 100 people who are also things, who have jokes, and some have very funny stories. Some are cute and straight ahead, like Gaia. And then other characters have very bizarre, comedic stories that are wild adventures. And we have also got other characters who deal with some really heavy topics that get very serious sometimes. So we present a silly conceit executed at a high level that just hides a bunch of heart and fun stuff. People said when the trailer dropped, 'is this gonna feel fresh? How's it not gonna be boring or repetitive?' And I'm like, 'you've never met 100 different people before?'. Everyone's different".
With so many characters to discover and get to know, and a concept that speaks to my romance-loving heart, Date Everything's October 24, 2024 release date can't come fast enough. Maybe by the time it rolls around, I'll find out just what that "dishwasher experience" does. One thing's for sure: I can't wait to put the dateviators back on and see who else I'll meet and potentially date.
