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As soon as I clapped eyes on The Crush House, I couldn't add it to my wishlist fast enough. The colorful upcoming sim that developer Nerial describes as a "thirst-person shooter" sees you take on the challenge of trying to run the "hottest" reality TV show as a producer. After choosing your own unique cast of personalities, you'll have to try to stay on air and avoid being canceled by meeting the demands of an ever-changing audience. That means capturing all of the drama and romances that may unfold each season. But as with any reality TV show, not all is as it seems, and while the show is off-air at night, you'll be trying to uncover The Crush House's dark secrets. As a sim set in 1999 that plays around with the darker side of reality TV, I was instantly drawn to the concept, which game director Nicole He tells was initially inspired by Terrace House.
"The original inspiration for The Crush House was actually a show that is very tonally different from what our game is now. It's called Terrace House, and it was a Japanese reality show my friends and I were obsessed with a few years back," He says. "It was about strangers cohabitating in a beautiful house, living their lives - sometimes with romance, sometimes with drama, but in a way that felt more authentic than many American shows at the time."
"The idea started when my friend and collaborator Arnaud De Bock and I thought, what if we made a Terrace House inspired game? Just that concept already felt like we were on to something, but the big early decision was to move away from the more obvious idea - playing as a cast member - to something we felt was more interesting, which was playing as the producer."
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Playing as a producer certainly promises to present us with some unique challenges as we try to run The Crush House. As He explains, the Network you're working for requires you to "satisfy a specific number of niche audiences" - such as "Suburban Moms, Gym Rats, and Conspiracy Theorists" - each season. In order to do that, you have to film things those audiences want to see, and as the game progresses, these Network requirements will only get harder. Additionally, you'll have to incorporate ads to earn money for more props for the house.
"Of course, the audiences don't like to watch ads," He says, "so it's a tradeoff and a decision you constantly have to make in order to be strategic. I wanted the player to have a feeling of pressure while trying to do their job, so these mechanics [ads and requirements] are about adding complexity to the core mechanic of filming the show, and making it a bit of a fun puzzle to figure out how you can make it through each day."
Before you begin this juggling act, you'll have 12 potential cast members to choose from who "all have some conformity to reality TV archetypes". He says the team decided to make it a narrative focus to highlight their personality flaws, but they also felt it was important to ensure every cast member is fully fleshed out with believable motivations for being on the show, as well as "vulnerabilities and redeeming qualities".
"One of the biggest technical systems in the game is something we internally call Rigmarole," He says, "which is essentially a reality TV simulation system that looks at who you cast, their personalities and attractions, and semi-procedurally generates the scenes that play out. This makes it such that every run is unique, and even for me playing now, I'm always seeing things happen that I've ever seen before."
"Ambiguous Edge"
I'm already excited by the idea of seeing what events may unfold among the cast as I try to run the show, but The Crush House's other inspirations only add to my growing sense of anticipation for Nerial's upcoming sim. He points to a "wide range of reality shows" - even ones that don't have the same format - such as early seasons of Big Brother, MTV shows like The Real World and Road Rules, alongside classics including The Bachelor, Beauty and the Geek, and even Survivor. As an experience laden with both comedy and mystery, the team also drew inspiration for "the unhinged quality of dialogue and scenarios" from the likes of Love is Blind, The Ultimatum, and Love Island.
"Of course, we also have many game inspirations," He adds, "ranging from The Sims for simulation, Pokémon Snap for gameplay, Hitman for level design, Doki Doki Literature Club for surprises…"
The surprises He teases taps into another side of The Crush House I'm dying to explore - its dark secrets. Reality TV is kind of ironic by nature. It's often a constructed reality, with editing shaping the narrative we're being fed. On the surface, The Crush House is a vibrant, colorful place full of drama and romance, but at night, there's a darker side and an element of mystery we'll have to try and uncover and get to the bottom of.
"The truth is that there's a lot of darkness in reality TV"
Nicole He, game director
"The most compelling part of reality TV is that ambiguous edge where the "realness" bleeds into the "fakeness", and you're always wondering how much of what you're seeing is authentic vs. scripted," He says. "I think a lot of people have a power fantasy about being behind the scenes in these types of shows, knowing what's really going on, and even having a hand in the manipulation of that reality that others see."
"The truth is that there's a lot of darkness in reality TV - even Terrace House ended abruptly due to the suicide of a cast member, which happened while we were prototyping the game," He continues. "I felt that we couldn't make a game about reality TV without referencing the dark side of the subject. But with the benefit of making fiction, we can come up with a story that is surprising, a bit out there, and also with the edge of dark humor that I always enjoy tonally in my work. There are basic two sides to the narrative of The Crush House - the day to day silly reality TV shenanigans, and the mysterious secrets that the player discovers at night."
I can't wait to delve into the world of reality TV and explore both sides of the experience, from the lighthearted simulation shenanigans, to the mysterious secrets lying within the set. It sounds like the perfect cocktail of ideas, and while it doesn't yet have a release date for its PC launch, it'll firmly remain high on my wishlist.
"The core gameplay is about making your show successful in the eyes of your employer, the Network," He says. "But this goal is made more complex as things start happening at night time, where you'll find out that there are other things you're going to have to do if you ever want to get to the bottom of what's really going on at The Crush House…"
Look ahead to more exciting releases with our roundup of upcoming indie games.
