Dating Sims

By Jenny Katz

What’s a Dating Sim?

● Traditionally dialog heavy and focus on creating relationships with characters, which can be influenced by stats

● Usually has a set time limit (a month or a year)● Multiple endings for each character that you woo, or losing by not getting

enough points to make the character fall in love with you● Most commonly a high school setting

A Little Bit of Context

● Emerged from Japanese Visual novels in the 1980’s○ Visual Novels typically have minimal game

play and multiple endings

● While unclear when dating sims first were being created, it is typically agreed that Tokimeki Memorial (1994) is what cause dating sims to surge in popularity

Three Categories

Literally translating to “maiden game”,

otome games focus on the main female character creating

romance with several male characters

Otome(乙女ゲーム)

Bishōjo(美少女ゲーム)

Meaning “pretty girl game”, these games

are targeted to heterosexual male audiences. Most of

the early games were pornographic

These are pretty much what you

expect. However, they have to follow

Japan’s strict laws of censorship

Eroge(エロゲー)

Notable Games

Girl’s GardenEither released in 1984 or 1985, Girl’s Garden is also considered a

action game as well as an early dating sim. The goal is to collect flowers to win over the love of a

boy before he leaves with another girl “Coco”.

Hatoful Boyfriend

First released in 2011 and then released on Steam in 2014, this

dating sim is unique by your ability to date pigeons at a pigeon

high school. Yes, you are a human.

Dream DaddyReleased July 20th, 2017, you

play as a single father with your daughter Amanda falling in love

with 7 of the other single dad’s in the cul-de-sac. This game has

since been released for the Playstation and the Nintendo

Switch.

Doki Doki Literature Club

Released September 22, 2017, this game boomed in popularity.

The game starts out with a trigger warning and a deceptively

sweet title page. However, the game takes a dark turn and

expands the idea of what a dating sim can be.

I Love You Colonel Sanders

Yes, this is a dating sim where you can date Colonel Sanders. This dating sim was released

September 24th of this year and expands how dating sims can also

be used as advertising.

Any Questions?