Ten Dates

Ten Dates (2023) is a role-playing game where you search for love in a series of speed dates. A sequel to Five Dates, real video footage and actors depict the story depending on what you say. Seeing your decisions affect the outcome and discovering all the different possibilities, along with a focus on diversity and representation makes this an engaging dating simulator.

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You play Misha and her best friend Ryan, who she tricks into participating in a speed-dating event. You both meet five potential partners, with a representation of disability, neurodiversity, and LGBTQIA+ individuals, and must quickly strike up a conversation in the hope of discovering a deep bond. What starts as a slightly awkward and embarrassing scenario (all the more so because of the video-footage nature of the game) soon becomes a deep dive into the complexities of romance, with deep questions, introspection, and hard truths coming to light.

The game plays out through a series of short videos of the conversations between you and your dates. You select questions to ask them and choose different responses to the questions you're asked in turn; depending on what you say, videos that continue the story in different ways proceed to play out, with a total of twelve hours of videos making up countless branching paths.

The result is a unique expansion of the formula first presented in Five Dates, offering a complex look at the world of romance from both a male and female perspective, challenging your own preconceptions about compatibility and prejudgement.

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Ten Dates 14 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 9 months ago.