Dinner Date – The Game

via Wired UK, Dinner Date game explores a man’s subconscious:

What goes through the mind of a man who’s being stood up for a date? An upcoming videogame called Dinner Date aims to answer that very question.

It puts you into the subconcious of a character named Julian Luxemburg, who has invited a beautiful girl over for dinner. As the time passes, you get to explore both your environment and Luxemburg’s mind – drifting through his thoughts on the girl and why she’s late, but also on his job, his boss, and his friends. The trailer is embedded above.

It’s a high-concept title created by a Dutch programmer named Jeroen D Stout, under the banner of Stout Games. It comes with not only an original score written specifically for the game by Than van Nispen tot Pannerden, but also a recommended wine to drink while you’re playing. The game’s official website recommends picking up an Argentinian Merlot named Otra Vida before you sit down.

While some might dismiss the whole thing as pretentious rubbish, it’s lovely to see the extreme opposite end of the games industry to the likes of Halo and Kinect. It’s great to see people trying to address a massive problem in the games industry – that of a huge lack of depth in the narrative of most titles.

I strongly suspect this game will fail due to lack of “bro friendly narratives”. There is no mention of “whores” or “bitches”, dinner includes a sit down restaurant with wine, the character does not have access to shortcuts such as “date rape chemicals”. In brief, it is too civilized to make money.

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