The Odessa Dating Games (WIP) - UPDATING IN MID-JULY!

After losing a bet to your roommate, you’re forced to sign up for Odessa Dates, a wildly popular dating website taking your country, Odessa, by storm.

When an announcement by the Odessa Royal Family thrusts you into a competition for the heir’s hand in marriage, you quickly begin to realize that you’re in a lot more trouble than trying to figure out what spoon is the dessert spoon.

With rivals, romance and rituals around every corner, welcome to the Odessa Dating Games!


Hello everyone! Almost two months to the day I posted about my game idea in the Interest Thread, I’m pleased to say that The Odessa Dating Games is now ready for initial testing!

The rundown for this game:

  • Play as a man, woman, or as non-binary! Be gay, straight, bisexual or pansexual.
  • Romance loads of characters, including your roommate, the heir to the throne and more!
  • Keep your friends close and your enemies closer as you work to uncover what threatens your home country of Odessa.
  • Create the royal of your dreams, or play as a default royal character.

Romanceable Characters
  • Odi/Odanna Baxley: your roommate, whose gender you can choose. Can be romanced by any gender.
  • Princess Mozelle: the younger sister of the heir, who is gender-locked to female. Can be romanced by any gender.
  • The Heir: the heir to the throne of Odessa, which can be completely customizable! From skin tone to gender, what the heir looks and acts like is all up to you, or not. You can select which royal route you’d like to go through at the beginning of the game. Can be romanced by any gender.
  • A number of contestants: at least one male, female and non-binary contestant will be able to be romanced, no matter your gender.
  • Some secret ones too :wink:
General FAQ
  • What is your inspiration for this game? I’ve always loved reading and playing games that involved royal families and royals! As far as games/material, I was inspired by Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, as well as Drag Star from COG and various other HG and COG royal inspired games.
  • When will this game be finished? June 2024 by the latest!
  • When is the next update? Mid-July 2022.
  • How many chapters will the game be? Looking to have at least 12 chapters. Might increase depending upon how the story goes, but there will be at least 12.
  • Will there be a sequel? As of right now, no, but I’ll revisit the idea of this once the game gets closer to completion!
  • Where else can I find you on the internet? Well, I’m all over, but I don’t have dedicated socials for just my writing. Best place to reach me is on this forum, for now.
  • Can I create fan art for your story? Totally! I welcome all fanart and as the game nears completion, might hit some of you guys up to create something for the game! :smile:
  • Why is the game locked after a certain point? This was implemented in October 2019 after repeated posts of the same error or bug, despite myself and several other people saying not to post them. Only members of the alpha and eventually beta team will have access to parts beyond the password locked content.
  • What does the alpha and beta teams do? Read this post for more information.
  • How can I join the private testing team? I’ll post when I’m looking for more testers!
  • I have more questions that aren’t answered here! Just post them in this topic and I’ll be sure to answer them. If they are asked often enough, I’ll add them here!
Game Related FAQ
  • What kinds of personalities can romance (insert royal personality here)? All MC personalities can romance any royal personality. A mean MC can romance a shy royal character and vice-versa, for instance. The only thing that changes is their reaction. For instance, you bump into a mean royal and accidentally spill their coffee on them. A mean MC will curse the mean royal out, causing the royal to get even madder, while a shy MC will apologize profusely, potentially causing the mean royal to soften up a bit and maybe even issue an apology. The same scene still happens, but reactions are different.
  • What setting/time-period is this game in? Modern times. There’s TVs, electricity, cell phones, but this country still has rather heavy royal customs. The Royals wear formal clothing when the situation dictates, but they also wear casual clothing as well.
  • What do I wear in the game? This changes from chapter to chapter, but pretty much whatever you’d like, within reason.
  • Why are there other romance options when it seems like we’re supposed to be with the Royal? A few reasons. For people who might want to romance the Royal when the game begins, but find it too tiresome as the game continues, for people who are interested in a competition story like this, but would rather romance somebody not as high profile and for people who want options instead of being shoehorned into getting with the royal! Also, my favorite reason…drama.
  • Will there be sexual content? Yes. It’s completely your choice whether or not you decide to have sex with your RO, though. You won’t be penalized stat-wise if you choose not to have sex at all during the game. It’ll be the typical lead up before fading to black.
  • What are the sexualities of all the characters? Most of the characters in the game are pansexual. This includes the Heir, Mozelle, Lyon, so on and so forth. If you’re curious on the sexualities of some of the NPCs, Ross is bisexual, Ryr is straight, Rebecca is asexual and Bryce is queer.
  • Can I become Fae? Am I secretly Fae? Can I join the Fae in their court? Do I have magic abilities? Nope. At no point in the game will it be revealed that you’re secretly Fae, you have magic abilities from the Fae, or anything like that. You are 100% human.
  • Can I romance Rumi, Queen Juliet/Ramona, Ross/Ryr, etc.? Rumi is in a committed relationship, so they are not romanceable. As for Queen Juliet, you can romance her if you make certain choices. She is the hardest person in the game to romance. Queen Ramona is very much in love with her husband so no romancing her. You can’t romance either guard, but play your cards rights and you can do a bit of matchmaking :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
  • How old is everybody? You are in your mid-20s: 23-25. Your roommate is 24. Mozelle/Lyon are around 21-22. The heir is 24-26. Ramona just turned 50, which Frederick is in his mid-60s. Bex is 28. Queen Juliet is in her mid-50s, but her Fae blood keeps her looking much younger than her actual age.
  • Will there be poly options? At the moment there are none in the game, but they are likely to come in the future. However, they will likely only be offered for secondary characters (Bex, Queen Juliet, etc.) and not the heir.
  • Do real-life countries exist (i.e. the USA, Canada, etc.)? Yes, but they are very irrelevant to the game. Odessa is the superpower in this world and is roughly the size of Russia.
Demo Details

CURRENTLY ON: Chapter 3
CURRENT WORD COUNT: 370,285

Fan Art

@.UwU’s MC


@.OMG_Im_Really_Dying’s MC Peony!

@Nate’s Charming Heir:

@.Fitri’s aloof heir and shy MC:
image

@.wanamingo’s MC, Tommy:

What's New in This Version (aka the Change Log)

What’s new as of June 4, 2021:

  • Here’s a sampling of new things that are available:

  • The ending of Chapter 2, which finishes Arrival Day and lets you get some 1 on 1 time with the contestants. Whether you’re aware of it or not, alliances are being formed…

  • A re-worked early ending which isn’t as abrupt (I hope!).

  • Breakfast in bed? :eyes:

I also have:

  • Made slow work on changing all first person scenes. You’ll still encounter jumps between the two, but I hope to get it all smoothed out ASAP.
  • Cleared up the looks of Queen Ramona and King Frederick. Mozelle now has dark eyes like her father, but just high cheekbones from her mother. Ramona still isn’t described in much detail to allow for the various races, hair colors, etc. that a player might wish to have.
  • Made Cass ~less~ jailbirdy, especially for players who are more straight-laced. Now you can be friends with them if you’re more a rule follower.
  • Added a question in Chapter 1 regarding your feelings for O.
  • Did a lot of stat work behind the scenes. Some scenes should be easier to reach, while others you’ll still have to work for LOL.

What’s up next?

  • Adding in the singing arrival.
  • Working on the days before the first challenge and of course, the actual challenge itself.
  • Revealing the Game Art!
  • Continuing to change 1st person tenses and other wonky stuff.

As you’re playing, please let me know:

  • If you encounter any bugs or continuity errors: I write the game in Google Docs before moving it over and coding, so I’m sure there will be things that I have missed. I’m also a coding newbie, so I’m sure occasionally I will miscode something, despite me playing it over and over religiously haha.
  • If you think a feature/stat/character should be added: I’m open to all suggestions!
  • If you have any plot/scene/etc. critiques: Is the pacing too fast? Is a character suddenly out of character? Stuff like this is great for me to know!
  • If you wanna keep playing: I want to know this each time the demo is updated. If the answer is ever no, please let me know what I can do to make it a yes.

Without further ado, play the demo here! https://dashingdon.com/play/tandra88/the-odessa-dating-games/mygame/

*As of 5-19-20, I now have a Pinterest account for this game. Check it out here!
*As of 11-17-20, I now have a Tumblr for the game! Check it out here!

Godspeed and God bless Odessa.

1359 Likes

The King’s mind wanders yet again. To a younger version of himself. His hair is strawberry blond instead of the somber gray. His crown weighs heavy on his head. He’s laughing, watching the woods burn.

It took a few reads for me to really understand this paragraph.

Also, a bit too on the nose, considering current events… :sweat_smile:

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Ohhhh I like a good romance plot

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A dating site? A unknowing royal heir? Sign me up!

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personally, I’m not fond of Royale court and I hate Princess .

But This is a story, so I can role play .

There are a few things though that kinda…well not bother me, but irk me a little .

The biggest one ? is the ‘create the princess from scratch’’ . That kinda make me cringe . I don’t mind choosing her gender, but the whole customization…not my thing .

I’m not saying get ride of it, but I for one I wouldn’t romance the Princess for that alone . It just weird…

The other thing is…it seem there is no path for a ‘Grumpy don’t wanna date…but warm up eventually…over time’’ .

The thing I would like to see : Can I have a Bike ? Harley is my favorite…its a classic :stuck_out_tongue:

Also while you went on a lenght about the Q&A for the app (The author is snooping on our private data I swear XD Naughty!) …there is no mention of clothes ? No dress or skirt…let me wear a suit!

Also…just for lolz…saw that ‘Ortega’ name choice…if I use that…I’m romancing my mc :rofl:

14 Likes

I’m still at the very beginning and it’s great so far, but there’s an error or something if you choose to leave home when you come of age.

It picked Odi/Odanna’s gender and…skipped ahead? At least, I think it skipped ahead.

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It sounds interesting can’t wait to try it

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Choosing a sarcastic prince makes his name appear as “prince name” instead of the name I chose.

You didn’t know if it was possible for somebody to have so much sarcasm in one body, but the Prince handled it well. Prince name was so snippy and sarcastic, you wondered if he were ever serious about anything.

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I love the demo so much, choosing a personality for the heir is so cool, and I enjoyed your writing style too :heart:, It will be great if you can put a save option, l cant wait for more.

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Well I will be following this WIP until it is finished. It has a good hook, and I personally enjoy the idea of customising the heir. There are a few coding mistakes already mentioned above, and some typos but nothing major.

In any case, I look forward to the next update.

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This was a lot of fun!! The game show idea really intrigues me, and the first chapter really whets the appetite. Definitely looking forward to reading more.

In regards to the heir being so customizable, I’m a little split on that. It’s undoubtedly very cool, but something about me being able to change the attributes of this living, breathing person to the extent of their name, appearance, and personality…it’s a little odd to me considering how I’m playing as this ordinary person. I suppose it’s a conflict of who I am as a ‘player’ vs who I am as a ‘player character’. I’m not opposed to it though, and it’s a neat idea. I am very much looking forward to playing through with the rest of the game! :slight_smile:

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I like the personality choice aspect considering the MC is supposed to be a 99% match for them. It makes sense to make sure the player likes the heir as well. I will agree that the full naming and customization is a little weird though.

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I wondered whats that 1% we missed…:thinking:

It is most likely a contingency type thing. Oh well, it doesn’t work out, there was always that 1% we didn’t match on.

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Mc: So…we got married…princessy…
Princess: Yes…yes we did!
Mc: Now…what is that 1% huh ?! eye her suspiciously
Princess: w-what 1%?!
Mc: Don’t LIE! There is 1% I didn’t get in our match! what is it! is it baaaaaaad?!
Princess: Oh That 1%! Teehee…I like suscribing to every newsletter I can find…even if I don’t know what it is about…it was under ‘‘whats your favorite hobbie?’’ …get it ?
Mc: facepalm…and I lost sleep over this…:sob:

21 Likes

Ahhh that’s a really good point! I didn’t think about that - playing the game I thought the 99% match was, well, just something that happened to happen. The personality and appearance customization makes much more sense now.

Lol, all this talk of 99% match and so on reminds me of the short story ‘On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning’.

5 Likes

I’m loving the setting so far. A historical setting with modern technology is always fun.

My only feedback is to be careful about which tense you’re speaking in. Typically, CoG readers expect everything in 2nd present tense (“You walk to the door”). You flip between past and future tense quite a bit.

3 Likes

Definetely hooked and waiting for further updates.
Normally a competition for the throne would be something like The Great Tournament so this is quite the different method, and I don’t think there’s any other game that lets me customize an RO like this, much less call her THICC.

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I was never one to play games where the main focus is romance, I enjoy a little bit of romance in games sure, but not when romacing is the main objective.

However, I admit that this wip it’s very well made.

The writting is clean, the story is intriguing and there’s tons of choices that you can make!

I’m gonna keep an eye on this one for sure, best of luck with the wip.

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Or that, just some weird quirk or habit. I actually hope this 1% difference can be found in the story.

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