How to Date an Entity (and stay alive)

A visual novel game where the player wakes up in their room and encounters a tall mysterious woman, must date her to survive. It blends dating sim and analog horror elements with 10 endings based on an Interest Meter, each ending lasting about 15-20 minutes.

About the Game

How to Date an Entity (and stay alive) is a visual novel game created by indie developer SFour. The story follows the protagonist who wakes up in their room and meets a tall mysterious woman named Mrs. To survive, players must engage in dating interactions with her, exploring her background and intentions. Set in a suspenseful and horror-themed environment, the game combines dialogue choices from dating sims with visual elements of analog horror. The developer aims to challenge traditional dating game frameworks by incorporating supernatural and horror aspects for a unique narrative experience. The game features 10 different endings, all based on an Interest Meter system where player choices affect the meter value, leading to various outcomes. It supports multiple languages including English, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, French, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, and Japanese, with translations contributed by the fan community. The developer notes that the initial version was completed in 7 days, with subsequent updates, built using the Ren'Py engine, and transparently labels AI-assisted development.

Visual NovelDating SimHorrorMultiple EndingsIndie GameRen'PyMultilingual
How to Play

The core gameplay revolves around narrative progression and choice systems typical of visual novels. Players read text and view images to experience the story, making dialogue choices at key points that influence the Interest Meter value. This meter system is central to the game, reflecting the protagonist's interest in Mrs., with different values unlocking distinct story branches and endings. There are 10 endings in total, requiring multiple playthroughs to explore all possibilities, though the developer recommends not attempting all at once to maintain freshness. Gameplay blends romantic interactions from dating sims with tense horror atmospheres, such as scenes with blood or multiple eyes, but the developer considers these content safe for work. Each ending lasts about 15-20 minutes, but collecting all endings takes longer. Players can check devlogs for updates and translation news.

Controls

The game is primarily controlled via mouse or touchscreen. On PC and Mac versions, players use the mouse to click on-screen options to advance the story and make choices; on mobile devices, touchscreen is used. The interface typically displays text dialog boxes and option buttons, with clicks to continue or select dialogue. Controls are simple and intuitive, suited for visual novel genre, with no complex key inputs. The game supports HTML5, Windows, macOS, Linux, and APK versions for cross-platform compatibility. Operations include clicking the Download button to get game files, launching to access the main menu, selecting language, and starting the game. During gameplay, auto-save may be present, but manual attention to progress is advised. Control instructions might be briefly hinted in-game, but rely on standard visual novel interaction methods.