The Dating Pool

Do you remember those old adventure games from Sierra? Do you ever wonder why people use things like Adventure Game Studio to make games just like those and then they end up being just off somehow? I did, so I switched to making point-and-click adventure games in Sierra's own engine.

So far, I only have this demo version, now rereleased on itch after a year of languishing. Here's hoping any feedback I can get from the community here inspires me to work on this more.

When you first run this, the included launcher (Windows only) will try to download a copy of DOSBox from my personal server, just so you know. If you'd rather it doesn't, just put your own copy in the game's folder. Linux users, install a copy and do something like I dunno "dosbox ~/catdate/sierra.exe" to play.

Controls

• Move your mouse cursor to the top edge of the screen or press Escape for the action bar.
• Click the bag icon in the action bar or press Tab to see your inventory.
• Arrow keys also move the mouse cursor, Enter clicks. Except if the current action is "walk", in which case the arrow keys directly control the player.
• Right mouse button cycles between actions. Control-click switches between "walk" and the last-chosen action.
• There's a debug mode, but you need a particular file to activate it...

So basically it's exactly like in most classic Sierra adventures.

Changelog

• 2017-03-02 15:35 - Fixed a small logic bug causing no music to play at the start of gameplay in Safe mode, which is the default. Added a DOSBox button for the itch app.
• 2017-03-03 10:08 - Forgot to disable save/restore like in the 2016 demo. Now fixed. Your saves wouldn't have been compatible with the full version anyway.
• 2018-06-26 08:27 - Happy birthday to me. Have an updated demo, now with a better sex scene at the end, better background art, tweaked music and scripting, and all that.
• 2019-03-22 19:05 - Graphical tweaks, more bug fixes, script corrections and such... but no actual new content, I'm afraid.
• 2019-03-23 18:50 - Added missing sound at the end and corrected message.