Social anxiety led me to design this dating conquest game: brutal feedback needed

[u/Cautious-Fig-4939]

Hey everyone! Ready to get roasted on this very personal project idea.

So honestly, I've always struggled with talking to people, especially girls. Like, genuinely freeze up, say the wrong things, miss obvious cues. I started thinking what if there was a way where you could actually practice conversations with different personality types or simulations without the real-world anxiety? But not too boring like an interview tool?

That's how this concept was born: a conquest/strategy game where you romance the virtual character, each with distinct personalities that remember and react to how you interact with them. Not just dialogue trees or a mirror of yourself (like other agreeable AI), but actual adaptive AI with different personality that lets you learn/conquer what works with different types of people.

The "conquest" part is getting to know them deeply, being able to understand what they care about through actual conversation skills, learning each personality type, picking up on their cues. Like real dating but in a game format where you can actually learn from your mistakes.

Before I dive into development hell, need some brutal honesty: Is this too niche? Too personal? I keep thinking there must be others out there who'd want a "safe space" to practice social dynamics while actually having fun.

For devs who've built AI or narrative games, what technical nightmares should I prepare for?

Would you play this? More importantly, does this problem even resonate or am I projecting my own social anxiety onto a game nobody needs? Any comments or feedback are appreciated!

[u/NoHeartNoSoul86]

1. I fail to understand how does your personal yes man will help you communicate to real humans.

2. You are just describing c.ai . "But mine has personality! It learns! It teaches!". (a) So does theirs. (b) No, it doesn't learn. (c) Of course it teaches, buddy, of course. Tech bros would promise you everything you want to hear just to disguise the fact that this thing was trained to be a yes man. You did not invent anything new.

3. Who exactly would pay the bills? Oh, it will be a subscription. I see. Just like c.ai .

4. "But but but but it's AI!" The Japanese developed dating sims 30 years ago. They ran on Sega.

[u/Cautious-Fig-4939 → u/NoHeartNoSoul86]

Fair points, honestly. You're right that the core tech isn't revolutionary, LLMs are LLMs. The difference I'm going for isn't in the AI itself but in the structure around it. Character.AI is open-ended chat. I'm thinking more like a game where different personalities require different approaches to "win", so less yes-man, more puzzle where you learn what works with introverts vs extroverts, direct vs indirect communication styles, etc. Think dating sim mechanics but with actual conversation instead of dialogue trees.

But you're hitting the exact concern others raised - if I don't know enough about social dynamics myself, I'll just be coding my own misconceptions. And yeah, the monetization question is brutal for indie devs with API costs.

What would it take for something like this to actually be useful for social anxiety? Or do you think the whole 'practice with AI' approach is solving the wrong problem? Appreciate you being direct about it!

[u/NoHeartNoSoul86 → u/Cautious-Fig-4939]

I think that rather than jumping straight to coding, you should sit and think about it really well. Like really really well. What is your "puzzle" and if LLM really is the best method of conveying what you are trying to convey. Also take a look at Facade.

[u/EvilBritishGuy]

This already exists.

https://crushon.ai

[u/Cautious-Fig-4939 → u/EvilBritishGuy]

Thanks for the info, I'll check it out!

[u/VeloCRaptor23]

Brutal honesty here:

No, don't waste your time on this game. its a bad idea. Your social anxiety is usually an inability to accept the imperfections of social cues. Unlike games, life is messy (everyone has some Social Anxiety and everyone messes up like you, although to different extents). Like all else, only practice helps.

Youre social anxiety (or more specifically social "inexperience") will show up in the game and it will be at best too basic and at worst inadvertantly detrimental. For reference, think socially awkard "losers" who create anime where they self insert themselves and create a harem around their main character despite the MC having no interests, no personality, no look, no charm, nothing... all girls fall in love with him because "hes a nice guy".

Games like the one you mentioned already exist, already failed and youll bring nothing new to the mix. If youre in it for the money, then sure go ahead. there will always be customers. but if you want to make something of substances dont go there.

I am sorry for being mean but ive seen this too many times. People with geniunely good intentions and hope to help themselves and others create media that ends up doing the opposite.

If i were you id take a completely different approach. Id work on my Social Anxiety, use it to meet people, practice and get better and then create a story where some without it has to like "save the world or something" but the people he meets along the way are inserts of people you met and that have helped you.

E.g. lets say you dont know what to say, then youre friend tells you that the more you think about what to say the harder it is. then you create a character that just talks ALL the time but is incredibly charming and passionate and then goes "oh sorry i dont really stop and think about what im saying, my mouth just has a mind of its own... anyway the great thing about dinosaurs.....". that way youre not preachy, but are inadvertently showing people thats its ok to make mistakes, to mess up and like the player there will be people you connect with and people you dont.

Sorry for the rant