Don’t Wake Me Up

I don’t want to be your video game love interest.

Don’t Wake Me Up is a testament to everyone like me who grew up terminally online and lonely. Who relied on fictional characters to feel attached to and get them through social isolation. Who didn’t feel capable of being romantically attracted to anyone around them and who questioned why only fiction could make your heart flutter. It took me nine years to complete, but is released now with the publisher Choice of Games. It was designed, scripted, and written by me as its sole developer.

It is available on steam, IOS store, and google play:

Premise:

You’re trapped in a malfunctioning virtual reality with no memories. No memories, except of every video game you’ve ever played. Jack into a wild night in a virtual world you’ll never remember.

Armed with puns, pop culture, and a sharp dose of sarcasm, can you muddle your way through levels of satirical video game pastiches, back to reality?

Adventure through virtual worlds alongside a delusional gamer, an actual emo vampire (who really wishes he wasn’t an emo vampire), a poet from outer space, and a dashing princess in shining armor, among others! And perhaps, just perhaps, learn a bit too much about the kind of person you are when the real world isn’t watching.

A satire of the trapped-in-a-video-game genre, and a tragicomedy on the theme of dating sims.

Don’t Wake Me Up is a 400,000-word interactive novel about love in video games, where your choices control the story.

  • Play as nonbinary, male, female, straight or queer.

  • Travel through 6 worlds inspired by different video game genres

  • Wield a weaponised top hat

  • Rack your brains in a spaceship escape level inspired by old-school adventure games

  • Compete in a classical music-themed monster truck rally

  • Lose yourself in a cyberpunk casino

  • Date the Ultimate Video Game Fanservice Vampire

  • Or, date the Ultimate Video Game ‘Best Girl’ Waifu

  • A period piece honed in early 2010s internet cringe

  • Bifurcates entirely halfway through the game based on your love interest.

Sometimes true love is a wrong dialogue choice.