‘The Game: The Game’ Explores the Unsettling Manipulations of Male Pick-Up Artists

Created through years of research by developer Angela Washko, The Game: The Game has you detecting and deflecting the advances of prominent ‘seduction coaches.’

Using a dating simulator/visual novel approach, you’ll be met with the manipulative techniques of six different pick up artists. Their actions have been researched via the instructional texts and videos of real world pick-up artists, allowing you to witness and deal with their tactics in a safe space, as well as see how their manipulations come together.

The Game: The Game is a deeply upsetting game to experience, but a vital exploration into the work that is done to manipulate femme-presenting individuals into sex. However, to truly see the depths of how these manipulations work, you’ll need to play along with the questions and actions of these digital scumbags to their conclusion. Saying that it may be difficult to stomach these techniques to their end is putting it lightly, but there’s much to be learned by seeing the whole manipulation laid bare.

The visual style only makes this experience more uncomfortable. The predatory eyes of the hyper-realistic pick up artists cleave through your humanity. You can feel that you’re being hunted, not spoken with. Mixed with the disorienting color choices for the backgrounds, it creates this sense of being in a fearful, unsettling world.

The Game: The Game is a disturbing, yet powerful look into the work of those who manipulate their way into sex, offering valuable protection against their techniques and a necessary demand that we all see and condemn these practices.

The Game: The Game is available now on the developer’s site.

About The Author

Joel Couture

Joel has been covering indie games for various sites including IndieGames.com, Siliconera, Gamasutra, Warp Door, CG Magazine, and more over the past seven years, and has written book-length studies on Undertale and P.T.. Joel is constantly on the lookout for digital experiences that push the boundaries of what games can be, and seeks to delve into the creative process, meanings, and emotion labor that goes into the work of artists worldwide.

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