Pick Me Pick Me: A PvP Dating Sim Where Flirting Meets Strategy And Microtransactions
Ever wondered what a dating sim crossed with PvP mechanics might look like? Indie developer Optillusion Games is here to answer that question with Pick Me Pick Me, a two-player dating sim that’s less about smooth-talking and more about strategic trolling. And yes, it’s as weirdly intriguing as it sounds.
In Pick Me Pick Me, you and a rival player compete to win the heart of an AI-powered NPC love interest. Each player customizes their avatar with a variety of outfits, and from there, it’s a battle of wits—and not-so-subtle sabotage. Think of it as a romantic duel where anything goes, from sweet compliments to trash-talking your opponent. According to Optillusion, the NPCs you’re trying to woo aren’t just static characters. They’re powered by LLM (Large Language Model) AI, which means they’ll react to whatever clever (or not-so-clever) lines you throw their way.
Optillusion promises a variety of potential dates, including male, female, and (because why not?) upcoming furry characters. The AI behind these characters reacts to anything you type, creating a dynamic and unpredictable dating battlefield. As for gameplay, players can also use skill cards to mess with each other—triggering events like “awkward accidents” or making your opponent “babble like an idiot.”
But here’s the catch: flirting isn’t free. Each NPC interaction comes with a cost to the developer, and therefore, to you. Tokens are the in-game currency required for chatting with NPCs, and while you get enough tokens for around 30-40 hours of gameplay when you buy the game, you’ll eventually need to pay for more. “While we would like to shoulder that cost ourselves, the current price for interfacing with these models is beyond what we can handle,” Optillusion explains.
In other words, your sweet talk may hit a paywall. And that’s not all: Optillusion is limiting the number of game copies sold to avoid overwhelming the AI bots with too many response requests. It’s not clear yet what the game costs—or how much those extra tokens will set you back—but given that this was playable at PAX West, it’s clear the studio is aiming to make this a niche (and potentially pricey) experience.
With its quirky mix of romance, PvP strategy, and microtransactions, Pick Me Pick Me might just be the strangest MMO-inspired game out there. Just make sure you know what you’re getting into before you swipe right—this dating sim comes with a price tag.
