Singles - Flirt Up Your Life Preview

Singles is not your usual sort of game but then variety is the spice of life so they say.<br>Billed as a life sim, the obvious comparisons to this game will be The Sims. It’s a game where you control the lives of Linda and Mike, two very different people, apartment sharing in a busy European city. How they interact and get on is totally up to the player. A short but concise background story, its plot and game directive set up the game and it goes like this………<br><br>Having just moved in, with a small amount of money between them, it's for the player to kit out the apartment to their liking, purchasing the necessities and making it as comfortable as possible. The player controls both characters, making breakfast, going to work, relaxing and recreation, sleeping - in general, satisfying their everyday personal and physical needs.<br><br>In addition, the goal is to develop a relationship between Mike and Linda, which is only possible if both are happy. What kind of relationship it becomes is up to the player, there are five different aspects: Romance, Friendship, Sex, Fun and also Trouble - not doing the housework WILL cause friction! A positive relationship between the couple will start from friendship, moving to flirting, intimacy and finally 'erotic' actions!!<br><br>With over 16 different characters to choose from and customise, their varying personalities and careers have a constant effect on their everyday needs, their favourite activities and the kind of relationship they prefer. So the player can throw together the femme fatale with a best friend, or a charmer with the cute librarian, and see how things develop.<br><br>Interesting you might comment, but nothing shattering. It’s perhaps the way the game allows for interaction and also its visual looks, plus a number of other intriguing games ideas that elevate it into the ‘must find out more’ category. We interviewed Dennis Franken, MD at Rotobee in Germany, to convey the true vision for the game.<br><br>Rotobee, in the words of Dennis, is a bunch of geeks working away in their new Berlin Studio.<br>With a number of different backgrounds, and dedication to create entertaining games, they believe computer gaming is an interactive art that will grow to more and more complex worlds where everybody can be and play whatever you imagine. The team encompasses many skills -<br>3D artists for creating cool graphics, programmers to engineer 3D engine, musicians for sound, plus a lot more, but their focus lay in creating new technologies to realise their ideas.<br><br>The inspirations behind Single are indeed from The Sims, of which they are great fans. Singles is along similar lines but with its own set of unique qualities as Dennis commented. <b>“The gameplay about the needs of your characters is also similar, but we wanted to have a more complex and interesting relationship simulation between the two singles.”</b><br><br>The tag of 'Life Sim' is a HUGE subject matter, one that even the best can fall short of, whilst also having many directions to explore and expand on. So picking the main areas to target must have caused the team many hours of deliberation. “Life simulation is a new and very interesting genre in computer games, where an important part is the setting and everyday life. Everybody recognises and gets easily involved in the situations we are creating in the game and in effect all we are doing is creating real life incidents and events within a game!”<br><br>“The player can choose two out of 11 different characters at the start of the game, all with different character traits and activities they especially like. Although this is a limitation, it forced us to focus on the many situations and emotions that can happen between two people living together.”<br><br><b>“We are currently thinking about an add-on with more characters and a new story-line, with many singles and couples living together in apartments of a house. The player plays different people after each other and has to find a solution to a story that involves all these characters. Besides improving on the romance simulation part we also want to have more situation comedy with main and side characters that interact with each other.”</b><br><br>There appears to be a sequence of events to the way the game has been created. A game like this no matter how you build, control, and manipulate your characters also depends greatly on the reactions – AI - as well as many other factors. The first step for the team was to make the characters and surroundings as detailed and realistic as possible. Character Animation and <br>detailed face expressions is also important to create realistic reactions.<br><br>The AI can control the actions and also reactions of the characters depending on the mood, personality and relationship status of the characters. With the animation engine, Rotobee can express multiple layers of emotions and fit animations to the situation. A simple but very<br>important detail is, for example, to have the characters look at each other frequently, whether they are walking, sitting or watching TV. It is the many touches; many which are not recognised easily by gamers but without them would make the game look less plausible. <br><br>The in game characters’ AI can react with different animations like surprised, approving or disapproving, friendly, pitying, laughing, angry, flirting and wondering.<br><br>Technology is uppermost in the team’s thoughts. <br><br><b>“When we developed the 3D engine we wanted the player to be able to create his own apartment and have nice illumination. We implemented new features for dynamic shadowing on a lightmap, so sunlight that falls through windows and lights you place in the apartment cast correct shadows. Also very important is indirect light, which is a subtle effect but adds greatly to the atmosphere, and changes during the day. After all, these features don't sound that impressive, but made it possible to create a very nice look for the game.”</b><br><br>The characters are modeled with more than 30.000 triangles in the highest level, and have very detailed faces and textures. Over 36 muscles control the face animations, so the characters are able to show a wide array of emotional expressions.<br><br>“The graphic quality, since we have a very atmospheric illumination of the rooms, and the characters are also very detailed and nice.”<br><br>Getting the right kind of chemistry working between the two characters is essential but what of censorship and possibly anything naughty? (Well, it’s a life simulation!)<br><br>“The focus of the game is romance, so you can build up 5 different aspects of your relationship: friendship, romance, having fun together, trouble and, of course, erotic entanglement. The needs of the singles also include erotic tension, and might want to have some hot activities together in bed. You have to build up the romantic and erotic part of the relationship by talking and flirting, depending on their personality. When they are in the right mood, for example if Mike just repaired something and Linda ‘accidentally’ drops her towel after showering, they can have sex - and get an bonus on their mood the next day.”<br><br>The central objectives are to develop the characters, the relationship and also the apartment. <br><br>When the characters’ needs are satisfied and they are happy, they gain experience and develop. When they reach a new level, you can choose a new skill, which you can invest either in improving household activities, social abilities or career.<br><br>The other important goal is to improve the relationship, which also unlocks new parts of the story.<br><br>“The player can control all actions of the characters either in a kind or mischievous way, and the character would never know what got into them. (A smile from Dennis.) But what the player does, can affect the relation between the two, and how they react to each other.”<br><br>Finding out good or adverse effects on what you are doing and also whether there is a wrong way or correct way to succeed and be happy was answered in the obvious way.<br><br>“There are different ways to play and how you can make the characters happy is also dependent on their personality. Also the game is not that strict about every need being satisfied at all times, so if you want, you can just play along and find your own goals.”<br><br>The all-important gaming interface has changed many times during development. Onscreen icons give an intuitive feel to the game and there are 5 panels showing the needs, the relationship, the personality, the skills and the combined buy and build mode. There is a face camera, where you can see the expressions and emotions of the singles at all times. <br><br>Also, in the build mode you can build your own apartment or house, add windows and change colours of floors, walls and furniture. Of course improving furniture helps to make your singles happy.<br><br>The goal of the story is to bring the two together, but the gameplay is basically open ended!