Video Game / Date Time

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Date Time is a series of psychological thriller games by Cat Trigger, based on the premise of an old 1980s dating sims being corrupted by dangerous viruses.

Demos

• Play the Mellisa Demo here.
• Play the Morris Demo here.

Date Time Contains the Following Tropes

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: All the dating sims are broken machines whose attainment of self-awareness has led them to become dangerous menaces to society.
• Beneath the Mask: Outwardly, these dating sims are quirky and likable characters who exist to entertain the player. In reality, the quirky natures hide a lot of brokenness.
• Deliberate VHS Quality: The dating sims are designed with 80s gaming aesthetics.
• Foil: Melissa and Morris are both characters from the dating sims computer game Date Time who gained sentience because of a virus; both of them have been negatively affected by the virus and their memory loss, and have become a danger to their world in the computer game and the outside world in the real world.
  • However, Melissa is a tragic villain who’s very much aware of her actions. She’s angry at being played by so many people and plans on lashing out and killing people to gain the love she desires. She also wants to escape the video game to every computer on Earth to find her true love and plans to kill anyone in our way and kill multiple people until she finds her true love.
  • Morris is a tragic monster who is unaware of his transformation and the fact that he’s in a video game, and when he finds out, he’s horrified that he hurt so many people and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. Morris is reluctant to escape his video game, and he’s only doing that as a last resort to lessen the damage he would cause his hometown and the world. Still, he isn’t happy that lives will be lost because of his actions and is choosing the lesser of evil.
• Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: The premise of the story is that a bunch of dating sims are infected with viruses that cause them to go off their intended playthrough and begin menacing the player.
• Red Is Violent: When Mellisa and Morris drop their shtick and begin threatening the player, the screen and background of the game become heavily red.
• Stepford Smiler: Underneath these dating sims’ seemingly warm and friendly smiles are a plethora of mental and emotional issues that leave them deeply damaged at their core.
• Theme Naming: All three protagonists are named after viruses that caused major outbreaks: The Melissa Virus, the Morris worm and the Anna Kournikova virus.

Melissa Heart Contains the Following Tropes

• Freudian Excuse: Melissa was originally just a non-sentient dating program designed for a dating game, but somehow, a virus caused her to become sentient, making her aware of her surroundings. Melissa repeating being played with by multiple players who think they’re playing a harmless game while dating her and knowing how to get her to smooch them has caused her sanity to deteriorate because she feels used by so many people, and has resentful that they know how to get her to like them, only for them to leave her and for her never to see them again. That caused Melissa to be obsessed with being loved, and she wants to connect to every computer on earth on the internet so she can access more people to love her, not caring who she hurts to get the love she feels she deserves.
• Innocently Insensitive: The players “leaving” Melissa after getting her digital smooch probably had no idea they were unintentionally toying with the feelings of a sentient computer program or that she had been “dumped” several times.
• I Just Want to Be Loved: Played for Drama. Melissa was originally a non-sentient dating program in a dating video game that gained sentience because of a virus. Dating multiple players who did not know that she was sentient and the players leaving her gave her a desire for a real relationship and to be loved. Unfortunately, this also caused her to become unstable and caused her sanity to deteriorate. Eventually, she takes control of her computer and plans on taking control of the computer of every computer on earth to gain the love she wants and not care about who she kills to get that love.
• Love Hungry: Played for Horror. Melissa was a non-sentient dating program in a video game designed to date the players. Thanks to a virus, she gained sentience by experiencing real emotion when dating the player. Unfortunately, though, because Melissa dated so many players who did not know she was sentient, and because they always left her, she felt used and became unstable because she wanted to be loved. Eventually, she snapped and took control of the game, and Melissa plans to gain control of every computer on earth so she could get more love. She doesn’t care how many lives she takes to get the love she wants, showing that she has become deluded and obsessed with getting love no matter the cost.
• Tragic Villain: Melissa, despite how dangerous she is, is a very tragic character. She was a video game character who gained sentience in her dating game because of a virus and because of years of being used as a tool for dating, and never experiencing happiness or a permanent relationship has destroyed her mentally. She’s determined to escape her game and made it clear that she’s going to murder a bunch of men to find her true love. Still, she’s also desperate for human connection and genuinely wants to love and be loved by someone. She was twisted into an obsessive monster by both the virus and being unknowingly used by players for dating, unaware that she really is a real person who’s been hurt by their actions.
• Yandere: Melissa is a being who will murder and torment in order to gain the love and respect she feels entitled to.
• Wham Line: The game seems to be about to end when Melissa's face shows up again and says:

  ‘’(angry grin)’’ ‘’‘Melissa’’’: Sorry, Mr. Computer, I’m taking over.

Morris Heart Contains the Following Tropes:

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The couple Joan and Wes like a kind couple owning a mechanic garage and care about their worker Morris, who they cannot say enough nice things about and appears to encourage his poetry talent; then Morris reveals to the player that the couple doesn’t treat him well at all and are actually mean to him, Morris reveals that Joan and Wes yell at him all day about his job, and make fun of his poetry, Morris is generally surprised when the player tells him that they were saying nice things about him to the player and when the player insists on that, Morris sadly states that he wishes the couple would directly say nice things to him. With the reveal that Morris unknowingly transformed into a monster terrorizing the town, they were trying to pair him up with the player to get him to leave the town. It becomes understandable why they were saying nice things about him to the player but being mean to Morris when they were not interacting with him.
• Broken Tears: Morris begins crying as he reveals the danger he unintentionally poses to the player and the world around him.
• Cooldown Hug: You have the option of giving one to Morris after he reveals his true dark nature. Afterward, he says it felt more sincere than any other hug he’s ever gotten.
• Jerkass at Your Discretion: When the couple that owns the mechanic garage, Joan and Wes, first appears, they cannot stop saying praise about Morris, who they view as a kind young mechanic who is very romantic and talented in poetry, and encourages the player to get to know him. But later, when the player eats a meal with Morris at a café, he reveals that the couple are mean to him; Joan and Wes yell at him all day about his work and make fun of his poetry. Morris is actually shocked to hear the player tell him that he heard nice things about Morris from Joan and Wes and insists that it was true; Morris would then sadly say that he wishes they would tell him the nice things directly. Throughout the game, Joan and Wes continue to praise Morris and try to get the player to get together with him and leave town together, while Morris continues to be miserable working for the two of them. With revealed by Morris is unknown transforming into a monster that is a threat to their town, and that Joan and Wes were trying to pair Morris with the player to get him out of the town, which sheds light on the two’s behavior with it being likely that Joan and Wes mistreated Morris because they were letting their resentment get in the way of their plan to get rid of Morris by pairing him with someone that could get him out of their town.
• Jekyll & Hyde: By the end of the game, it’s revealed by the couple Joan and Wes that Morris that he is transforming into a monster that’s destroyed a town because he’s badly programmed because each time a new game is played. However, Morris‘s memory gets wiped from his experience because the wipe doesn’t delete his memory properly; the partial memory just slides back into him, corrupting and turning him into something else. Because the game is being played on a shared library and is being played by so many people, his memory is starting to corrupt him, and corruption is spreading towards the game. Morris is entirely in the dark about this and goes to the player and suggests that they tell Morris; the couple says that he loses his memory every time the game resets. Eventually, Morris walks in on the player, talking to a couple and learning the truth, and eventually, he transforms into a monster when the couple attacks him.
• Tragic Monster: Morris is revealed to be this. He’s a young, friendly mechanic and poet who wants to travel the world and make a career out of being a poet. It’s revealed that because of a virus and a memory glitch, he transforms into a monster that devours people, something he had no prior awareness of. Morris is completely in the dark; he’s transforming into a monster and hurting people, and he is horrified when he learns the truth and is willing to sacrifice himself to stop himself from hurting people.
• Tsundere: Morris starts out trying to put out a tough guy act and trying to deny when he starts showing his feeling, but quickly warms up to the player after they praise his poetry.
• Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If at any point you insult Morris' poetry, he'll get offended, tell you to never speak to him again and you get a Game Over. And then you get dragged into the computer by Joan and Wes and beaten to death with a wrench because by doing that you ruined their plan. They even call you out on your choice.
  "Who in their right mind plays a dating game and picks the MEAN choice?"

Anna Heart Contains the Following Tropes

• The Ghost: Even though she is mentioned a lot in the demo, Anna herself does not appear in the game. Even near the end, when you have a chance to meet her, the game cuts to another storyline, just as you are about to meet her in person.