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App Army Assemble: Tender: Creature Comforts - Should you swipe left or right on this cutesy dating sim?

We ask the App Army

App Army Assemble: Tender: Creature Comforts - Should you swipe left or right on this cutesy dating sim?

Tender: Creature Comforts is the latest effort from indie developer Kenny Sun. Unlike his previous games, which are mostly puzzlers, this is a space dating sim that sees you swiping your way through various dating profiles. We decided to hand the game over to our App Army to see if they could find some extraterrestrial love.

Here's what they said:

Rohit Bhatia

This is exactly like the Tinder app. So about half an hour into I was like do I have to wait until some hours to get responses and yeah it is a real-time game. You can't cheat it. So it was my first date and it was quite annoying that I had to answer one of the choices that were completely not related to the question my date was asking, I don't think a normal person would answer that but they are not humans, they are aliens so I give it a pass.

There was not a lot to do after you are done with dating. The art was cool, it was more hand-drawn which I really like, the characters and all but the writing could be better. I will give it a 6/10 rating because you need to be patient and remember your dates because I probably missed 2 and the third one was okay-ish. And you cannot like more than 10. If you like the first ten, probably you have to wait for 1-2 hrs to get a response or a match to be precise. Hard to recommend though.

Oksana Ryan

This must be the strangest game I’ve ever played. It’s a mock dating app, with weird pics of aliens. You pick a few characters to communicate with and some of them get back to you. Conversations are strange in nature and execution, like being asked to answer questions to prove I’m from earth and then being asked to do the earthling thing (whatever that might be and I wasn’t keen to find out). You have a choice of three answers to choose from, after picking your answer a blank keyboard appears and you tap anywhere for your answer to type out.

I never got far enough to actually ‘meet’ anyone as most of my conversations suddenly stopped - I guess I’m just not meant to date an alien. I found the game a big waste of time. I spent about half an hour trying to see where I’d get but it turned out there was nowhere to go. Sorry but that’s as long as I’m prepared to spend on it.

Torbjörn Kämblad

Tender: Creature Comforts is probably no too far from the real Tinder. I have never tried the real thing, and after playing around in Tender I am kind of glad I missed out on it. You swipe to like, or unlike profile pictures. Chat for a while, and if lucky you go on a date. I have had one date so far, as I missed the first one due to it being in real-time.

The date was more weird than cool, and I would have liked more animations than the texts I got. My daughter who is 13 liked the game quite a lot and is trying to find "love" to fill up the 10 spots on the visa. Perhaps more to see if there is an end to the game. I don´t think I will last that long though, but I have 2 dates scheduled this evening so you never know. Hard to recommend as a game, but still quite entertaining.

Paul Manchester

I have absolutely no idea who this game is aimed at. Maybe I’m too old, maybe you need to have experienced these types of dating apps before. The game seemed boring enough, to begin with, but the fact you then have to wait around as if it was a real dating app for replies was a total turn off. I wasn’t a huge fan of the art style and found the inbuilt set responses and messages from your potential dates badly written and not very amusing. Given I found the mechanics boring and the humour lacking I cannot recommend this game. Ps. Mark I also hooked up with Kourtney, can’t say you missed out on much...

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Chad Jones

Creature Comforts is definitely a unique game that has a lot of thought and especially time put into making it. With similarities to the Lifeline franchise (story notifications) as well as Reigns (although more Tinder, less mucking up a kingdom) I appreciate this game for what it is. For the most part it just kind of stresses me out and gets annoying especially with more "people" you date or have a conversation with the more you have to keep track of and it seems with notifications on (which is really the only way to play this type of game) it kind of overwhelms you. I like certain aspects of the game but overall it really isn't made for me and my play style.

Mark Abukoff

I like the Reigns-type swipe games... but not this. The art, I suppose, if you are a fan of the genre, is fine. Kids and monsters etc and in fact it reminds me vaguely of Meteorfall and Krumit’s Tale. But the truth is, I like those games despite the art style. Simple controls work. I turned the sound off quickly, but it’s okay for the game itself. But the game annoyed me almost from the moment I opened it. “Annie” asking me why signed up but saying that my answer (mutual breakup) was a lie. A smart-aleck bot calling me a liar as my first interaction with the game will not make me a fan.

I get that it’s supposed to be funny, but it didn’t work for me. Then, quite honestly, a parade of silly looking creatures with sometimes silly stories just did nothing to make me want to stick around. And I didn’t. You can make dates with these characters, but I found that out too late for me to stick around and report on it. Too bad for Kourtney, 59, who is a busy mom/dad. If you like these kinds of games, dating sims with cartoon drawings and cartoon characters, you’ll like this. It just doesn’t do anything for me. And if you run into Kourtney, give her my regards.

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Stephen Gregson-Wood
Stephen Gregson-Wood
Stephen brings both a love of games and a very formal-sounding journalism qualification to the Pocket Gamer team.