Indie developer Maggese presents to you Don't Make Love, a short, highly replayable text adventure game about love, loss, morality and death.
Assume the role of a praying mantis in a relationship. Constantly torn between their mutual love and the instinct to have sex – which could lead to the male mantis’s death – the couple are now on the verge of making a decision. Play as either the male or female mantis, and try to keep their relationship in balance. Do your best to convey your feelings in a situation with no solution, or suffer the consequences of callousness in a game that hopes to mimic real-life relationship dynamics.
Featuring a hand-drawn art style with a cinematic feeling, and a serene, dynamic soundtrack that changes according to your partner's mood, Don't Make Love offers high production values accompanied by a text-based interface that allows you to type your answers freely and watch the conversation unfold organically. Not everything you type will get you a reply, as the game puts you in a relationship in a stalemate. Your partner will react to you in a meaningful way, which can in turn lead to drastic changes in your relationship; do you make love and face death, break up to save yourself, or keep your relationship where it is?
There are multiple endings found in Don't Make Love, and each playthrough, while a short experience, can run the gamut of different conversations and emotions that make the game feel nonlinear. Each conversation can be dynamic, and gestures such as hugging, kissing, smiles and sad faces can change the mood entirely for better or worse.
