Upcoming dating simDate Everythingis absolutely packed to the brim with characters, featuring 100 humanoid objects for the player to date, befriend, or even become mortal enemies with. Although the team at Sassy Chap Games worked with about 20 writers and dozens of actors to bring the huge cast to life, developers Ray Chase, Robbie Daymond, and Amanda Hufford had the daunting task of keeping things organized and overseeing each characters' development - while also voicing some themselves.
Along the way, theDate Everythingteam found some characters became personal favorites, while others proved a bit more of a challenge. Game Rant recently sat down with the trio to discuss these characters in detail.
How The Date Everything Team Chose Their Voiced Characters
Ray Chase, one of the founders of Sassy Chap Games, voices multiple characters inDate Everything,some of which have not yet been revealed. One who has been revealed is Scandalabra, a bad-tempered candelabra who disapproves of the player’s romantic endeavors. “He’s always been my guy,” says Chase of the character, who was one of the first dateable objects designed for the game. “He came fully formed. I know what he wants to be.”
For Daymond, the process was different. He voices the Hanks, a group of hangers who each wear a colored uniform similar to a group ofPower Rangersor other superhero teams. He was not initially slated to voice the group, but stepped in at the last minute after another actor cancelled. Although the process was rushed, he said “It was super fun, and I’m happy with the way it turned out.”
Amanda Hufford wrote forseveral ofDate Everything’scharactersand auditioned for a number as well. Ultimately, among others, they wound up playing Rebel, a foul-mouthed rubber duck who uses “duck” as a swear word, which is possibly a reference to a common mistake made by AutoCorrect on smartphones and similar devices. They revealed that they were shuffled around during production before finally ending up with Rebel; like Daymond, they are ultimately satisfied with their casting. “I’m very happy with Rebel,” Hufford said, “who’s definitely where [I] needed to end up.”
During the development process, theDate Everythingteam became incredibly attached to theircast of characters. They spoke about each one with the enthusiasm of a proud parent discussing their child’s accomplishments. However, they admitted it was impossible not to pick favorites among the group of 100 objects.
Daymond is a particular fan ofDante, a fireplace voiced by Dante Basco. “[Basco’s] got a really sexy voice,” said Daymond. “And I was like, ‘Man, I feel like it would be great in a dating sim.'” Hufford, meanwhile, is fond of Volt, an electricity-themed character whose story they wrote. They described the process of writing Volt as a difficult but satisfying one: “I went through so many iterations, so much heartache trying to get that character right, but I think where we ended up was pretty good.”
There were also characters who provided a challenge for the team.Ben Starr’sDorian the door was a struggle, as the team had to make sure his 17 manifestations each felt unique. Several characters also needed to be rewritten when it was decided that each character would have an equivalent amount of content, with no “lesser” dates or romances. Daymond described the rewriting process as a difficult one:
“I rewrote about—I want to say—11 characters that were early, early iterations. I was just like, “Oh no, this doesn’t match what we’ve done over the past 18 months!” That, for me, was really challenging because we love the characters, but we had to increase the scope to make them fit in with how cool all the others were.”
Ultimately, though, the team loves the quirky cast of dateable objects and is excited to share them completely with players whenDate Everythinglaunches in June. However, fans should keep their ears to the ground for more actor and character announcements between now and then.
