Gayme of the Week: Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim
Set in a semi-mythical version of Scotland, Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim is a visual novel that follows a newly-formed family of orc men traveling to the Highlands after an annual orcish meet-up. Along the way, the player can get to know them better and engage in friendships and relationships — both romantic and sexual — with them.
Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim excels in terms of representation. The group of orcs you travel with are wildly diverse; all are men, but some are trans while others are cis. They all have different body types and mythological backgrounds, varying ages. There’s even a human man in the mix traveling with your group, all hoping to learn more about orc culture.
Traveling together lets you decide who out of the group you’d like to spend more time with. These individual hangouts usually happen at night once the party has settled down to camp for the night. Each orc is different, so spending time with them will, of course, vary as well. These instances of quality time also allow you to deepen your relationships with these characters, including opportunities to pursue romantic or sexual encounters. You’re not limited to monogamy in all of these relationships, either. The chieftains of this group are polyamorous, and you can engage in that relationship structure with them if you’d like to. That said, you can also choose not to be romantic and hang out with the orc boys platonically.
Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim is a well-written and cozy visual novel that openly explores friendship, romance, love, intimacy, and other bonds between queer men. It combines its folklore/mythological roots with down-to-earth character writing to create a truly special narrative game centered around queer men.
You can play Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim over on itch.io
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