Dating game for New Zealand species – welcome to The Ugly Club – Stuff.co.nz

Asia Martusia King/Supplied

Kiwi animal species having fun as students in Dunedin forms the basis of a new dating game.

Asia Martusia King had never designed a game before, but she has gone all out building a dating game involving New Zealand species.

The University of Otago student has created and submitted the game as part of her master of science communication degree.

King wanted to combine learning with something fun, and ended up with The Ugly Club essentially a dating simulator, based on the annual Bird of the Year competition.'

SUPPLIED

Asia Martusia King worked on the game as part of her masters degree at the University of Otago.

Science games do exist but, to be frank, a lot of them are really boring and lack story, so my primary aim is to communicate these concepts in a way which is fun and silly and integral to a plot, King said.

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The game has a plot line which will take some beating, and involves some uncharismatic New Zealand fauna an Archeys frog, a wtpunga and a short-tailed bat aka the ugly club, who a player ends up flatting with at the University of Otago.

When a player receives an invitation to the Bird of the Year annual ball, they go on dates with their flatmates to decide who they want to bring.

Asia Martusia King/Supplied

The game, named The Ugly Club, features famous New Zealand fauna.

King said those dates range from partying on Dunedin's infamous Castle St, or playing the popular student drinking game possum in the botanic gardens.

Dating simulators are essentially visual novels, so as long as I did the art and the writing I figured I could teach myself how to put it all together, and it would be way less difficult that teaching myself how to code, King said.

I had heaps of fun with it. I dont think anyone outside of New Zealand would appreciate the game at all ... but I dont care.

The beauty of the game was that people would learn about the species they go on dates with without even realising it.

But it wasnt without its twists, King said, including some of New Zealands most famous native species trying to woo players away from their dates.

King said her game included prominent judges John Campbell, the Gore trout and a tern named Jacinda Artern.

Asia Martusia King/Supplied

Judges in the game include, from left, Suzy Cato, the Gore trout, and John Campbell

She hopes to create another game for the official New Zealand Bird of the Year competition, which is run by Forest and Bird, with the current title holder belonging to the long-tailed bat.

King is yet to receive her marks for the game, which is now available to be downloaded for Windows users.

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