The Crush House is a wacky reality TV simulator with a dark secret

If you think you have a good handle on the kind of games Devolver Digital publishes by now, you’re in for a surprise. The company’s latest game, The Crush House, is unlike anything you’ve ever played.

Created by Nerial, the award-winning studio behind the Reigns series and Card Shark, The Crush House is a first-person reality television simulator in which players are tasked with filming a Big Brother-style show. It’s a game about getting the right shots that’ll please a demanding audience, playing absurd ads to get money, and — just maybe — uncovering a dark truth hiding underneath the TV show.

So how does that all work? To start, players pick four castmates to throw together into the titular Crush House. There’s a diverse cast of characters to choose from that play on reality TV show tropes, like a lecherous playboy that’s sure to bring some sexual tension to the house. Naturally, some personalities will be a good fit with one another, while others will clash. Though, of course, a poor pairing could make for some great drama.

From there, players spend day after day walking around the house with a camera and filming whatever they like. When they hold the camera up, that shot will be broadcast to the audience. It’s not enough to get random footage, though. Each day, players have to please different audience segments that are tuning in. Some might want to see reality TV drama, encouraging players to film slap fights by the pool. Other viewers have more specific needs. Film snobs will want to see artsy Dutch angles, while “butt guys” want to see … Well, you can guess.

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Great shots can fulfill multiple requests at once. In a hand-off presentation at Game Developers Conference, I watched as the cameraman hit multiple tasks at once by