Love Emulator 💕

English | 中文

Overview

Love Emulator is an AI-driven dating and social simulation game that transforms the mysterious process of dating into a computable life system. Set in Shanghai, players progress from social anxiety to becoming a "social master," ultimately achieving long-term commitment with a top-tier partner.

The game combines realistic constraints (time, money, emotions) with absurd events (misunderstandings, social drama, coincidences) to create a unique blend of realism and comedy.

🎮 Game Features

Resource Management System

• Hard Resources: Time, money, energy/health, city transportation costs
• Soft Resources: Appearance, communication skills, emotional stability, reputation, boundaries

Dynamic Character System

Each NPC has multidimensional relationship parameters:

• attraction - Physical and personality compatibility
• trust - Reliability perception (most important)
• comfort - Ease of interaction
• respect - Boundary respect
• investment - Willingness to contribute
• conflict_meter - Accumulated tension
• availability - Schedule and availability

AI-Driven Events & Dialogue

• Two-Stage Generation: Structured event framework + AI narrative generation
• Safety Validation: Consent-based boundaries and content filtering
• Intent-Based Resolution: Actions tagged with intent, resolved by game engine
• Deterministic Outcomes: Reproducible gameplay with RNG seeds

Multiple Endings

• Pure Love: Low drama, high trust
• Playboy: High social influence, high risk, high cost
• Self-Growth: Become a better person, relationships as byproduct
• Disaster: Reputation collapse, social circle blacklisting, emotional breakdown

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• npm or yarn

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/pzy2000/LoveEmulator.git
cd LoveEmulator

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

Building for Production

npm run build
npm run preview

🏗️ Tech Stack

• Frontend: React 19 + TypeScript
• State Management: Zustand
• Animation: Framer Motion
• UI Components: Lucide React
• Build Tool: Vite
• AI Integration: OpenAI API

📂 Project Structure

LoveEmulator/
├── src/
│   ├── components/         # UI components
│   │   ├── ActionGrid.tsx
│   │   ├── CharacterList.tsx
│   │   ├── Dashboard.tsx
│   │   ├── DialogueView.tsx
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── engine/            # Game engine
│   │   ├── ActionSystem.ts
│   │   ├── EventEngine.ts
│   │   ├── DialogueManager.ts
│   │   ├── RelationshipManager.ts
│   │   └── types.ts
│   ├── data/              # Game data
│   │   ├── characters.ts
│   │   ├── locales.ts
│   │   └── fallbackData.ts
│   ├── services/          # External services
│   └── store/             # State management
├── design.md              # Design documentation
└── package.json

🎯 Game Mechanics

Core Loop

1. Choose Action → Dating, self-improvement, socializing, working, resting
2. Resource Changes → Money, energy, appearance, communication, reputation
3. Trigger Events → Random + conditional + event chains
4. Relationship Changes → Trust, comfort, respect, investment, conflict
5. Unlock Progression → Social circles, resources, higher-tier partners
6. Repeat & Accelerate

Action Types

• Self-Improvement: Fitness, fashion, communication training
• Resource Accumulation: Work, side hustles, networking
• Relationship Building: Dating, deep conversations, meeting friends/family
• Risk Behaviors: Multi-dating (reputation risk), public vs private relationships

Social Circles & Locations

Shanghai-themed location system with entry requirements:

• Campus / Office / Gym / Music Festival / Gallery / High-end Restaurant / Friend Gatherings / Startup Events

Each location features:

• Entry threshold (money, appearance, social status, connections)
• Unique event pool
• Character appearance weights

🤖 AI Architecture

Layered System

• Engine Layer (Deterministic): State progression, resource calculation, trigger conditions, probability sampling
• AI Narrative Layer (Generative): Event text, NPC dialogue, player options, atmosphere & humor
• AI Validation Layer (Constraint): Structure validation, consent boundaries, content filtering
• Balance Layer (Constraint): Value caps, risk penalties, event rarity control

Event Generation Pipeline

1. Engine samples situation skeleton (event type, character, location, intensity, risk tags)
2. AI generates narrative (title, description, 2-4 player choices with intent tags)
3. Validation checks JSON structure, safety, logical consistency
4. Engine resolves outcomes based on intent tags + relationship state + world state + RNG

🛠️ Development

Environment Setup

Create a .env file in the project root:

VITE_OPENAI_API_KEY=your_openai_api_key_here
VITE_OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://api.openai.com/v1  # Optional: custom endpoint

Running Tests

npm run lint

Code Style

This project uses ESLint for code quality. Run linting before committing:

npm run lint

📝 Design Philosophy

Love as a Computable System: Transform the mystical dating process into a multi-objective optimization problem where you're always missing one resource (time/money/energy/charisma/boundaries/reputation/social circle/career/emotional stability).

Realistic Constraints + Absurd Events: Realism comes from constraints (money, time, emotions); absurdity comes from events (misunderstandings, love triangles, social media drama, coincidental encounters).

NPCs as Subjects, Not Trophies: Characters have preferences, boundaries, lives, and reactions. They update their judgment of you based on your behavior, especially trust/safety.

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please follow these guidelines:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Contribution Areas

• New character archetypes and dialogue
• Event scenarios and storylines
• UI/UX improvements
• AI prompt optimization
• Localization (additional languages)
• Bug fixes and performance improvements

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Inspired by classic dating sims and life simulation games
• Special thanks to the open-source community

📬 Contact

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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中文版 README | Made with ❤️ in Shanghai