Bungie devs kept pitching a Destiny dating sim every year — leadership always said no

Bungie developers repeatedly tried to turn a Destiny dating simulator into a real project, but studio leadership shut it down every single time. Former Bungie community member Liana Ruppert surfaced the story after a fan mentioned wanting a Destiny dating sim, confirming the team had actually built one and that she got to be a small part of it — though leadership felt "nobody wanted romance or silliness."

Former senior narrative designer Robert Brookes filled in the details. The dating sim started as a prototype during Bungie's internal "Carnival" event, a week-long jam where developers could build fun side projects with no strings attached. But a small group of devs — two of whom had backgrounds in romance game design — kept pushing it further. They pitched it as a full project every year, complete with a proper pitch deck including cost breakdowns and metrics. Leadership never budged. Brookes noted the Dream Daddy inspiration Ruppert mentioned, confirming the concept had real creative DNA behind it, not just a joke idea.

The rejection makes a certain kind of sense in context. Bungie has always operated under intense community scrutiny, and a romance side project would have been an easy target for players already frustrated with Destiny 2's direction — the same crowd that has given Marathon a rough reception despite it being a full-budget shooter. Leadership likely calculated the PR risk wasn't worth it, regardless of how polished the pitch was.

At this point, the dating sim almost certainly stays shelved. Bungie recently ended live support for Destiny 2 and is reportedly facing significant layoffs. Destiny 3 is not in active development, and smaller-scale Destiny projects are years away at best. The annual pitch is now just a footnote — a fun piece of studio history that never made it past the conference room.