Optillusion Games brings two of their titles to PAX East 2025, PickMePickMe and While Waiting. If these titles sound familiar, they’ve appeared at PAX last year, but there are updates and news galore!

While Waiting

While Waiting is simple at its core and yet, it covers a concept we all can relate to–waiting patiently in various life scenarios, such as waiting to use the bathroom or waiting in line. The game has been out since February 2025, and the dev team is still hard at work. At PAX East 2025, they showcased an artbook and comic, seeking feedback from the community.

Here is the link to While Waiting on Steam.

PickMePickMe

PickMePickMe is a word-based, PvP speed dating game where you compete against a friend to win the affections of a datable character. You must use your wit and flirting skills to answer the character’s questions…and possibly sabotage your competitor with skill cards. At the conclusion of the round, the character picks the winner based on how the conversation went.

Optillusion has been hard at work with updates since their last appearance at PAX. There are more character models to choose from and a Workship mode. In this mode, you can build your dateable characters. Another neat update is a global leaderboard. Hone your skills and be the best “serial dater” in the world!

When speaking with the chief of publishing, Kimmy Li, I learned that Optillusion is dedicated to ensuring PickMePickMe remains fresh and have significant replay value. In order to ensure a sustainable model, progression is the name of the game. Although you play in a loop by winning the hearts of these bachelor / bachelorettes, you strive to learn more about these characters to further improve your dating game. And trust me, there’s a lot to learn with over 20 candidates!

Now, how about the fact this game utilizes AI? There’s some hesitancy in accepting use of AI in this industry, but I got to learn about how Optillusion leverages AI without compromising the human touch in the creative process. Kimmy Li explained that the use of AI is limited to the dynamic, real-time conversation with the bachelor / bachelorettes. This way, no developer jobs would be in jeopardy, but rather, they put AI to work in a responsible way. The dev team still designed PickMePickMe and left AI to drum up the spicy responses from your date.

PickMePickMe will be modeled as free-to-play with optional buy-up, “premium”, options. It also will be cross play so you are able to play with friends on PC or mobile devices. The game will enter early access May 28th, so keep an eye out for it. Check out the latest trailer that dropped today:

Oh, and for the record, I won the date against Block. For anyone who’s keeping track…

Here is the link to PickMePickMe on Steam.

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Featured Image Source: Optillusion Games