Bungie Staff Built a Full Destiny Dating Sim Pitch Every Year — And Got Rejected Every Time

A Destiny dating sim built during one of Bungie's internal game-jam weeks never got past the prototype stage — but that didn't stop the studio's narrative team from pitching it as a full-fledged project year after year, only for leadership to turn it down each time.

Born During Bungie's "Carnival" Week

The idea reportedly took shape during Carnival, an internal Bungie tradition that gives developers roughly a week to build experimental, off-roadmap projects. During one of these sessions, a group of staffers put together a working prototype of a Destiny-themed dating sim, drawing inspiration from the indie hit Dream Daddy. The concept tapped into a long-running community joke about romancing fan-favorite characters like Lord Shaxx, Saint-14, Mara Sov, and Eris Morn.

Leadership Said No, Repeatedly

Bungie's decision-makers reportedly shut the idea down multiple times over the years. Former community manager Liana Ruppert said the prevailing belief among leadership was that Destiny's audience had no appetite for romance or lighter, sillier content within the franchise. That assessment didn't stop the narrative team from trying again. Senior narrative designer Robert Brookes said the concept kept coming back as a serious proposal, noting, "we did pitch that as a full-fledged project every year." At one point, three members of the narrative team — two of whom had previously worked on romance-focused games — put together a complete pitch deck for the dating sim, including budget estimates and projected financial performance. Even with that level of detail behind it, the project was turned down again.

Unlikely to Ever Ship

The timing now works against the concept more than ever. Destiny 2's active development cycle is winding down, and Bungie's resources are increasingly directed toward Marathon, the studio's upcoming extraction shooter. With the team's focus shifted away from expanding the Destiny universe, an official version of the dating sim appears unlikely to materialize. For now, the Destiny dating sim remains an internal curiosity rather than a shipped product — a recurring pitch that never made it past Bungie's leadership despite years of advocacy from its own narrative team. Barring a significant shift in the studio's priorities post-Marathon, fans hoping to formally romance the likes of Shaxx or Saint-14 will likely have to keep making do with community jokes.