NEW YORK CITY — Forget the “friend zone” — can you make it out of the “f--k zone”?
That’s the goal of a new “choose-your-own adventure web comic” that puts users in the shoes of a 20-something-year-old woman looking for love in the big city. "Escape from F--k Zone," created by Brooklyn residents Woody Fu and Cristina Moracho, launched Thursday.
The goal of the game is to get out of the “F--k Zone” — when “somebody will sleep with you but not commit to you [or] kind of date you but not be your boyfriend” — and enter into a fulfilling relationship, Mochato said.
Based on their personal experiences, the game pokes fun at the awkward sex and dating situations 20-somethings encounter, Fu and Moracho said.
“It’s about the life you have when you’re in your 20s,” Fu said, “which includes romance.”
“Or the lack thereof,” Moracho added.
Players can choose to pursue either the “Hipster Guy,” the “Average Guy” or the “Way Older Guy” at a party, or go on dates with men from a “Tinder-esque” dating app within the game.
Their choices can lead to breakfast at a “posh restaurant” in the “Rich People’s Borough” the next morning, or an invite to hang out and make stir-fry.
“Each storyline takes you down a different rabbit hole, there’s like three or four acts of story that are mostly driven by your choices,” Moracho said.
There are a few dozen endings, Fu said.
“Escape from F--k Zone” is a sequel to “Escape from Friend Zone,” a similar comic Fu created in 2005 told from a male perspective, he said. Fu, who draws for Peroxide Comics, thought it would be fun to do a sequel from a female point-of-view and enlisted help from Moracho, a writer.
The two had been friends since they met at Wesleyan University 17 years ago, they said.
However, they pushed the sequel aside until Fu saw the idea in one of his old sketchbooks last year, he said. The current game has about 1,000 panels.
Fu said he was glad they waited so long to revive the project.
“I'm way happier we made this now — 10 years ago we were still in our 20s and the comic would have come out way differently,” said Fu, who is 35.
Moracho, 34, said the passage of time helped them find the humor in their experiences.
“Because it happened so long ago, I can now turn it into hilarious anecdotes whereas at the time it was so awful,” she said.
The game is currently available in an online version as well as a free app for iPhone and iPad — retitled Escape From The Zone, they said.
