• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS
Date, create, and share!

Assuming the role of a male high school student in Japan, the player will meet, interact with, and date a number of female characters with the goal of winding up with one of them at the end of a 101-day calendar. Yeah, you've seen this all before...or have you?

In other romance sims, there's little reason to replay the game again once you've pursued all the characters you're interested in. But Heartache 101 allows for a variable female cast. The number of characters in the game is completely open-ended!

You can create new characters and add them to the game, share them with other users, and add characters created by other users. You can create the images for custom characters from a template, or use images you created yourself, or images from any source. (only "standing" images of characters can be imported; there is no event CG in the game) A simple scripting language is provided for writing story events. You can also customize some of the music.

The game system itself is in part a visual novel interface with gameplay that include conversational decision-making, board game-like mechanics, stat management, financial management, and more.

Latest Blog

New game forthcoming, some might like to know



Since I've been asked many times if I would ever make a sequel to Heartache....

Well this is not a sequel. In very many ways it's radically different. But some might find that it partially retains a bit of the same feel?

So I'm posting the first public screenshot here, and whoever is interested, look for a game page up in the next week or two with the title "Where One Citizen". Game is not complete yet, but after 10 years of development it's about time to start showing it!

Posts

Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
On a typical day, the option to save presents itself after phone-phase. That's the screen where characters are listed, where their affinities lie, and the ability to give one (or more, depending if you've upgraded your phone) a call.
Just downloaded the game... but cant start it..
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
author=GraveSky
Just downloaded the game... but cant start it..


Do you get an error message? If so, what does it say?
Nvm prob solve... just need to turn off the DEP.. ty anyway~
Oh just in case someone in future having the same problem..

Prob: cant lunch the game.. click the game.exe the game screen appear but force close less than 1 sec..

How to solve: Add the game as an exemption to DEP: Open Start Menu > Search for "Advanced System Settings" > Click "Settings..." under performance > Go to the "Data Execution Prevention" Tab > Tick the second bubble > Click "Add..." > Select the game.exe..

this always happen to windows 8.. i keep forgetting about it everytime i download a new game from this site.. lol
Is the source for this available, and/or, are there any plans by the community to write a (fan-made) sequel or re-implementation?

Just curious! Always enjoyed 101.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Sorry, but, the source-code is not publicly available! As for fan-made sequels, re-implementations, or what-have you, I only really know of Cherry Blossoms? Though, if one must be honest, there have been thoughts of doing some kind of VN dating-game, but, I dunno.
Interesting, thanks.

I'm quite surprised that you yourself have not attempted it, Marrend! You're clearly quite a capable programmer judging from your completed games and tutorials on this site.

I'm not for a moment actually suggesting that you attempt a sequel, but is there any particular reason that you (or others) have not done so (i.e. are there hidden 'gotchas' with the development process for this type of game - the script parser, for example)?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
How the parser works in relation to how it reads a content's text files (recall that even the built-in routes work by reading text files) is definitely the biggest unknown for me.

Not that having an "unknown" necessarily stops me when I put my mind to do a thing. Like, half of what I did in Myriad Cypher originated in "I have no clue how to do this" territory. I guess the issue with doing a VN-date-game is that I haven't definitively decided that it's a thing I'm going to do (and that's probably okay)?
Yeah, that's the best way to learn :-).

I'll be honest - I'm toying with the idea of writing my own sequel to it. I think technically it probably wouldn't be a problem, but it's the testing, support, and build a community that worries me; I'm terrible at drumming up an audience for my own work, so I fear my rewrite would just sort of... go unnoticed.
Just wondering if I can reserve an ID for a custom character I intend to work on.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
You can make such a request on the artistic thread. I would also note that giving information about the character (such as details about the character's route (you can use the hide-tag for more spoilerific stuff), his/her personality, maybe some profile snippets) would give you much better chances of having an ID reserved than merely saying that you want to reserve an ID.
Main website is down :c

Is there a way to obtain all of the mods, even the ones not reported here on the game's page?
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
The main site seems to work for me right now. Though, it does not surprise me to learn that it was down.

As for a single place to obtain all characters, even the unfinished ones, is certainly something to consider. Personally, I think it's best to separate the unfinished content from the finished content, so, there might not be exactly one place to go. I envision the artistic thread to be a good candidate for a listing of currently-in-development content with links to last-known-location as to where it can be downloaded.

Saying that, it would, probably, take a bit of searching to compile all that information. My attention is diverted elsewhere, but, after my current gammak project is done, I could set that up (unless Dozen, or dewlar, does it first (GogogogoGOOOOOOOOOOO!)).
I'll do what I can, but my availability just got a good deal more limited, as I recently joined the writing team of a VN that's currently in production.

P.S.: I'm still getting the same old connection time-out from 3eeweb that I've gotten since day one. Perhaps Zelifano is having the same issue I am.
is there a way to fullscreen this game couldent see anything on the f1 options
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
@jjohnson1992: Alt + Enter should do it.
I just wanted to make sure I still could before I go into more detail.
I'll write up an extensive review later at some point, but just wanted to say I really love this game. Allowing custom content is such an appealing feature, I'm not surprised that this game got somewhat famous. Had way more fun playing this than I did with Huniepop, and I'm really glad to see you're still "around" Marrend.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Great, now this is in my head!

Kidding aside, good to know you enjoyed it!