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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

What Marrend said. Alternatively, saving both profiles to the same file would also work.

I can see that the warnning message was a little confusing in that it gave the post-processed file name instead (lower case and with '.txt' removed), so I'm glad this discussion came up :)
author=flowerthief
What Marrend said. Alternatively, saving both profiles to the same file would also work.

I can see that the warnning message was a little confusing in that it gave the post-processed file name instead (lower case and with '.txt' removed), so I'm glad this discussion came up :)


Okay so it worked, but apparently the Miyahara Kaii file that I left out of the Built in folder was causing the problem. Funny, it's not even in the built-in folder..

author=Marrend
The way I'm figuring it, if I've been listening properly, Kaii's profile would have:


RELATION ID = 21 IN Moriguchi Namie.txt
RELATION TYPE = Student


Whereas Namie's profile would have:

RELATION ID = 9 IN Miyahara Kaii.txt
RELATION TYPE = Teacher


Or something along these lines. I'm not sure if putting it through the profile-maker program would be easier. But one can always try!


So I tried this, and the error stopped, but the character customizer didn't code it that way which is odd. At least it works now. Thank you for the help.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
For fun and profit, I Googled this game fairly recently. Found a TVTropes page among the results. Check it!
Yep. Funny, though, since "Ferdinand" was only a name I used for testing, the first name that came to my mind.
to be dreadfully honest, i didn't think this game would become as noticed as it did ...(even considering the fact that its not all that well known) if we managed to spread the game around a little more, make flowerthief more well known, you could make a sequel or something, but make it into a game on steam or something, if you had the intention to!
I'm tempted to take the moment to ask what things people would like to see in a sequel, but I s'pose that'd be off-topic.
Yay first post! Anyway this game is great! The board game aspect was unique and the prologue set the story up nicely (it was also highly amusing). Also it's hard to believe this is an indie game it runs smoothly and it is well thought out with great story development(wish I could say the same about all mainstream games. There were a couple of things that bugged me, though those were in the interface. Because I read faster than the text scrolls I click to make the text appear on screen at once. The problem is sometimes I click one time too many and it selects an option before I can read it. Also on an option screen if i dont have the mouse on the option it still selects it(i.e. When I select use item on the board and i realize I dont have the item I want so I click in the backround thinking it will cancel the screen but it uses an item instead) sorry for the report but if you are still improving the game these are things that most annoyed me, but if you are done completly with it then I can live with these things. Again great game! And thank you for creating it.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
@Aben: If a left-click on the mouse is akin to pressing the action button, I think it's safe to assume that a right-click on the mouse would be akin to pressing the "cancel" button. Saying that, certain things become easier with the use of a mouse. Such as the name entry screen, or choosing where to go for the afternoon. However, the game can be played without using the mouse at all.

As for the text speed, it is possible to control it. The up arrow makes the text go faster, the down arrow makes it go slower, while holding "Alt" pretty much warp-speeds dialog. I usually make the text speed "Instant", which is one press of the up arrow from the default setting.
Oops I should have figured a right click would have canceled its just a habit to click off the screen to cancel. As for using the arrow keys to control text speed I didnt know that. I'm going to have to try that. Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback! Mouse controls were added relatively recently, so this is among the first feedback I've gotten on it, which is valuable to me.

About the second issue you mentioned...I see what you mean. Will fix.

As for the text speed, it is possible to control it. The up arrow makes the text go faster, the down arrow makes it go slower, while holding "Alt" pretty much warp-speeds dialog. I usually make the text speed "Instant", which is one press of the up arrow from the default setting.


Just fyi, the middle mouse button (if you have one) can also be used to adjust text write speed.

Question: I've made holding the right mouse button function as text skip, but would it make more sense for the left mouse button to do this?
Personally I think you should keep the text skip on the right mouse button because the left mouse is the "main" button and I think that the main button should have as few functions as possible to avoid accidentally doing something you don't want to.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
My memory is a tad fuzzy on how RPGM-XP works, but in RPGM-VX, pressing the action button causes whatever remains of the textbox to appear when the button is pressed. The cancel button does not have this functionality.

As an aside: Has anyone used the cancel button during a decision-type event? I've done it on a few occasions. I may need to test the theory further, but, it seems that there's some code that automatically chooses whatever the first choice entails when the user presses the cancel button. I know it's possible in vanilla RPGM-VX to have a decision scenario where pressing the cancel button has no effect. It might also be possible to do this in vanilla RPGM-XP. This game isn't "vanilla RPGM-XP" in my book, so I'm uncertain how one would go about ensuring that the users makes a viable decision. There's also the question of how necessary it is to mess with this, assuming this is an actual bug.
The cancel button should never confirm choices. If there's any place in v1.3 where it does, please let me know!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Testing STORY 2 for Masako. Huh. Cancelling from that choice doesn't seem to do anything. Cool!

Were you aware of that bug, then? 'Cause I'm certain it was possible before!
Was it? I don't have any memory of that, unless you mean with the right mouse button, which was one of the bugs I just fixed.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I was referring to using the Escape key as the cancel button rather than the right mouse button. Saying that, I did use both during that test with Masako's STORY 2. Neither of them did anything. Which is good!
I don't know if you still add new functionality to the game or not, but I have some suggestions/ideas for the custom-content-creation.

1. Option to manipulate stats, so mind/soul/money,etc. Because right now it's limited to affection only.
1a. Preferably able to manipulate stats with an amount defined in script, so like "MIND = +20" or "MIND = DECREASE 20".
1b. Some custom stats/variable. Like limit it to numbers only maybe. That way we can for example introduce a different stat or even a secondary currency. This also makes it easier to control/predict the value of that stat. Can use some generic names for the stats: Hearts, token or whatever.

That's actually the suggestion I think is the nicest. I think some other people would also like it.


Apart from that I added another two suggestions, which I don't care as much for, but I thought I'd share them anyway.

2. Testing multiple OR conditions. For example:
(CONDITION = DAY 1
CONDITION = NOT DAY 8)
OR
(CONDITION = DAY 14
CONDITION = NOT DAY 21)
OR
(CONDITION = DAY 28
CONDITION = NOT DAY 35)

3. Multiple possible endings



Ps. Stuff like custom images would of course also be cool, but I tried to stick with suggestions that I think might be technically possible(well, nr 1 maybe). Although I know a custom image taking up the whole background could be used for the same purpose.

Edit:
Perhaps cut the help-file into several files? Because right now it's just one long page. The index on top is convenient, but you still have to scroll back and forth quite a bit.

Edit2:
Removed suggestion nr 3 because Marrend pointed out that functionality already exists.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Talk of something akin to <ATTRIBUTE> UP or <ATTRIBUTE> DOWN, or like code, was discussed during the creation of 21 Ways, but nothing ever came of it. I think flowertheif presented a valid reason for not including it, but I forget what the reasoning was.

I'm not sure what you mean by "multiple possible endings". Does that functionality not already happen in some way, shape, or form?
author=Marrend
Talk of something akin to <ATTRIBUTE> UP or <ATTRIBUTE> DOWN, or like code, was discussed during the creation of 21 Ways, but nothing ever came of it. I think flowertheif presented a valid reason for not including it, but I forget what the reasoning was.
I read the custom content pages and I found what you mentioned(bottom of the page). Basically it would be impractical because it's a way to possibly screw up other character's route, as in making it impossible or too easy to pass a attribute check. Although telling people to turn on the clean mode would prevent interference with the built-in character it still create risks if the story is played with other custom characters as well.
Edit: And it's mentioned in the FAQ of the website. Although that one only mentions the official stats.


In that case I would still like to suggest nr 1b. Adding a custom(if needed hidden) stat. This would allow us to increase that stat through the storyline, making sure the player would pass/fail certain checks. In theory it would also be possible by using "story * = done" as some kind of stat, but that would be complicated in certain stories.
Being able to set the value of the custom stat would also be cool(if possible), because then you can make sure someone passes a check, without having to know the background. I would like to avoid telling people "you have to have at least 40 look" or just downright make them fail an event. It's possible to warn them to increase their stat, but that doesn't give as much flexbility.


author=Marrend
I'm not sure what you mean by "multiple possible endings". Does that functionality not already happen in some way, shape, or form?
That's true, I just checked and it's indeed already there. I thought it wasn't possible because I hadn't see it happen before yet.
Ah, user-defined variables? I can see the merit in that.

What if, instead of the user defining them, a set number of stock variables are provided? For instance VAR1, VAR2, VAR3, etc. Those variables would be unique within a sub-directory. So if User A creates a story that fiddles with VAR1 and User B also creates a story that fiddles with VAR1, as long as the two story files are in different directories it will be okay because they are actually considered different variables. That's the implementation I would lean towards.

However, I'm not as inclined to add new features now as much as before. Basically, I need an indication that more than one person would actually use the feature.

edit: Don't take that to mean I don't want to hear suggestions and requests because I do!

Perhaps cut the help-file into several files? Because right now it's just one long page. The index on top is convenient, but you still have to scroll back and forth quite a bit.

What if I slipped in frequent links leading back to the table of contents?