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Announcement

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!

Miscellaneous

Offical Custom Content Download

The file, found here, is a ZIP file of all published content we know about (or, at least, that I have backups for) as of the 2nd of August 2017. The characters included in this file are:

Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		21 Ways
dude797 (Caretaker: Dozen)
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode (incomplete?)


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		? Takuya
Kevincalanor
Profile, tachie, music
Designed for a somewhat similar purpose as flowerthief's pre-made tachie.


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Kuwabara Emiko
Marrend
Story, profile, music, tachie
A shameless self-promotion.


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Tanaka Grace
mysteriousone3
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode


Content Name

Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Ijona on'nanoko (Itawa Miyuki, Shogowa Yuka, Fujita Suki, Sato Chihiro, Shigoza Izumi)
RukasuWYZ
Story, profile, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, Enable "Lambardia Yuu", incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Umehara Joruri
Marrend
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, Enable "Junko", Enable "Masako"


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Junko (Watanabe Junko, Watanabe Aio)
Nekochi
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes
Requirements/Notes		Hayashi Kitsune
Garage
Story, profile, tachie
Some backgrounds are edits/modifications from the SOSC pack, and from Stuidio 74's site.


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Shiraki Kotone
BasedMG
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Maeda Eriko
triad2
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, Enable "21 Ways"


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Mistuya Masako
Marrend
Story, profile, music, tachie
First custom content ever!


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Murakami Megumi
Render
Story, profile, music, tachie
Incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Midori (Konohana Midori, Natsume Rika, Hasegawa Kanon, Kirihara Kana)
LordNight
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Multiending
Garage
Story, tachie (background edited from SOSC pack)
Disable Clean Mode


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Nadeshiko (Sasaki Riku, Yamaguchi Ayame, Kimura Nanashi)
Garage
Story, tachie (background edited from SOSC pack)
Incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Momohana Nami
GloopMaster
Story, profile, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Yoshimura Noriko
dewelar
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes
Requirements/Notes		Rivalries
Garage
Story, profile, music, tachie
Uses several backgrounds from Studio 74 and SOSC. Music byEric_Matyas(SoundImage link)


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Robin Clark
Wowzer_
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Katanashi Seira
triad2
Story, profile, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Tsukino Emi
SilentPhoenix
Story, profile, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Uchioniko (Monotami Ruri, Nemoto Mayu, Terakado Shoko, Shirazu Izumi)
Marrend
Story, profile, music, tachie
You can get an extra scene with "Masako" installed.


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Winggirl (Harada Himeko, Fujikawa Sayumi, Fujikawa Mayumi)
Garage
Story, profile, tachie
Alternative stories with Clean Mode disabled


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Winggirl - Pathways
Garage
Story, profile, tachie
Optional add-on to "Winggirl"; Includes an optional story if you include "Masako"


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Wolfpack (Yamisaki Eliza, Yamisaki Alessa, Sakamoto Yuriko)
Kevincalanor
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		YAK (Winters Yuki, Winters Koneko, Lee Mae, Isas Akio)
LorSquirrel
Story, profile, music, tachie
Incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes
Requirements/Notes		Tanaka Yoko
triad2
Story, profile, music, tachie
Disable Clean Mode, Enable "Masako", Enable "Uchioniko" (may play "solo" in Clean Mode); Incomplete


Content Name
Author
Content Included
Requirements/Notes		Lambaria Yuu
KimotoDragoon (Caretaker: Marrend)
Story, profile, music, tachie
Incomplete







I will endeavor to keep this list updated, and make a comment when I do.

Announcement

End of official support

It has been the state of things for some time that I can no longer devote time to Heartache 101 (or any other game development project) so let's make the fact official. I have done what I could to keep the software stable and respond to user feedback, but it will stand as it is from now on. I hope many people have enjoyed and will continue to enjoy the game!

Marrend, I believe, will continue to answer your comments and questions at his convenience, here and at the official website.

Announcement

I've been longing for this feature, too



No more shuffling files around when you want to play with specific custom content disabled. You can now turn off custom profiles and story in-game, provided they are organized within subdirectories.

From the help file:
Show
New in v2.4 is the ability to select in-game which characters and stories are enabled through the "Custom Content" menu option accessible from the title screen. Only profiles and story files contained in subdirectories within the "Profiles" and "Story" directories can be disabled. Disabling a subdirectory forces the game to ignore all files contained within that subdirectory while the game is being played. (Story Test is unaffected)

Bear in mind that content can often have dependencies on other content such that disabling one subdirectory can effectively disable content not readily apparent contained in other subdirectories.

Disabling content does not prevent it from being read by the game on startup.


Also new in v2.4 is the percent chance condition, for adding a bit of randomness to your stories. Example:

STORY 87
Miki flipped a coin.
A: CHANCE 50
It was heads. She would go buy the drinks.
BRANCH A
It was tails. Drinks were on me.

From the help file:
The condition will have a percent chance of being met. Note that this is in addition to Priority adjustments and other factors that can affect a story's chance of being selected. A condition of CHANCE 50 does not mean that the story will be played 50% of the time! The percent chance is probably best used in conditional branching.

Announcement

Power to the authors!

Version 2.0 is here! I've packed it with a sleugh of features authors have been asking for. You will be able to do more with content creation than ever before. Below is a rundown of what's new:


  • New type of story event added--the Bedroom event. Bedroom events, which take place in the player's bedroom at night, trigger at the end of the day after the player clicks "Next day" and before the daily horoscope is shown. Simply put "Bedroom" for the place name of the story event.
    Example:
    PLACE = Bedroom


  • Bedrooms story events have been added for the Built-in characters. They're all quite short, but there's lots of them. I was inspired by Love Plus here ;)


  • PICTURE= command allows any image stored in the "Tachie" directory to be displayed from a story event. The image will be centered on the screen in front of the background and behind any tachie being shown, making it ideal for replacing or enhancing backgrounds. PICTURE = NONE will erase the picture from the screen.
    Example:
    PICTURE = warehouse.png


  • SOUND= command allows any sound file stored in the "Music" directory to be played from a story event. This is very similar to the MUSIC= command, but allows both music and a sound effect to be played at the same time. Awesome Points go to whoever is the first to add voices to their content :)
    Example:
    SOUND = cute_voice.wav


  • Parenthesis allow mixing of Logical Or phrases with Logical And phrases in a single condition.
    The parenthesis are required only when the condition contains both Logical Or and Logical And.
    Example:
    CONDITION = (2 DONE AND 3 FRIENDLY) OR (8 DONE AND ATHLETICS 20)


  • Player attributes can be increased or decreased by command from a story event. Not something I recommend using often, but by popular demand you can finally do this. Default parameter is 2.
    Examples:
    LOOKS UP 2
    SOUL DOWN
    YEN UP 100


  • AFFECTION UP and AFFECTION DOWN can now be given a parameter. The default for AFFECTION UP is still 20 and the default for AFFECTION DOWN is still 10.
    Example:
    AFFECTION UP 30


  • STATE= allows affection state of the active speaker to be set directly. The character's affection score will reset to slightly above the minimum for that state (as if they had started the game at that state). Another command I don't recommend using much since it renders all the affection increases up to that point meaningless, but some stories might need it.
    Example:
    STATE = Friendly


  • LOCK and UNLOCK commands added. LOCK will lock in the affection state of the active speaker so that no amount of affection increases or decreases will alter her state. UNLOCK removes this effect. This is another feature that gives the author greater control of the story, but which should be used sparingly.


  • FILL HEARTACHE command added. As you'd expect, it fills the heartache counter for the active speaker to its maximum; identical to what happens when the player fails to show up for a scheduled date.


  • Stories can now take place at multiple locations. Separate place names with commas.
    Examples:
    PLACE = Library, Convenience Store, Stadium
    The story event can trigger when the player visits either the Library, the Convenience Store, or the Stadium.

    PLACE = Hall A, Roof
    The story event triggers during the school phase as normal, with the place randomly set as either Hall A or Roof.


  • The place name "School" can be used as shorthand for all possible school locations where generic school events can occur.
    Example:
    PLACE = School


  • The place name "City" can be used as shorthand for all possible city locations that the player can visit after school.
    Example:
    PLACE = City


  • A single Introduce event can now introduce multiple characters, only triggering if each character specified has not yet been introduced. Separate ID numbers with commas.
    Example:
    INTRODUCE = 2, 3


  • A single Ending or Ending Custom story can now require multiple characters to be in a state of Love or higher. In other words, harem endings are possible. Separate ID numbers with commas.
    Example:
    ENDING = 2, 3


  • Three-letter abbreviations for all player attributes and for the word "Affection" are supported.
    Examples:
    CONDITION = PER 20
    AFF DOWN 20



edit: Main download has been updated

Request

Clicky, clicky

Would anyone like to try out the mouse support I added? Link below:

http://www.mediafire.com/?baupxhfxgbvnhgk

Just let me know if you are able to play the game normally without using a keyboard or joystick. Thanks.

Announcement

New location for the website

(aka headache 101 ~sweet into sour~ ><)

All right, the official website can now be found at http://heartache101.3eeweb.com/.

The old website was apparently causing problems for bammz' server (the reasons behind which I am still in the dark about; it may have gotten hacked, I dunno; been waiting to hear back from them for several days now) and my account was suspended because of it. If bammz allows me to keep the old website, I probably will. There is no other free web host out there with a more generous php upload limit--necessary for the uploading of custom content--which was the reason I chose them in the first place after "shopping around" for longer than you can imagine. Nearly all free hosts cap php uploads at a measly 2MB. My new host supposedly caps it at 8MB, although I haven't really tested it.

If possible it would be nice to keep *both* websites around, but that'll only happen if I can figure out how to synchronize the databases and custom content uploads, assuming that's even possible. It took me a heap long time to get the database working again on the new site as it is. Anyway, it's not looking good for the bammz site, so probably the new site will be it.

Later, if it turns out that one of my guesses is confirmed about the cause of the problem with the old website being the comments section flooding the server with spam, I'll probably be replacing that module with something different, or perhaps add a full-blown discussion forum with better spam protection, if that's what it takes. This has all been a monumental headache, and it all started happening right when the site was beginning to get publicity, and after I had submitted the link to a couple free game directories. DEATH TO HACKERS AND SPAMMERS

(Apologies for the bad mood I'm in today. It won't last^^)

Miscellaneous

Time to stick a fork in it?

I don't seem to get bug reports so often any more, nor new feature requests, and I'm rather burnt out from adding features anyway. I think it might be time to call the project complete. What do y'all think?

The one thing that makes me hesitant to do so is the poll on the website which shows "GxB support" getting quite a lot of votes. GxB would call for some significant changes to the game engine, which would extend the testing period even longer. But if it continues to be something players would like, I do want to add it, if not now then eventually. But if I am going to add it, "now" would be better than "eventually", since this is the beta after all. I dunno. Not sure what I wanna do.

Maybe another way to ask the question is this: What, if anything, do you think the game still needs before it's ready to be called complete?

edit: Okay, I'm calling it complete! v1.0 is nearly unchanged from v0.77, so if you have that version there's no need to upgrade.

Announcement

New version and website

The game now has an official website! Users can upload and download finished custom content there as well as here.

There's also a new release of the game up. v0.75 is probably not a critical upgrade if you've been using v0.74 without problems, but there are some needed bug fixes, balance changes, and...just what you've been waiting for--the rare and cryptic appearance of a can of pine aerosol. (Blame dude797 for that one)

None

Creating characters is so easy now that my cat just made one!

I've finished work on a new tool -- a friendly user interface that anyone can use to easily create and edit profiles of datable characters, male or female, for the game. Provided you have your images prepared, you can create a new character in minutes.

Although we did our best to test it (huge thanks to dude797 and Marrend for their help) it's quite probable that there are bugs in it still, so if anyone has any problems, please let me know!



In the future I may update the Character Customizer separately, but since I'm also releasing a new version of the main game today, it is included with the main download v0.72.

What's new in the main game? Nothing obvious if you're a player. If you're a content creator there's a number of things:

- Story Test now displays detailed information about a story before you play it
- MUSIC FREEZE and MUSIC UNFREEZE commands added. MUSIC FREEZE prevents the coming and going of characters on screen from changing the music
- Warning message replaces fatal error message when a story references a profiles file or story file that cannot be found; this means that if you create content dependent on other content, players will be able to play whatever content they have the appropriate files for
- Warning message replaces fatal error message when a profile's Relation ID references a profiles file that cannot be found
- Fixes for several bugs that were hindering content creation
- Updated documentation with the new Character Customizer in mind

There have been many people who have expressed interest in creating characters or story but presumably got stalled for whatever reason. If there is anything I can do to facilitate the process of creating custom content, I would like to hear your suggestions.

Players, if you're looking for new characters to add to the game, here's what users have made so far.
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