Heartbeat High

"An American TokiMemo Girl's Side."

An ambitious English-language Dating Sim currently in development. The female player character (whatever you name her) has just returned to her home town in time for high school. Time to catch up with old friends, meet some new ones, and maybe even find that special guy.

Oh, and hopefully pass a class or two. Or win a sports tournament. Or join a club. Or get a job. There are plenty of ways to succeed.

Tropes of the game as a whole:
"Affection: Measures how much a given character likes the heroine outright, either in platonic or romantic terms. Tends to be tied directly to interaction alone.
 * Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Averted, as while it's possible to join the student council, it's played fairly realistically.
 * Student Council President: It's possible to become this, if the player has been in the club a sufficient amount of time, but like the above, it does very little in terms of gameplay.
 * Animesque
 * Bishonen: Naturally. Even the football player is rather tall and limber.
 * Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Averted, as there are almost as many female main characters as there are male (an even number, if the player is counted in the character list).
 * Bland-Name Product: Some examples include Sun Doe Cafe (Starbucks Coffee) and Wally's Wearables (a clothing-only Wal*Mart by way of the nickname "Wally World").
 * Christianity Is Catholic: Averted, as while there's a church to visit, it's not Catholic.
 * Dating Sim: Well, duh.
 * Development Hell: Currently stuck there due to lack of a programmer and the artist/writer/composer's ADCD.
 * Hello, Insert Name Here: Upon meeting Cora, the heroine recognizes her childhood friend immediately and notes she hasn't changed much. Cora has a slightly more difficult time and asks the player for her name, then what kind of person she has become over the years (this determines the player's stats).
 * High School: A very expensive private American high school. Admission is based mostly on whether or not parents want to pay the extra fee, not on a student's academic merit.
 * High School Dance: Naturally. There's the Homecoming Dance each October, plus Prom in the senior year's May.
 * High School Rocks: It's a fairly nice place, as even if you fail all your classes and the Popularity Food Chain takes a bite or two, you can still win in the end without extreme difficulty, and the heroine's summation of her time there is heavily nostalgic.
 * High School Sweethearts: The point of the game is to gain one.
 * Homeschooled Kids: The heroine. Her father's job required the family to move a lot in her middle school years, and her parents decided homeschooling was more efficient than uprooting their daughter from class every few months.
 * Jenny Everywhere: Stars in a series of movies that play at the theater, one each year.
 * The Musical / Sequelitis: Just like Real Life series, the film is eventually adapted into a musical, and the fourth film is Recycled in Space
 * Leitmotif: Each character has one that plays during special scenes.
 * News Travels Fast: What you do on a Saturday date will make it throughout the school by Monday morning, thanks to the gossip mill that is the Internet. If an action had unintended splash effects on the Relationship Values of characters not present, they will know before you do.
 * No Communities Were Harmed: The setting of the game, while never explicitly stated, is based on the Greater Houston area. This is most evident in the "Going Out" map.
 * No Export for You: The creator wishes that the game not be translated into Japanese until at least one Tokimeki Memorial and accompanying Girl's Side game are given official English translations.
 * No Going Steady: Averted. If a guy hits the highest affection level, he may ask the heroine to become his girlfriend. After that, taking another guy to a romantic date spot is a good way to incite jealousy and a breakup (though hanging out at less romantic locations is still important to prevent nasty rumors from popping up).
 * Public Domain Soundtrack: Usually averted, but visits to the church will grant you a couple of less-known hymns.
 * Amazing Freaking Grace: Consciously averted.
 * Relationship Values: Three of them:

Admiration: Measures a character's respect for the heroine. A higher rating will drop the chances of that character starting a nasty rumor if angered. Tied to both direct interaction and school performance (grades and sports tournaments), with some action choices having spillover effects which raise or lower the admiration of all characters, not just the recipient of the action.

Anger: Measures a character's displeasure with the heroine. Is normally tied inversely to interaction, with ignored characters becoming angry faster, though obviously being a jerk to someone will anger them as well. If a character becomes angry enough, there's a good chance they'll start a rumor which hurts everyone's affection and admiration scores (similar to Tokimeki Memorial's bomb attacks, but female frienemies will get in on it, too!)."


 * Slice of Life
 * Spiritual Successor: To Tokimeki Memorial.
 * Video Arcade: A date spot. Akira will point out how they seem much rarer in real life than media.
 * What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: The "Spirit" stat. It's hardly used at all in school, and is only meaningful to a couple of the guys. However, it's also a bugger to raise without visiting the church (though it is possible).