Thanks! The special scenes were cute. I ended up treating it as a dating sim when I forgot everyone was only going to be friends. If the character has already maxed out a stat, then making that choice unclickable would work, similar to how the player couldn’t play video games all day, despite that being a choice.
This game reminded me of Tokimeki Memorial, which was a hit, Japanese, stat-managing and dating sim game back from the 90’s. Although a fan-made English patch exists for that game, I couldn’t get the emulator to work, and I resorted to using Google Translate while using a free web browser for it.
And that game was 5 hours long, but the difference is that the player sees the stats increase, and the player can eventually unlock different cutscenes depending on stats, seasons, or in-game events like yours.
So, I’m assuming you were trying to go for something like that. There are also YouTube Let’s Plays for the game too with English text if you’re interested in checking that out yourself. Although, having played through the game multiple times myself, even that game that pioneered this genre became tedious, repetitive, long-winded, and boring for me.
I think it’s because there is a lack of story in such games, and I’m seeing disconnected scenes play out when triggering events. Yours I liked because the protagonist was a character and not a faceless self-insert, they had a backstory, and I could see how all of the events tied into the bigger, overall story.
The only other minor complaint I have is that sometimes the backgrounds were too close to the character sprites or looked too different from the polished character sprites, or they were at a weird angle, like when they were playing cards and the table facing an aerial position when behind them. I got used to it, but it threw me off at first.
Although, I know backgrounds can be hard. So, l didn’t mind it, especially when other backgrounds looked fantastic and had variety. I especially loved the different classroom settings and CGs.
Nonetheless, I tried different times in creating a game like this and always stopped short. So, I can understand the amount of time and effort it took to build a kind of game like this. So, kudos to you!