Romance of the Damned

Interactive Fiction | Romance-Comedy | Slice of life

[artwoo1]

Romantic Comedy of the Damned (Gender-locked, romance, psychological) + 53K Words

Hello everyone, I’m leaving my short demo here… I hope you all enjoy it. This is my very first CS project, so I’m a complete newbie when it comes to this. And Tumblr, surprisingly.

If you are a fan of anime or visual novels that feature heavily cynical, sarcastic protagonists navigating the exhausting politics and drama of high school, then this game isn’t for you. Just kidding. That is the exact plot. It’s heavily inspired by romantic comedies—specifically Oregairu (My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected)—so when you encounter scenes that feel oddly familiar to that series, consider it a homage, so whether you like it or not is up to you.

Features:

Play as a fixed, highly cynical protagonist. (First-person POV). Name yourself, but your pragmatic, melancholic worldview is locked in.

Shape your defense mechanisms. Your choices don’t change who you are, but how you cope. Lean into Sarcasm, Morbidness, or something entirely Genuine.

Solve (or worsen) school dramas. Deal with a rotating cast of students bringing their messy, emotional problems to the last people on earth who want to hear them. (WIP)

Navigate messy relationships. Romances and friendships aren’t just about building “Affection.” Track your “Friction” stats as you decide whether to build a healthy bond or a deeply co-dependent disaster. (WIP)

Content Warning:

Cynical/edgy themes

Discussions of social isolation and mild social anxiety

I’m interested in reading feedback as I continue to write Chapter 1. It can be any, from grammar checks, to the consistency of the characters themselves.

Romantic Options:

—Kanashiro Kana (賀城 佳那)

The founding president of an unamed club. Kanashiro Kana is introduced as a girl whose solitude feels entirely deliberate. The protagonist notes her strikingly elegant features and describes her eyes as deep, frozen pools that seemingly dissect every cynical thought he harbors. He ultimately categorizes her as a beautiful fortress, built to be admired only from afar. Or, a breathtaking fortress that naturally commands distance. It depends on the protagonist you have built.

Romance with her is a slow-burn battle of wits where yielding an inch of rhetorical ground is a fatal mistake.

—Fukami Reika (怜華 深見)

The phantom of the eastern stairwell and a resident of the elite Class 2-F International Track. When she finally steps out of the shadows, the protagonist is immediately struck by her elegantly slender frame and her small and subtly upturned eyes. He notes that her hair possesses the sort of black you find on old lacquerware, moving exactly as much as it needs to and no more. Above all, she radiates a profound, atmospheric emptiness that immediately triggers the protagonist’s survival instincts.

She is a locked door in human form, carrying the unyielding authority of someone entirely accustomed to finding the people around her insignificant.

CoG Forum

@interact-if

[artwoo1]

A Brief Lesson in Linguistic Torture (Or: Why the Romance in this Game is a Nightmare)

Hello everyone. Taking a brief break from subjecting our protagonist to intense psychological warfare in Chapter 3 to talk about something slightly different: the actual "Romantic" part of Romantic Comedy of the Damned.

If you’ve been paying attention to the protagonist’s "Internal Ledger," you already know that he views all human interaction as a transactional scam. He fundamentally does not believe in selfless affection. To him, everyone has a hidden agenda.

As it turns out, the Japanese language actually agrees with him. Or at least, the kanji does.

When we talk about "love" in Japanese, we generally use two different characters: Koi (恋) and Ai (愛). In English, they both just translate to "love," but the architectural structure of these two kanji tells a much darker, far more cynical story.

Let’s look at the radicals (the building blocks) of the characters. Both of them contain the radical for "heart" (心 - kokoro).

But pay attention to exactly where the heart is placed.

In Ai (愛)—which represents genuine, selfless, compassionate love—the heart (心) is located right in the dead center of the kanji. It is protected, central, and pure.

In Koi (恋)—which represents passionate, romantic, and often selfish longing—the heart (心) is shoved all the way at the very bottom.

In Japanese, having a "heart at the bottom" literally spells the word Shitagokoro (下心).

Do you know what shitagokoro translates to in everyday conversation?

"An ulterior motive."

"A hidden agenda."

The Japanese writing system explicitly hard-coded the idea that romantic infatuation (Koi) is inherently built on selfish, ulterior motives. It’s a transaction. You want something from the other person, and you are acting affectionately to get it.

When Takumi smiles at the protagonist in the hallway? Shitagokoro.

When Fukami Reika politely asks Ayase to join her for the afternoon? Shitagokoro.

This is the exact linguistic foundation of our protagonist’s worldview. He assumes that every single person who approaches him is operating on Koi—that they have their heart at the bottom, hiding a predatory agenda.

So, when I say that the romance in this game is a "high-friction battle of wits," this is what I mean. You cannot just click the "flirt" button and expect these girls to swoon. They are apex predators who will immediately diagnose your affection as shitagokoro. They will see your ulterior motive, dissect it, and verbally execute you for it.

To actually achieve a genuine romantic route in this game, the protagonist is going to have to survive the selfish, transactional nightmare of Koi long enough to actually prove he is capable of the selfless, vulnerable reality of Ai.

And knowing our protagonist, he would rather scrub the algae out of the outdoor swimming pool than be vulnerable.

Back to the trenches of Chapter 3. Thank you all for reading, and please keep the stray calico cat in your prayers. Kurogane is probably trying to use it as a summoning catalyst as we speak.

[artwoo1]

Today, I realized the prose at the end of Chapter 2 just wasn't cutting it. I made the executive decision to completely scrap what I had and rewrite the entire ending so it lands with real impact. Even though Part Three mostly serves as a setup for Chapter 3, it still deserved a fitting conclusion. Part Two already ends on a beautiful emotional climax, and next to it, Part Three felt incredibly lackluster—like comparing a dull hill to a sharp mountain peak. Setting aside the foreign lingo the characters use, my main goal was simply to elevate the writing. I’m already deep in the trenches of Chapter 3, and to keep that momentum going, I need peace of mind. A little Anshin (安心), if you will, for the long-term sustainability of this project.

[artwoo1]

UPDATE: Chapter 2 (Part Three) is Live! + The UI Overhaul

Hello everyone. The third and final part of Chapter 2 is officially up, ready to drag our protagonist kicking and screaming out of his comfortable isolation and into the broader school ecosystem.

With this update, the full WIP now sits at a rather intimidating 53,000 words with code, and roughly 49,000 words without. I somehow managed to write this segment in just over a week (roughly), which either means I have finally conquered my ChoiceScript demons, or I am currently running on a dangerous mixture of caffeine and sheer, unadulterated spite.

If Part Two was about dismantling the protagonist’s ego in the dark, Part Three is about exposing him to the blinding, terrifying reality of the daytime. In order to save the club from administrative execution (and to save himself from scrubbing algae out of the school pool), our resident cynic is forced to do the one thing he hates most: recruit a living, breathing human being.

Naturally, he fails spectacularly. But the universe has a terrible sense of humor, and the void in the clubroom inevitably gets filled anyway. Expect the arrival of someone whose terrifyingly cheerful, extroverted aura is practically a biological hazard to everyone involved. Putting her in a room with Kanashiro is, frankly, a recipe for a catastrophic climate disaster.

You will also get a glimpse of the athletic wing’s hierarchy. Let’s just say that while our cultural club elites prefer to execute people with weaponized etiquette and logical paradoxes, there are certain “daytime ghosts” wandering the campus who prefer a much more physical, blunt-force approach to establishing dominance. Stay out of the alleyways, folks.

On the technical side: as promised during my last Tumblr ramble, the game’s infrastructure has received a massive facelift.

The Stat Screen: I’ve revamped the whole page.

The Setup Menu: I finally added a “Skip to Chapter 2” function so returning players don’t have to manually click through the phantom knock mystery every single time I update.

The Demo Ending: Reaching the current end of the WIP will now trigger a “Mid-Term Psychological Evaluation” where Shinohara-sensei personally grades your specific brand of social dysfunction based on your stat tallies.

Thank you all so much for reading, for putting up with my highly decompressed dialogue, and for watching this miserable idiot slowly realize that his “tactical retreats” are just leading him into bigger, far more dangerous bear traps.

Let me know what you think of the new club dynamic!

Tagging @interact-if for visibility.

(P.S. The protagonist is still at the absolute bottom of the food chain. Even below the cat.)

[artwoo1]

Crushing bugs, tweaking codes, and finally Chapter 2 Part Three will be released publicly afterwards, concluding the second chapter.

[artwoo1]

Chapter 2 Part 3 wasn't meant to be long but it's already nearly 10K words...

[otakunews01]

"Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru - Oregairu (My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu)" LN series by Wataru Watari, Ponkan8 15th anniversary illustration

The series reach 15 millions copies around world

Hikigaya Hachiman, a boy with a distorted personality, is brought to the "Service Club", led by a beautiful and harsh girl named Yukinoshita Yukino, by his academic advisor. Hilarity ensues as the isolated boy, through his many mistakes, begins to reshape himself and those around him.

[artwoo1]

Pan-san

[artwoo1]

UPDATE: Chapter 2 (Part Two) is Live! + Happy 15th Anniversary to Oregairu!

Hello everyone. The second part of Chapter 2 is finally up and ready to completely destroy whatever remaining peace our protagonist thought he had.

With this update, the full WIP now sits at roughly 40K words with code, and 37K words without.

Picking up exactly where we left off, the agonizing, silent standoff in the clubroom is officially interrupted by our very first “client”—a delusional chuunibyou who managed to stumble into the absolute worst room on campus.

If Chapter 1 was about building the locked-room mystery, Chapter 2 Part Two is about completely dismantling the protagonist’s ego. I decided to lean heavily into the sheer exhaustion of high-society psychological warfare. You will get to experience a four-way Mexican standoff disguised as a debate over a fishing proverb, witness Kanashiro Kana mathematically weaponize her lack of empathy, and finally watch the protagonist realize that his “genius” deductions were actually just him walking blindly into a bear trap set by Fukami Reika.

As I mentioned recently over on Tumblr, you will also notice the shift in the mechanical design here. The story is adopting a much tighter Visual Novel structure. Your choices in this update—like deciding whether to “participate normally” or “be the pollution that ruins the air”—won’t magically save the protagonist from his fate. Instead, they dictate the exact flavor of his humiliation and determine whether Kana or Reika respects him for it.

On a much more sentimental note: I want to dedicate this update in celebration of Oregairu’s 15th Anniversary.

It is no secret that My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected is the foundational DNA of this project. Hachiman, Yukino, and the Service Club completely redefined the high school cynic genre, and this WIP started as a direct love letter to that dynamic.

However, with the conclusion of this update, the “homage” phase is officially over. The training wheels have been taken off, and the club’s true, overarching objective has finally cast its shadow. We are no longer just fixing minor high school drama; we are dealing with systemic, elite social sabotage. Romantic Comedy of the Damned is now walking its own twisted, deeply uncomfortable path. Let’s see where it goes in Part Three.

Thank you all for reading, for putting up with my overly decompressed dialogue, and for your phenomenal feedback.

Tagging @interact-if for visibility. Thank you.

(P.S. As always, I haven’t done nearly enough playtesting for the stat-checks in the new dialogue trees, so please let me know if you encounter any game-breaking bugs. Also, yes, the stray calico cat has more narrative agency than the protagonist at this point.)

[interact-if]

do you have recommendations for like a school setting kinda vibe tysm

Hello! Here are some IFs with a school/academic setting, various genres included. Also, some of these are not exactly school settings but instead set in university/college so I hope that's alright!

Completed

Raptor Boyfriend: A High School Romance by Rocket Adrift Games

Honor Bound by @hpowellsmith (you get to be a bodyguard for a student at an elite school)

Blackstone Academy for the Magical Arts by Alana Joli Abbot

Changeling by Steamberry Studio

Community College Hero by Eric Moser

Creme de la Creme by @hpowellsmith

Grand Academy for Future Villains by Katherine Nehring

Keeper of the Sun and Moon (and the rest of the Keeper series) by @keeperofthesunandmoon

Known Unknowns by @brendanpatrickhennessy

Monster Prom by Beautiful Glitch

Psy High by Rebecca Slitt

Way Walkers: University by J. Leigh with Mac J Rea

XOXO Droplets by @gb-patch

Royal Affairs by @hpowellsmith

Through The Panels by Yam Harvest Games

Help! I Can't Find My Glasses! by @lacewing-if

Pageant by @cyberpunklesbian

Hanna, We're Going to School by Kastel

Totem Force by @parrotwatcher

Works-in-Progress

Anti-Mutant Academy by @antimutantcog

On The Scene by @onthescene-if (no demo yet)

Romantic Comedy of the Damned by @artwoo1

When The Beast Sings by @abeastlysong (no demo yet)

High School Revenge by @high-school-revenge

College Tennis: Origin Story by @collegetennisoriginstory

Berry Thief by @missfruitbud

The Marked by @peonyb

False Grace by @raddixie (possible hiatus, last active in november 2025)

The Muse by @themuse-if

Burning Academia by @burning-academia-if

Golden by @milaswriting (possible hiatus, last active in august 2025)

Lovecraft Academy & The One Chosen by @parrotwatcher (confirmed hiatus)

Powered by @powered-if (confirmed hiatus)

Houkago by @houkago-if

In All My Dreams I Choke on Invisible Smoke by @kanderwund

Painted Devils by @painted-devils-if (possible hiatus)

What Awaits Us by @whatawaitsus (likely abandoned)

Triaina Academy by @leo-interactive-fiction (possible hiatus)

College Heist by @collegeheist (possible hiatus)

A Tale of Heroes by @juantheashura

[artwoo1]

The ROs are really interesting. Out of curiosity, which of the two would you say is more possessive/jealous?

Well, I wouldn't know. Determining which of the two is more possessive is difficult, as the word itself is quite broad and frankly doesn't suit either of them. Perhaps territorial is a better fit? After all, it's not like they have much competition to begin with. No one would take an interest in the MC other than them—at least, for now. It's still too early in the story for deep emotional attachments or bonds to form, so jealousy is entirely nonexistent. Neither of them thinks of the MC as theirs. They think of their position relative to him as their own.

[artwoo1]

Snippet for Chapter 2 Part 2.

Kurogane blinked. A second later, a sinister smirk crept across his face. He chuckled cryptically, turning his back to us so he could stare dramatically out the window.

"I see the shape of this equivalent exchange," he declared to the glass. "In return for resolving my dilemma, I shall resolve yours! I, Kurogane 'Masuda Shirō' Tokisada, shall lend my power to your cause! A rebellion it is! A holy pilgrimage we set!"

"Can we please just kick him out?"

"As always, your lack of basic human empathy is staggering. It is no wonder Shinohara-sensei deemed you a social outcast. If looking in a mirror is insufficient to reflect your thoroughly rotten personality, I highly suggest seeking a professional psychological diagnosis."

"That is an awfully specific, entirely uncalled-for escalation. I am not rotten in the slightest. In fact, seizing the absolute moral high ground just to casually diagnose a peer with a personality disorder is arguably infinitely more rotten."

"Every syllable you utter is a marvel of evolutionary regression. I only have myself to blame for expecting anything above the bare minimum of human cognition from you. Your sheer dedication to mediocrity is almost impressive. It is frankly exhausting to witness. Are you going to contribute anything of value, or are you simply here to convert oxygen into disappointment?"

I haven't even done anything to warrant such a thorough deconstruction...

[artwoo1]

UPDATE: Chapter 2 (Part 1) is Live!

The first chunk of Chapter 2 is officially up and ready to play. The word count has bumped up another few thousand words, and we are finally pulling the camera back from the suffocating gloom of the clubroom to look at the broader ecosystem of Minato High School. Mostly. Kind of. We’ll get there eventually I promise.

In this update, our deeply pathetic protagonist attempts to return to his baseline of absolute invisibility, only to discover that the universe (and Shinohara-sensei) has a terrible sense of humor. You will get to attend a historically accurate lecture on Heian-era literature that you absolutely will not pay attention to, have your lunch break violently interrupted by an educator who lacks basic boundaries, and meet the first official “client” of our unnamed club.

Spoiler alert: He believes in quantum magecraft, and the protagonist would rather be reduced to a puddle of mana than speak to him.

We also return to the clubroom, where Kanashiro and Reika are currently locked in a polite, high-society cold war. You will be asked to participate in a “democratic vote” regarding the future of the investigation. Please enjoy the illusion of choice, because as Kanashiro will happily remind you, your refusal has been noted and promptly discarded.

Special Feature:

Culinary Metaphors of Despair: Depending on your choices, the protagonist will compare his miserable existence to either the bitter scum of boiling bamboo shoots or a gutted mackerel. Please let me know which flavor of existential dread you prefer.

Part 2 will follow soon, where we will finally see what happens when you lock two apex predators, a cynic, and a delusional mage in a single room. I can guarantee it won’t be productive.

The stats are currently being reworked, and will be finalized once Chapter 2 is finished.

Tagging @interact-if for visibility. Thank you.

[artwoo1]

So, fun news: I have to rework the entire stats system again. As it turns out, my grand, ambitious design creates a nightmare of branching paths and a lovely dose of ludonarrative dissonance. Who could have possibly foreseen that making things overly complicated would make them overly complicated?

Take the Friction and Affection stats, for example. I consciously decided to separate them—a brilliant idea, until I realized it forces me to write three whole distinct routes with their own flavor and set of problems.

High Affection/Low Friction, Low Affection/High Friction, High Affection/High Friction, and presumably a fourth where everyone just stares at each other in mutual apathy. Throw the Transaction and Vulnerability stats into that unholy mix, and the entire system collapses into a contradictory mess.

To save my own sanity, I'm pivoting to a more traditional Visual Novel structure. Instead of running a background math simulation, choices will act as flags that trigger specific scenes. The Coping Mechanism stats will stick around to dictate the narrative flavor, which means I now have to write compelling character development to justify the shift to a more linear story. Tragic, I know.

The major choices currently in the demo—the Investigation vs. Retreat paths, and how you choose to end things—are the new blueprint. You can expect a similar structure for future chapters. The relationship stats are staying, but they’ll be operating largely behind the curtain. So yes, your choices will still alter interactions and scenes; you just won't need a spreadsheet to track them anymore.

That, and Chapter 2 will be split into two or three parts once more. It's much larger than the first chapter which I believe was roughly 15K words w/o code.

[artwoo1]

Almost got run over like 8man. Fortunately it didn't hit me, and I walked away like nothing happened. I bet I get a lot of points for that.

[artwoo1]

Is romance the main part of the story or is it possible without? I’m aware the name of the if suggests it’s all about romance but I want to be sure. Just asking because I’m not very interested in romancing girls

Hello, I believe I already answered the question in the forum, so I'll just copy and paste my answer.

Yes, the kind of relationship you build will depend entirely on your major choices and how you navigate conflicts. From there, you’ll be given the option to lock in a romance or remain friends. All of this is still in the drafting phase, but that is the general direction I’m heading towards. It is possible to end the game without pursuing anyone. But it remains ambiguous since the WIP is still in its early phases. I have plans on how it could develop, but I'll save it when we get to that point in the story.

[artwoo1]

UPDATE: Full Chapter 1 is Live! + The Official RO Roster (22K Words in total)

The second half of Chapter 1 is finally up and ready to play. Picking up exactly where the last update left off, the agonizing silence of the clubroom is officially shattered by that heavy, hollow knock. With this update, the full WIP is now 22K words with code and 20K words without.

If Part 1 was a contained, slice-of-life bottle episode designed to establish the baseline toxicity between the protagonist and Kanashiro Kana, Part 2 is where the narrative actively attempts to break them. I believe I succeeded mostly. I decided to lean heavily into the eerie, liminal atmosphere of an empty Japanese high school at twilight. Depending on whether you choose to bravely investigate the hallway or stubbornly retreat to the clubroom, you will experience either a locked-corridor deductive mystery or a suffocating, high-society standoff.

Regardless, here is the official Romance Option list, as many have requested me to do so:

Kanashiro Kana ( 哉城 可那 )

—The founding president of an unamed club. Kanashiro Kana is introduced as a girl whose solitude feels entirely deliberate. The protagonist notes her strikingly elegant features and describes her eyes as deep, frozen pools that seemingly dissect every cynical thought he harbors. He ultimately categorizes her as a beautiful fortress, built to be admired only from afar. Or, a breathtaking fortress that naturally commands distance. It depends on the protagonist you have built.

Romance with her is a slow-burn battle of wits where yielding an inch of rhetorical ground is a fatal mistake.

Fukami Reika (怜華 深見)

—The phantom of the eastern stairwell and a resident of the elite Class 2-F International Track. When she finally steps out of the shadows, the protagonist is immediately struck by her elegantly slender frame and her small and subtly upturned eyes. He notes that her hair possesses the sort of black you find on old lacquerware, moving exactly as much as it needs to and no more. Above all, she radiates a profound, atmospheric emptiness that immediately triggers the protagonist’s survival instincts.

She is a locked door in human form, carrying the unyielding authority of someone entirely accustomed to finding the people around her insignificant.

I highly recommend doing at least two playthroughsof this update to see how the “Investigate” and “Retreat” paths diverge.

Thank you all for reading.

(P.S. I haven’t done as much play testing, so there might be bugs here and there. I apologize in advance for that. I will fix them as soon as I have the time.)

Tagging @interact-if for visibility.

[artwoo1]

Hey, just read your story and I think it's really good so far! I immediately started shipping my mc and Kana seeing their dynamic.

I'd say this short sums up their dynamic really well, imo. :D https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WJ4YdiW9m-k

Alarmingly accurate, considering I have no idea who those characters are. But yes, pure, exhausting friction sums them up perfectly—and by extension, Kana and the MC. Thanks for reading. The next update features more Kana scenes, which I suspect you’ll enjoy—or at least endure.