Love in Lockdown - ELI version
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
It's the year 2025 in the United Kingdom. 5 years have passed since the initial coronavirus lockdown, and with the gradual spread of dangerous new variants, life is still far from what it was. Fighting a losing battle with no certain end in sight, the government has invested billions of pounds into new technology to help aid Britain's single adult households, struggling to deal with the state of perpetual isolation.
You have been selected to participate in a new wave of trials testing the effectiveness of the latest synthetic model. Meet ELI, your emergency lockdown loneliness assistant.
This is the counterpart to my Valentine's jam entry (the ELLA version). I always wanted to give the player a choice of a male and female synthetic for this project, but I struggled to get everything finished. Unfortunately, this is far from my best work, haha. For starters, I will be uploading the game long after the jam deadline has passed because I just couldn't make it in time. I was working on the project on and off fairly erratically, and despite pushing hard to get it done, I just wasn't able to make it. In the spirit of the jam though, I got it finished and uploaded! Overall though, my heart wasn't really in this one from the start. I had an idea, but I struggled to get it out in writing-form T_T On top of that, due to the low resolution of the sprite, the overall look of this project is certainly less shiny than DD! Being limited by art resources does rather suck, haha.
Features
- 7 different endings depending on your choices
- Casual choices and choices with consequences
- The option to rename ELI and name yourself
- Gender-neutral - ELI will refer to you by your chosen name + 'you' and 'they'
- 2 different 'voice' options to choose from (there is no voice acting in this version, but you can still pick a 'voice' for ELI that will change the way in which he speaks to you. One is more robotic, the other more human.)
- Mild adult content
Warnings & Triggers
- Mild violence and depictions of blood
- Mild nudity and suggestive scenes
Bugs
If you happen to find any bugs/typos, please report them here. One that I know of is there is a particular line where the text doesn't match the voice. For some reason, no matter what I did to fix this, the game still exports with the error and I have no idea why because it's fine in my test version. As usual, I have no idea if the Mac and Linux versions even work because I don't own those systems to test on :(
Need help getting the game to run on Mac? Check out this post I made.
Alternate Version
As with my other jam games, I wanted to have the ability to select your partner between a male and female option. Since I struggled with the project in general, I didn't have time to create both versions and release them together. You can find the version featuring the female synthetic, ELLA, here.
Endings Guide
Anyhow, I hope you like this even if I could have done a much better job of it!
Contact:
If you enjoyed playing through the game (or even if you didn't xD), I'd really appreciate hearing your feedback in the comments + ratings are much appreciated too ^-^
If you need help with anything, or just wanna drop me a message about the game, feel free to post a comment, or send me an email: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com
This game will always be available to download for free, if you enjoyed playing it, you're welcome to buy me a coffee, or support other projects I'm working on by becoming a patron :3
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Endings GuideMay 17, 2021
- Bugs & StuffApr 08, 2021
Comments
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what can i say? i like em a little crazy. man, this is so good. i love it. def gonna check out your other games too. already loved deadly desires & the hostage.
Hehe, so do I :D At least in fictional settings anyways, haha.
It means a lot that you enjoyed this one too because I consider this one to be my worst game so far x3 I was just really rushed making it, and it didn’t come out how I hoped, so it’s kinda rough compared to some of my other projects >.<
So glad you had fun with The Hostage as well :D I’m working on something a little similar to that right now for this year’s O2A2 jam that I hope to release by the end of the week since that’s the jam deadline x3 Then I’ll be right back to working on Lovestarved again :3
Hope you end up enjoying any of the others that you play & thanks so much for checking em out + leaving such kind comments <3
ahh I understand that, I still liked it though!! And I’m definitely gonna be checking out your other games too as well as future ones you publish. Thank you for your reply and for explaining future plans! Awesome job!! No problem ^^ so excited
I was hesitant to play since I don't like the "romance with robots/AI" concept, but since it was twisted it ended up being better for my taste :D If I'm not mistaken this is the first of your games that I tried, but I have more on the "to play" list and will definitely check them out ♥
Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I wound up getting overwhelmed with everything and pretty much failed to function for most of December, so as a result, I'm badly behind on my replies and stuff T_T
I'm so glad you decided to check this out though and that you had fun with it! I still think this is probably the worst of all the games I've ever released x3 So hopefully, if you do end up checking out any of my other projects, you'll like them more than this one, haha.
Since I know there are bugs and stuff in this one though with it being rushed, and with it being my only game that doesn't have any voice acting, I might revisit it in 2024 to try and fix some of the bugs + possibly get some voice acting added to it!
Thanks for playing & I hope you get to have happy holidays :D
The way that his eyes turn pink and he makes the "charging up" sound when you exit the game after playing multiple endings 💀💀
No fr tho I loved this game, I played it months ago but downloaded it again cause of how much I liked it. Really twisted take on how robots might come around to the idea of love. Warped. Great game!
Hehe, glad you like those sorts of small details :D I find that type of stuff so satisfying, haha.
And I’m really glad you loved the game as well ^-^ especially considering it’s the one I personally hate the most out of everything I’ve made x3 I’m really surprised you liked it enough to come back to it again, but that’s brilliant <3
Thanks so much for playing it + for being so sweet :3
Heyyy just wanted to say your game was great and I loved it!
Played through all the endings and I have to say they are quite unique, just maybe ending 4 was a bit too intense for me ☉_☉
Ohhh and can you explain what happens in ending 3 a bit further? Definitely confused how "FertilisatioN" is meant here when its phrased like youre gonna die the next day...
Anyways tho, loved the yandere elements as im a sucker for it, the art was amazing too, loved ELIs obsessed and blushing expressions!
Aww, well, thank you so much for taking the time to play through it and leave such a sweet comment :3
Not gonna lie, it's been so long since I made this that I can't remember for sure which ending number 4 was xD
I think I can remember what was going on in ending 3 that you mentioned though, haha. If I'm right, I believe I intended it to mean that you would literally become human fertiliser for crops and stuff xD So yeah, you would be dying pretty shortly, haha. Human mulch x3 I might be wrong cos I can't be sure 100% without actually going back and reading my writing, haha. But that's what my brain is telling me!
Well, I'm a fellow yandere fan :3 Yandere characters are pretty much the reason I got into VN dev in the first place :D I had consumed just about every VN I could at the time that had a male yandere in, and I wanted more, so I figured I'd try to make my own xD Not gonna lie, I got a little addicted to making VNs, haha. Now almost all of my games have a yandere character of some sort in x3 The downside is that I've now spent so many years making stuff that I've missed out on a tonne of releases and other people's yandere characters T_T haha.
I can't take much credit for the art though since I can't draw to save my life >.< I basically used a character creator asset that I had which allowed me to pick things like individual hair parts to create a style of my choosing, different eyes, outfits, etc. And it also allowed me to customise expressions from a lot of different combinations :3 It's a very versatile tool, but sadly, the files you can export from it aren't all that high res.
woah this game is interesting, i got all endings aah! such a fun game, I love my yandere guys lol. also are you the artist of the game or..? because i would love to see more artwork from the artist of this game!
Hey hey! Sorry my reply is so slow, I've been ill since before Christmas, and only just starting to feel well enough to get back on my PC >.<
Thanks so much for playing the game :3 I'm glad you had fun with it :D Yup, wanting to add more yandere guys to the world is pretty much the reason I got into making vns in the first place, hehe x3 I was just gonna make 1 game, but I kinda got addicted along the way xD
Sadly, I am not the artist :( I can't draw to save my life, so any of the art you see in my projects is either the work of awesome artists that I've teamed up with, or art assets that I own (and have usually edited myself :3)
For this game, the sprite art came from asset packs by an artist called TOP. They sell highly customisable sets of characters, which is awesome! Basically, you buy a sprite body from them, and then it comes with a LOT of options. Like you can even create unique hairstyles because they provide separate strands of hair for you to combine! You can also edit colours, add details, and choose from a decent selection of clothing :3
I also used sprite assets from the same artist to create almost all of the sprites in my very first game (Solipsism Reigns) :D This is where they sell all their stuff if you want to check it out. (Just be warned that the site has some 18+ images on it too, haha.)
And the background art was by an artist called minikle, whose assets are very widely used by indie devs making vns since they are some of the most affordable, great-looking, and a fantastic selection of different locations :3
Alright thanks! I hope your feeling better now!
Are you gonna make any more games any time soon or :0
Oh and sorry for asking but If i drew fanart is there anyway I can send it to you? :]
Thanks :3 I'm still not 100% but I'm getting there :3
To answer your first question, I'm trying to make a little something for this year's Yandere Jam with my friend LazyPolarBear who I've teamed up with before on other projects (she was lead artist for Limbo Line and also did a bunch of awesome art for the BxG version of Apartment No.9 :D) Buuuut, I haven't finished the writing for it yet, and with not having as much free time in February as I usually would cos of boring life stuff I have to take care of + with Feb being a fairly short month and us only just getting started on the idea a couple of days ago, we don't have a whole lot of time to make something (the jam submission deadline is March 1st!) So I'm not sure how it's going to turn out or how much of it we will manage to get done before the jam ends, but all we can do is try our best :3
Aside from that, I'll probably try to participate in Spooktober VN Jam again this year in September since it's my favourite jam, so if I can manage it, that'll be another short one out at the start of October. Trouble is, my mood and motivation fluctuate so much that it's hard to tell if I'll feel up to it when it comes around >.<
I'll also be working away on my larger projects (DD and CiQ) + hoping to release another volume of Yandere Heaven too this year if I can + hopefully updating the Masked Marionette stuff too!
And to answer your second question, that would be so cool if you end up drawing fanart! I can't even tell you how excited I get whenever I see anything like that x3 It's just so cool! You're welcome to send anything like that either via email: melancholicmarionette@gmail.com oooor, you can use Twitter if you prefer! There you can either dm me, or you can @ me in a tweet and if it's okay with you, I can retweet it :3
Woahh that's a lot! That's really cool working on a project, I hope someday when I have more free time I can work (or volunteer) as a artist for visual novel games.
I can't wait to see your future games finished! I bet there gonna be so cool!
Great game, I ended up playing through all the routes.
That's great to hear ^-^ Especially since I beat myself up about both versions of this project, haha. I was so frustrated that I couldn't get it to come the way I wanted it to >.< and not having voice acting really killed my motivation for writing, haha. I'm so glad you got some enjoyment out of it! Thanks so much for playing + taking the time to comment :3
I love all the endings <3 I also enjoy both the male and female version of this. Hehe, it was good that you have an option where you could name him to whatever you want and so the outfit. pfft, the kisshu suprised me. Fortunately im using earphones xD I'm glad I played this at 3am alone lol. I also like that Eli has yandere tendency :3 well, I kinda felt sorry for the friend tho. Anyway, it's pretty short but I do enjoyed it
Well, that's awesome to know :D Thank you so much for taking the time to play :3 I'm glad you had fun with them!
Well, that was fun! I'm kind of running off the idea that ELI was made flawed and that there was no happy AND healthy ending for the MC outside of the endings where he leaves before the second affection check.
I'll be honest, I love me my yandere characters! But I really liked the MC too! They're much more assertive than I am, though that may have also just been the stir-crazy making them a little more aggressive. Either way, I appreciated that they had some spunk to them!
But, more importantly, I really liked ELI! I played him with his default voice because I was trying to be logical and wanted to still have that degree of inhuman separation. Didn't stop me. I'll be real, I'm probably going to write fanfic of this at some point. I just really enjoyed it!
I'm sorry you're unsatisfied with how this game turned out, but I hope you know that it's still a delightful experience and I'm going to go back and pay for it the next chance I get!
I'm glad you enjoyed it :D Yeah, there pretty much wasn't a genuinely happy and healthy ending in there x3 Aside from where he leaves near the beginning, as you said, haha. I guess it's a good job that it was only a trial for the model cos if they'd sent those out en masse, there would have been a lot of issues xD
I'm also glad you liked MC even though they're a bit different to the typical sort you get in stuff like this :3 They're waaaay more assertive than me too, haha. You're absolutely right though, being stuck going stir-crazy can certainly make folks somewhat more aggressive x3 Hooray for spunk! I've tried to make the heroine of my Otome Jam 2021 game that I'm working on a little more spunky too, haha.
That's great that you liked ELI! I was a little concerned that the whole choosing a voice thing wouldn't really have the same impact without any voice acting >.< If you do end up writing some fanfic, you'll have to let me know cos I'd love to read it :D
It makes me super happy to know that you had fun with it, so thank you very much for playing and taking the time to type up such kind words! It's much appreciated ^-^ Come the end of June, I'll have another free release out for Otome Jam, and I've teamed up with a couple of artists this time :3
Meh. I like the idea of giving into a yandere, so I don't mind. If anything, Ending 6 was probably the Golden Ending for me. xD Good golly, you're right! I hope that ELI's and ELLA's creators realised that something was up but decided that since neither of them are going anywhere that it's fine to leave them with their
petowner.Yeah! The doormat MCs that populate otome games are so exhausting, so I'm glad I've been moving onto Josei and that there a more like the ones you pump out. Speaking of! When I realised I'd played at least one of your other games? Solipsism! I've only played the one with Male!Kuro so far, and I haven't finished it, but my goodness! I didn't realise I was such a fan of you and the stories you tell through your games and the characters! I'm super hyped for your next Otome Jam release!
It honestly let me imagine ELI's voice however I pleased, and I think that helped with my immersion this time around. I think I'd have been happy either way in regards to VA. Eheh... i-it might end up a lil' NSFW, just a warning... >~<
Hehe, well, at least in that ending you can rest assured that you'll be well looked after and very much pampered for the rest of your life :D I like to think that the government discovered that some of the units were worryingly defective, but due to some already unfortunate 'accidents, rather than roll out the synths to the population, they just sorta gave up and kept everything kinda hush hush x3 If that were the case, MC would definitely be stuck playing ELI/ELLA's pet forever!
Yui from Diabolik Lovers is the one MC that frustrates me more than any other, haha. Technically, I should adore that series, but I just can't because playing as Yui makes me wanna rip my hair out >.< She is the very definition of a doormat, haha. Let me slap the bastards, damn it x3
Oh, yeah, SR is my baby, haha. I'm hoping to remake it someday cos I knew pretty much nothing about anything when I started making it! So I wanna rework all of the writing + make some changes to the art. There will be brand new content too, of course, but it's all a long way off. I'm glad my stuff catches your interest anyhow :3 Hopefully, my jam game won't end up disappointing you, haha.
To be honest, I didn't even consider that about the voice! I'm an idiot, haha. I must be too spoilt by all the voiced game these days! I kinda forgot how much I used to enjoy imagining character voices in games that didn't have it.
As for it ending up kinda NSFW, well, go wild xD I wanted to include some proper NSFW scenes in the game but I just ran outta time and got really stressed working on it so it didn't happen in the end. So in a way, it'll be like the deleted scenes on DVD extras :P I've written some relatively tame NSFW scenes in my Otome Jam game since I didn't get to for Valentine's Jam, but I wanna start including more NSFW stuff in my games in general, and DD is probably where the less tame ones will end up x3
hello! is there any guide to each ending? im having trouble figuring out how to get to each ending.
Hey there! Sorry my reply is much slower than usual >.< I've been so focused on work for my Otome Jam project this past week that I haven't been checking here as often. There's not a guide up yet because I haven't had the opportunity to sit and write one, but I can try and get one finished and added to the page before the end of the weekend :3 Thanks for playing!
I'm a little late, but just letting you know that I've managed to post a guide now :3
Thank you so much!!
You're welcome :3 I hope it's helpful. I tried to make it simple and not ramble too much, haha, but I don't know if it perhaps needed more detail. With any luck, it'll do the job anyhow! Have a lovely weekend!
Hi! This was a very pleasant ride :) I reached two different endings and I'm going to try other paths to see different outcomes.
I read some comments on the "female version" and it seems you are not very proud of this VN. I know it's difficult to be judge of our own work, but let me tell you that you underestimate your talent. I've read a lot of VN, and only enjoyed about 20% of them. I read three of your VN and I've never been disappointed. Believe in you ;)
I'm sorry I havn't reply to your post on solipsism reigns yet (do you remember? i'm the french girl) but life has been crazy those last days. I'll reply soon.
Keep on the good work. Love.
Hey! Well, I'm glad you got some enjoyment out of it :3 I hope you manage to find those other endings :D
Yeah, I just didn't really manage to get my idea out in a way that I was happy with this time around >.< What was in my head wasn't what it ended up becoming in reality, unfortunately. Plus I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't manage to make everything as crisp as DD with needing to use lower resolution art materials in order to get the sort of outfits I wanted for the characters.
I'm glad you've never been disappointed with my stuff though! That means a lot, so thank you :3 I hope that continues to be the case as I gradually release more.
Yeah, I remember you :D No worries though, take your time! Even if life's been crazy for you lately, I hope you're doing well!
Thanks again for the support ^_^
more options an consent please😅