Love in Lockdown - ELLA version
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
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 ELLA, your emergency lockdown loneliness assistant.
Unfortunately, this is far from my best work, haha. For starters, I will be uploading the game 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! I just didn't want to submit something that was untested because it might have been incredibly buggy, so I just needed another week or so to iron out the kinks. 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 ELLA and name yourself
- Gender-neutral - ELLA will refer to you by your chosen name + 'you' and 'they'
- Full (terrible) British voice acting with 2 different voice options to choose from
- 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.
Voice Acting
So, I should start out by saying that I am not a voice actor, haha. This was my first attempt at it, and I'm personally not very happy with it at all, so feel free to mute the voice acting if you can't stand it xD I don't think my voice suits the sprite at all. The worst thing though is that I had to record the lines in various locations in my house due to my brother sleeping in until awkward times of the day. I don't have a proper setup for recording, and it shows. There are noticeable changes in audio throughout, and for the most part, it's not too jarring, but there are instances where it's very obvious I had to record in a different area of the house, sadly.
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 the male version, but I plan on working on it (and hopefully releasing it shortly) so that there is a male synthetic version available as well :3 However, it's highly likely the male version will remain unvoiced, as I do not know any male British voice actors who would suit the role, and I can't imagine anyone would want to volunteer for a jam project where the deadline for it has already long passed >.<
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
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars (20 total ratings) |
Author | Melancholy Marionette |
Genre | Visual Novel, Interactive Fiction |
Tags | Adult, Cute, Dating Sim, LGBT, Romance, Sci-fi, Short, Voice Acting, yandere |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Endings GuideMay 17, 2021
- ELLA Version ReleasedMar 10, 2021
- Bugs & StuffMar 10, 2021
Comments
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Very well done, sorry that you didn't like making this one unlike most of others. Btw can you elaborate on what the ending 3 fertilization thing was? I'm almost getting nightmares about it *bloody 'ell*
Cheers for checking it out :3 Even if I wasn't satisfied with how it turned out in the end, it still makes me happy if anyone can get some enjoyment of some kind out of it :D
And sure! Now, cos it's been a long time since I wrote this, I can't remember 100% exactly what I was thinking with that ending, but I'm 99.9% sure I meant it as the MC being turned into literal fertiliser x3
Just one of those crazy sorts of dystopian things where those in charge want to ensure everyone in society is contributing in some way, so if they deem that a person is no longer useful alive, they will have them melted down to use them as human mulch/fertiliser for crops that will eventually feed the rest of the population >.<
Soooo, yeah, that's quite grim I guess x3 I feel like maybe I should've written 2 different fertilisation endings though where 1 was as I just listed above, and then another where MC is used in a more sexual way to contribute to society xD
Thanks again for playing! :3
I really had fun with this one, ELLA is super charming and now I want a synthetic of my own!! I'm sorry you're not the most proud of this one, but I really loved your performance as ELLA! In my opinion, you were the perfect voice for her sweet and caring (sometimes yandere) personality! I would love to see you voice another character in the future! I also love the yandere elements you add to your games! If you ever made a sequel, I would be super happy! Cheers to a cute game! <3
Cheers for checking out this one too! :3
Sometimes I think I could do with having a synthetic of my own as well x3
I'm glad you still enjoyed the character of ELLA even if I was personally unhappy with how it all turned out as a whole :3
If it weren't for my anxiety, I would love to be able to have a proper go at voice acting x3 I just can't get into it when I have no privacy in the house though :( It's too embarrassing trying to record stuff when I know my brother will be listening and taking the piss outta me >.<
Thank you again for all your kind words :3
I definitely get that, I am quite shy and insecure about my voice and recording my voice as well >.< I also imagine it would be awkward trying to record the spicy scenes when others are around x3 Maybe someday you'll have another chance!
My brother is also the same x3 He'd love to try voice acting, and he has this epic talent that he seems to be able to mimic pretty much any voice he hears, so I imagine he could come up with some cool voices for characters himself, but he's super duper shy. Both of us have said if we ever had our own places, we'd give it a shot, haha.
But yeah, trying to record spicy stuff if family is around is just awful xD
Maybe someday we'll all have an opportunity to explore VA stuff more :3
That's pretty awesome! It's cool having talented siblings!! ^.^
I look forward to hearing from you more when you do your next VA project! x3
Going thru all of these games now :)
Ahh, that’s so cool ^-^ I hope you have fun with them!! Although, admittedly, the two Love in Lockdown ones are probably my worst games out of everything I’ve made so far x3 They just really didn’t come out how I hoped and were quite rushed, so they’re pretty rough >.<
Thanks for checking out some of my other stuff :3
Missed the yandere tags and didn't see anything about it in the description, so it caught me off guard and kinda bummed me out.
Cute game otherwise, though. Voice acting does the job, and the effort is appreciated
Thanks for checking out the game! I’m glad you still got some enjoyment from it even if the yandere stuff isn’t your cup of tea x3
Almost all of my projects have a yandere of some sort in, even if it’s a platonic yandere rather than a romantic one, haha. One of the main reasons I got into game dev in the first place was to add more male yandere characters to the world cos I noticed there were loads of females ones around, but as a player, I was struggling to find male yandere content after playing everything available at the time, so decided to just start making stuff!
I only ended up making female yandere characters as well because I wanted to give players more options to choose x3 haha.
This is probably the worst game I’ve ever released, unfortunately >.< I had only just switched to Naninovel, so I was still learning how to use it, which means there are a number of bugs in the game :( and it was made in a big rush too for a jam deadline, so it didn’t really turn out how I hoped x3 I almost deleted all the project files cos I felt like it wasn’t worth releasing >.<
But a few people have played it and said they had fun, so I guess it was worth releasing it in the end :3 One day, I will get around to updating it to add better voice acting and fix the little bugs!
Thanks for playing! Hope you’re having a good month so far :3
Do you have a link to the soundtrack of this game?
Hey hey! Unfortunately, I made this game back before I knew how to make original music tracks myself, so the entire soundtrack for this game is one that I put together using assets that I own/have purchased as part of asset packs. And that means I'm not allowed to post the tracks outside of the game because the terms and conditions of use for the assets state they can only be used within a project and strictly not uploaded individually >.<
This game was amazing. I loved Ella and how she interacted with the main protagionist. The plot was very great and I thought the romance was done well. I liked how it gave you multiple choices. Overall a great game. Thanks for reading.
Thanks so much for playing :3 I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Haha, I totally agree with you that it's the weakest one of all my projects :P It didn't turn out how I'd hoped at all x3 like I've said before, I even wondered if I should just can it rather than release it I was that unhappy with it xD but that seemed like too much of a waste, so I thought, screw it, I'll still put it out there but I'll just make sure to mention that I'm not too pleased with it, haha.
The VA just turned out kinda disastrously cos some friends who've helped me out in the past said they wanted me to give it a go instead xD So that kinda killed a lot of the motivation I had for the project anyways since getting to work with voice actors and hearing them bring characters to life is one of my favourite parts of making games. And then I don't really have the right equipment to record. I have no dedicated space for it. Combine that with my anxiety and the fact that I didn't want anyone to hear me, and you have the problem of, there was only like 1 opportunity during the jam for me to record when the house was empty x3 Cos my brother is at home all day every day. So I had to get what I could done while he was at an appointment. That wasn't enough time, so to finish the rest, I had to take my crappy laptop downstairs while he was sleeping in the morning, drape a blanket over my head, and try to do it quietly to finish it off >.<” The fact that I recorded in 2 different rooms I feel was really noticeable. And then yeah, I'm not even a voice actor, sooo xD
I'm glad you didn't think it was too terrible though, haha. And if anyone has fun playing through the game still despite all my personal gripes with it, then at least it was worth releasing it anyways :3
Thanks for taking the time to go through it all ^-^
Fun Times :)
It's great! Very fun! I still don't even have all the endings!
The issue is though, that your Endings Guide tells you how to get certain numbered endings, but does not tell us which Ending each number refers to. Can you add something in the guide about which ending is which? Otherwise I don't know which ones I have and which ones I don't.
Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I was crazy busy working on Spooktober jam, so I didn't really have time to respond to anything in September >.<
I'm glad you enjoyed playing though! Thank you so much for checking the game out :3
I would update the guide now if I could, but honestly, it's been so long since I made this that I don't remember enough about it to be able to do that x3 I would have to go through and play the game again or open up the files and reacquaint myself with it because I just don't know what ending is what off the top of my head now >.< When I look at the guide and see x choices lead to ending 01, that means absolutely nothing to me x3
I can try to figure it out and update the guide when I get a chance though! I've just got a lot to catch up on at the moment because I basically had to put everything to one side during September in order to finish the jam games in time, and I've missed so much in that time >.< I'll make a note to come back to this and update it though :3 Hopefully, you managed to get a few more of the endings in the meantime x3
No rush! Whenever you can lol
BTW what system do you use to make your VNs?
Nowadays I use Naninovel on Unity :3 This game and the current version of Darling Duality were a couple of the first things I made using naninovel, so they're not great examples of the software because I was still getting to grips with it and learning how to use it after previously using Tyranobuilder for my first couple of games.
It was a pretty big jump because they work quite differently, but honestly, naninovel is incredible and I can't praise it enough! It's perfect for someone like me who gets headaches trying to learn proper code because you get to use a sort of simplified scripting language instead (though, you can also add your own code as well if you're a code savvy person, haha.) Whereas while Tyrano is also very user-friendly to folks who don't wanna code since it has a drag and drop way of working, it's an extremely slow way to work >.< So I feel like it was good for getting used to what goes into making a VN, and then you'd wanna move on to something a bit more practical like Nani once you're comfortable. I did try renpy before anything else, but after finishing a test project, I hated having to code so much that I didn't really even feel like making a VN anymore >.< That's when I realised I had Tyrano in one of the Humble Bundles I'd bought, haha. And then I got Naninovel at a huge discount during a Unity store sale because I wouldn't have been able to afford it any other way.
The two new games I just released (Dawn of the Damned and The Graveyard Shift), along with my other more recent games, Yandere Heaven, Limbo Line, and even Apartment No. 9, all do a much better job of showing what can be done with naninovel now that I'm more comfortable with using it :3
I'll have to check those games of yours out and see the difference, and I'll keep my eye out on Fanatical and Humble Bundle for Naninovel! Thanks!
i'm stuck on the loading screen, how do i fix this issue?
Sorry my reply is so slow >.< I was working like crazy throughout September on some Spooktober jam projects, so I'm only just catching up on everything I missed now that the jam has finished!
Which loading screen is it that you were stuck on?
Here's a screenshot of the loading screen. So when I open the game up I get put in this endless loading screen, and I don't really know why, your other games all work perfectly all except for this game and the eli version.
Thank you for the reply, and I totally understand, i'm gonna go check out your new games, I love your work and I appreciate the amount of passion you put in your games.
Hmm, that's really weird >.< I take it it's the windows version you're on?
I remember something like this happening to one or two players back when I first made DD, and it turned out it was because for some reason I still have no idea about, their computers refused to play the mp4 video file that was set to play on the title screen, and even changing it to ogv didn't help, it just went blank screen for them. Ever since then, I stopped using video files in all my projects because I couldn't get to the bottom of why they wouldn't play for some people, so I started trying to make all animations through game commands rather than dumping a video file in there.
Again though, I'm utterly clueless as to why it won't start up for you T_T I can export a dev build to send to you though if you like! I've never done it before, but I've seen Naninovel's devs tell people using the software to send dev builds to their players if they encounter things like this because apparently when it freezes or crashes, your computer should spit out some error logs that contain the reasons why it's happening. I doubt I'd be able to decipher them myself x3 but if I had them, I could post them to the Naninovel support server and see if anyone can help.
I just had a quick search through support to see if anyone else happened to have had the problem, and there are a few other devs that have reported it occurring for random players of their games, no quick solutions to try though >.< They were all just told to send dev builds and get the error logs, and then none of the devs came back to say if they ever found out what the issue was or managed to fix it x3
If you do want me to send one though so you can try and get the log from your computer to send to me, just drop me an email, and I'll try and get one to you as soon as I can :3
In the meantime, I hope you end up enjoying the new games! And thank you so much ^-^ it means a lot that you can see the passion that's gone into my projects :D
Glad you're having fun with it :3 It's still my most hated game xD I even thought about taking it off my page for a while because I'm that annoyed with how it turned out, haha. But it is what it is I guess, and if anyone can enjoy it still despite my personal feelings on it, that makes me happy :3
Finally played it! I really enjoyed it, hehe. I kept having this issue where the game would stop working after ELLA asks if you want to give her another name, I would fix it by backing to the previous text block and continuing again. I'd thought I'd let youknow though. 0:
Thanks for checking it out and I'm happy you enjoyed it in the end :3
Hmm, that's weird >.< I wonder if it's where the loading point is. It's been a loooong time since I saw the code, but I think there's probably a load around that point where it switches scripts, and that would cause a freeze, but technically the game should continue once it's actually loaded rather than completely stop working. I didn't know how to make proper loading screens back when I made this x3 And even though I know how to do it now, I still don't know how to reduce some load of the load times in my games. In Limbo Line, there's one that's so long it makes almost everyone think the game has crashed on the loading screen, but it hasn't, it just takes a hell of a long time to load >.< I guess maybe I just need to add them more often so there are fewer assets to unpack or something? I dunno, I'm not a very techy person so these things always just confuse me x3
Cheers for letting me know anyhow, and I'm glad you managed to find a workaround cos it's always frustrating if I come across any game-breaking stuff in my games, haha. Thanks again for playing ^-^
Just finished playing it, super fun game! Looking forward to trying out the rest of your games!
Thanks so much for giving it a go and taking the time to comment! I'm super glad you enjoyed it :3 Especially cos it's my most hated project and seeing it on my page kinda haunts me every time I open up itchio xD Hope you end up having even more fun with the rest if you do end up checking them out ^-^
If this is your most hated project i'd like to see what your other stuff is like lol.
I guess I just really wasn't feeling it with this one, so I probably judged it too harshly x3 It's like I knew in my head how I wanted to make it, but I A: Didn't have enough time in the jam to get it to match my head plans, and B: Just kept getting frustrated that it wasn't coming out the way I hoped >.< haha. I really appreciate that it still gets some downloads despite my personal feelings about it though :3 So cheers for checking it out!
Can i use joiplay to play this game ?
I honestly don't know because I had never heard of joiplay before until I looked it up just now. This game was made in Unity if that's any help at all. It seems like it covers a lot of different things but I'm not sure if Unity is one of them >.<
Oh ok thank for the reply :D
I want to activate into adult option package, but I don't have enough credits :'(
Sorry about that >.< haha. It was actually an option that I was genuinely planning to include within the game! To have the ability to play through in like new game+ or something and choose ELLA's clothing (or lack thereof), haha. Sadly, I just ran out of time during the jam and so instead of becoming an option as originally intended, it wound up being more like a joke feature x3
Amazing game, I loved everything on it <3
That's great to hear! I'm happy you enjoyed it :3 Thanks for taking the time to play and comment + I hope ya have a lovely weekend ahead!
Really nice art, amazing voice acting, and very interesting premise. Well done!
Thanks for taking the time to play + comment :3 Much appreciated and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Would it be possible for you to make an android version?
Hey! Well, it is technically possible, yeah :3 The engine I'm using has the ability to export for android... buuuut, the last time I tried to do that as a test with the old engine I was using, I couldn't get it to work >.< Android Studio just seems so complicated to me, and even when reading guides, I still have no idea what I'm doing :( With this being such a short game though, I guess I could look into it and see if it's any easier to do with the new engine! I'm not sure when I'll have the time to experiment, but if I manage to do it, I'll upload it here and drop you a comment to let ya know!
Is this NaniNovel?
I've gotten six endings so far. I don't know if I'd be able to figure out how to get the seventh.
If you can't manage to find the one you're missing, I don't mind creating a little guide to stick up on the game page if that would help :3
That sounds like a good idea. I'd tell you which endings I have, but I don't think I'd be able to do that without giving too big of a spoiler.
Yeah, it probably would be a bit too spoilery to post here, haha. I'll see if I can make a little walkthrough when I get a chance! That way anyone can take a look at that if they're missing something. If I end up taking too long to get the guide up, feel free to email me for help and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction :3
I already forgotten how I played the game and I'm not interested in replaying it, but thanks for the guide.
It is, yeah :D I was lucky enough to manage to get it in a 75% off sale! There's no way I could afford it at full price. It was still kinda dear with the discount >.< but I much prefer it to Tyrano :3
Hi! I'm enjoying the introduction, but that is unfortunately the only part I've been able to access. After choosing the type of voice, the VN does not advance at all. Clicking moves nothing forward, the game can't be saved, and I found that menu options weren't really working. This happened no matter which voice I chose. I'm on Windows 10. Any ideas?
Hey hey! Thanks for checking out the game :3 Yeah, unfortunately, there's a rather long load time after selecting a voice for ELLA >.< There's no loading screen, so it just looks like the game has frozen. Basically, the introduction part of the game is in one short script, and then the entire rest of the game is loaded upon the player picking a voice. If you just give it maybe 30 seconds (I guess it might depend on your system specs, for me, it's between 10-15 secs it takes to load) and then you should be able to advance either by clicking, or it should just automatically start playing the next voice line.
I actually meant to include that info on the main page because it was quite apparent during testing that there's such a long load time there, but I forgot to mention it >.< so cheers for the reminder there! I shall add the info to the page later. Hopefully, if you wait long enough, it should proceed for you :3 Please let me know if it doesn't work for you still though and I'll look into it when I get a chance. Thanks again for playing + have a lovely weekend!
Once I employed more patience than that of your average gnat, the game worked fine and I greatly enjoyed it. Thank you!
Ahh, haha x3 Well, I'm really glad it worked alright for you in the end and that you enjoyed it! I was a little afraid that something might have gone wrong with the jump to loading the rest of the game, so it's great to know that's not the case :D Thank you very much for playing!
I LOVE your works and I'm sure this one will be no exception! Can't wait to see how you wow me this time!
Aww, thank you so much :3 I have a terrible feeling you could be disappointed with this one >.< haha. It's nowhere near the standard I'd like it to be, sadly. It's possible I'll come back to it at some point to try and make improvements, but my priority at the moment is getting it to a playable state asap before too much time passes since I've already missed the jam submission deadline.
Thanks for the support! It's much appreciated :D
Dose the MC have a gender?
Nope! I've left MC's gender unspecified in case players want to self-insert :3 MC is just referred to as 'you' by ELLA. I had planned to release 2 versions. The ELLA version features a female synthetic companion. With any luck, the version with a male synthetic won't be too far behind, but it's likely to come without voice acting, whereas the ELLA version is voiced.
I looove yandere works, I'm looking forward to playing this!
Glad to hear it! I can only apologise in advance that I personally don't think this is at the same standard as my other stuff >.< but hopefully, someone will still get some enjoyment out of it :3
Well hey, there's always the next one, yeah?
True, true! I think I'm gonna take a break from jams for a while because I keep exhausting myself over them + I need to actually get more work done on my main projects, haha. If I have time, I might go for another in October or possibly Christmas again. I do have some other ideas for future Valentine's jams too :3
I'm almost finished with the ELLA version, so I'm hoping to release that sometime over the weekend (possibly late Sunday night, but may end up being Monday night instead)! I don't hate it as much as I thought I would, but I'm still not particularly proud of it either, haha. It may not have worked out how I would have liked, but I learned some new stuff at least!