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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/coot15menu.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350: On the left (from left to right) are [[FagHag Penny]], [[IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship Ian]], and [[HelloInsertNameHere Mark]], with five of the main love interests on the right. In order from bottom to top: [[BigBeautifulMan Amos]], [[TeacherStudentRomance Alex]], [[DefrostingIceQueen Phil]], [[ManlyGay Brad]], [[LovableSexManiac Jed]].]]

A visual novel game by [[http://obscurasoft.com/ Obscura]]. The protagonist is [[HelloInsertNameHere Mark Matthews]], an undergraduate student in Orlin, who is about to come out to his roommates and best friends. You get to play out the final semester of his senior year in college. There are five main guys that Mark can have a romance with. Each guy has their own route/story that the player can have Mark pursue, with a combined total of over 200 choices for the player to make.

It was released December 10th, 2014. The demo can be found [[http://obscurasoft.com/demo-18-only/ here]]

The game can be found [[http://store.steampowered.com/app/642090/Coming_Out_on_Top/ on Steam]].

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!!This visual novel features examples of:

* AllGaysArePromiscuous:
** Every guy has an option for a sex scene early on in their route, and each of them is enthusiastic for it. However, with the exception of [[LovableSexManiac Jed]], taking this early sex scene will actually ruin your chance to get their romantic ending, thus subverting the "all" in the title.
** Deconstructed when Ian tries to play wingman for Mark at a gay bar and goes comically overboard in the name of finding just the right guy to the point where he and Mark are practically run out. When he justifies this by saying he knows Mark well enough to know he averts this trope, Mark becomes incredulous at the idea that there's absolutely no middle-ground between this and CantHaveSexEver.
* AManIsAlwaysEager: Averted if Mark wants the good endings in most of the routes.
** Played straight with both [[spoiler:Mark]] and [[spoiler:Jed]] in [[spoiler:Jed]]'s route.
* ArtShift: Typical of a visual novel/dating-sim. There are different artists for the sprite art and the [=CGs=], which understandably causes this shift in art style.
* AsYouKnow: Mark before his coming out, describing the close friendship between Ian, Penny and himself.
* AuthorFilibuster: Your date with Jake will literally grind to a halt when the elevator you're on gets stuck. Jake will then go on a long, long speech about the virtues of polyamory and open relationships.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: At least with Alex and Graham.
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Graham]] in Alex's route.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Beau is super protective of Brad.
* BlandNameProduct: If Mark refuses to go to local gay bar after coming out to his roommates, Penny will ask him to watch a vampire action movie "Dusklight"...
* BookEnds: Mark told himself at the beginning of the game not to throw up before coming out to his roommates. [[spoiler:If you get Ian's full ending, Mark will tell himself again not to throw up on his and Ian's wedding.]]
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Mark in the demo, whenever you are about to abort the story with a quick death bad ending.
** Also in the game, when Mark tries to avoid coming out to Penny and Ian in the beginning.
** The '''about''' part having Mark, Penny and Ian talk to the player and each other about the game.
* BrokenPedestal: Edwina for Graham.
%%* ButIWouldReallyEnjoyIt: Both Mark and Alex.
%%* CasanovaWannabe: Ian.
* CatchPhrase: ''Zoologists don't only clean cages!''
--> Mostly.
* CharacterCustomization: A minor example. You can toggle beards and body hair for both Mark and his love interests. However, Phil, being in the military, will only grow his later in the story.
* ChekhovsGun: Campus Mapper was mentioned as Penny's earlier project that kept sending its beta tester into traffic. [[spoiler:In Alex's route she used the app to locate where Edwina went.]]
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Penny's cousins.
** Penny and Ian also have their fair share of quirks.
** Mark when you go to the weird route when dating Amos.
* ComingOutStory: Mark's. As well as [[spoiler: Brad's and Ian's]] in their respective routes.
* CondescendingCompassion: Averted. The friends immediately act naturally around Mark. They start coddling him only when they think he is unhealthily obsessed with his professor [[spoiler: or the secret romance partner]].
* CuttingOffTheBranches: Sort of. [[spoiler: To reach the best ending of any route, you have to commit to one person and stop seeing any other guys.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: An option; Mark will also often snark in his scripted dialog.
* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler: Despite being on his high school's water polo team, Mark can drown to death.]] See NonstandardGameOver below.
%%* DefrostingIceQueen: Philbert.
* DiggingYourselfDeeper: Ian explaining how he means he didn't expect Mark being asked out so soon.
* DistractedByTheSexy: Poor Mark can get distracted in just about every route by all the hunks around him.
** Some of those hunks will get distracted by Mark, too.
* DramaticIrony:
** Alex strugglingly resists Mark for the sake of his career. Guess what will be about to ruin his career. Double twist: the charges aren't far from his feelings and desires.
** Phil wants to swim-train with Mark because Mark is a strong, long-time swimmer. [[spoiler: It's possible for Mark to drown.]]
* DoubleEntendre:
** The title.
** "You can't imagine how ''hard'' it is to have you as my professor..."
** Penny is good at these, when kidding with Mark.
* DreamSequence: A rather explicit one involving Alex, if Mark doesn't rebuff him.
** Brad received one of these in a later update of his route.
* DumbassHasAPoint: [[spoiler: Following Ian's seemingly-ridiculous advice on how to behave at the fundraising event is the only way to impress the wealthy donators, which is the only way to unlock Phil's route.]]
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
* EmbarrassingFirstName:
** If you introduce yourself as Philbert.
** Penny's cousin/possible love interest is named Philbert, but he says that he goes by "Phil" now. [[spoiler: At the end of his path, he lightens up and doesn't mind being called Philbert again.]]
* EmbarrassingNickname: Mark earned "the Spanish Armada" from his Water Polo days.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Graham's when he steps onto Mark's foot and berates him for standing in his way. Not to mention his raging in the phone, [[spoiler: probably to Edwina.]]
** The first time you meet Jed, he is stark naked.
** The first time you meet Brad, he is passed out on his bedroom floor and surrounded by empty beer bottles.
** The first time you meet Amos, he recites a Creator/WaltWhitman poem to scare a creep harassing Mark.
* {{Fanservice}}: There are plenty of pics of hot shirtless guys here...
** Sometimes these pics go far beyond shirtless...
* {{Foreshadowing}}: The early conversation with Zoe about how much Ian likes toys, particularly dildos. Anyone who's missed the WordOfGod or InterfaceSpoiler about Ian being a potential love interest will probably be clued in by this.
* {{Frameup}}
* FreudianTrio: Can be with the conscientious Alex, the down-to-earth Ian, the dirty-minded Penny, and Mark struggling between them.
* GagPenis:
** Brad is ''very'' well endowed, so much that Mark is both exited ''and'' panicked because of it during their intercourse, to the point of ''immediately'' showing Brad where his lube is, and telling him to use the whole bottle if he has to.
** Your date with Tommy also has this.
* GayGuySeeksPopularJock: Brad, the star quarterback for his college's top football team, is a romance interest for Mark, if you play your cards right.
* {{Gayngst}}:
** Two of the five routes involve homophobia.
** Mark is hinted to have had plenty of it in the past, making the in-game acceptance even more heartwarming.
** Averted [[spoiler: by Ian, who initially freaks out about his feelings for Mark coming to light... but it turns out he's terrified of ruining their friendship, not of being with a man.]]
** Averted [[spoiler: by Brad. He's in the closet and lives in a typical frat environment, but he makes no attempt at denial and the challenge in romancing him centers around keeping his grades up while not angering his brother.]]
* GeekyTurnOn: ''Can you code in assembly language? Have a seat, mister.''
** Just watch what happens when Mark wins the trivia contest in Phil's route.
* TheGenericGuy: The brown-haired, StraightGay, average-named, BoyNextDoor personality Mark, with typical problems given his situation, also the OnlySaneMan in his crazy environment.
* GoodIsNotNice: In Phil's route [[spoiler: you have to make a young woman cry in order to stop her from running off with some guys at a club.]]
* GoodLookingPrivates: Phil is a Marine AND a love interest.
* GroupHug: Mark, Ian and Penny when celebrating their graduation.
* GymBunny: Working out is important to earn the crucial moments [[spoiler: of Alex's route.]]
* HellIsThatNoise: Mark, Ian and Penny are disturbed by a loud noise, of which Mark compares to a sonic boom and Penny and Ian to Godzilla being fisted by King Kong, which repeats a few times. You'll have the option to go deal with the issue yourself, starting your path with [[spoiler: Jed, who'll be naked]]. Later on in the path the noise will appear again, twice, the first time leading to your friends sending you back to stop the noise and the second at [[spoiler:Jed's concert where we learn it's his actually his keyboard making the noise]]. Still, that doesn't make the sudden, loud noise any less surprising when you first hear it.
* HiddenDepths: Ian and Penny act crazy and flippant, but they prove to be deeply trustworthy and caring friends for Mark, even acting as his therapists when necessary.
%%* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Edwina.
%%** Violet.
* [[{{Hunk}} Hunks]]: This IS a gay dating sim, after all! And what a variety you get!
* IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn: Alex showing his bruise shirtless in the locker room.
* IncompatibleOrientation: The game provides a few scenes of girls trying to hook up with men they can never have.
* InterfaceSpoiler:
** Ian is ostensibly straight when first introduced, but he's also grouped in with the other love interests on the title screen during earlier versions. He's grouped with Mark and Penny when Amos is available.
** The secret joke romance is [[spoiler: also on the title screen.]]
* InterruptedIntimacy: Can happen in Phil's route [[spoiler: if Mark wins the trivia contest and has sex with Phil on the couch.]]
* IntimateHealing: Watch how fast Alex recovers from his crippling bruise after being touched by Mark.
* InsaneTrollLogic: Ian, flirting with a teenager, because she had a belly tattoo, and "you have to be in your twenties to know that band". To quote a fan criticism: [[http://das-sporking.livejournal.com/89817.html#cutid1 since nobody ever listens to any music outside of the years they were born, right? Right.]]
* {{Jerkass}}: Graham and Phil's fellow marines.
* KickTheDog: At the first time we see Graham, he steps onto Mark's foot and scolds him for standing in his way.
* LemonyNarrator: In a hilarious fashion. [[spoiler: In Jed's route, during his competition, a fight between a rich elderly couple and Jed's bandmates escalates and breaks out among the crowd...]]
-->'''Security Officer''': "NEXT PERSON TO THROW A CHAIR IS GETTING TAZED!"
-->'''Narrator''': Everybody calms the fuck down.
* LiteralMinded:
--> How can I be on two places at one time? How do you mean I should research cloning techniques? How do you mean calm down, it's only a joke?!
* LiterallyLovingThyNeighbor: Jed lives in the apartment above Mark, so pursuing Jed could be considered this.
* LoverAndBeloved: Alex and Mark in Alex's route. [[spoiler: Moreover, he is Mark's '''professor'''.]]
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: Graham behind Edwina.]]
* ManlyGay: Alex, especially at sports. [[spoiler: And he doesn't like camp cocktails.]]
* TheMatchmaker: Penny loves forcing her cousins (or online dating sites) onto Mark.
* MistakenForRacist: Mark... does not make a good first impression with Phil thanks to this.
* MinorFlawMajorBreakup: If you choose Mark to confesses to Amos --after Amos admits that he's into erotic wrestling-- that he loves canned meat, Amos will immediately break up with Mark.
* ModularEpilogue: You always get some, especially if you managed to get a GoodEnding.
* MultipleEndings: There are multiple endings for each of the five routes, with multiple variations within those endings. Hell, there are even multiple endings for the joke secret route.
** Exaggerated with Amos' route, which has four different endings depending on your behavior with him (romantic, sexual, weird, or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential mean]]).
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone:
** [[spoiler: Edwina]] when Mark confronts her.
** Alex has a ''my god, what am I doing'' moment.
* NakedFirstImpression: Jed on both Penny and Mark.
* NoFairCheating: At least the game makes it complicated to derail the standard flow of the story.
* NonstandardGameOver: Normally, if you trigger a [[EventFlag death flag]] that ends a route or relationship, the game just continues on to the end of the semester, so that you will at least get some sort of ending. But there are several exceptions:
** In Jed's route, [[spoiler:if you say "fuck the police" after getting arrested, the police will kill you.]]
** In Brad's route, attempting to intimidate Roman when he greets you gives a game over after he punches you.
** Also in Brad's route, trying to expose the Daisy's "tutoring" operation [[spoiler: leads someone dressed as the school mascot, Otto, to murder you.]]
** In Phil's route, [[spoiler: if you refuse to cooperate during a particular hallucination, you will drown]].
** On the Brofinder date with Jake, jumping up and down in the elevator leads to your death.
** In the secret romance route, [[spoiler: if you do things 'wrong,' the secret romance partner will show up at your door and shoot you dead]].
* NotSoAboveItAll:
** Mark is not a piece of meat. Until hearing about Philbert's body tempts him as much as his personality can't.
** Also this:
--> '''Edwina''': What have I become? Spying and taking picture of shirtless guys...\\
''You shot a glance at Penny.''
* NotWhatItLooksLike: The photo, as a [[spoiler: proof of romantic student/professor relations. Though Graham's former attempt to accuse Alex was called off for insufficient evidence, this time a mere '''suggestion''' of the picture is treated as a proof.]]
* OldMaid: Subverted. Alex is mentioned to be older than Mark several times, but it doesn't make him less attractive. You can [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential turn him down saying he is too old for you]], though.
* OnlySaneMan: Mark with his crazy roommates.
* OptionalSexualEncounter: With [[spoiler: Jed, right during his introduction]].
* PeerlessLoveInterest: Ian and Penny deem Alex to be this for Mark.
* PrivateTutor: Mark is hired as one for Brad, who is failing his literature class. He also teaches ESL kids, and can do so during the weekends for extra cash.
* RefusalOfTheCall: You HAVE to come out to your friends in the beginning, otherwise the game won't proceed. [[BreakingTheFourthWall Mark will personally take the player off to the side]] and berate them for not letting him get on with his life.
* RelationshipValues:
** Alex: Displaying [[spoiler: maturity, kindness, confidence, keeping fit, keeping up with him at raquetball, even ordering the right kind of drink at the bar]] visibly raises Alex' sympathy and interest in you.
** Brad: If you want his good ending, [[spoiler: you cannot help him cheat.]]
** Don't rush things with [[spoiler: Phil or Ian in their routes.]]
* RescueRomance:
** Save [[spoiler:Alex's career]] to have him.
** Depending on your choices, [[spoiler: Phil's path involves him saving Mark from drowning.]]
** [[spoiler: Convince Jed's band to keep together and not sell-out]] to win him over.
** For Brad's happy ending, you have to [[spoiler: help him pass his English class and finish his essays.]]
* RelationshipRevolvingDoor: Ian and Zoe, until the beginning of the game.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Ian and Mark receive this in Ian's good ending.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Mark can play this straight when meeting Brad, refusing to write his papers for him. On the other hand, he can also say "Screw the rules, I want money!"
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Mark can pull this at several occasions, possibly missing out on some love interests as he does so.
* SecondPersonNarration
* SecretTestOfCharacter:
** You can do this to Alex by [[spoiler: tempting him to a secret affair.]]
** It is impossible to get the "good" endings for some of the character routes if you sleep with them too early on.
** [[spoiler: Whether or not Mark chooses to help Brad cheat in his English class]] will determine Brad's ending.
* ShirtlessScene: All over the place.
* ShownTheirWork: Phil mentions that Recon selection starts with a brutal swim test many candidates flunk out of immediately, which is accurate. His path involves joining him on the swim-training he's doing to prepare for it.
%%* ShrinkingViolet: Edwina.
* SlidingScaleOfBeauty: Alex is on the world class level (''looks like an underwear model'').
* SmugSnake: Graham. [[spoiler: He can't even comprehend that Mark is able to ruin his career.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: It feels a little uncomfortable to make Mark push Alex's boundaries, ignore his repeated, clearer than clear ''no, never, ever'' and still ask for some more closure, and sometimes being intrusively helpful to get a happy ending. Not to mention his pathetic obsession throughout the semester. Alex sneaking up behind Mark at the bar, while Mark was visibly avoiding eye contact with anyone, didn't come out well either.
** Intrusiveness, which often makes a character antipathic even if done with the best intentions, is often rewarded with the good endings. [[spoiler: Like harassing Jed's bandmates to take him back or showing up at Zoe's doorstep, or Mark showing up at Brad's doorstep to make sure Brad writes his essay.]]
* StalkerWithoutACrush:
** Edwina.
** Ian and Penny have a hobby stalking device.
* TeacherStudentRomance: Optional in [[spoiler: Alex's]] route.
* ThisIsReality: After you try to hit [[spoiler: Phil's bullies: ''Life is not a video game, kid.]]
* TooMuchInformation: Mark's dream for Ian.
* TransparentCloset: One of the [[spoiler: homophobic Marines that Mark has to deal with in Phil's path]] is obviously gay. He can be called out on how vividly, erotically detailed his "you're such a sicko I bet you're imagining having sex with me right now" insults are.
* TrueCompanions: Penny and Ian, for Mark.
* TokenMinority: Phil is black, Jed is Asian.
* UnresolvedSexualTension: In almost every route.
* UnusualEuphemism: Self-love, for masturbation.
* UnwittingPawn: Edwina.
* VitriolicBestBuds: Penny, Ian and Mark, mutually.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Ian frequently has his shirt off at home.
** Jed. Just... Jed.
* WideEyedIdealist: Alex admits he is naive and unfit for political stratagems.
* WineIsClassy: You get a few extra Alex relationship points for [[spoiler:ordering wine in the bar. And Alex likes maturity. Though he approves of whiskey more.]]
* WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame: You have the option to go to Charlie's, the only gay bar in Orlin, twice. First with Penny inviting you to celebrate on coming out and where you'll meet Alex, and second with Ian acting as your wingman and where you'll meet Amos.
* [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield Where in the World is Orlin?]]: Given with Mark's ringtone, the beach background in some routes, and the liberal climate, it could be somewhere in southern California.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: See TransparentCloset above. It's also implied [[spoiler: the ''other'' homophobic Marine may be the same.]]
* YourMom: Mark's riposte to Ian's prying, corrected to [[IncompatibleOrientation "your dad"]].
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