But I love you was a Visual Novel-style game developed by independent gaming company Novella Gaming. Greenlit by Steam Greenlight, then crowdfunded through Kickstarter; over a 45 day period, the developers raised $43,682 for development purposes. However, the last developer communication on Kickstarter was May of 2016, making it a possible case of Vaporware.
The game centred around the currently-nameless player character, a young man or woman currently going travelling to escape from a stressful home life, who experiences a car breakdown and arrives in a mysterious town called Keresberg. Once there, s/he begins to explore, meeting several cute girls who all seem, albeit to varying degrees depending on playstyle, friendly, helpful and affectionate. Early on, the game takes the form of a Dating Sim, allowing the player to spend time scoring with the ladies they’re interested in, each girl providing a different niche to fill.
However, before long the girls begin to get clingy, wanting the player to stay in the town with them — probably just one of them, but who knows? — forever; alarm bells begin to go off in the player’s head, telling him/her that there’s something very wrong with the girls — with the entire town, actually — and that they have likely stumbled into a very dangerous situation. Where they go from there — try to escape or stick around and keep courting — is all down to the player. If they do decide to take their chances and try to fight their way out, the gameplay shifts towards puzzles and and the overall tone of the game towards Survival Horror.
An official demo for the game was released on January 17th 2016 and can be found here
. However, the 'preorder' page linked there is long since gone, along with any sign of the developer.
But I love you. provides examples of the following tropes:
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Blonde Emma, Brunette Ryanne and Redhead Vivian. Alison has black hair; Leila’s appears to be a dark shade of blue.
- Cool People Rebel Against Authority: Leila, who dresses in punk/gothic style, and strenuously rejects any attempts to by anyone to tell her what to do.
- Dandere: Vivian is a downplayed version of this, appearing aloof and disinterested but still friendly and helpful as long as you stay on her good side.
- Dating Sim: For the first portion of the game, the player wanders around town, spending time with the ladies. A Genre Shift occurs later on, unless they choose to ignore the warning-signs that something is wrong to keep courting.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: Emma wears a lovely old-fashioned pink gown.
- Ghost Town: Keresberg appears deserted at first, before the player starts meeting people, though it better resembles a Ghost City. It may be of the haunted variety as well.
- Girlish Pigtails: Ryanne has a pair of big long pigtails to emphasise her youthful nature. Emma displays her comparative maturity with a pair of braids.
- Headache of Doom: When talking to her in the demo, Vivian admits the town’s emptiness is unusual, and begins to admit she can’t remember very much before the protagonist arrived, before suddenly getting hit with a horrible headache. A short time later, she admits these headaches happen a lot. What exactly it means is a mystery.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Keresberg does not sound like a happy sort of town if you know your Greek mythology. The Keres were female personifications of violent death.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: Emma has an unfortunate appreciation for bad jokes.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Despite herself, Leila will apologise if she goes too far with a prank or ends up offending the player character.
- Ms. Fanservice: All the girls are cute and attractive in their own way, but Vivian seems to be the designated "hot" girl. You can only see a little of it from her sprite, but exposed midriffs has the desired effect. Her breasts are at least a cup size larger than those of the others.
- Nice Girl: Ryanne is unambiguously friendly and helpful; the only way to turn her off is to be deliberately mean to her.
- Not So Above It All: As it turns out, Vivian is just as capable of being affectionate, loving and kind as the others; she just isn’t comfortable talking about it, or being seen doing it.
- Ojou: Emma is designed with this archetype in mind, resembling a princess, living in an exquisitely decorated inn, and enjoying pastimes like tea parties and playing the piano.
- Pastimes Prove Personality: The high-class but kindly Emma enjoys singing and playing piano; the childish and playful Ryanne hangs out at the playground; the rebellious, in-your-face Leila enjoys the energetic sport parkour (but isn’t good at it) and playing pranks on others; the solitary, nervous but intelligent Alison is a sketchbook-owning graffiti artist and gardening enthusiast; Vivian, the efficient, professional neatfreak, enjoys cooking and has a "hobby" of putting things back in place or arranging them in a pleasing manner.
- Pink Means Feminine: Emma is the most traditionally feminine of the girls, and wears a big pink dress. Pink also appears as a recurring color in her inn.
- Survival Horror: After the Genre Shift should the player choose to listen to their instincts, the gameplay shifts to this, with an emphasis on timed puzzles and scavenger hunts.
- Tsundere: Leila appears to be the argumentative but flirty kind; Vivian is the grumpy but occasionally affectionate variety.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: It seems the player will get the opportunity to be rude, unpleasant, confrontational and unappreciative from time to time. Such behaviour will prompt an appropriate response.
- Visual Pun: The logo features a human heart in place of the "o" in "love", reflecting how the game straddles two seemingly incompatible genres.
- Woman Child: Ryanne is this trope. She looks like a child, acts like a schoolgirl and her exact age is left ambiguous. She has a flatter chest than the other girls and wears t-shirts, short short-overalls and her hair in a pair of Girlish Pigtails. She is also the most innocent character the player meets (for the dating portion of the game, anyway) and the most helpful and friendly.
- Yandere: No one starts out like this. The point where the girls begin to act like this is what tips the player character off that something is wrong.
- And if this concept art is any indication, things will go very badly for the player if they fail to escape from Keresberg during the Survival Horror portion.
- And if this
