Friendship Test
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
What's the story?
Friendship Test is a game about a robot (or Program) who goes on a journey travelling a mysterious laboratory, where they'll meet different programs in need of help (and friendship). FriendProgram was built to be a perfect friend, but is that what they want to be? Is it wrong to not want to?
What's the gameplay?
Friendship Test is a RPG Maker game without any typical RPG fights. The game does include 'battles', but they only require you to figure out what to say to your adversary, to convince them not to kill you. How nice of them.
The game includes very few puzzles too, it is a heavily story focused game, if you are looking for a more gameplay-focused videogame this might not the one for you. Thanks for reading anyway, friend!
What's the game about?
Friendship Test explores different relationships and how it affects different people. The difficulties, challenges and complexities of connections.
However as the story develops, Friendship Test primarely focuses on the topic of lovelessness.
-There are multiple characters in the aro spectrum: from romance repulsed to romance favorable, from parterning aros to aros that prefer to not have any partner, among many others. The game focuses on many other aspec identities like asexuality, aplatonicism, etc.
-Other LGBTQIA+ characters are included in the story as well.
-While aspec themes are a big part of the story, neurodivergency plays an important part on the narrative and characters as well.
Is the game fun even if I don't know much about a-spec stuff or the concept of lovelessness?
I hope my game is fun overall! But yes, you do not need to have in-depth knowledge about the topics discussed in the game, as the story keeps in mind there are people that might have never heard/don't know much about these identities. Hopefully my game can even help more people find out or understand different aspec identities better!
"I have played the demo recently, do I have to start the game from the beginning again?"
The game allows you to skip the Prologue and Act 1 and start directly after the events of the demo. Replaying the beginning of the game is not necessary and nothing new has been added, only a couple of songs have been changed.
How long is the game?
10+/20+ hours long.
Visual Warnings:
-Interacting with the game with your mouse creates flashing boxes when you click on a character, object or tile. It's adviced to play with your keyboard or controller if you wish to avoid this.
-When navigating through the menu or choosing a dialogue, there is a flickering light that highlights which text you are currently positioned in. Should not cause too much trouble, but a warning just in case doesn't hurt.
-There is an issue on characters with multiple text box sprites, as they flicker for a second on occasions.
-There is a running option, so it can show some fast movements on the screen.
-Numerous scenes include a shakey camera effect.
-There are some scenes with dark backgrounds and brighter colors to make objects and characters pop up more, which may cause eyestrain for some.
Overall Content Warnings:
The game deals with some heavy topics from time to time, warnings will be provided in-game and it's meant to be handled as tactfully as possible, nothing too triggering will be shown on screen.
Here is a list of all the possible triggers:
-Death and murder
-Ableism
-Aphobia
-Emotional abuse and implied physical abuse
-Animal experimentation and animal abuse
-Unreality, dissociation, derealization and depersonalization
-Disturbing imagery
-Eye contact
-Moments of tension, life threatening situations
-Discussions of OCD
-One scene can be perceived as self-harm, even if that is not the intention. The scene is cut off and the character is not harmed, but there is a moment where they
try to press a specific button in their armor
with a sharp pointy object.
-Self harming behaviour is a recurring theme of one character in particular
-Suicide
The topic of suicide is heavily implied in one event of a character's past, and it's implied later on the character (and another one) still suffers from suicidal thoughts. However, it is kept very brief. The story does not show a suicide on-screen and does not discuss suicide on-depth.
Viewer discretion is adviced. The game let's you skip dialogue and fast forward scenes if you hold down the (X) key on your keyboard or hold left click on your mouse.
Music
This is a project made out of fun and passion. While I am able to draw (maybe not great, but I draw) and I was able to program a videogame (maybe not great, but it's playable), one talent I lack is making music.
The game includes free-to-use music made by many talented people. I know this is not ideal for many, but it is what it is.
Compatibility
I have only been able to fully test the game in Windows, so there could be problems with the game in other platforms. I wanted to at least upload the files, but again, they might have problems. I'm very sorry for the inconvenience.
If you're not able to play, you can watch a full playthrough of the game in the official Friendship Test youtube channel.
Other issues
English is not my first language, while I believe to have a good level, it might be noticeable sometimes that this was written by someone whose first language isn't English.
While the game has been playtested a great amount of times, it's always possible there can be a couple of typos, as I am only one person (+ a friend of mine when she was able to playtest) working on this game. Don't be shy to let me know about any typo or error, it will be fixed as soon as possible.
Controls
-For keyboard:
Move around with arrows.
“Z” or “Enter” to interact with objects or characters.
“X” to open your menu and to fastforward conversations and scenes.
-For mouse:
Click left to interact with objects or characters. Holding left allows you to fastforward conversations and scenes.
Click right to open your menu.
-The game also works with controllers!
But most important of all...
I hope you enjoy the game! Thanks for reading!
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Find Friendship Test in other platforms!
https://www.youtube.com/@Friendship-Test/videos
https://friendship-test.tumblr.com/
https://bsky.app/profile/friendshiptest.bsky.social
Download
Install instructions
For Windows: Extract the files and open 'friendship test.exe' to start playing.
For other platforms, the game executable file is NOT named 'friendship test demo.exe'
Comments
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This is one of the best games I've ever played! I was streaming it to my freinds and voice acting because I stumbled upon an animatic for the game and thought it might be cool and OH MY GOD best decision ever ( This has become one of my Hyperfixations !!! I wish it was more popular so I had more people to yap about it too!!)
My personal playthrough ended up being around 38-39 hours because I was insistent on checking out pretty much EVERYTHING but it was SUCH A GOOD PLAY I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND!!
10/10 story and characters, there's a lot of good banter and personalities and interactions! I could watch the charaters talk back and forth for hours and not get bored, every chatater has interesting perspectives and few that all mingle in fascinating ways!
10/10 Art, the pixel art for the game and overworld is very appealing to me but the scenes and chataters profiles while talking are where the games art direction really shine! Each expression is full of life and emotion, not to mention there's a lot of original ideas and chatater designs!
10/10 inclusion! I'm pansexual and a Demi-girl myself, and I'm very aware of lots of diffrent identities, but this game taught me about new views I didn't even know about! It was so cool! I love learning about others and new ways other express themselves so it was such a interesting look into other representation!
There are a few typos through out the game but nothing particularly bad, and the game is still very understandable, and it doesn't take away from anything, I would also suggested playing with always run on, as the charaters base walking speed felt slow to me? But the always sprint mode definitely fixed that!
The game handled the serious topics it represents in very respectful ways and offers any warnings for any triggering topics, this is one of the most indepth and respectful games Ive ever played.
I recently got the side story and Me and my friends are currently voice acting Exe saves the Holidays and we're having so much fun, We've all really fallen in love with the characters we voice and how they banter, I would definitely recommend checking out that game aswell!
( Friend program is so entertaining to voice, their internal dialog is always so interesting)
( Water bottle sweep!!! Me and all my homes lobe water bottle >v<)
( Exe, is so cool and werid, sighhhh!!!)
I'll leave it at that to avoid any spoilers but I have so much to say about all of the characters!! I'll leave that out of here for now though!
Overall, If your not sure if you want this game you should try it! It's free, has lots of content, a very genuine story, likeable characters, good art and lots of inclusion, trust me it's worth it!
(I made an itch account to review this because the game was so good and I need the world to know)
aw thank you so much!! hahah i love voice acting games with friends, this one has so much dialogue and so many characters that i hope you and your friends had fun!
Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! Comments like these mean a lot to me and making a itch account just to comment on my game is awesome hahah
Have a nice day!
I just finished this game right now and OH MY GOD IT'S SO GOOD.
(Maybe some spoilers ahead? Idk... There shouldn't be.)
The story, the lore, the games, the characters (Waterbottle deserves the W in his name), the designs, the art, it's all SO FREAKING GOOD. I'm also a big fan of robots, so that's definitely a bonus. This game took so long to complete, and it was a freaking EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER. I'm delighted to have discovered this game. I could see the amount of thought put into this game, and it seriously pays off.
I really rarely see games with such heavy queer representation! (Neopronouns, aplatonicism, aromanticism, asexuality, QPRs, lovelessness, familial attraction, etc...) And it's so GOOD. There are also characters with disabilities.
I love (no pun intended) how this game represents being aplatonic (I actually realized I might be aplatonic myself from this game! Though nothing confirmed yet. I know so far I'm demiplatonic, but that's a whole entire other conversation). I'm generally on the aspec spectrum (and I'm neurodivergent), and this game made me feel so seen. This is a one-of-a-kind media. I'd recommend this to anyone.
The only annoying part was how long the hallways were (and the character moves so slow-) and there were confusing layouts of some areas (I wish I had gotten to see all the extra lore and stuff) :( And sometimes you had barely any direction on where to go.
I would also say one pet peeve would be how being aplatonic is handled as "corruption" or "being made wrong", so it's as if something is inherently wrong about being aspec. This feels like it was never addressed, though I could have missed something.
(Though no hate, just saying so others know.)
But otherwise, this game is probably one of my favorites that I have ever played, and it has been so influential on me. I wish to create a game like this someday, and I'm thinking of getting into a bit of game development because of this game. I absolutely loved everything about it. I'll definitely be recommending this to others!
Thanks a lot!! Happy you liked it so much and you saw yourself in it! Always happy to see my game could help people understand themselves better
(WB uses they/them prounous, remember!)
(also, 'familial attraction' im guessing this comment means the game discusses being afamilial, as in, not feeling familial love or wanting familial bonds, NOT inc*st. Sorry i just worry about weird people believing this game includes inc*st or something -it does NOT- because unfortunetely i have seen people misinterpret what being afamilial means before. Weird people go away.)
Oh, yeah, I agree about the long hallways hahah. This was a test game after all, so I really did not understand that a room looks smaller when I'm making it than when I play it hahah. This is a mistake I hope to have fixed in my future games, the rooms are defintely smaller in the ones I'm currently making. And yeah, direction is confusing sometimes. Criticism is welcomed so thanks for sharing!
(Spoiler talk) Oh, no, the corruption has nothing to do with the aspec identity! FP was aplatonic before being corrupted, corruption has more to do with bad mental health, that's the metaphor. Corruption is not really a bad thing at all either, it just gets demonized. FP changing colors is about their mental health improving, but having bad mental health is okay, Knife is corrupted too (and xe is also not aplatonic for example) and xe remains corrupted even post game. FP wasn't "made wrong", they were just borned this way, like if a human was aplatonic, the old organisms are the ones that FRAME it as "being built wrong". This is an insecurity FP has throughout the whole journey, that maybe this is just something built wrong that someone could fix, that they were not "built for this world", but of course that's not the truth. It's not something you can "fix" or "reboot", it's just who they are. It's robot metaphors meant to reflect real human experiences, some that I have personally gone through. Sorry if this wasn't made super clear! I trusted the story made it clear enough but of course it can be possible to misinterpret it, so, sorry about that! This was never the intention of the story at all. Either way, no worries, thanks for sharing your worries about the themes, I'm glad to clear it up in case anyone else ends up misinterpreting this part
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it and good luck with your own projects!
Thank you for responding!!
(Oh nooo I'm so sorry WB!! I didn't realize they used they/them pronouns! D: I should have checked beforehand.)
Yes, I meant as in being afamilial, the term familial attraction is kinda weird-sounding. Yeah, there are negative numbers of inc*st in this game.
Thank you so much for the clarification! I'm glad that wasn't the intention (and I thought it wasn't/shouldn't be that way). What threw me off was "Who cares you're corrupted?" because I know people say "Even if you're aspec, we still care about you". And I know some people use "corruption" in robot metaphors to refer to being aspec even in the best intentions. I probably just didn't get that what the others said wasn't supposed to be true/literal/whatnot, though at least this is for others who also didn't get it, lmao. Thank you for clearing this up!
Raaagh omg thank you! Good luck with your projects as well! I'll try to check out the next games you're making (if I can)! :)
(I'm so sorry for being so awkward, I truly meant the best intentions for everything I said!)
Hahah it was important to show that it's OKAY to be corrupted, not as in 'even if', but as in 'its okay'. Unrelated to being aspec, but more to do with metaphors about mental health like I said.
but no worries!
Right, I like that a lot. It's okay to have bad mental health :>
I just finished this game and I absolutely adored the writing and care put into the story. I can't really put into words how much I really enjoyed the entirety of Friendship Test. The characters were so well-written and the ending of the game was so satisfying.
I have to ask, is there anyway to tip/donate to you? I find it crazy that this was a free game but I understand if there were reasons for doing that. I'd love to support you either way!
Keep being you and keep up the fantastic work!! :]
Thank you so so much! I'm happy you enjoyed the game! :D
I have a Kofi but I'm currently finding a better way to handle all the Paypal stuff (i'm very new and dumb with this lol) but once it's ready I will share my Kofi on my socials, included the Friendship Test accounts. The FT dlc will be $1,30 and my next games will be paid as well, but yes I thought it was for the best for this one to be free. Thank you for wanting to support my work! :)
this game is really really fucking good im gonna be running around in my head in circles about it for ages. thank you so much for creating it.
Thank YOU for playing!! :D
yo there are spoilers in this comment
I'm not sure what exactly to say tbh, this game has me speechless. It introduced me to aplatonicism and afamilialism in a very good way. Generally, overall, the game was very enjoyable. I especially love the world it takes place in! (lord knows i'd kill for a short epilogue detailing their efforts to reform society and post-reformation).
I would've loved to see Off & FriendProgram meet so they can both find someone they relate to. the scene where FriendProgram wakes up WaterBottle by acting very out of character and WaterBottle's overall bluntless (mostly in the library test) was hilarious imo. Spark's TTS is very cool.
uh here's a list of typos since you said to not be shy about letting you know and i'm a pedantic nerd:
Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it :D And thanks for letting me know about the typos, i really need to sit down and fix all of them one of these days
This game means everything to me. So many characters make me feel seen in a way most media doesn't. The artstyle is adorable and appealing, the writing is witty and creative. Definitely a singular experience, and I highly recommend it. Please play it. You will not regret.
Thank you so much! I'm happy you enjoyed it :D
I've already sang my praises about this game on other platforms but since I made an actual itch.io account, I figured I should say something here too.
Truly this game is one of a kind, and it's completely rewired my brain in the best way. It's given me another perspective to understand relationships from, and made me think a lot about what I personally value in a relationship. I work in a group home for disabled adults while being neurodivergent myself; something that's very emotionally intensive and I've gotta say... the idea of not having to feel the pressure to love everything is... kind of nice, actually? (Which could mean nothing. I do love in other contexts - sometimes to the point it hurts - but that's beside the point.)
Also, the game explores other topics such as abuse and OCD from an angle that I really don't see explored much in media - *especially* when it comes to its depiction of OCD.
All the characters are memorable and the writing in general is phenomenal; even on repeat playthroughs there's so many details that only become apparent or meaningful after knowing the whole story. That being said, there's nothing like playing through the game blind and I'm glad I got to experience Friendship Test that way.
In the interest of leaving things spoiler-safe I will just simply say: 'BadFriend' is everything to me and I would do anything for them.
This game means a whole lot to me ngl. I always had a very strong hunch that I was aplatonic but was like never FULLY sure. This game not only confirmed that I was aplatonic, but also loveless. I'm very glad I eventually got around to playing it. Not only did it make me feel more comfortable with my lovelessness, it gave me perspectives on aplatonicism that I might've never otherwise considered. The game is wonderful, and the story reaaally hit home. Thank you for making this game it is truly the game ever :33 (I had a lot to say about this game AAA its so good!!!)
Me and someone I know are very Friendprogram and Waterbottle coded. If you're reading this you know who you are /SILLY
Aw thank you so much! :D I'm glad it left such a big impact on you and that it helped you!
Thanks for playing and heheh awesome FriendProgram pfp :)
Oh hey I wonder who this is :))))))))))
Hi Zilly lol
Fun fact: This is how somebody I know and care for found out both what aplatonicism is and that they were, in fact, aplatonic, I'll be downloading a copy when I get the chance (on data as of writing) but thanks for creating this, hope to see more out of ya in the future!
P.S: How do you get the android version working? Not quite sure how to approach that one.
aw that's great to hear! :)
I know there are tutorials to make rpg maker work on android, i haven't watched them myself but there are a few! I hope that can help
Finished the game in a few night marathon and I have thoroughly enjoyed this
I also now see why said person compared me to Waterbottle so much lol
Heheh thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
I stumbled across this game while complaining about the lack of a-spec (much less for aplatonic characters/discussion!) media and I haven't finished Act 2 yet, but I wanted to leave a comment anyway because I'm really enjoying it so far and, my god, I am so glad this exists. I think I'll be replaying it a while after I finish. Wonderful game
Also, the game tends to freeze mid-dialogue (only during dialogue, it seems) and I have to force close and open it again, is this regular? Thankfully, I save very often, haha
oh that's strange... i haven't seen anyone with this problem. Are you playing on windows? The game works fine on windows but might have problems in other platforms, that might be the issue
I'm playing on Windows, yeah, I thought it might be a problem with my computer itself because it gets extra laggy some days but honestly the game was running smoothly save for just that problem, either way it's only happened maybe three or four times two hours or so into the game
oh that's strange... i'm very sorry!
aw thank you!! hope you enjoy the rest of the game! :)
hello!! i have no idea how to begin this comment because i truly do not have the words to express how much this game meant to me, haha. <3
exactly how the story articulates the theme, i have never seen anyone like me in something like this (and especially never anyone intentionally written to be that way) — but watching friendprogram felt like someone had taken my heart and written right from it. it was indescribably surreal, in the absolute most positive way, to see my experiences so thoughtfully portrayed, in an incredibly creative world but with a heart-wrenching, precise realism. i can say without a doubt that i have never connected with a protagonist more. (i don't want to include spoilers in this comment of course, but in vague words: yellow also happens to be my favorite color, and the scene preceding that moment had me in many tears.) <3
the art style of this game was a constant joy — the character designs are so fun, i adored the art of the talksprites and CGs and the feelings they evoked — as was the humor (the aplatonic and loveless jokes friendprogram would make to themself in their head always had me smiling, and their banter with waterbottle was everything). the gameplay complemented and enhanced the themes perfectly, and i was so excited about how the elements of it changed over time and were used to fit specific unique scenes (the friendship battles, friendprograms' functions to repair others' relationships, etc.). there was such a wonderful harmony of art, writing, and game design, and i enjoyed every second.
i hope this rambling isn't a bother, i'll just end it with this, haha: :') this story has really changed how much hope i have had for my own life. thank you for making this, and for showing that people like us aren't alone in this. i will be thinking about this game for a long time. 💛
Thank you so so much I don't know where to begin, this comment left me with a big smile :D I'm so happy my game meant this much to you. Everything you said was exactly what I wanted to accomplish! I'm glad you saw yourself in this story and in FriendProgram, and that you enjoyed the gameplay and art as well! (I'm always worried about those two cause I don't think they're very good but everyone has been very nice hahah). Long comments are never a bother, they make my day better and give me hope. It's great to see more people like me! I hope you have a wonderful day too, thanks again! :)
hello!!
YOUR GAME IS ABSOLUTE CINEMA, 5/5!!! really enjoyed playing your game!! I even cried at the end, the game is too peak q(≧▽≦q)
really thank you for making it🙏
aw thank you so much!! :) I'm glad you enjoyed it!
hello!!! i just started playing this game (along w/ a friend spectating me), i think it's already got a really nice story and characters!! i will comment once more once i've finished it!!
thank you!! :) I hope you enjoy it!
does mac version even work? i installed it and tried opening the game but all it said was "The application "Game" can't be opened." i wanna play thouughh,,
The game seems to have a lot of trouble working on mac. i'm really sorry!
hi! few months late but i'm a mac player too and i found a way to make it work? you have to download the windows version and follow this reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/RPGMaker/comments/186fmuh/guide_how_to_play_windows_rpg...
unfortunately i don't think save files work properly so you'll probably have to keep the tab open (haven't played much yet so idrk) idk if you're looking for a response but just wanted to share in case!!
edit: been playing around for a bit and i think i found how to make save files work: open developer tools on the browser you're using (f12) and find local storage (for firefox it was under storage), then copy the long text under the key "RPG file 1" (or whatever number) and you can paste it in again when you reopen the tab
you're a lifesaver, thank you so much for the info, hope it works out for mac players!
np!! hopefully it works because i really haven't gotten to play much yet haha
in the linux version jester.png isnt able to be found... plays great otherwise on steamOS!
oh man... so sorry! thanks for letting me know!
oh I didnt know the full game was out! exciting!!!
Hello, I'm here to make known that the game keeps crashing/quitting for no apparent reason after launching it, specifically when I try to start the third act. I'm on MacIOS by the way.
Oh no I'm so sorry. There have been multiple problems with the Mac versions of the game, it seems to have trouble working there. i'm super sorry but thanks for letting me know
Hey, I'm just here to let you know... I left after getting to... pretty much late in the game? Within the school, to be precise, and... my progress got wiped. is that normal, or is the save located somewhere I didn't see? I REALLY liked this game and to have it all wiped REALLY sucks.
ooh what? no, that's not supposed to happen. i'm really sorry. You mean that you weren't able to save or that you saved and it got deleted? I have no idea how that could have happened, I'm so sorry. I could send you a copy of the game that teleports you to wherever you left the game if it's necessary.
Ok so actually I figured it out, but thanks for your concern. I basically had to start the game, rename the file, and then go in. the equivalent of giving the game a fake id and it being like "Oh sorry sir, go right ahead!"
However there is another bug I noticed in the final (?) area after the fight with the person I will be non descript about for spoiler reasons, but when you get to a point with a bunch of tube looking things, I went to the left of the area, got given a "wait you wanna keep looking? Alright." And then the game froze. Clicked buttons, tapped mouse, stuff like that, didn't do anything. Happened twice, I'll probably test on an alternate save so I can see if it's consistent, but wanted to let ya know! Love your game so far, and I hope you feel proud of the art you brought to the stage of the world
Ok so, just finished the game.
Peak/Peak, 10/10, I have reccomended this game to at minimum 5 friends, after one of mine reccomended it to me. I can safely say that after school, a tornado warning, and several inconveniences, I will treasure the memory of going into this game blind and experiencing all it had to offer. I don't often go into games blind, and that's my flaw. But for this?
I'm glad I did. Thank you for making it.
Aw thank you so much! This means a lot, sorry you went through all of that but I'm happy you enjoyed the game! Thank you for playing it, have a nice day!
Aah I'm glad you got to keep playing! Thanks for pointing out possible bugs, it helps a lot! I'll check it out and see if I have to fix anything, thanks and sorry!
Ah im so excited i'm going to tell all my friends hahah this sounds like a ad on tv haha , I need to get home to install it on my computer omg I'm so excited
Hahah thanks! :) Enjoy the game!
Thank you , also would it be ok to play to post a gameplay on youtube? (It would be very crappy since i don't have any special equipment) I understand if you'd rather I don't do it .
P.s I haven't played yet and I'm still very excited
Of course it's okay!