#j.t.

Courtney is the girl of Ben's dreams, but how could he think of telling her?

Childhood friends don't have romantic feelings for their childhood friends!

That kind of stuff could only happen in...fiction!

It's always been their dream to create a video game of their own design: why not put it to use?

So, unbeknownst to Courtney, Ben uses the development of their original project "Smoothy Quest", the adventure/visual novel RPG, to confess his feelings for her.

How does it work?

Simple: Ben subtly self-inserts himself, Courtney, and their friends as the characters and designs the game around all their interactions.

Each level is the places they hang out most: school, Mr. Smoothy's, etc.

The bosses are every single person and/or thing standing in the way of Ben's love.

By defeating these obstacles and making it to the end, perhaps Courtney will see Ben is trying to win his prize in real life too!

But making a game is easier said than done, and the two find themselves a bit understaffed.

So, they gather help from friends and family alike to have a chance at getting their game on the shelves.

Gwen makes for a decent script writer and tech support, Kevin is an AMAZING software engineer, Julie is on audio engineering, and Herve works on animation and art, as well as French interpretation and translation.

Grandpa Max supervises the whole situation and offers his help where needed.

With the lead game designers at the helm, it all seems to be going well.

They face the normal challenges of a game designer, such as deadlines, cruddy reviews, glitches during progress, and more.

But together, they take it all in stride until they're ready for release.

Of course, you can't forget your run-of-the-mill slice of life bits of the series as well, including school drama, romantic off-campus moments, and comedy, comedy, COMEDY around every corner!

Though Ben puts his heart and soul into developing this game-gone-declaration-of-love, it pushes Courtney away, who wishes he'd be the boy he was before, just living out the lives that now serve as mere reference.

The climax of the series is when their game gets pirated, stolen by a mystery thief. (It's quite obviously the bullies, DUH-)

By the end of it all, Ben ditches the honorifics and just comes clean to Courtney about his true feelings traditionally, the words meaning more to her than any videogame-bound confession would.

And, of course, you can't forget the OVA season "This Love is Like an RPG: Secret Ending."