Hand-Painted Love In After School

After School [official site] is lovely interactive story/point and click game that's entirely hand painted on paper using pencils and watercolours. It tracks the solitary ponderings of a love-struck and lonely schoolgirl who stops by a boy's house every evening at dusk before heading home. Inconspicuously, she peers in through his window and imagines what life would be like if he took more notice of her. Instead, he reads a book, every night, paying her no mind. What if one day they ran away together, she wonders. What if one day she tapped the window to grab his attention?

You've got a hard week coming, dear reader, so why not enjoy a lighthearted free game to get you through your Monday morning? Let After School - a game created during a two-day masterclass by French university students and Coral Cave developer Atelier Sento - tell its whimsical tale of young love and courage as it transports you back in time to when sharing your feelings with the one you fancied was the most important and most entirely difficult thing to do in the world. Go on, give in.

As the story progresses, the school girl protagonist dreams of weirder and more wonderful ways to spend time with the boy and the twist, which I won't ruin, pulls the story together in a way that's both endearing and slightly sad. After School is free and can be enjoyed here.