Acting Lessons

You play Jonas (renameable), a man with money, time on his hands and a broken heart he has not dealt with. A chance meeting with Megan, an aspiring actress whose career and life are falling apart, pulls him back into the world. Helping her means taking on her problems, her friends and her past.

The story is told as a look back at that turning point, and it is mostly about relationships: Megan at the centre, her childhood friend Melissa, the nurse Leah, the actress Rena, and Jonas's loyal best friend Liam. Humor carries a lot of scenes, but the game is open about heading into darker real-life territory, and the developer warns that it is not meant as a purely light-hearted romp.

Choices made early carry through to the end. There is no route select: the ending you reach depends on the choices you build up over the whole game, from staying faithful to Megan to letting other relationships grow, and the developer advertises many different endings.

Compared with Leap of Faith, another finished Western Ren'Py drama with a male lead, Acting Lessons is about half the length, keeps Megan firmly at the centre, and goes to darker places sooner. Leap of Faith spreads its time across six women and adds an in-game phone.