I was particularly shocked by the way the beautiful crystals he used to hide his scars looked during the scene with the armless guy. 😣
The crystals now looked like an all encompassing rot was consuming his body, reminding me of medical pictures of epidermolysis bullosa and of how sometimes, mental sickness is metaphorically represented by graphically transforming the body. 🧐
The peaceful music at the end made things even more disturbing, the juxtaposition reminded me of some of the disturbing scenes of Evangelion and Perfect Blue.
It was uncomfortable to see how far Callum is willing to go because of his worship of material things.😥
But i was impressed by the themes of the VN and want to see more of Callum's journey into materialism and excess. 🙌👍
Wow, this vn turned out to be a complete discovery for me, although there is not much content, but I can already say that it is one of the best that I have read (I have read more than 23 vns). It is both very stylish-glamorous and creepy, visual design wise. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the developer for the new beloved novel and wish them successful development.
비주얼 노벨 정말 재밌게 잘 즐겼습니다. 부산 전시회도 가보고 슈라이벤님 유튜브에서 애니메이션과 비하인드 스토리 보고 나니 앞으로 Callum의 이야기가 어떻게 진행될지 흥미진진하네요. Ko-fi는 한국 계정 간 후원이 안돼서 아쉽지만, 팬으로써 응원하겠습니다. 군 생활 중 다치지 않게 조심하시고 건강히 잘 지내세요~
I have a question, does this VN have gay content or gay routes? If so, I'd be interested to know more about this VN, and if there are romance interests and who they might be?
HI, thank you for your interest! You can play this VN either straight or gay, it's up to you. There are both male and female romance interests available. However romance isn't the main theme of this VN and you might not get the similar experience as other dating simulators. This VN focuses more on the aftermath of a war and how it's like to live in a post-war era. Thank you again!
It's just an incredible project. The characters, the story, everything is well done. I think it's going to be a great visual novel. And yes, the main character is my favorite fox!
Hi, thanks for your continued interest on the project! As I said on one of the devlog earlier, I plan to release next update during May. I'll try my best to not delay it any further because I'll be probably joining the navy on June. I know it's literally the worst timing but the man gotta serve his duty ya know😭🤮
You can catch up on the dev process on my twitter or instagram. I already gave some sneak peaks of the newly introduced character desings.
And if you're interested in test-playing before the official release, please let me know! I always appreciate feedbacks🥰
Please don't spread fake news😅 Nobody stole nothing. As I already mentioned on one of the comments down below, Adobe Firefly is different from other AIs.
It actually pays for the content used for its training. Adobe says they : created a Firefly bonus compensation plan for all eligible Adobe Stock contributors whose content was used in the dataset training of the first commercially released Firefly model.
Plus, they just don't snatch resources from random places on the internet, they use adobe stock images, which as they said, they compensate the contributors, or they just use public domain images which are copyright free.
this is amazing. the story, atmosphere, sound effects and the visuals made for a eye-opening and daunting experience. assuming this is your first time developing a visual novel, it has a lot of potential. looking forward for more
I saw the video! It seems very interesting! The visuals were amazing, though the content daunting! I look forward to more of this game and the story you wish to tell.
It's understandable, and to be honest I don't really like nsfw jajaja pero I would be happy where in the future if you add that then you Must to add sensors too
I heard this Visual Novels uses AI backgrounds. So while I'll still continue reading up until it's current end, it's something potential players should be made aware of and I do if I will support it in the future.
Hey, thanks for pointing that out. I wanted to say something about this topic.
So, the AI I'm using is Adobe Firefly. It's different from other AIs because it actually pays for the content used for its training. Adobe says they : created a Firefly bonus compensation plan for all eligible Adobe Stock contributors whose content was used in the dataset training of the first commercially released Firefly model.
Also, Adobe Firefly uses public domain images and Adobe Stock images for the AI training. They don't scrap images from random, possibly illegal sources. It makes a tiny reference pool compared to other AIs such as Midjourney, which results in less polished images, but what's important is that it's less problematic. Adobe says : Trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content, Firefly is designed to be safe for commercial use.
I want to add, as someone from fine art industry, AI generated images are quite an issue everywhere. Photographers worry about it the most. What people always say is, that AI will eventually reach a level where its work would be indistinguishable from humans' work.
The question fine art people ask is, what should we do to compete with the AI, as human artists? To that I say we don't, and we learn to use AI for our own good. To me, boycotting AI seems pointless, because corporates will proceed to develop AI anyway. Refusing to admit such fact isn't a smart move. Fighting against AI seems to be nothing but a loosing game to me.
What we can do instead is, to use AI that actually pays the contributors so that artists get their share(Adobe Firefly for example), and learn to take advantage of AI art by using it. By using AI we can better understand its strengths and weaknesses, and maybe find what we, the human artists, can do to survive this AI era.
If I failed to convince you, you don't have to support me. It's fine.
This is a very early review of project but here is what i can say for now will update it when it's updated.
So For Himalyan Birkin a interesting name for a interesting project, i will not say i understand everything the whole project is about since from what i understand the project involves more then just the visual novel so my review is just as a FVN fan, maybe in the future if i understand more i can give my views on that. But i will say i am excited to see more.
So about the VN itself, the protagonist Ryder (Callum is his alias) is a very interesting protagonist on the fact of his trauma responses, his past that only can see glimpses of it and his personality makes a very original character and i really want to see more of his story unfolding.
The demo is somewhat short but you can get the idea of what is going to be about it right from the start.
On the audiovisual aspect of the VN it's clear this was made with passion the character sprites are amazing in a weird way, it's not your typical pretty sprites it reminds of adult cartoons of the 80s/90s everything has this more mature tone to it that makes me feel like a stumble a much more mature show late at night on TV.
On technical levels, besides the weird render issue with Renpy, it shows some mistakes that are not that bad but i need to point it out, a lot of time dialogue will a void between one box and another and i thought it was some animation playing but i just need to press space to progress which is weird but can be solved.
In conclusion i will recommend this for now because it has potential and i want to see more of Ryder and hopefully help him get a good ending.
Yeah this VN is part of my project called 'Himalayan Birkin'. The project includes VN, art exhibition and animation for now. And maybe more mediums in the future??
Sorry the demo was short, it was kinda rushed. I was too busy with other elements for the exhibition and couldn't pay much attention to the VN as much as I did with other things😵 There are also some errors, including translation errors that I missed, because I couldn't get any test-plays for the English version(my friends only speak Korean...)
Am happy it gives off mature vibe! That's the tone and manner I was going for.
Lastly, there's going to be another video of my exhibition(title of the show : For Himalayan Birkin) soon! The show is ongoing, and will go on until 2024.1.30. Currently busy with that, but once it's all wrapped up I'll work on the video. And I'll post it here on itch.io. So please stay tuned😆
The location, characters, and plot are all very unique when it comes to the current lineup of furry visual novels on the site and as for this being your first visual novel you have outdone yourself and created something that will definitely get better over time as the story unravels! Lastly, I took a look at your social and seeing your works put up in display is truly a accomplishment that not many furry artists out there have achieved and it makes me genuinely respect you for creating and sharing your passion to the world <3
Thank you for playing! Looking through the comments I definitely felt the need to improve my story. I'll try to make things better and more organized on the upcoming updates. And yeah furry art exhibition is kinda my career😆 There's more coming and I'll share it here too when I finish editing a video on that!
Hi, i started playing the game and when i started the game had this tear on it, is there any way to solve this none of the other VN i have had this problem
Open the game while holding "shift" button and keep holding it until the game starts. Now a settings screen will open instead of the game's main menu, from there select the framerate for your screen and disable "tearing". If not helps, try different combinations.
I'll say that xour VN certainly has potential 😌 but in my honest opinion, it still requires a lot of work.
There are a few really nice scenes where I found myself genuinely enjoying it 😋 but most of the time, the story feels directionless and chaotic.
It was particularly hard to get into until Callum went to the store, but shortly after returning home, we reverted to that the same erratic writing that I struggled to follow 😅
My best advice, as 1ne writer to another, is to map out the story. Every1ne has a different way of writing, so xou just need to find what works for xou! 😁 Perhaps organising plotlines, direction, scenes and characters is all xou need to help better portray xour story 🙂
Thanks for your opinion! Actually, that's what I intended. Callum is supposed to be an irrational, chaotic and compulsive character. I figured this VN wouldn't be entertaining to everyone for that reason. Maybe it's just not your cup of tea🥲
And I do think cultural differences play a big part in you struggling to follow the story. In this VN there's some things South Koreans can understand without any explanation but other people have hard time understanding, because they don't understand South Korean culture. I'm considering adding footnote system or something like that in the future updates.
Really appreciate your feedback tho! In future updates I'll try to get things a little less messy and more organized.
Sorry for the inconvenience😭 I don't own any MAC devices so I can't test it out myself. If it's not a bother can you tell me about the trouble you're going through? When I searched online, people say if you have Ren'Py installed, you'll be able to open the extracted file(which I uploaded)
It's okay my guy maybe because i've never used a program and just played the games basically when in mac you go thru all the process of allowing your computer to open archives from online it never opens it dosent really say why just it tries and dosen't i've seen it with flies that haven't been dowloaded correctly but i've tried it twice and had the same issue
this isn't an issue with this vn, you have to go into your system settings and go to 'privacy' and scroll down until you see a popup about the application and a button to 'open anyway'. happens with every VN on mac the first time i open that install of it
The game looks rather pleasant to the eye, and the storytelling is engaging and eventful so far. Though, the story feels like feverish nonsense in certain scenes (all this fashion items obsession, playing as a 'german' main character who fought 'russians', jumping from construction site accidents to vomiting in gucci to being chased by shark-soldier-ex-dude to applying to be a stripper all in 20 minutes of reading). This might be an attempt to portray the delirious state of mind the main character is in, but I simply felt slightly annoyed at him. In essence, for me, the game looks promising, but in the first build neither the story nor any of the characters managed to fully grab my attention. The game so far is very unique in the vn genre, I'll give it that.
Thank you for the opinion! That's maybe because there's not much information revealed? In the coming updates the characters should be explained better!
That's what I'm hoping for, yeah! On a side note, it might be useful if you put somewhere on this page or in the game a link to your video (the art exhibition one), where you nicely explained the expensive fashion aspect in the story, and how it is connected to the South Korean culture and Seoul. That was interesting to learn for me.
Wow appreciate you for watching my video🥰 Yeah I'll try adding the video later today! I'm planning to better show such cultural stuff throughout the game too!
Impressive glimpse into an original protagonist, It's believably narrated as from someone who's disturbed from a deep trauma or close to it. I'd very much like to see more, and it's got it's hooks in good for the makings of a thrilling story.
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Bro this is disturbing 💀
Nice job though.
Thank you🥰 I wanted this to feel disturbing actually
I was particularly shocked by the way the beautiful crystals he used to hide his scars looked during the scene with the armless guy. 😣
The crystals now looked like an all encompassing rot was consuming his body, reminding me of medical pictures of epidermolysis bullosa and of how sometimes, mental sickness is metaphorically represented by graphically transforming the body. 🧐
The peaceful music at the end made things even more disturbing, the juxtaposition reminded me of some of the disturbing scenes of Evangelion and Perfect Blue.
It was uncomfortable to see how far Callum is willing to go because of his worship of material things.😥
But i was impressed by the themes of the VN and want to see more of Callum's journey into materialism and excess. 🙌👍
I appreciate you catching that little detail! And yes, putting unfitting music over disturbing scenes is sonething I enjoy.
And I'm a huge fan of Satoshi Kon so there's that😆
I can't wait to deliver you the next part of his story, although it might take a while🥲
Wow, this vn turned out to be a complete discovery for me, although there is not much content, but I can already say that it is one of the best that I have read (I have read more than 23 vns). It is both very stylish-glamorous and creepy, visual design wise. I would like to express my deep gratitude to the developer for the new beloved novel and wish them successful development.
비주얼 노벨 정말 재밌게 잘 즐겼습니다. 부산 전시회도 가보고 슈라이벤님 유튜브에서 애니메이션과 비하인드 스토리 보고 나니 앞으로 Callum의 이야기가 어떻게 진행될지 흥미진진하네요. Ko-fi는 한국 계정 간 후원이 안돼서 아쉽지만, 팬으로써 응원하겠습니다. 군 생활 중 다치지 않게 조심하시고 건강히 잘 지내세요~
관심 가져주셔서 정말 감사합니다😍 군생활 중이라 당장은 업데이트를 할 수 없지만 이야기는 계속 쓰고 있습니다. 건강히 전역해서 프로젝트를 이어나가겠습니다!
Okay now that i finally read it it's giving major American psyco vibes, in a good way.
Thank you!!
I have a question, does this VN have gay content or gay routes? If so, I'd be interested to know more about this VN, and if there are romance interests and who they might be?
HI, thank you for your interest! You can play this VN either straight or gay, it's up to you. There are both male and female romance interests available. However romance isn't the main theme of this VN and you might not get the similar experience as other dating simulators. This VN focuses more on the aftermath of a war and how it's like to live in a post-war era. Thank you again!
It sounds interesting!
It's just an incredible project. The characters, the story, everything is well done. I think it's going to be a great visual novel. And yes, the main character is my favorite fox!
Thank you🔥🔥
Update 2 route choice was so crazy! Ryker’s drive to subject himself to do things is astonishing and can’t wait to read more about him.
Thank you❤️❤️
Any updates?
Hi, thanks for your continued interest on the project! As I said on one of the devlog earlier, I plan to release next update during May. I'll try my best to not delay it any further because I'll be probably joining the navy on June. I know it's literally the worst timing but the man gotta serve his duty ya know😭🤮
You can catch up on the dev process on my twitter or instagram. I already gave some sneak peaks of the newly introduced character desings.
And if you're interested in test-playing before the official release, please let me know! I always appreciate feedbacks🥰
Man it's a big shame you used Adobe Firefly for some of the background images. Can't support something that uses stolen assets.
Please don't spread fake news😅 Nobody stole nothing. As I already mentioned on one of the comments down below, Adobe Firefly is different from other AIs.
It actually pays for the content used for its training. Adobe says they : created a Firefly bonus compensation plan for all eligible Adobe Stock contributors whose content was used in the dataset training of the first commercially released Firefly model.
Here's a link to the source : https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/firefly-faq-for-adobe-stock-contributors.html#:~:text=Yes.,first%20commercially%20released%20Firefly%20model.
Plus, they just don't snatch resources from random places on the internet, they use adobe stock images, which as they said, they compensate the contributors, or they just use public domain images which are copyright free.
this is amazing. the story, atmosphere, sound effects and the visuals made for a eye-opening and daunting experience. assuming this is your first time developing a visual novel, it has a lot of potential. looking forward for more
Thank you❤️
Found the ASF on YouTube and came itch.io and yeah just like as cool as the Video.....
This is so deep
You really is a good creator!
I'm looking forward more~
Thank you for the support❤️❤️
I saw the video! It seems very interesting! The visuals were amazing, though the content daunting! I look forward to more of this game and the story you wish to tell.
Thank you, more video and updates on the way!
It's understandable, and to be honest I don't really like nsfw jajaja pero I would be happy where in the future if you add that then you Must to add sensors too
Sure! I'm gonna make like, skip NSFW text button I think?
Wait so there's going to be nsfw? Probably best to add it as a tag~
Nevermind "adult" and "bara" says it all haha
I want to ask before trying to play it so my question is is this sfw or nsfw?
There's no NSFW scenes for now, I flagged it because there will be in future updates
I heard this Visual Novels uses AI backgrounds. So while I'll still continue reading up until it's current end, it's something potential players should be made aware of and I do if I will support it in the future.
Hey, thanks for pointing that out. I wanted to say something about this topic.
So, the AI I'm using is Adobe Firefly. It's different from other AIs because it actually pays for the content used for its training. Adobe says they : created a Firefly bonus compensation plan for all eligible Adobe Stock contributors whose content was used in the dataset training of the first commercially released Firefly model.
Here's a link to the source : https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/firefly-faq-for-adobe-stock-contributors.html#:~:text=Yes.,first%20commercially%20released%20Firefly%20model.
Also, Adobe Firefly uses public domain images and Adobe Stock images for the AI training. They don't scrap images from random, possibly illegal sources. It makes a tiny reference pool compared to other AIs such as Midjourney, which results in less polished images, but what's important is that it's less problematic. Adobe says : Trained on Adobe Stock images, openly licensed content, and public domain content, Firefly is designed to be safe for commercial use.
You can read it on the firefly webpage : https://www.adobe.com/products/firefly.html#:~:text=Where%20does%20Firefly%20get%20its,content%20where%20copyright%20has%20expired.
I want to add, as someone from fine art industry, AI generated images are quite an issue everywhere. Photographers worry about it the most. What people always say is, that AI will eventually reach a level where its work would be indistinguishable from humans' work.
The question fine art people ask is, what should we do to compete with the AI, as human artists? To that I say we don't, and we learn to use AI for our own good. To me, boycotting AI seems pointless, because corporates will proceed to develop AI anyway. Refusing to admit such fact isn't a smart move. Fighting against AI seems to be nothing but a loosing game to me.
What we can do instead is, to use AI that actually pays the contributors so that artists get their share(Adobe Firefly for example), and learn to take advantage of AI art by using it. By using AI we can better understand its strengths and weaknesses, and maybe find what we, the human artists, can do to survive this AI era.
If I failed to convince you, you don't have to support me. It's fine.
This is a very early review of project but here is what i can say for now will update it when it's updated.
So For Himalyan Birkin a interesting name for a interesting project, i will not say i understand everything the whole project is about since from what i understand the project involves more then just the visual novel so my review is just as a FVN fan, maybe in the future if i understand more i can give my views on that. But i will say i am excited to see more.
So about the VN itself, the protagonist Ryder (Callum is his alias) is a very interesting protagonist on the fact of his trauma responses, his past that only can see glimpses of it and his personality makes a very original character and i really want to see more of his story unfolding.
The demo is somewhat short but you can get the idea of what is going to be about it right from the start.
On the audiovisual aspect of the VN it's clear this was made with passion the character sprites are amazing in a weird way, it's not your typical pretty sprites it reminds of adult cartoons of the 80s/90s everything has this more mature tone to it that makes me feel like a stumble a much more mature show late at night on TV.
On technical levels, besides the weird render issue with Renpy, it shows some mistakes that are not that bad but i need to point it out, a lot of time dialogue will a void between one box and another and i thought it was some animation playing but i just need to press space to progress which is weird but can be solved.
In conclusion i will recommend this for now because it has potential and i want to see more of Ryder and hopefully help him get a good ending.
Thank you for such deep dive review!
Yeah this VN is part of my project called 'Himalayan Birkin'. The project includes VN, art exhibition and animation for now. And maybe more mediums in the future??
Sorry the demo was short, it was kinda rushed. I was too busy with other elements for the exhibition and couldn't pay much attention to the VN as much as I did with other things😵 There are also some errors, including translation errors that I missed, because I couldn't get any test-plays for the English version(my friends only speak Korean...)
Am happy it gives off mature vibe! That's the tone and manner I was going for.
Lastly, there's going to be another video of my exhibition(title of the show : For Himalayan Birkin) soon! The show is ongoing, and will go on until 2024.1.30. Currently busy with that, but once it's all wrapped up I'll work on the video. And I'll post it here on itch.io. So please stay tuned😆
The location, characters, and plot are all very unique when it comes to the current lineup of furry visual novels on the site and as for this being your first visual novel you have outdone yourself and created something that will definitely get better over time as the story unravels! Lastly, I took a look at your social and seeing your works put up in display is truly a accomplishment that not many furry artists out there have achieved and it makes me genuinely respect you for creating and sharing your passion to the world <3
Thank you for playing! Looking through the comments I definitely felt the need to improve my story. I'll try to make things better and more organized on the upcoming updates. And yeah furry art exhibition is kinda my career😆 There's more coming and I'll share it here too when I finish editing a video on that!
I found the fix, if anyone has the problem:
Open the game while holding "shift" button and keep holding it until the game starts. Now a settings screen will open instead of the game's main menu, from there select the framerate for your screen and disable "tearing". If not helps, try different combinations.
Thank you for letting me know of the problem! I'll see if I can fix it from my side too
I'll say that xour VN certainly has potential 😌 but in my honest opinion, it still requires a lot of work.
There are a few really nice scenes where I found myself genuinely enjoying it 😋 but most of the time, the story feels directionless and chaotic.
It was particularly hard to get into until Callum went to the store, but shortly after returning home, we reverted to that the same erratic writing that I struggled to follow 😅
My best advice, as 1ne writer to another, is to map out the story. Every1ne has a different way of writing, so xou just need to find what works for xou! 😁 Perhaps organising plotlines, direction, scenes and characters is all xou need to help better portray xour story 🙂
Thanks for your opinion! Actually, that's what I intended. Callum is supposed to be an irrational, chaotic and compulsive character. I figured this VN wouldn't be entertaining to everyone for that reason. Maybe it's just not your cup of tea🥲
And I do think cultural differences play a big part in you struggling to follow the story. In this VN there's some things South Koreans can understand without any explanation but other people have hard time understanding, because they don't understand South Korean culture. I'm considering adding footnote system or something like that in the future updates.
Really appreciate your feedback tho! In future updates I'll try to get things a little less messy and more organized.
yeah is near imposible to play it on mac please make it easier to give it a try
Sorry for the inconvenience😭 I don't own any MAC devices so I can't test it out myself. If it's not a bother can you tell me about the trouble you're going through? When I searched online, people say if you have Ren'Py installed, you'll be able to open the extracted file(which I uploaded)
It's okay my guy maybe because i've never used a program and just played the games basically when in mac you go thru all the process of allowing your computer to open archives from online it never opens it dosent really say why just it tries and dosen't i've seen it with flies that haven't been dowloaded correctly but i've tried it twice and had the same issue
this isn't an issue with this vn, you have to go into your system settings and go to 'privacy' and scroll down until you see a popup about the application and a button to 'open anyway'. happens with every VN on mac the first time i open that install of it
i do that and i can't still open it :( it just fakes that it will but dosen't
The game looks rather pleasant to the eye, and the storytelling is engaging and eventful so far. Though, the story feels like feverish nonsense in certain scenes (all this fashion items obsession, playing as a 'german' main character who fought 'russians', jumping from construction site accidents to vomiting in gucci to being chased by shark-soldier-ex-dude to applying to be a stripper all in 20 minutes of reading). This might be an attempt to portray the delirious state of mind the main character is in, but I simply felt slightly annoyed at him. In essence, for me, the game looks promising, but in the first build neither the story nor any of the characters managed to fully grab my attention. The game so far is very unique in the vn genre, I'll give it that.
Thank you for the opinion! That's maybe because there's not much information revealed? In the coming updates the characters should be explained better!
That's what I'm hoping for, yeah!
On a side note, it might be useful if you put somewhere on this page or in the game a link to your video (the art exhibition one), where you nicely explained the expensive fashion aspect in the story, and how it is connected to the South Korean culture and Seoul. That was interesting to learn for me.
Wow appreciate you for watching my video🥰 Yeah I'll try adding the video later today! I'm planning to better show such cultural stuff throughout the game too!
Impressive glimpse into an original protagonist, It's believably narrated as from someone who's disturbed from a deep trauma or close to it. I'd very much like to see more, and it's got it's hooks in good for the makings of a thrilling story.
From someone who knows what that trauma does to you, I'm sorry to hear that. Thanks for the nice words, I'll keep it up for sure!
I really enjoyed it so much. Sounds, intensity, drawing style and effects are well designed. ABSOLUTELY stay tuned.
Thank you for the support
Fun read, following to see where it goes.
Thank you!!
Wow. Just incredible. Thank you for making this! I hope you continue this cuz I would like to see more!
P.S. that female leopard is sexy and my favorite alongside Ryder. I ship them.
Thank you for the nice words! With this much support, I better work on the next update now😆
Yes please! 😁
Better you should have client for mac version separately, from I check up there's no any resource on your mac version package.
Sorry for the inconvenience, just fixed it, please tell me if there's any more problem!
okey, it's work properly, thanks ^ ^
This was awesome! Thanks for making it
Thank you for playing!
Thank you!! I'll keep things updated🔥
So deep.
Thank you for the support❤️