Interloper
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
Stuck in a world you don't understand, an enigmatic fox is your only companion. His kind disposition charms you into a relation you hope to deepen. ..But the world is changing, your only option - adapt. Do not go out after nightfall.
This marks the first chapter in Interloper, a new furry visual novel with a photo realistic art style.
The story will feature choices in later chapters. These choices may, or may not affect the story progression. On this, I still have not decided.
The quality of the visuals are a little more primitive in the first few minutes. For now, I do not have plans to change it.
Should you discover any bugs, do not hesitate to let me know in the comments section, I will fix them an provide a new release ASAP!
All the music was recorded in 96KHz, and down sampled for the game. It seems Ren Py for Windows lags a tiny bit every now and then, - so you can let me know if you notice a little pop in the audio - there are no distortions in the actual recordings. Most likely I am the only one who cares about this.
The 3 tracks featured in this build, are all works in progress, although they are all in a respectable state of completion.
This goes for many other aspects of the game, which are subject to improvement. I do not plan on altering the appearance of the fox, as my experience with this from other visual novels, is that it is the core identity of the story. If it's changed, it can be destructive for the readers motivation to keep reading. With that said, you may notice slight discrepancies in his appearance. I do my best, and in fact I have already spent lots of money on animation, due to the nature of how AI works, and how it's often necessary to wrestle with it like some sort of wild animal.
I do not plan to charge any money for this project as it stands, I am doing it for me, first and foremost, not for monetary gain. If my stance on this changes, it would be to charge a very small amount - perhaps $2 for the finished game/story.
Most/almost all of the music was performed, rather than programmed. I try to focus on the ambiance, and not on perfect timing. I do not 'quantize' my music in general (correct little imperfections in timing), as I don't really believe in that approach.
All the visual assets have been created using AI. ..Before you judge, please dive in and see for yourself. We are at the precipice of a new era, and AI can be used for solo developers or lone writers (such as myself) to create things we could not create otherwise.
The story, and the music has not been created with AI, and is my doing alone.
Download
Install instructions
IOS Users: At this time, there is no way for me to release an IOS version. There is a MAC version available. An IOS release requires a MAC, and (as I understand) a 100$ yearly subscription to be registered as an IOS developer. I regret if you cannot play my game, and hope you will consider trying on another platform, if it is available to you.
Comments
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I liked it. The writing style is good, the fox is cute, and thank goodness he's not a bara muscular man, the sight of which makes me sick. IMHO. As someone already said, you need to correct the scale. Still, the thing that caught my eye the most is that the fox's head, in some moments, is disproportionate to his body, it seems too big. And the legs sometimes seem too thin. Maybe a less realistic visual style of AI model would look better, but maybe not.
The music is nice, just in the theme of the atmosphere of the game.
Special thanks for the animalistic style of the fox, (Paws, claws, etc.). Hopefully the contents of the his pants will also be different from human)
I don't understand the hatred towards AI. It's the same imaging tool as a painter's brush, and just like a brush, AI needs to be mastered to create good art or animation.
Besides, there are a lot of visual novels on this site with frankly ugly artwork, but they are praised only because they are hand drawn, it hurts me personally to look at such, I would rather look at AI art than scribbles of kindergarten level.
I wish you good luck in creating this VN, and will wait for new updates.
Btw, what kinds of anthropomorphic animal characters will be in the game? Some cute lynxes won't appear in it by any chance?)))
Didn't like it.
Use of ai is quite creative (at least in theory), but that's where my praise ends.
First of all, animations in this game are overused. ANimating character sprite both in and out of CGs as well as locations as if you are recording on camera in real time feel completely unnecessery and distracting.
The inteface and Ui also do not help. Everything seems smaller then in other vns for no good reason, and character sprite is haunting me somewhere from the right side at all times. It all really distracting and get in a way of experience.
And the story is weird. The characters interact with each other in extremely unnatural way and sometimes their interactions just don't make sense. Like, When fox thing lead protagonist to a house, protagonist goes on the balcony by himself and states he was living here for a long time?... And the entire premist is weird too. The point of furry isekai's (or at least the descibtion of the game makes me believe that this is na isekai) Is to transpor a protagonist from the world familiar to us to a world that doesn't. Yet here in original world seems like anthro people are commonplace, so that's automatically makes this world unfamiliar to us. And then we get transported to another which... is also unfamiliar to us...
Yeah, the whole thing is just a mess.
The inteface and Ui also do not help. Everything seems smaller then in other vns for no good reason, and character sprite is haunting me somewhere from the right side at all times. It all really distracting and get in a way of experience.
I'm working on it. This is the first release, there will be jank. Renpy has this annoying setup, where you have to configure the text size for multiple platforms. I simply didn't focus my energy at this, but at the writing, the UI will change.And it doesn't sound like the moving character thing is for you. That is fine.
First of all, animations in this game are overused. ANimating character sprite both in and out of CGs as well as locations as if you are recording on camera in real time feel completely unnecessery and distracting.
Animations in the beginning of the story are lacking atm. I made them as I went along, writing the story. I then went back and changed some things, but I see there are some.. 'bugs' I would almost say. Where the same annoying animation is looping badly, again and again. Things like these will be better in future releases.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'both'. It's either CG, or sprites (which is also CG, but yeah). The CG is occasional, the sprites are primary.
The CG in the first scene is primitive compared to what you'll see later. I'm using KlingAI, and it.. evolved while I was making the first chapter.
It takes a lot of work and money to animate this, because there are so many 'flukes' - not being able to completely control what you get. I've spent $150 on compute so far, I think. Not that that is important, I chose this and I am excited about the possibilities.
The landscape scenes are supposed to be with a static camera angle, but that very rarely succeeds, to as an example. I work with what I get.
When fox thing lead protagonist to a house, protagonist goes on the balcony by himself and states he was living here for a long time?...
No that's a misunderstanding, but I can see how that may need to be rephrased. What he's saying, is that he's lived in the general area where the beginning of the story takes place, and he believes to still be in that area - which is not the case.
"The point of furry isekai's (or at least the descibtion of the game makes me believe that this is na isekai) Is to transpor a protagonist from the world familiar to us to a world that doesn't." I'm not sure what you're talking about, I don't know what isekai means. Maybe I should, but - If it's a story format, I'd just say you've got it wrong. I'm not following any style or format, other than my own, I'm not trying to emulate anything.
Yet here in original world seems like anthro people are commonplace, so that's automatically makes this world unfamiliar to us. And then we get transported to another which... is also unfamiliar to us...
I'm working on this. This is a major "suspension of disbelief" in the story. ..And t's simply not explained in the first chapter. I understand you want some answers, and that you'd like things to feel natural in that regard. I'm working under the premise that the MC is in shock, and under a spell, perhaps of his own making, perhaps something else.Yeah, the whole thing is just a mess.
Please understand, that this is not a finished story - this is just the first chapter - and even that, is not finished. Honestly I find your critique unreasonably harsh, and I suspect it might be a language issue for you as well. I want to listen to fair criticism, but I don't understand your hostility.
> I don't understand your hostility.
Because I'm really tired seeing more and more ignorant and illiterate "writers" trying to do something not only without understanding basic rules of storytellling, but also not even bothering do the most basic research of modern trends in it. Speaking of which:
> I don't know what isekai means
For a writer trying their hand in their own story, especially visual novel, not being aware of the most popular and well-known cultural phenomenon is so inexcusable and baffling I honestly thought you were trolling at first.
Here is my advice: educate yourself on modern fiction, and only *then* try to create something of your own.
I wish you all the best. You have a work to do.
I find the problem with AI art is it being disingenuous and scummy, but you give a good reasonable explanation for its use and you aren't doing this just for profit.
Maybe eventually you would change to commissioned art for the game but if you both cant afford it or make it yourself i don't find any problems.
Keep up the good work :]
I would say I'm making a visual novel because I'm fascinated with AI and where it can go, rather than that I want to write a visual novel, and just happened to settle on AI for the visuals. ..So commissioning art is not very relevant in this case. Even if there are some amazingly talented people out there, it would be impossible to create the animations. If I were to commission art and then animate with AI, I would still need 100's of pictures.
I have some scary stuff planned, and some very strange things already made. If people like this story, I will gladly publish another chapter. I'm a little put down right now, tbh. I'm doing this project to escape some struggles in life that are not minor.. so I guess I can't deal with too much negativity.
I don’t mind ai art but it’s definitely stigmatized quite a lot in the current environment. Hopefully you are prepared to deal with inevitable backlash
I would just say that it would be my hope that people can see the potential for weird worlds previously impossible, instead of focusing on what problems AI create. I can only try to share my vision.. people usually don't understand what I have in my head before things are more complete.
An excellent start. I love the animation style even if it is a work in progress. Story is engaging and well written. Looking forward to how this might develop in the future.
Appreciate it!