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我嘗聽聞有一個人替人以口就其樁物使其歡，雙方事前有過文愛，就在心滿意足的度過日後幾天後，不料被家長發現，一切東窗事發。當事人因為未成年，所以家長知道後也很生氣也對當事人作出了處罰，沒收了他的手機。如此事情的發生，對於圈內亂象可謂數見不鮮。獸圈被牽扯進性氾濫的問題實是亂象。

在獸圈的成員來自四面八方，雖然每個背景大不相同，但彼此間又存在著某種若游絲般的關聯性。他們加入獸圈是因為種種原因，例如：被介紹、自己本身喜歡獸、或是在偶然際遇下入圈的，想約炮或發生性行為並非大宗。既然與性有關的渴求並非是最初入圈理念，當然想必是後來自己心裡所想而現於表，抑或者是受到他人所惑，而不明就裡。

不知從何時開始，在獸圈中開始使用動作詞。這些諸如「抱、蹭、摸摸、搖尾」的詞彙，使用動作詞對於獸圈也可說是稀鬆平常、隨處可見，使用動作詞的人亦非小眾。如此多的人使用動作詞的原因，一方面是對於自己加入獸圈後有所謂「獸化」的表現，獸化之稱是因為對於自己有了虛構的型態，使用動作詞的人對型態中通常認同的特徵為：有如動物般長在頭頂的耳朵、身上覆蓋毛髮、有尾巴…等；另一方面是藉由動作詞來展現對於自己認同型態的表現，來達到自我認同以及交流的功能及目的。當兩個或以上的人使用動作詞且並無厭惡感受的情況下，動作詞的使用進行關照、互動等行為，使一般純文字聊天中有更進一步的意義傳達。根據調查，非言語的溝通佔人際溝通約60%至65%(1)；非語言行為，又稱為肢體語言或非語言溝通—是一種在不包含在純言語中人們用來溝通的方式。根據先前學者的研究，非語言行為可被定義為「不以口說語言表述，而由個人行為、衣著、外觀造型、所發出的聲音或音調等所傳遞的過程或方法」。獸圈很不同的是，使用動作詞這種於語言行為與非語言行為之間模糊地帶來傳達訊息的頻率明顯高於與一般人溝通的對話中。動作詞這種存在於語言與非語言行為之間的訊息傳達方式很難一刀清晰的分辨，尚姑且給它一個名字吧，就叫它半非語言行為。一時之間也想不出甚麼好名字。半語言行為的使用者藉由半非語言行為來達成與另一位獸進行言語以外，甚至於到情緒的理解，彌補了純文字溝通的不足。

然而自從動作詞的出現後，簡單的動作詞不能完全表現出自己想要的互動，生物的本能驅使著人性就像夏娃受到魔鬼驅使會偷吃禁果一樣必然文愛也由此而生。文愛：利用動作詞在兩個或以上人中，且沒有厭惡的感覺情緒中，互動表現出性歡愉的行為。文愛，是一種會令人對於性卸下心防的行為，言詞中兩情相悅的互動雖無真實肢體的接觸，但已經咬下禁果了，對方未成年更甚至有犯法的可能。

不久前曾發生，時間是在某場大型獸活動前後其詳細資訊極繁，不及載。當時的活動是舉辦在北部，一位生活起居在南部的獸打算前一晚北上但愁著沒地方住時，一位北部獸出於熱心，與家人相告知並取得同意後，邀請南部獸入居所過一宿再去參加活動。在當天晚上，兩個獸同房而寢，被邀請的南部獸在月黑風高時安耐不住性子便對北部獸毛手毛腳，表示出想要以其口就其樁物使其歡等念頭，北部獸不允，雖然沒發生性行為，但仍被碰觸性器官以及言語騷擾，那天晚上不同與以往的平靜而是充滿騷擾及侵犯。

因為出於熱心想幫忙，卻忽略了防人之心不可無的道理，可謂敞開大門引狼入室的前序。雙方素未謀面，連一面之緣都沒有，不知從何而來的勇氣願意讓一個完全陌生的人進你家住一晚。一切肇因於某些獸沒有防人之心，草草相信了在螢幕後每天跟你聊天，但又完全不認識的陌生人。如果這樣輕易相信一個人，有不軌意圖的人想當然爾便容易利用此種心理，假裝跟你友好，等到伸出狼爪時被害人也插翅難飛。

性侵者通常是你認為你所認識，熟識的一個人，對一個陌生人卸下心防，不完全理解他的腦袋裡到底裝什麼東西的情況之下給他你的信任，此做為十分危險。在認識時就曾經說出有關於性的字眼、常常想約你文愛(縱使你很不喜歡)、跟你見面時毛手毛腳、想帶你往廁所或隱密的地方走以上種種常為是對你有不軌意圖的表徵，如果可以就近兩遠離它吧。在跟你聊天時，人最常掉入的陷阱—話術，每個人都想聽到甜蜜蜜的話，給你一種幸福感、愉悅的感覺，每天與你聊天；講話用詞撩人的講話方式最讓人難以自知、更何況從之自拔；利用金錢魅惑你，讓你買東西、請你吃飯，一切看似甜蜜的薄膜下充斥著如何把你的身體弄到手的策略。

現實世界與網路二進位制表現出來的世界大相逕庭，但已經對性卸下心防的人往往沒有察覺，心靈認知中已經破處的人顧慮不到現實以及網路的界線，思考不清的情況下往往落入圈套。本身沒有判別來者善惡以及氾濫的信任，成為了人下手的好獵物，如果你長得好看，那可要更加當心了。並非所有的獸都是腦子中充滿性，在螢幕後思索怎麼拐你出來好好來一發想找人宣洩的惡人，也並非所有的獸都是溫柔良善，會盯促你、教導你如何分辨好人或壞人的善者。在獸圈這個大鍋粥中，為亂者往往是其中的老鼠屎，老鼠屎往往壞了一整鍋粥，害群之馬使得其他同為獸圈的人無辜背負他們罪名，只因他們也是獸圈的一份子。

整個獸圈最初在我的認知中，是一群人因為喜歡獸而聚集在一起的大家族，我們供同擁有這一個嗜好。慢慢的，出現了繪師、作家、遊戲製作等創作者，作品的出現，之後也逐漸推陳出新，出現了比較露骨的作品，滿足人心底小小的需求。很多人在這裡找到了伴侶，同志佔獸圈的大多數成為獸圈不爭的事實，有心人士想借獸圈此特點把獸圈當成洩慾、情愛遊樂場。隨著時間推移，獸圈裡這種人越來越多（但仍佔少數），但作惡多端，危害了獸圈很多人，在圈內臭名昭彰，也敗壞了外界看我們獸圈的觀感。

我們可以發揮鄰里之間守望相助的精神，一同把意圖不軌的人抵禦在外，老獸帶新獸；知情者提醒不知情者，保護獸圈內每個人的安全。但大家工同堤防壞人，也未必能讓你知道每一個壞人，我們也未必知道每一個惡者。最重要的還是要懂得自己保護自己，來區別在你身邊的人的善惡。

(1)：資料來自《FBI教你讀心術》P.27

《獸時報》提醒您，以上論述並不代表本報立場

Something rather different — and even though it came out earlier this year, it’s timely for the season too! Rocko’s Modern Afterlife is a new 4-issue comic miniseries from Boom! Studios. “Something is turning the good people of O-Town into mindless zombies and Rocko wants nothing to do with it. He barricades himself and Spunky in their home and is determined to outlast the hoards outside. But desperate times calls for desperate measures when Rocko’s best friend Heffer becomes infected, Rocko will have to risk it all to save his friends and his city.” It’s written by Anthony Burch (Borderlands 2) and illustrated by Mattia Di Meo (Ben 10: For Science!), and it’s on the shelves now. Beware!

image c. 2019 Boom! Studios

There is a new Aardman [1] Shaun The Sheep movie hitting theaters in the UK this month (October 18) with a release date of Dec 13th in the United States!  Looks like we need to get ready for Aardmans's brand of clay British silliness but this time in SPACE! "Strange lights over the quiet town of Mossingham herald the arrival of a mystery visitor from far across the galaxy… When the intergalactic visitor – an impish and adorable alien called LU-LA – crash-lands near Mossy Bottom Farm, Shaun soon sees an opportunity for alien-powered fun and adventure and sets off on a mission to shepherd LU-LA home. Her magical alien powers, irrepressible mischief and galactic sized burps soon have the flock enchanted. Shaun takes his new extra-terrestrial friend on the road to Mossingham Forest to find her lost spaceship, unaware that a sinister alien-hunting agency is on their trail."     [1] https://www.aardman.com/
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Furry Book Month is here again, and the FWG is ready to get the word out. Watch this space, as well as our Twitter account and the hashtag #FurryBookMonth for limited-time pricing on furry literature from authors, publishers and retailers.

If you have any deals on furry literature you’d like us to promote this October, contact us here or on our Twitter account (@FurWritersGuild) so we can add it!

這次我們十分榮幸，能夠邀請到在歐美圈頗有名氣的Discord Night，相信各位多多少少應該都有聽過這個名字，今天就讓大家對於歐美圈和Discord Night有更多的認識！

1、您在獸圈有兩個身分，一個是Discord Night，另外一個是Agony Light；請問這之間的差異是什麼呢？

Discord Night：除了外觀上上，完全相同。 當初開始設計狼是為了強化鑑別度，原本的設定是比較偏向極簡化設計。 狼則是反過來去從極簡化做延伸，採用了藍色為底白色為輔用金色去點綴邊角還有花紋相對現代的設定。
畢竟人類都開始挑染了，獸拿點顏料或是動了毛色變色的手術，讓自己的設定多點變化。 但新人不建議這樣做設定，會拉高獸裝的製作金額。

2、 關於Discord Night 的設定 背後有什麼淵源呢？

Discord Night：用了自己喜歡的顏色，黑色白色以及藍色點綴在雙眼上。 自己上班出門平常穿的就是襯衫西褲或是制服，所以想到設定也相同也不錯。 鐵牌項鍊當裝飾一開始是軍牌上面是寫急救資訊目前改掛六片物理方程式鐵牌，原因是喜歡量子力學裡面的波粒二象性帶來的思考，總能給我好奇還有興奮。 我設定的配件也充分反映我熱愛高科技的喜好，眼鏡部分是習慣，大約中學就矯正完畢了，所以設定就加個可通訊的智慧眼鏡來讓自己的設定更科技化。

3、常看到你穿著毛裝拍照， 那穿著毛裝的照片(影片) 通常會花多少時間來拍或是規劃？

Discord Night：預先知道的話大概三十分鐘以內就能搞定準備，拍攝的部分有分攝影或是拍照，一鏡到底的三分鐘影片約一小時，重要的是腦袋中想去怎麼呈現被拍的人。 所以只要不是特暗或是特殊的地方，我用蘋果手機就能應付大部分的拍攝甚至剪片也可以用iMovie搞定，再懶惰一些GarageBand也能應付基本錄音，二小時以內。重要的是你有什麼而不是去追求器材。
場景裡面很多沒想到的東西或是突發狀況通常才是拍照或攝影的亮點。
所以要準備好把手機掏出來拍出變化，畢竟最奇怪的鏡頭往往最吸引人。 如果是在高性能智慧型手機之前，那就是乖乖抓著相機花二三小時拍攝， 在電腦後期剪片大概四五小時左右。

在fb上也常常看到你拍攝的3d照片，那些3d照片也是一樣要後製3個小時嗎？

Discord Night：不用，一瞬間，我靠的是手機的深度感應器，只有我的3D委託我會手工畫上深度圖來模擬。

4、 是什麼讓您進入獸圈的行列呢？

Discord Night：中學看美國漫畫時時有時無會看見各種強而有力的獸人角色，便慢慢開始塑造起了一些印象。
後來便開始接觸FA，也開始看到其他不同樣貌的人們，真的要說的話是先接觸歐美愛好者再接觸台灣地區逆輸入，所以看台灣地區行為還有喜好的種類交流文化的不同都會覺得很有趣，展現出一種跟我習慣的環境完全不同的感覺。
我始終覺得從歐美文化觀念中利用毛裝作為文化載體展現自己，到亞洲買現成設定然後融入角色很有趣，亞洲的想法是人在扮演一個角色達到去除自我，而歐美中則是完全反過來的藉由毛裝展現自己理想外表。或許這也是歐亞文本質上一方鼓勵集體主義和一方鼓勵核心探索的差異。

東西方的文化差異真的蠻大的
據說您精通五國語言？

Discord Night：重要還是中英，其他是偶爾用到所以會一點，畢竟某些人非常堅持說自己的母語。

請問你是曾經留美過嗎

Discord Night： 哎呀說留美言過言過，我在去美國之前就會了，並沒有留學過，說來慚愧只是單純小時候電動打了多一點，所以本來就可以看英文漫畫及遊戲。小時候最喜歡的遊戲是俠盜獵車手三所以各種奇怪的壞習慣我倒是早就知道了。
加上中小學看的也是美國網路漫畫還有小說，所以我英文課從來都沒認真過，我也不懂文法還有KK音標真要說缺點的話。

5、當初你第一次穿毛裝的時候， 有什麼特殊的體驗及感想嗎？

Discord Night：記得就是套上去然後拍拍照而已，我穿不像是某些人會開始改變自己的個性或是融入角色，我就是自己，所以拿起就拿起自己喜歡的東西擺擺動作還有跟其他有趣的毛裝拍照。 感想麻，好熱喔，在台灣穿會熱死，以後毛裝會想買裡面機關多一點的比較方便補充水分或是做表情之類的，現在的毛裝功能越來越多挺羨慕的。

6、曾經看過你在fb上，上傳過一張穿毛裝騎機車的照片； 想請問您對機車這方面有興趣嗎？

Discord Night：機車是朋友的，機車我其實沒特別研究，只是想到他剛好開來就借了，我的個性向來就是先關注對方獨特的地方以及興趣然後在想怎麼跟對方交流。 也感謝那位帥哥借我機車。

7、對於想踏入歐美圈的新獸 您認為有什麼語言上的條件和限制

Discord Night：語言限制的部分就是要去了解自己的語言程度。 獸圈“Furry Fandom”本身是個次文化的集合體，有各式各樣的愛好者在裡面，畫家還有寫作家為主，所以如果是完全沒有其他興趣，很難交到朋友。
獸圈在歐美就是個小社會，有警察有律師有軍人也有各種各樣的技能專家，大部分都不需要隱藏自己，展現自我讓別人看看你是怎樣的人吧。
也不用勉強自己去跟他交流因為文化上非常不同。 對某些笑話還有特定議題會比較反感，尤其是牽扯到顏色或者是身分。
所以限制的話就是要先了解他們的背景，還有各種底線才能避免去冒犯到特定族群。 但如果因為自己喜歡的東西被針對也不用太緊張被罵很正常，只要記住自己是喜歡不存在東西的人，所以其實也沒比別人多好，就沒那種判斷別人孰劣的想法啦。

這次的訪談就到這裡結束，想必大家在看完之後對Discord Night有更深層的了解了！有任何意見也可以私訊我們的Facebook粉專喔！

Discord Night的Facebook：https://www.facebook.com/Discord-Night-777479939082804/

Two fan-favorite side characters get their own comic title in IDW’s new full-color series. “Tangle the Lemur’s got a problem: there’s not enough action in her life! Whisper the Wolf’s also got a problem: She’s hunting down an incredibly dangerous enemy named Sonic the Hedgehog! Can Tangle and Whisper help each other solve their problems, or will they just make things worse?” Tangle & Whisper is available now from IDW. The series is written by Ian Flynn and illustrated by Evan Stanley and Matt Herms.

image c. 2019 IDW Publishing

Adorable furry multi player dungeon crawl with split screen or online play?  Yes please. This one is only on PS4.
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From: GFTV News 30/9/2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj55Yyctmws&list=PL_58L2RmcceIrLHWNdMJ1245YrjvoeE2S&index=2&t=0s

The novella, Mind of a Witness, is an “OthEarth” story, or a tale which is set in an alternate history where magic is quite real and the existence of ogres and werewolves (or lupines) is part and parcel. This particular tale follows the Queen’s Witness, a human named Andy chosen by the Queen to be bonded to her and function as an extension of her will. Of course, enemies are afoot, the Queen has fallen for a Lupine prince, and somebody wants someone dead. Several attacks on Andy and the wolf prince, Gnarl, suggest the target is either the Queen herself, or one of them, and an investigation ensues with Andy and Gnarl at the lead. Mind of a Witness is an engaging story and a fun twist on history that is well researched and full of intriguing characters and concepts. The relationship between Andy and the Queen is unique and original and I enjoyed the exploration of discrimination between the humans and lupines, and between various classes and professions of humans, a great deal. The writing waxes a bit “telling” in places, and the action is bogged down in technical jargon that is likely fascinating for a student of fencing but felt a bit like the author trying too hard to share all his research with the reader. It stalled the flow for me in places as did the times when the characters used modern turns of phrase or spoke in ways that seemed out of period for the timeline chosen. Not only did the dialog wax modern in places, there were times when the choice of verbiage made the characters seem suddenly much younger than they’d been portrayed. Despite these few quibbles, the story really held my interest. I liked the characters and felt good rooting for them, and the detailed research will be a big draw for fans of history, fantasy, and the two working in tandem. The ending, however, came very quickly and without much resolution. The story stops in mid-step and nothing is really resolved or answered for the reader. This gave the novella the feel more like the first installment in a serial than a complete story in its own right, and if the reader wants to know exactly what was going on and what the answers are, they’ll most definitely need to seek out a future sequel.

Fairlady is a new full-color fantasy comic series from Image. Here’s what they say in Previews: “Every fantasy epic ends with a war. But what happens when the war is over? After posing as a man to join the army, Jenner Faulds returns home to The Feld for a new start as a ‘Fairman’— a specially licensed private investigator. But sexism didn’t end on the battlefield, and as the only ‘Fairlady,’ Jenner gets stuck with the cases nobody else wants. Hitting the streets to solve The Feld’s overlooked mysteries, Jenner finds that the smallest cases hide the biggest secrets.” So that’s the talented leading lady — but check out her skillful assistant! Fairlady is written by Brian Schirmer and illustrated by Claudia Balboni (Star Trek) and Marissa Louise. It’s on the shelves now.

image c. 2019 Image Comics

This has me both thinking about spiders and "fields of dicks" and now I'm not sure how I feel about all this. "Deinopis is a throw back to an older, cooler kind of cribellate spider. Lots of spigots...LOTS. OF. SPIGOTS."
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Familiar Travels is on sale until September 30! This post is timed to help Halftone Studios and Balin (with no compensation). Thanks to Enjy – Patch

I took the chance to speak with Balin and Ben about their game and asked for the advice on the creative process, what to expect when creating a game, and the thought process that went into creating Vanaheim.

(Enjy): So my first question I would like to ask of you both, when and why did you decide to sit down and make a game?

Balin: I’m not sure for Ben, I sorta recruited him, I met him when I used to run game servers waay back (Like 7 years ago). As for me, it was 2018 when we started development on the demo for Familiar Travels, like most friends do we always talked about doing projects together, it sorta started off as general conversation about Vanaheim, I thought it would be cool to create a game that not only featured anthro characters but was also directly inspired by the fandom, the original inspiration was a story that was sort of a love letter to all the things that inspired me to create stuff in the fandom (I was a creator before this). I love the worlds/universes people are just able to think up in the fandom and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring creating one.

Ben: Yeah I mean we’ve been friends for a while now, I knew Balin had been sort of mentioning developing a game and thinking about getting some talent together to start a project, so one day a year and a half ago I decided I wanted to learn more about sound design and music production, so I offered myself to work on the music. I was completely new to music production at the time, but I’d been writing for a while, so eventually I also got into the writing portion. Why… well, I guess we were bored and had a lot of ideas we could use to build a world.

Balin: Yeah a way less inspiring answer is that we ran out of games to play so made our own!

Boredom is the seed from which ideas grow I suppose they say. Was this always going to turn out to be a huge thing? Did you expect to be hiring well known artists like Gillpanda? And if someone else wants to follow your route, how much time and money should they expect to spend?

Ben: Honestly it’s a slow build up sometimes. But for me at least, there were a few points where I had a sort of revelation that we were doing something big. Like, suddenly, “Oh hey we have 1500 people in the discord now,” or, “Oh hey, we just passed the Silmarillion for wordcount,” moments like that that made me step back for a minute and realize things were ramping up.

Balin: Honestly, I had no idea that Familiar Travels was going to be the size of game that it was, the original story we had put together was a lot more typical VN stuff (cooking minigames, hidden puzzles etc) but as we started to plan it out we just added and added and added.  The game was produced with such energy from everyone involved and so quickly we didn’t really know the size until it was completely written.

As for the artists that we hired, I reached out to people that I thought would be good for the project, I messaged a bunch of people who I thought would be interested in the game and sort of grouped them together into pairs that I felt complimented their art style. I’ve never really been much of a fan of valuing artists based on watch count, but I am totally obsessed with the talent and creativity the artists we went with put into the game. Nexivian (the background artist) in particular blew me away with the amount of lore and details they were able to sink into the project. As for people who want to follow my route I’ll be positive and give words of warning.

The comforting thing is I really had no idea how to code before working on the game, learned the engine and developed it as I went. Ben and I have both had a lot of experience writing but never anything this big. To be honest I’m still amazed that it was able to come together, when you work so hard on something it’s easy for the thousands of hours to just sort of blend together.

This project was absolutely entrancing. Ben and I wrote the entirety of the game over six weeks (over 300,000 words) and it was constant work. This has been an exhausting and harrowing experience and I can honestly say that it was the hardest I’ve worked on something in my life. One of the testers for the game put it well when they said “If Steam ever goes down, I’m afraid you’ll be mortal” it seriously feels like Familiar Travels has a bit of my soul in it. Creative projects like this are alluring like a siren’s call, there’s a good reward in it for you but you have to be a strong swimmer to make it from your ship to the rocks.

As for money, we made $30,000CAD on Kickstarter. I’m sure you could make a game for less but it was really important to us to pay the artists fairly. It’s not fair to me that people in the fandom have to work day jobs when they have the creative talent that people like Gill, nex, and twocups (the sprite artist) have. Gill was able to leave their job and pursue art full time while working on the game, and I’d like to think part of how we allocated our funds was responsible for that. Many a good VN has been sunk by treating your team like shit. It was a collaborative effort and everyone really put their all into it.

That’s quite a poetic way to put it. I know you’ll be an inspiration for anyone else who wants to create something like you have. 

Now for a few grittier details, the portrayals in your game are sometimes stunning at best and shocking at the worst, particularly with behavior like toxic masculinity and clinical depression. You say that these are inspired by people you’ve seen in the fandom, but it has a distinctly personal air that make me wonder if either of you have experienced these feelings for yourself. And if you have, did working on Familiar Travels help you come to terms with some of these problems?

Balin: When we were designing the archtypes for the characters in the game, it was important for the personalities and struggles of the characters to mimic things we say not only in the real world, but specifically in the furry fandom.

I think everyone in the fandom has someone they can either relate to, or relate somebody to in the game. Often topics like toxic masculinity, or the laissez-faire attitude towards consent are topics I feel have a very specific type of in the fandom, and on the internet.  When I was envisioning the designs of the characters, I tried to think of that typical online friend group you’d have. We took a lot of time planning the personalities of the characters, how they’d act if they were people in the fandom played a big role. For example, one of the questions in our personality sheets we were working on was “If they had a Furaffinity, what would their bio be”. 

I often joke that if you take the characters that Ben wrote, and the characters that I wrote, and mix em together you’d have a pretty good idea of our collective neurosis and a part of that is true. I’ve dealt with issues like depression, and the consequences things like that can have on a relationship before. I know that for a lot of people (Whether they are victims of toxic masculinity, depression, bullying, etc) it’s really helpful to see that there are not only people in similar positions, but there are people that can match the profile of someone you may have had issues with in the past.

I hope shedding light on these issues can lead to a “oh shit” moment when playing the game, like I’ve had with games in the past, but most importantly I wanted to show people that you can construct an interesting and compelling narrative without pulling punches in what you have to say. It’s really common to have some sort of ‘edge’ to visual novels but instead of a convoluted murder plot or darkness for the sake of darkness, I’d rather use the energy and platform we had to shed light on issues that most stories shy away from in fear of alienating their audience.

We had a rule during development where if something is going to be brought up, it has to be given justice. I’m not going to write a brutish rude character without exploring the reasons and motivations for that. Overall, the portrayals of the characters in the game wound up fitting a common theme which I think is all to applicable to people in the sort of target demographic for the game which is identity. I feel as if every character in the game, the PC included is struggling with their sense of identity in one way or the other. That sort of just.. came up through the writing of the game and was never planned before-hand, we’re both in our twenties and going through that sort of intense emotional growth that tends to spurt at that time so I think that was an aspect of our personalities that came through in the game. While we were developing it there was that overwhelming dread of “what if we work so hard on this and it isn’t rewarding/satisfying/etc” and I think that does come through in the writing a lot.

Ben: I guess I could say we’ve tried to tackle a lot of really prevalent social issues. Toxic masculinity is alive and thriving in western society and the mental health crisis is being handled by a DSM panel in which over half its members have ties to pharmaceutical producers. I’m from the most densely populated state in the US, I see these things happening all around me and it makes me sad and angry and confused.  I think that writing these kinds of characters allows anyone to really feel strong emotions, and maybe encourage more dialogue on these really important topics. There’s a lot of things going on with the characters but I think above all else they’re meant to represent real world situations that both Balin and I have witnessed.

Your bravery is appreciated and sorely needed in an oversaturated market of badly written and one dimensional sex options. Tsitsi was my favorite character for sure and who I ended up going with in the end. Unlike most visual novels it was her flaws that drew her to me and not what she could bring to the table, so it was very satisfying. Who are your favorite characters?

Balin: Honestly there are some of the characters that at the end of Chapter One I wouldn’t have much to offer them more than a slap.

I’m a big fan of Mocha. It’s not insanely overt in the first chapter and I’ll avoid any potential spoilers but particularly I like how she struggles with her identity in Vanaheim. In Vanaheim, which is very much a model of real society she isn’t just “strong” or “tough” as  much as she is observed as a strong or tough woman. I wanted to touch on in her arc the differences between how men in society are seen as themselves, and women are put in the dichotomy of observed/observer. Comparing her strength and attitude to someone like Nil, Mocha is perceived by a lot of the characters in the game as an object of strength, where as a character like Nil, a man, is just seen as “strong”. It touches on the larger issue in our society of the constituent of “surveyor” and “surveyed” as the aspects of being a women. In her home realm she’s simply seen as a warrior, but in Vanaheim she’s a ‘sight’ surveyed as a strong-women.  This is explored more in chapter two, but I think that the struggle she suffers with is something a lot of people could relate to, and a subject that is not often covered with the nuance and ground it requires.

Ben: Personally I think Finley (the player character) is my favourite. When you’re designing a protagonist you have to be really careful. At first we wanted to avoid using gender-specific pronouns when Finley was spoken to in order to allow the player to better identify with them.

The other thing that we felt was important was to not let Finley become a flat protagonist dictated exclusively by the player’s choices. We gave Finley a lot of personal moments and they really do have their own distinct character. Depending on the arc you choose to go down, different levels of anxiety definitely come out in some of Finley’s interactions and even during their alone time. There’s a lot of feelings there I think we can all relate with to some degree too, like when they’re worried that perhaps they were the cause of the turmoil within the bickering friend groups.

My final question for you both is, what is your overall plan with Famiilar Travels? Chapter Two is coming obviously, but what about Chapter Three, or Chapter Ten, if things go well? Vanaheim has so much put into it that it seems almost criminal to not explore it further than the magical college.

Ben: I’m not sure about going past chapter two (who knows what Balin’s planning though), but we do definitely plan on developing other projects in the same universe. Vanaheim is just one of the realms, and I’m sure it’s been noticed that there’s actually some exposition in chapter one regarding places like Jotunheim and Midgard, and even Helheim. I love the idea of developing a universe through lots and lots of different media, so chapter two is definitely not the last you’ll hear from Halftone studios.

Balin: Chapter Two is the final chapter in the Familiar Travels game, but we for sure see the value in exploring more of the world.

I feel like the game as we have it is a complete story with a satisfying conclusion. Part of the game being analogous to the fandom is I really hope to see (and actively promote however I can) the works that will come out from fans of the game and world in the future (For example, someone messaged me who works in Unity who wanted to make a 3D map of the world, tossed em all the assets I have) . I have loads developed on the other realms and want to explore those especially in the future, but after Chapter Two we’re probably going to take a break from that multi-verse and explore other projects under our studio. 

Halftone Studios, which sort of grew out of the creativity and drive of the people working on the game has quickly become an awesome way for me to aggregate really talented people, when I have the opportunity to meet someone creative in the fandom who has a vision I invite them to the discord. As a publishing studio we want to provide as much people as we can the opportunity to do the same thing I was able to, Gill was able to, leave any sort of corporate chains and explore your creativity freely. I have projects in the works with every member of the team from publishing to games to literature. It was sort of a ‘deal’ with the game. When I got each person on board I pulled them into a call and asked them “With infinite time and resources, what would you make” I wrote every one down and hope to help them wherever I can with that.

I love how creative the furry fandom is, but as it’s trended more into the mainstream there’s been a fracturing in the sense of community in the fandom, we’ve lost our zines, our collaborations, to a certain extent anyways. I want to use the platform I’ve gotten from this game to leapfrog into other projects.

It’s simultaneously upsetting and inspiring to see someone working 40 hours a week and finding the time regardless to create works in the fandom. There are so many artists who don’t have a pathway to making connections, so I want to find those people wherever I can and network them, fund them through the studio, and hopefully create a bunch of awesome stuff in the fandom.

Thanks to Enjy, Balin and Ben for putting so much hard work into this. – Patch

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.

In Anthrocon‘s 2020 edition “Aesop’s Fables”, they‘ve added a 4th option for those who wish to attend the furcon. Besides the normal Day Badges, Sponsor and Super Sponsor tier tickets, you now have the option to choose a whole new eye-opening tier, named Ultra Sponsor. With a unique price tag of US$1,000 (SG$1379.96 as of […]

Here's a sneak peek at a new series from Mondo Media (Happy Tree Friends [1]) based on Graham Roumieu's [2] series of Bigfoot books (Bigfoot I not dead and Me Write Book) [3], expect this series to drop on the 29th of September on Youtube. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sea9yrjxT9M&list=PLbrJEZUmJviM1pywVfSBXJh9Rv6C3BDeD [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Roumieu [3] https://www.amazon.com/Graham-Roumieu/e/B001IGM0YO%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
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Familiar Travels is on sale until September 30! This post is timed to help Halftone Studios and Balin (with no compensation). Thanks to Enjy – Patch

Have you ever played a visual novel with characters that you might end up hating?

Familiar Travels is a furry visual novel created by the team at Halftone Studios for the PC. After success on Kickstarter it was recently released on Steam, and we at DPP were given a copy and a chance to review this game as it hit the market. This story follows a nameless human (you), who transfers from the world of Midgard, what we might know as modern Earth, to the world of Vanaheim in order to attend magical college. It is unknown why you as the human are accepted into this college, since Midgardians cannot use magic, but the player character surmises that it is because of his work in robotics. Your first night, you are plopped into a speak-easy bar and given a chance to meet the extremely diverse cast of characters, and that very moment is where this game begins to pull ahead in the seemingly over-saturated market of furry VNs.

The writer Balin and his co-worker Ben instantly separate themselves from many other fandom writers by giving you a cast of characters that are deeper than an archetype, characters who force you to take a much more realistic route as you try to win their affections or friendship. You do not pick who is the hottest or has the hobby you like and work down from there, every character has glaring flaws that present themselves multiple times and take some working past in order to understand what the person truly is about. Indeed, you must work past much more than a time constraint to get the relationship you want with the character you like, and it is a refreshingly realistic take on personal growth that transcends the genre’s usual trappings of “talk to someone until they sleep with you”.

Balin and Ben’s work is so pitch perfect in fact, that it nearly seems like he purposefully attacked every cliche you could think of to twist it into something new and exciting. Yes, you have the rock band character in Tsitsi. You have the douchey jock in Nil. You have the pompous character who everyone seems to have an issue with in Po. What lies beneath these characters, however, is a sterling example of what this genre could become if more writers tried as hard as Balin and Ben to create believable personas with zero compromise. Every time I expected something to happen, I was glued to the screen as it veered off in a completely rational yet unexpected direction, making me hungry for more and more with every interaction.

What brings this novel squarely to the forefront of its peers is that every part of a person’s personality is played realistically, and not just merely accepted as an archetype. Nil, for example, is a misogynistic asshole, but this isn’t written off for laughs with people saying “Well, that’s our Nil, I suppose”. Characters routinely call him out on it. He shows some truly disgusting behavior. You, in fact, may end up hating him if you do not get to know him and the true reason for his behavior, a fact that applies to all of the characters you meet along the way. Some moreso than others. 

The most important lesson that Familiar Travels taught me is that people are worth more than their issues. Men who are extremely disrespectful to women like Nil usually have a dark reason. People who others see as the cool kid, like Tsitsi, may have deep-seated problems that nobody knows about. It is a long road to work past these problems, but when you do, the relationships feel deeper and more genuine than any novel I have played. Even the characters cannot work past each others’ problems when they interact, leading to some tough choices at times that you, the player, must make.

If there is any problem with Familiar Travels it is that the overarching story of you being transplanted to Vanaheim, and a larger conspiracy afoot with characters who are being kidnapped, is largely ignored in favor of these simply brilliant character studies. The cast sucks you in to the world so deeply that it is hard to notice, but when you force yourself to pull back, you can begin to see the cracks. Organizations are mentioned like The Truth Front and The Nameless that seem like passing lore-bites, but crash together in an admittedly confusing final 10 minutes of the chapter that feels like a huge blindside out of nowhere, and not in a good way.

You receive more information in some routes versus others, but no matter which one I took, I never seemed to fully grasp the bigger picture even if I spliced each run together. There is a second chapter being made, so I hope to see the author fill some of these holes in the sequel. There were some bugs which were a tad serious but with such a small team, it is amazing there were so few, and the music was a bit bland and sparse, but these flaws pale in comparison to the work of art as a whole.

The artistry is top notch as well. There are very interesting 8-bit cutaway sections, and some hand-animated bits as well which surprised me. The backgrounds created by Nexivian are crisp and fit well with the seemingly High Nordic aesthetic of the realms and town, solid colors and harsh lines bringing images of Norse tapestries and paintings. Gillpanda knocks it out of the park with their character designs, making every member of Vanaheim feel unique and easily identifiable throughout. They bring their signature style here as well, so it goes without saying that those who enjoy the big girls will love this game.

In conclusion, Familiar Travels is a journey through a world that you will want to explore every nook and cranny in, with characters that you will either hate or genuinely care for, and should be looked to as a master-class in what a Visual Novel could truly be, furry-centric or otherwise. Familiar Travels digs a hole underneath other paint-by-numbers dating novels, simultaneously highlighting their flaws, and twisting them in a triumphant display of what they should be doing. It is available right now on Steam and I wholeheartedly recommend it, waiting with bated breath for Chapter 2.

I give Familiar Travels: Chapter One a 9.5/10.

– Enjy

TOMORROW: Interview with the creators.

Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.

Gas Money Pictures is a new animation production studio in Southern California. Currently they have several nearly-completed 2D projects, plus several more in development. And wouldn’t you know it, several of the things they’re working on happen to be very anthropomorphic. Check out Mr. Wiggles Saves The World: “An all-ages family show about a friendly alien who finds himself trapped in the family dog while trying to literally save the world.” Straightforward enough. There’s also Little Blue, an animated feature film about a family dog, and something called Punk Rock Possum. Their web site has information about all this and more, plus they have a Vimeo page where you can see their works in progress.

image c. 2109 Gas Money Pictures

I believe I really just needed Dark Crystal bloopers today, thanks. [SCREAMING!]
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I do feel it's probably about time I posted something with tentacles here. This short comes from french animator Julien Leconte ( Specky Four-Eyes [1] and Dame Saccharine [2]) and he really pulls off an amazing look in this weird little film. Man, Goddamn settlers never surveying who's supposedly 'empty' lands they're squatting on. "Pope's Leuki has mysteriously disappeared so he searches for his faithful companion only to meet a strange tentacle." [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QqqZQLrLfk [2] https://vimeo.com/82773065
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