The Last Birdling (InvertMouse's 5th year project)

[InvertMouse]

Bimonia is one of the last Birdlings alive on this earth. The Birdlings see humans as sworn enemies, and Bimonia has been taught to kill on sight.

One day, Bimonia meets Tayo, a human child hunting in the forest. Bimonia fails to kill Tayo, and they instead become friends. Mother will be furious if she finds out, or worse, this relationship may cause tension between the two races to erupt.

The Last Birdling explores Bimonia and Tayo's fight for their friendship as the world threatens to tear them apart.

* * *

Hi everyone ! I want to share with you my next project, The Last Birdling:

http://birdling.invertmouse.com

The site contains links to a demo, so I hope you can check it out! All feedback is welcome and appreciated.

Here is a link to the trailer:

 

There is always a special touch to announcing projects on Fuwa. I started this VN journey with Unhack, which I like to think grew up alongside this forum. When I look back, I realize it has been five years since this all began. Maybe a random like me has no right to boast about a five year anniversary project, but The Last Birdling is exactly that. Thank you for sticking with me through the years.



This project originated from a short story I wrote in around 2006 named The Last Dragon. Back then, a common feedback was my narrative contained too much dialogue. As a form of training, I wrote The Last Dragon to see how it would feel to write a story with no dialogue at all. This rule has been abolished in The Last Birdling, plus I have deepened the plot, and now here we are.



The Last Birdling has been in the works for over a year alongside Unhack 2. Today, I finally get to show it to you. Thanks to your years of support, I am able to fund this game without Kickstarter. While a funding campaign can be used as another source of promotion, I want to show what a difference you have made to my life. Thank you so much.



That said, the journey can be rough. Recently, I have been tempted to take options that may lead to people calling me a sellout. I love money as much as anyone else. That, plus all the hate against western projects, too. Truth be told, I almost have nothing left to give. I wanted to get all dramatic and claim the "last" in The Last Birdling means this is my final project. That was the original meaning, but I have changed my mind since then, as the love is too deep. Let's see how much longer I can be me.

To finish off, I would like to leave you with this:



Thank you everyone !

 

[fun2novel]

Hey man, good luck with this new game. It looks pretty sweat if you ask me. I'm curious about the story though.

But keep writing and making games. I know your games bring lots of joy to lots of people so keep at it.

[XReaper]

the most beautiful header image alone makes me want to promise you my firstborn (asuming there will be one). this, and my continuous support on the future endeavours of yours. cheers & keep going!

Edited March 25, 2017 by XReaper

[InvertMouse]

Thank you fun2novel! Story wise, there is a demo available on the page, so please feel free to have a look. Yeah, I am pretty fortunate. When people find joy in my games, that is a delight to me as well.

Thank you XReaper ! 

[InvertMouse]

Thank you so much Emi! Yeah, time flies by so fast 

[Nier]

Any plans to run a Kickstarter for this?

[InvertMouse]

Hi Nier! Thank you for your question .

The Last Birdling will not have a kickstarter campaign. The community has supported my previous projects, and thanks to them, I am able to fund recent games on my own. I noticed on other threads you like to support English VNs, so I very much appreciate that! But yeah, though Kickstarter can be a good promotion tool, I cannot undermine what the community has done for me in the past five years.

[Nier]

I was just asking to see in case I could score a physical copy of the game (since I noticed your other Kickstarters offered a physical copy reward).

[InvertMouse]

Hi everyone . I have been writing biweekly development posts on The Last Birdling, so I want to share them with you here:

How to handle perspective shifts:

Transparency with decision trees:

 

Race design:

 

Thank you so much .

[InvertMouse]

Hi everyone ! The journey is over, and at last, I can announce The Last Birdling’s release date. Here it is:



September 1st, 2017! The Last Birdling’s Steam page can now be accessed:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/

Recently, I have started to follow upcoming games that I want to keep on my radar. If you are willing to do the same for The Last Birdling, I would be so grateful. The “follow” and “add to your wishlist” buttons are available on the Steam page. I will be active on the community board, so I hope to hang out with you there.

As the release date approaches, I plan to post a new article every week. These articles will be available on the Steam page as well as my Facebook, Tumblr and all the other usual suspects. My social media links can be found here:



http://invertmouse.com

I am thankful to those who messaged in to say they fell in love with Bimonia and Tayo after the demo. After hundreds of development hours, those two have grown lives of their own. Once the game is released, I hope their story can be shared with as many people as possible.

Thank you!

[InvertMouse]

On 7/7/2017 at 10:12 PM, Palas said:

It will be released on my birthday :ooo

Awesome timing !

[InvertMouse]

Hi everyone ! Here is the same artbook preview post from my blog:

Ever since Unhack 1, I have featured digital artbooks for my Steam releases, and The Last Birdling will be no different. I want to give you a preview today, and I also wish to detail some of the lessons I have learned through the past five years.

Above are several pages from Cursed Sight’s artbook. As you can see, the layout is similar to the artbook from Unhack. My websites also share the same template across projects. Unhack 2 and The Last Birdling feature a new template, while past projects use an older layout. I create both these websites and artbooks on my own, so I make use of templates to speed up development time.

My artbooks never feature story summaries. If you have taken the time to open these artbooks, I want to reward that effort with some new knowledge. Behind the scene processes, mistakes I have made, things along those lines.

I put Unhack 2’s artbook together during a trip, and I spent all of my hotel hours on those pages. Every time I read through the artbook, I would spot one new spelling mistake, or perhaps phrases that were awkward to read. Before you know it, a couple of days have already gone by. Even if all the assets are available, an artbook is not something we can cobble together a day before release.

And now, here are some preview shots of The Last Birdling’s artbook:

As usual, there will be character art, CGs and background illustrations available. Every finalized artwork will come with a piece of commentary.

On top of that, just like with Unhack 2, I will include all the sketches used throughout the project:

I never used to include roughs, because I wanted to show these artworks at their best. Then one day, I read a review for one of my artbooks, and it complained about the lack of sketches. That made me realize how foolish I had been. When I am a fan of other games, I always want to see the drafts, so why would it be different for anyone else? I had failed to think from the players’ perspective, but thanks to that review, I was able to make the switch.

As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/

Seven weeks to go! Thank you.

[InvertMouse]

Hi everyone ! I started Persona 5 quite a few weeks ago, and before I even installed the game, I picked up Futaba’s wallpaper from the PSN Store to put myself in that mode. The Persona Mode, I guess.

When both players and creators are in on the hype, that is when we have a great time. For instance, I can’t wait for Umaru season two, so I want to retweet messages from the official account, I want to support them with a bluray purchase, that sort of thing.

I hope to support The Last Birdling in any way I can, so today, I have put together some wallpapers and avatars for gamers to use:

If anyone decides to support me by using these assets, I am the one who is thankful, not the other way around. You are doing me a massive favor, and in the process, I hope it will help build excitement for that September 1^st release.

Gamers want flexibility these days. Maybe you want the logo in a different position, or perhaps gone altogether. Depending on where your icons are positioned, you may also prefer the character(s) to shift left or right. To cater for this, I have included separate elements in each wallpaper for you to adjust as needed:

These wallpapers are available in the highest available res. Even if you extracted those assets from the game, they will not be available at this size. Hopefully at least one of them will suit your tastes.

All right, here is the pack:

http://birdling.invertmouse.com/birdlings-media-pack.zip

As usual, I hope you may consider wishlisting and/or joining our Steam community:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/

Thank you!

[InvertMouse]

Hey everyone, The Last Birdling is out!



http://store.steampowered.com/app/629430/The_Last_Birdling/

Bimonia is one of the last Birdlings alive on this earth. The Birdlings see humans as sworn enemies, and Bimonia has been taught to kill on sight.

One day, Bimonia meets Tayo, a human child hunting in the forest. Bimonia fails to kill Tayo, and they instead become friends. Mother will be furious if she finds out, or worse, this relationship may cause tension between the two species to erupt.

The Last Birdling explores Bimonia and Tayo’s fight for their friendship as the world threatens to tear them apart.

Follow Bimonia and Tayo’s journeys from alternating perspectives. With 21 decisions and 5 different endings, The Last Birdling is a culmination of all the lessons I have learned since 2012. There is a progress tracker available, which means players can unlock all the conclusions without any guides. I have also added a glossary feature, so those who wish to dive deeper can immerse themselves in the lore.

I hope you can give The Last Birdling a look and spread the word. As always, a review afterward would be much appreciated, since it will help other gamers out.

Thank you for the last five years of support!