A downloadable game for Windows and macOS

Buy Now$19.99 USD or more


Familiar Travels was always intended to be played as a single, cohesive experience. Enjoy Volume One and Volume Two together as the second Volume adds a depth of experience to the first volume, the compliments of the two together, and the events that unfold as a result!


If you've already purchased Volume One of Familiar Travels you can enjoy a reduced price of the bundle here, equal to the amount you paid for the first volume!


You were in a situation that many post-graduates found themselves in, degree on wall, parent's house, everywhere seem to think your degree is just as useless as you do. The uniquely disparaging Quarter Life Crisis has came to you in full force, and you have been left with nothing to do..

And when university has set us up for unreal expectations of the future, there's only one thing left to do..

Grad School.

Through insane luck or divine magic, you've received your acceptance letter to Vanaheim

Home of the Vanaheim Institute of Magic and Technology

There's only one problem, you're distinctly lacking in the magic department. In fact, this is the first time you've become aware of magic's existence.



Things have been strange over the past few weeks, and now that you’ve started to settle in it’s dawning on you exactly how much you fit in with people here, for better or for worse. The people in Vanaheim aren’t all that different than the people back home, there are bad people who make bad decisions with.. Bad consequences.

On top of that it’s felt as if your mental health has been slipping.. It’s been harder to connect to the people around you on a meaningful level.. I guess fitting in shouldn’t have been your only priority when it comes to these issues…


This game was created as a love letter to internet fandom, and quickly expanded to become a deconstruction of relationships, a game about forging genuine connections, and the struggles of finding your identity in a community that you don't entirely fit into. If you're looking for a way to kill some time, or an experience that will connect with you on a deep emotional level, check out Familiar Travels. This is a game for anybody who is part of an internet community, or anybody who wants to explore the more nuanced and complicated aspects of relationships.


  • 300,000 word+ Story (Across Two Volumes)
  • A true open world with free travel, leading to a different play through every time.
  • Complete soundtrack with over 30 unique compositions
  • Over 100 unique illustrations.


Halftone Studios
StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows, macOS
Publisher
Release date Apr 23, 2020
Rating
Rated 4.3 out of 5 stars
(86 total ratings)
AuthorHalftone Studios
GenreVisual Novel
Made withTyranoBuilder
TagsBara, Dating Sim, Erotic, Furry, Gay, Lesbian, LGBT, Romance, Yaoi
Average sessionA few hours
LanguagesEnglish
AccessibilityColor-blind friendly, Subtitles, Interactive tutorial, One button
LinksSteam

Purchase

Buy Now$19.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $19.99 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:

familiartravels-osx-build.zip 2.4 GB
Version 6
familiartravels-windows-build.zip 2.4 GB
Version 7

Development log

Comments

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Viewing most recent comments 1 to 40 of 52 · Next page · Last page
(-2)

Didn’t like it. The story is a non-sensical fever dream, through and through 

So, just to be safe, because I heard Steam can be a whole other beast when it comes to releasing furry NSFW there, should I just focus on the Itch version if things get awry? Even if I get a Steam Key from this?

(+1)

This game is very good and live!

(1 edit) (+7)(-7)

Just played the game and, I'm sad to say this, but its very bad. 

Arstyle-wise the game is amazing. It boasts all possible varieties of genders, body type and species. While I’m gay and all, I nevertheless appreciate female characters and romance options since I don’t require characters to be a certain gender to enjoy romance and overall it contributes to the world’s believability.

Sadly the “believability” is the word I can only use loosely in this case because as far as everything else goes this game is NONSENSE.

The game markets itself as an essentially furry Hogwarts with emphasis on magic and shit.

So with that in mind let *this* sink in: upon an entirety of the first route I’ve played I have seen exactly *one* scene where magic system is at least somewhat explained, *ONE* scene where magic is actually used and *NO* scenes depicting the protagonist actually visiting classes with his peers… all in the game that markets itself as a furry Hogwards.

Like, what? Why are you advertising the game as such when you can’t deliver on the thing you advertised the most? Why even set *this* as a premise?

Now you might ask what this game is about then? And the only answer I and others can give is… Bunch of characters hanging out going around in circles(reference not intended) until something finally happens. No really, that’s literally the entire plot.

The world building… doesn’t exist. If it was yet another real-life setting with furries I would maybe begrudgingly forgive that but, like, this isn’t real life, that is supposed to be science fantasy!

Additionally we are supposed to identify with main characters since he came from place where magic doesn’t exist but we don’t even know what exactly is the place he came from! Harry Potter have done it pretty well placing its protagonist in irl London, but here everyone is constantly remarking that the protagonist to came from Midgard. Like, what’s even *is* this place? It this ff7 type of Midgard? Is this a Norse Mythology type of Midgard? I don’t know and the game doesn’t know either!

And finally we get to the characters. And I’m gonna just come out and say it: they are absolutely unbelievable. They act so detached from reality that its simply impossible to emphasize with them. They can act like more-or-less normal people in one moment and the flip the switch and turn to complete psychos.

At first i was convinced that the game was going for a denpa-style horror (which is backed up by moments where the game legitimately wants to be horror) but as a denpa it also doesn’t work because denpa implies that every character starts normal and then slowly going mad for reasons when here everyone starts detached from reality and remains as such for an entirety of the game.

The dialogue seems forced and unnatural and the sequence of events makes no sense whatsoever. Things just… happen.

Like, after midroute there is an important event when two teachers got into debacle and during their spellfight hurt one of the student in a crossfire, and after two weeks timeskip things just… got back to normal?... Like, they face no consequences, the wounded student seems to recover just fine and the protagonist who fell into depression because wasn’t even being visited or comforted by anyone?... and it isn’t like either of the other characters were caring much for that student either, they just continue with their lives like nothing ever happened.

And then I get an ending that rips off Suzuha’s steins;gate one without a proper build up. Protag just discovers a time-travel superpower out of nowhere and decides to keep rewinding time because of an apocalypse or something? Where did this come from?

Anyways, this game is nonsense and my brain hurts just from thinking about it.

I also have to mention the gameplay which somehow was screwed as well. Instead of traditional vn they decided to go for a pseudo point and click adventure which only hurt the overall experience more than anything. Instead of just choosing your desired love interest each time you know you have to stumble across the entire town to search the place where they decided to randomly spawn this time around… which also came at a cost of not adding such basic features like skip read text, autoplay, reroll and save anywhere. What in the actual fuck. Last game I played that didn’t had these features was a Colonel Sanders Dating Sim, which was a free meme game, but even when it comes to free meme vns all of them have these options and you are telling me devs couldn’t add these basic features in a title which costs as much as a remaster of Persona 3? I can’t even.

Anyways, don’t let pretty graphics fool you. This game is dead inside.

(4 edits) (+1)(-3)

1. I read the game's description and where does it mention "furry" or "Hogwards" or "magic" or any combination of those words, since you say that the game markets itself as such?

"This game was created as a love letter to internet fandom, and quickly expanded to become a deconstruction of relationships, a game about forging genuine connections, and the struggles of finding your identity in a community that you don't entirely fit into. If you're looking for a way to kill some time, or an experience that will connect with you on a deep emotional level, check out Familiar Travels. This is a game for anybody who is part of an internet community, or anybody who wants to explore the more nuanced and complicated aspects of relationships."

Actually, the description is very, very vague.

I mean sure, the devs marketed the game as a furry one only through their screenshots. So I give you half a point there.

But nowhere they said that you can use magic and you go to a school of magic.

2. "Like, what? Why are you advertising the game as such when you can’t deliver on the thing you advertised the most? Why even set *this* as a premise?"

Please reffer to point no. 1.

3. "Harry Potter have done it pretty well placing its protagonist in irl London..."

When you say placing it's protagonist do you mean:

a. where HP lived and grew up

or

b. where the most of the action is happening, Hogwards

Because if it's a. Harry Potter lived at "number 4 Privet Drive ... but it’s actually a real life three-bedroom house in Martins Heron, Bracknell" (source: https://www.chancellors.co.uk/news/property-advice/buying/harry-potters-childhoo...). That's the house from the movie.

Bracknell is "a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England".

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracknell)

So not London.

But if you mean b. then Hogwards is located in Scotland and Scotland is not in London, my dude.

4. "...but here everyone is constantly remarking that the protagonist to came from Midgard. Like, what’s even *is* this place? It this ff7 type of Midgard? Is this a Norse Mythology type of Midgard? I don’t know and the game doesn’t know either!"

No bro. The game KNOWS where is Midgard. You're the only one who doesn't know where it is.

And you know the best part yet? That we are living in Midgard! Yeah, we are living in and on it! Because Midgard is another term for "Earth" you freaking moron!

"In Germanic cosmology, Midgard (an anglicised form of Old Norse MiðgarðrOld English MiddangeardOld Saxon MiddilgardOld High German Mittilagart, and Gothic Midjun-gards; "middle yard", "middle enclosure") is the name for Earth (equivalent in meaning to the Greek term οἰκουμένη : oikouménē, "inhabited") inhabited by and known to humans in early Germanic cosmology."

(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midgard)

5. "I also have to mention the gameplay which somehow was screwed as well. Instead of traditional vn they decided to go for a pseudo point and click adventure which only hurt the overall experience more than anything. Instead of just choosing your desired love interest each time you know you have to stumble across the entire town to search the place where they decided to randomly spawn this time around… which also came at a cost of not adding such basic features like skip read text, autoplay, reroll and save anywhere. What in the actual fuck."

Yeah, because this isn't a traditional VN game it's a hybrid between, from what you say, VN and point & click, because you know, games, like humans, don't  fit into one category only. Shocking, I know.

"Instead of just choosing your desired love interest each time you know you have to stumble across the entire town to search the place where they decided to randomly spawn this time around…"

That's because the devs wants you to play multiple times. Get different endings, discover new paths, new characters, new locations etc. etc.

As for the lack of those features you mention, I guess that could be a valid point, the devs could had implemented those, at least for repeated playthroughs.

6. "This game is dead inside."

The only thing dead inside here is you.

(6 edits) (+1)(-3)

Long read! You must have woken up on the wrong side of your bed this morning.


 Some interesting thoughts that I personally don't agree with at all but could read through and see. However, they're all sadly invalidated by your child-like outburst at the end personally attacking and trying to put down someone's opinion. 

If you're going to write a counterpoint, write a counterpoint, don't step on someone like that because you're too incapable of regular human interaction. 

I wish I had a clever thing to say tot mimic your "the only one dead inside is you" but sadly, there's nothing worth taking away from your post after ending it on such an idiotic note. You turned yourself into a troll, at best. I'd love to see a counter argument where you actually spent effort into making it, not spewing irrelevant hate everywhere.

P.S If you  were aware of such thing like “subtext” (a very innovative and shocking concept, I know), you would figure out easily what I meant when i said “the game present itself like furry hogwarts,” as its premise and mentioning of “institute of magic” give you all the information to piece together without making a direct references. Of course you wouldn’t find direct mentions of “furry” and “Hogwarts” because no sane person wears their inspirations on their sleeve like that, and if you *do* expect every work fiction to spit out everything on a silver platter like that for you to understand— then you should probably start working on improving your own IQ.

(1 edit) (+1)(-1)

@Naho, dearest internet entity:

If you're going to shrug off somebody else's comment by calling it trollish or offensive, try not to do the same thing. By using the very same rules, you're invalidating your own argument. And if you think that "It doesn't deserve a reply," well, it did enough for you to write a Bible epistle-length reply to "not be deserving.".

Let's start by telling me you seriously need to touch grass and/or consume more fiction. Not every game is FF7, and so not every Midgard is FF7.

Maybe you didn't know how to properly express yourself, which might be the case. It happens to everyone, especially when English isn't your first language, like in my case. Did you mean a "Dystopian sci-fi Midgard like the one presented in FF7"? Because that would have been a better way to word it. Oh, and let me just tell you that this isn't Marvel's Midgard either. It may (and just maybe, a tiny tad bit) be the dev's very own Midgard, populated with their very own creations!


Also, not every magic academy is Hogwarts; there's the White Tower in The Wheel of Time, the University in the King Killer Chronicles, the Witch Academy in The Witcher, the Fulcrum in NK Jesmin Works, the Unseen University in Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and not to mention the endless Magician Guilds, Schools, and Orders, which are also academies in many works of fiction!

Not every single magic academy is Hogwarts, not even in Rowling's work; get over it already.

Concerning not reading the subtle undertones and subtext, you stated that this game bears no resemblance to Hogwarts, so how could it be an undertone? It seems more like it's your own preconceived idea of it. For someone who praises the diversity presented in genders and body types, this is both hypocritical and unexpected.

There are many works of fiction—games, books, movies, you name it. Use "Harry Potter" and other works for comparison purposes. Just walk into any Barnes and Noble or open any review pages, and you'll see even the authors and developers themselves name it and boast about it! Ghibli-inspired, Souls-like, and Hogwarts-like are some of the many things they're usually compared to so as to make people familiar with and interested in their works.

To me, it seems like you're talking from your very own limited world of view, and that is quite intolerant and, at the same time, ignorant. I urge you to please expand your horizons and open your mind. In the end, it's your choice to do so or not.

Thank you for reading this quite lengthy reply, and I honestly hope you have a good day and improve both your replies to others to not be self-defeating and hypocritical and your general outlook on fiction and not classifying other people's works in whatever your limited knowledge allows.

For clarification purposes, I meant that in a non-deprecating way, as everyone's knowledge is limited, and that is precisely why I urge you and everyone else to expand it so nobody end's up pre-judging, wrongly understanding, or classifying stuff.

Have a good one!

(+2)(-2)

You are so fucking stupid and bitter it’s honestly hilarious.

(+3)

Uhh... the description includes:

Through insane luck or divine magic, you've received your acceptance letter to Vanaheim
Home of the Vanaheim Institute of Magic and Technology

I think that's pretty explicit?

I mean, I haven't played much of the game yet, so I have no idea if any other claims are true, but the description blatantly mentions being magic school.

I probably read only the "About Game" part and  skimmed though the "Volume 1" and "Volume 2" descriptions.

(-1)

imagine being so dumb and lazy you couldn’t even be bothered to read a description to a game you are defending.

> The only one who is dead inside is you

Said an actual dead inside person

Not dumb & lazy. Just inattentive/sloppy.

(+2)

tbh need more cute moments with po

:)

Mews happy!

Wondering what happened to the merch store?

Deleted 2 years ago

Looking through files, yup sure do. Haven't play it and going to when I posted this.

(1 edit) (+5)

steam key doesn't work, says it's additional content

bought first half anyways, i'm too tired to care at this point. just know the steam key is for the second chapter only, which is a dlc. nice job devs.

(+4)

I swear to god, if something happens to best nerdy boyo im gonna cry

Game doesn't start.  Music starts but no window of any kind.  Reinstalled twice.  Given the dates on the dev log, I'm guessing there's no support for the game either

(+2)

I will be getting this, but if i find out that my best boy dies ima cry... still buying it... but crying

Hey I had a question, will you guys possible be selling the t shirts that the character's got in kaj's route, I would totally buy one, it looked so cool

does anyone know where to find the save files for this game on your pc??

(-1)

Meow, probably somewhere in Users/"your user name"/Appdata/Local/GPUCache folder.

Ayee, this was very dope. Incredibly glitchy on my mac for damn sure, but it was so cool and pretty nice and fun! Definitely had a lot of moments where I got emotional. Anyways, yeah, semi-short thing, super fun with routes and main game (glitchy mac made the whole experience not so fun to navigate, but novel mode definitely smoothed that issue), great story with fun routes (I connected with everyone and genuinely enjoyed how each story progressed), there is some humour (if you want it), and definitely was very much worth buying.

(2 edits)

This was a great game, had a interesting story, good characters and all in all it was very enteraining. But you can't tell me sad-gurl-Mordecai (Tsitsi) isn't best girl cuz she is.

Where can i find the discord link of the server if there is another way and for some reason whenever i click the link in the game its just not responding!

(+1)

"The worst type of loneliness is when your surrounded by friends and family but you cant tell them what your going through" 

-some guy (probably)

 

(-1)

Im so cunfused. this game doesnt make any sense to me. not saying its bad, just confusing. trying to play mochas route ( if there is one ) but im just getting killed by Natalie the day of the band is about to play. what am i doing wrong ? :(

i had this same problem, solution? to get a character route you must spend every day with said character. some characters you cant find on some days which means you have to interact with anothing character to find them, check the 'steam community tab' for any help with figuring out what character routes need you to be where ( im sure someone made one if not ill make one in like a week) the way to tell if you got the 'good ending' for a character is the song 'victory day' will play during the concert, bad ending... well... you die. ( to get a good ending you have to hang out with the same charater for chapter 1 and 2 you cant just switch up, i highly reccomend you get every charater ending there might or might not be another ending :D ) 

hope this helps 

-Chaos

Spent 4 days playing start to end, confusing at times, but progression brings clarity.

I bought it on Steam, and there are still some minor issues with the game, nothing breaking, but for one the Discord link is not working properly.  I want to gush more but I'd rather wall of text of my thoughts on Discord. Be warned of my enthusiasm! ^^;

amazing game i absolutely love it. amazing work

(+2)

Hey loving the game so far just wondering I seen that there 5 nsfw scenes and I would like to know who they are (I'm hoping that the blue jay one) I do have a small issue about the saving as its a bit unfare you can only do it at home but that's not much of a bother apart from forgetting to save XD 

anyway loving it and I'm already starting my own story's with my  character instead I mean persona not the skript persona you made kind of thing (which really is the same but I chose to act it out how I wish for fun I do this a lot with games I love)

(+1)

I downloaded this game a few days ago but when I tried playing it, it didn't work. I deleted it and wanted to try downloading it again hoping to fix the problem but I'm now unable to redownload the game because I can't find it in the library. I'm also gay if that matters.

Deleted 4 years ago
(+1)

Yes! There are guides posted in the discord!

(1 edit) (+1)

Is there a way to romance Kaj?

(+1)

Do you have to actually play the game to get access to the gallery or is going through the Novel Mode enough? I really need to know. Also does anything else happens with any side characters or do you just talk to them every day and night?

(+1)

I just sold a 25 euro csgo skin to buy the 2 volume of this game on Steam. that's how good it is! One of the best game I found on itch.io so far!

Honestly i love the game, it's just perfectly Made. <3

Is Nil a Male or Female??

(+2)

Read the previous comment ;)

(-3)

Ok so at first i wasn't sold on the game but I liked Nil and wanted to see more of him. his ending was sweet and nothing will replace it. so Im worried, if play the other endings will they all end romantically cus I don't want that. Can I just be frinends with them and still get there ending? if posable I want to only romance Nil.

I've been playing this game for a while, and it seems like there's a constant glitch where if I go into certain areas I can't interact with anything. I noticed that sometimes everything will load but I can't do anything, and other times only the characters and background will load, but not even the save/load and phone button on the top left corner. The only thing I can do is exit to the main menu or close the application, but there's no way to go to those broken areas, which seem to change depending on the day/time of day. This locks me out of many interactions and I was wondering if there was some fix to this? Apart from this the game is great

(1 edit)

In Chapter 2, Day 4 for Tsitsi, it stops loading dialogue at that point where it shows the background of green bricks moving to the left. And since it's a required scene, I can't skip it. Can this be fixed somehow?

Edit: Also with Mocha I can't go to the art gallery because the buttons aren't working and I can't click anything, only close the window and load.

Purchased this 1+2 bundle after playing Chapter 1, and fuckin' loved it! The 1 doesn't come with a Steam link though, so when I try to activate the 2 DLC I got with my 1+2 purchase, I'm not able to receive it. Is there a way to get the Steam code for 1? I'm not too terribly attached to having it on steam, so no worries if it's not possible, just wanted to throw this out there.

(+1)

Game looks promising, however it's way too glitchy. it skips a bunch of days with the regular mode. I am trying the Novel Mode now but it doesn't tell you how to do basic things such as saving. I read you guys are releasing a patch, hope this fixes everything. 

(+1)

Just an update we will be releasing a patch with these bugs fixed in the next couple days :)

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