What would it be like to date a pigeon?

Maybe your Hogwarts acceptance letter got lost in the mail, but there's an alternative: St. Pigeonation's – a prestigious institute for talented birds. Birds of a feather flock together, and they are flocking towards Hatoful Boyfriend, a pigeon dating sim game. Yes, that's right. Pigeons… on dates. As the only human attendee of St. Pigeonation's, spend your sophomore year finding love between classes. What started out as a blatant parody of Japanese sim dating games, Hatoful Boyfriend began its life merely as an April Fool's joke. When it received high praise from its users, however, it was adapted into a visual novel and game by manga artist and writer Moa Hato.

Now, game publisher Devolver Digital has teamed with developer Mediatonic to bring the aviary amusement to an English-speaking audience (with all of the original fan translation in tact, naturally). So you can choose which sassy or salty pigeon is most deserving of your love, and see how it works out. Here, we spoke to Mediatonic game producer Jeff Tanton and business development manager Helen Burnill about how a game about lovebirds became a cult hit. Toucan play at this game.

How did you first come across the video game?

Jeff Tanton: It started from a viral conversation that got out of control, one of our colleges was speaking to the creator about maybe helping her with translating it into English. We just thought the game was amazing.

Helen Burnill: We tried to buy it but we couldn’t download it because it wasn’t available for Mac. We thought if we did it, we can translate it and make it family friendly; we came to an agreement with the creator and it all made sense.

Why do you think it will translate well with an English audience?

Jeff Tanton: It could go in any direction really – one of the joys of it is that a lot of people are going to go into it thinking it's going to be ridiculous, and we get that, but if people are aware of what they're getting into, I guarantee that they're going to get more out of it than they’d ever expect. There’s obviously going to be a section of gamers that are going to hate it, and we have to hold our hands up at that one and understand that we're not going to win over everybody, but I get the feeling that even in the studio people who weren't working on the game and had an opportunity to play a finished version were getting these water cooler moments and getting really insistent about the story and which pigeon was the best.

“We approached it like, ‘Haha lol a pigeon dating game’ and actually as you play it, it becomes incredibly engrossing” – Helen Burnill

Helen Burnill: Visual novels are becoming more accepted, but its not saturated yet. If the markets ready we’ll soon find out if it is or not, but to be honest we approached it like, ‘Haha lol a pigeon dating game’ and actually as you play it, it becomes incredibly engrossing. You pick it up as a novelty to discover the story actually includes horror, mystery, comedy; it’s a bit of everything and it’s actually quite hardcore. The romance is actually fairly light. Its kind of like a gateway to every other thing that happens in the game, and some of it is genuinely moving and heartbreaking. There’s a lot more to it than it initially presents itself as.

What’s so exciting for you about dating pigeons?

Jeff Tanton: The point for us where it flipped is early on in the game, your main character goes for a jog and it flies past these places like a park and some streets, but then just for a few seconds it shows skyscrapers falling into ruin. It  shows that this is based in our world, in a post-apocalyptic scenario.

Helen Burnill: You also get really attached to your pigeon. Also, it depends on what pigeon you're talking about. You have to choose the right one because each pigeon is very specific. One of the great joys is finding the right pigeon for you, and everyone remembers their first choice. Things like, “Who did you go for first and why?” are the conversations that are really interesting, you can’t help but get carried along by it.

You go though all these story lines and you have to play the game more than once. How many different combinations do you think there are?

Jeff Tanton: There are 13 in the original (Japanese) game. But what we’ve done is combined the original game with a follow on which takes a very dark turn. Everyone who has played it finds themselves playing again.

Can you tell me about some of the characters?

Helen Burnill: How can we begin? My personal favorite is Sakuya, who is a French exchange student and has a crush on a dove, you think you two are never going to make it at first as you come from two different places. You’re a Neanderthal cave girl and he is a well-bred dove. I love this story line because it begins as if he is an awful person but you just need to find out why this is. There's also Nageki who is a neglectful student who spends pretty much of his time in the library.

Jeff Tanton: From the thriller aspect, there’s a professor who instantly is a very uncomfortable character to be around. You become aware that he has a really bad reputation and he’s up to no good. But the absolute extent of where that storyline goes… you just can't prepare for how awful this ending is, it’s going to shock you.

I read that one of the pigeons is bisexual…

Jeff Tanton: I think it can be read that way, but it’s the reading of it. You can help Azami, who is a martial arts bird with a biker past, get back together with her old boyfriend, you can win her over. I know it sounds stupid but its wonderful.

Why include that?

Jeff Tanton: Because, why not? The pigeons act as a distraction from it being a real dating game, perhaps giving people a chance to try a dating sim who may have initially felt awkward about playing one. It’s also purely the character that your engaging with, you're not going for a guy or a girl really, you're going for a pigeon.

So, say for someone who is socially inept and not really on the dating scene, do you think playing Hatoful Boyfriend maybe helps them in a way?

Jeff Tanton: Would they learn something from it? What I love about the main character is how she’s played, one of the running jokes of the game is that she lived in a cave, her wisdom is five and her vitality and strength is 800 because she’s a giant compared to the other pigeons, but every pigeon is smarter than her. So the way she’s written is that she’s wonderfully naïve and goes into every situation with an open mind, and what’s lovely about your default character is that she’s free of judgment and it doesn’t matter what crazy things are happening around her, she’s just trying to engage. I guess that’s what someone could take away from it.

Are there any hidden Easter eggs?

Helen Burnill: There are at the ending but most of it is fan service. The collector's edition includes a manga of all the characters in the game, and a yearbook includes concept sketches and drawing from planning of the first game, there’s a lot for the fans to engage with.

There’s a lot of hilarious quotes. Do you have a favourite pigeon quote?

Jeff Tanton: ‘Real men fight in the nude.’ There’s one for me. I love this one because it's only in the Japanese translation: ‘He’s very loving and generous and his eyes look like salmon roll sushi,’ I love that quote.

Hatoful Boyfriend by Mediatonic is available now on Steam