Hey everyone! I'm xlllida, the solo dev behind the kemonomimi otome VN Petting Lover. The Kickstarter campaign has entered its final 48 hours and I wanted to share the news here one last time.

When the KS first launched, a kind community member made a post about PL here, so some of you may have already seen it (thank you again 🥺). If you haven't yet, the demo is free to try and any support means the world. If we can push a bit further, Ark's route would have the budget to be fully realized too.

✨ Kickstarter: [link]

✨ Steam (demo): [link]

✨ itch.io: [link]

Thank you so much for reading 🐾

(Side note: I tried to use the "crowdfunding" flair when posting but couldn't find it, so I went with "news". If anyone knows how to switch the flair to crowdfunding I'd really appreciate the heads up!)

I spent years in animation school learning to tell stories one frame at a time. But the longer I worked in animation, the more I noticed something missing. Every story I loved was a story I could only watch.

I'm also someone who loves animals deeply, but my life right now doesn't allow me to actually keep any. So a year ago I started teaching myself Ren'Py, because I knew the game I wanted to make was the one I couldn't have in any other form, a story where the characters look back at you, react to your hand, remember how you treated them. Something only games can do.

Petting Lover is a kemonomimi otome visual novel set in a veterinary university. You play a new student tangled up with three boys, each connected to a different animal, each carrying something they're not ready to tell you yet. The part I'm most proud of is the petting mechanic: a system built into the CG scenes where touching the love interests actually does something. Where you touch, how long you linger, when you do it, it all shapes how they respond. One leans into your hand without thinking. One pretends he doesn't notice. One bites.

The mechanic came out of me missing my favorite thing about animation: the feeling of inhabiting a moment with a character, and trying to push it past what animation lets you do. In a film you watch the moment. In a VN you read it. I wanted players to do it. To have the moment respond to them. Making this is the first time as a creator I've felt like the medium can actually do what I wanted it to do.

I'm handling almost everything solo, writing, art direction, animation work, production. My closest friend Luna is doing the music; we've known each other since we were teenagers, and getting to build something together has been one of the most meaningful parts of this whole project.

We're currently live on Kickstarter, around 85% funded with 117 backers, and heading into our final week. This is my first commercial game and I'm building everything from scratch, so every backer genuinely means a lot.

✨ Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436151449/petting-lover

✨ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4185860/Petting_Lover_Demo/

If you're into kemonomimi, slow-burn romance with secrets, otome with actual mechanical depth, or just stories where you can finally reach back into the screen, this one's for you 🐾

Hey everyone!

Some of you might remember my V1.3 demo update post here a few months ago, I'm back with another progress update, because Petting Lover has hit a few new milestones and we're also entering the final week of our Kickstarter campaign 🌸

Short recap: Petting Lover is an indie kemonomimi otome / VN set in a veterinary university. You play a new student tangled up with three boys: Dane (loyal dog senior 🐶), Ark (rabbit professor, gentle & brainy 🐰), and a cat LI 🐱, each connected to a different animal, each carrying something they're not ready to tell you yet.

🌸 What's been happening since V1.3

Demo V1.35 (live now):

• Chinese voice acting added for Dane and Frey
• Mac build alongside Windows
• General polish pass on the prologue

Demo V1.4 (in active development, this is the big one):

• First chapter that includes the actual Petting System — the touch-interactive CG mechanic the game is named after
• Currently testing the first interactive CG scenes: where you touch, how long you linger, and when you do it all shape how the LI responds
• One leans into your hand. One pretends he doesn't notice. One bites.

Honestly this part has been the hardest and most personal part of development. The whole reason I started teaching myself Ren'Py was to build a VN where intimacy isn't just narrated, it's something the player actually does. Watching the first version of it come together in code has been surreal.

🐾 Kickstarter — final week

We're currently at around 85% funded with 117 backers, heading into the final 6 days. The funding is what unlocks the rest of voice acting, the remaining CGs, and the budget I need to keep developing instead of stopping to take freelance.

✨ Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1436151449/petting-lover

✨ Steam (demo): https://store.steampowered.com/app/4185860/Petting_Lover_Demo/

💭 Feedback I'd love

• For fellow Otome devs: How did you handle the moment when a new core mechanic first transitions from "concept" to "actual playable build"? V1.4 is my first time integrating a mechanic this central into the existing demo flow and I'd love to hear what other devs experienced.
• For anyone who's played the demo: If you've tried V1.35 and have any thoughts on what you'd want from the Petting System chapters, what kinds of interactions would feel meaningful to you? I'm still tuning the design.

Thanks for letting me share the journey here as always 🐾