Creativity is a weird thing. An artist can plan and plan, but once they put pen to paper, or lips to an instrument, or begin sketching their first character design, the entire project can suddenly shift. Once the ideas leave a person’s mind, they can radically change on paper. And even weirder than that? You have zero idea how any of it will be perceived.

A perfect example is Hatoful Boyfriend, a dating simulator about a human girl in a school full of pigeons. It's free to play now for Xbox Game Pass subscribers on PC.

Hatoful Boyfriend, the popular Japanese pigeon dating sim, is coming to PC, Mac and Linux on August 21. The game is set to cost $9.99, though anyone who pre-orders will get 10 percent off this. Jeff Tanton: We’ve got a few Japanese speakers in the studio, so like most people, we were aware that a Japanese pigeon dating sim existed – which obviously piqued our curiosity.

Rhiannon Saegert / News Editor Hatoful Boyfriend is the perfect game for anyone looking to spend their weekend crying bitter tears over stock photos of pigeons.Created by Hato Moa, Hatoful is a visual-novel style dating simulator, a choose-your-own-adventure type game where the player makes. How The Pigeon Is Making A Video Game Comeback. Now that Marvel’s Spider-Man has given us all a better look at the birds, Joey details how the humble pigeon has quietly been making a comeback in. Swipe left to say “What choice?” instead of saying YES, and the pigeon should then become an option. If not, try refusing all the other offers and then try again. Swipe right for LIKE. You are now dating a pigeon!

Hato Mao, who created Hatoful, didn’t mean to create an international sensation when she released her game. She wanted to make a simple parody of otome games, otherwise known as visual romance novels. Romance novels, as one fan wrote in a Guardian essay defending the genre, “do not concern real life.” Rather, they delve into the absurd.

For people who enjoy that type of delving, getting caught up in the world of otome games and romance novels can hit buttons like nothing else. It’s the type of passion that can be open to gentle parody, which is how Hatoful started.

“The idea of Hatoful Boyfriend came to me in 2011, the day before April 1. I wanted to learn how to create visual novels, and I thought I should start with something short, simple. I decided to make a visual novel about birds, because since childhood I adored them, especially pigeons. In addition, I like to write scripts more than draw, so it was much easier for me to use pictures of pigeons rather than draw people,” she said in an interview with the Russian website Look at Me.

She goes on to describe the game as “originally a silly joke” which very quickly became a big hit. The site hosting the game crashed as word of a pigeon dating sim made its way through social media. With a hit on her hands, she decided to develop the game further.

A few months later, a newer iteration of the game came out. Less of a personal gag, Mao had learned that people really responded to her game about dating pigeons. So she decided to really give people a game about pigeons, one with a fully-fleshed out world and dark secrets to uncover.

After a player gets through the bird-filled puns (teachers saying “Is everybirdie here?” is just solid writing) and meets all the eligible birds of St. Pigeonation’s, like the flirty Yuuya Sakazaki or the slightly mischievous Ryouta Kawara, they get a chance to date and the game ends. Or does it?

It does not. After the credits, Hatoful Boyfriend takes a much darker turn, also in line with some otome games. In a segment of the game that appears after the credits, titled Bad Boy Love, the world of dating pigeons is suddenly revealed to be a dystopia in which humanity and birdmanity have been at war with each other, each trying to infect the other with infectious diseases.

The player learns that the protagonist’s parents, who were attempting to broker peace between the two factions during a hostage negotiation, were shot and killed years earlier. Suddenly, the bodies start stacking up at St. Pigeonation’s, and the protagonist’s past comes hurtling back.

It’s a sudden twist on what’s already a very fun idea. If you want a game that will do more than you’ve expected and surprise you from a narrative perspective, it’s time to accept the invitation from St. Pigeonation’s.

Hatoful Boyfriend is utterly wonderful, and more than a little bizarre. It’s no good if you want explosions galore or a plethora of puzzles — as a tale of romancing birds though? Well, there’s nothing else quite like it.

Ok, there’s nothing remotely like it, but even if there was, Hatoful Boyfriend would still be pretty great. It’s that game that you never knew you needed, but I promise, you absolutely do.

You’ve been accepted as the only human student at the St PigeoNation’s Institute, a school for talented birds. It’s as absurd as it sounds, but much like any regular school, you’ll be splitting your time between class and finding love. You might be human, but the birds can still very easily fall for you. What unfolds is a visual novel based tale of flirting and lust.

Hatoful Boyfriend Merch

That means that there’s a ton of reading to do. You can easily spend 10 minutes or more reading through the story before being presented with any decisions to make. It’s a charming tale though, because Hatoful Boyfriend knows it’s quirky. You’ll enjoy various amusing jokes and tongue in cheek moments as you get to know the birds within your school. After all, this is a school called St PigeoNation. Did you really think it was going to be deadly serious with its conceit? Of course not! This is a game that revels in its light-hearted nature.

Decisions generally relate to things like what class to attend. By attending different elective subjects, you can increase your stats. These then tie-in to what your suitors might appreciate most about you. There are also many times when you can choose to side with a particular character, which leads them to liking you a little more. It’s fun to play around and get to know each character in some way, with you soon warming to certain pigeons more so than others.

Hatoful Boyfriend contains multiple different endings, so there’s plenty of reason to keep playing. Some of these endings are far happier than others too, with the odd detour really proving to be quite bleak. Mostly though, this is a pretty light and fluffy take on the typical dating sim genre. It’s a lot of fun too, as you’d expect from any title that can provide you with the ‘threat’ of pigeon biker gangs.

Rather fortunately, you can always opt to skip some of the dialogue by setting the game speed on high. You won’t want to do this early on, as the fun of Hatoful Boyfriend is getting to know the characters. If you’re desperate to replay simply to see a different ending however, it’s ideal for when you want to skip past a sequence you’ve seen before. Otherwise, Hatoful Boyfriend is mostly a slow-paced experience. That can be a double-edged sword depending on your attention span, but there’s no reason why you can’t play through it bit by bit rather than in one full session.

This iOS version of Hatoful Boyfriend also bundles in an extra scenario and ending, meaning there’s a reason to replay it if you’ve already enjoyed earlier versions.

Pigeon Dating Game

Once upon a time, you might have thought this concept was utterly absurd. You’d have been right — but it’s the kind of absurd that’s immediately loveable. It’s hard to not be warmed by Hatoful Boyfriend’s charming visuals and the quirky storytelling, and who knows? You might just find love after all.