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Thanks !

+ sorry for the late reply

No problem ! Ahh yeah, a bunch of people have pointed that out too, so I’ll probably get someone to redo the illustrations and make it clear that I don’t want any AI used for the artistic stuffs, both for ethical reasons and because of the way it looks. I’m hoping to change them sometime this month (or at least "I" will try).

Also, this is super weird to thank you for, but honestly, thanks for being vague about it haha! It made me take a closer look at the game as a whole, and I realized the reading interface itself had a bit of an AI-slop vibe (even though no AI was used for it), which really wasn’t helping the game feel polished. That was actually intentional because I genuinely loved that interface, but I came to realize it was probably just an unpopular personal preference. So I ended up reworking it into something a little more typical of a visual novel (just for the reading for now), and I honestly think the game looks and feels better overall because of it. So yeah, you actually really helped me, probably more than you originally intended to haha.

Thanks !!

Do you mean just the illustrations, or everything (the novel, the UI, the overall style...)? I’m probably changing the illustrations sometime this month anyway, since I agree they look kinda weird and sloppy.

I'll remove the no-AI tags for now and add them back once I get the new illustrations. I don't fully agree, to be honest, but I understand your point, and I can see how this could be a concern for many players. So I guess I'm probably too close to the project and too subjective to rely solely on my own judgment here.

The reason I used those tags in the first place is that I created all the artistic and creative aspects of the project myself, without AI: I spent months writing the novel (over 60k words), weeks working on the game design, and months developing the art direction. I specifically asked my brother to draw the illustrations because I'm not good at drawing myself, and I didn't want to use AI-generated pseudo-art, especially for a project that means this much to me.

No problem! I didn’t ask him what he used for the illustrations since I figured the concern was ultimately about AI use, not the software itself.

And yeah, about the jams, you’re right that I kind of cheated/wasn’t transparent enough, because I used GitHub Copilot to help me code, and my bro used AI in his drawing workflow, probably too much. To me, “no-ai” meant that the artistic stuff (like writing the original novel, drawing, even parts of the interface, etc.) didn’t rely on AI so much that it took away from the creativity. I think AI can be useful for coding, for example, and I’m okay with that since I don’t personally see it as artistic work. With art, I feel like it can contribute to destroying real artistic work and hurt the arts as a whole, and that’s something we should push back against. Though I do think an artist can use it for some things without the result being just a soulless generation. But yeah, that’s my own view, and it doesn’t change the jams rules or make the tag transparant.

Your previous comment has a lot of upvotes, so you’re definitely not the only one who's concerned by this. I’ll do my best to replace the illustrations with ones without any AI post-processing or anything, hopefully sometime this week or over the next month.

Sorry for the long reply, I thought i had to explain the whole situation. Thanks for the feedback!

He does use a graphics tablet, but I honestly don’t know exactly which software he used for everything. I know he used at least Blender for some parts and AI for calibration. But I get what you mean, some of them look much more natural than others, and some look rly sloppy.

Is it actually distracting while playing? If it is, I’ll try to get newer illustrations to replace the sloppy ones over the next few weeks.

Hi everyone,

I’ve released KISARAGI — Some Doors Never Close, the first interactive novel in the KISARAGI series.

You follow an original story through a dedicated reading interface while gradually building a personal notebook of people, scenes, connections, promises, custom notes, points of attention, and bookmarks, experienced through two distinct points of view.

The story branches into multiple narrative routes, and the game is designed so that separate journeys can be preserved and revisited instead of simply being overwritten.

Features

• A full-length original novel with more than 60,000 narrative words
• A dramatic, romantic, philosophical, and psychological story
• Two distinct POVs
• Multiple story routes and journeys
• Illustrated scenes and character artwork
• A persistent investigation-style notebook
• Custom notes and bookmarks
• Multiple independent playthroughs
• Reading, sound, and accessibility settings
• Desktop, tablet, and mobile-friendly interface
• Playable directly in the browser or on Windows
• The web version is completely free

KISARAGI — Some Doors Never Close

Some Doors Never Close isn’t just a random title.

No spoilers, but... yeah. There is a reason.

I’d especially love feedback on the atmosphere, reading experience, notebook system, and the way the story feels to navigate. It would help me understand what to improve, expand, and refine for future KISARAGI volumes and games.

Play it here: https://kisaragi-volumes.itch.io/kisaragi

Thanks for reading.