Hey! Thanks so much for playing and for the kind words about the lore and character designs!
About your question... Call me living under a rock, but I really had very little knowledge about the furry community or that humanoid animals were so heavily associated with it. This is just a style I grew up with and find fun to use! Games like Five Nights at Freddy's, Animal Crossing, or even Sonic. They all use humanoid animals, and in the case of FNaF, it's a horror game that uses this style without really being called 'furry'.
I just had a cool story idea, needed to choose species that fit the mascot horror vibe for their monster forms... and poof, the Feralpals were born, completely outside the knowledge of the furry fandom.
So why am I clarifying it's not a furry game? Mostly so people don't assume I am a furry myself. See, my name is Polypaw and my persona resembles a cat. I picked that name a long time ago out of love for my real-life cat, and 'Poly' stands for Polygons! Again, completely unaware of the furry thing. Now I'm established with this name, so I'm sticking with it (and I do still love it!).
But when people see an animal game + the name Polypaw, they jump to 'the creator is a furry.' I just didn't want people to assume I only make furry content or belong to a community that I'm not actually part of. When you aren't in a specific group, you just prefer people don't assume you are!
At first, I kinda panicked and started saying 'not a furry game' everywhere because it was my first time dealing with internet labeling like this. Now I realize I was overthinking it and it's really not that big of a deal, Just explaining it once here is enough for me.
That being said... thanks for playing the game! No offense to your community at all, and I really hope you continue to enjoy the game and the lore for what it is! :D