Cyberbulli Post Mortem

I made a visual novel!

Honestly, I'm a little surprised I hadn't done it before now. I've always loved visual novels, and have wanted to contribute to that space. Nearly 15 years ago I worked as the director for a project to make a visual novel adaption of a Haruhi Suzumiya fanfic, of all things. So I had a decent amount of, admittedly outdated, experience with Ren'py from that time.

Over those 15 years, I've developed my skills as an author, writing hundreds of thousands of words of fanfic, both short stories and novel length works. In the past two years, I've finally decided to give original fiction a go, and have since written two novels, one of which I'm hoping to self publish in the coming months.

But visual novels always eluded me, because of the art. I wanted to learn to draw, but I always pushed myself away from it with the excuse "time spent drawing could be time spent writing." And I didn't feel like I could find an artist who would share my vision, and couldn't afford what it would take to commission one. So I put it to the wayside.

And then I read the visual novels Spare Parts, and Misericorde Vol 2. (Both of which are incredible.) And then I heard an anecdote about Xeecee, the author of Misericorde, that they had also read Spare Parts and that's what finally made them decide to create a visual novel.

So in January this year I said fuck it, started doing my best to learn to draw, and started production on a visual novel of my own.

That visual novel isn't Cyberbulli, but a separate, longer project that still has a long way to go. Got 12 chapters worth of script and some rudimentary character designs, but a lot left.

When the Toxic Yuri VN Game Jam was announced, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to actually make a finished project with a smaller scope, and to interact with a community rather than just making it all by myself.

So! Onto actually talking about Cyberbulli, rather than just the preamble.

It was the second completed entry into the game jam, after 24 days of production. I credit my speed to me being unemployed and going pretty hard on it, but also just picking a project with a small, focused, and manageable scope. I already had the plot in mind from when the jam was first announced, and had it outlined in my head. I've got a lot of experience writing short stories, so it was easy enough to just sit down and crank one out. I'd already planned on using NVL style, so I didn't really need to write it much different than I would a regular story.

It took me about 7 days to finish writing, 9300 words. Afterwards I passed it on to friends and family for feedback.

Next up then was the art. With only six months of (not very diligent) drawing practice, I tried to keep things as simple as possible, and using a ton of shortcuts. Lineart, mostly drawn via tracing over the Clip Studio Paint poseable 3d models. To then make it something more poignant and interesting, I decided on the Red and Blue over black color scheme, and am really happy with how well it turned out in the final product.

The pulsing effect was actually done not only with alpha masking, but by layer multiple versions of the same image on top of each other, causing the lines to become thicker, and then that thicker image was what went through the alpha masking while the base image stayed always visible.

Everything from 2005 was drawn in 800x600 resolution, using a pencil brush, and way rougher lines. I decided that once the timeskip hit, to draw in 1920x1080 and use a clean brush, to better emphasize the passage of time, how we're rougher versions of ourselves when we're younger, or something pretentious like that.

The drawing took me about 14 days, for a total of around 30 images plus some variations. 

Afterwards, the rest came pretty quickly. I spent a day or two setting up the script in Ren'py, getting all the characters right. Then uploaded all the images, and fussed with them until they worked, Then did my best to pick out whatever free music and sound effects seemed appropriate. I feel really lucky that I found Killing Time of Ruler, because it slaps incredibly hard as the song for the final scene of the game, and really makes it all click.

I drew a lot from my own experiences, in the writing itself. Bits and pieces, growing up in a small town in the mid 2000s, being that eras version of terminally online, having a complicated best friend thing going on. Taking what I know and then twisting and exaggerating until it becomes a toxic drama.

I tried my best to convey Emily's self centered mindset, to make her almost right in what she's raging against, the injustice she thinks she feels, but the ways in which she tries to go about it selfish and abhorrent. 

If I was to imagine this story going on further, it could probably reach a happy ending somewhere. Emily does exactly what she intends to do, but in the process of being introduced to queer subcultures, Kayla meets someone who isn't a total piece of shit, and helps her escape both her shitty husband and from Emily.

But I'm not gonna write it, so these characters will be doomed into whatever toxic limbo is implied by the ending.

Anyway, I had a blast making Cyberbulli. It's great to feel like I can actually accomplish a project when I set out to do it, and I finally have something to showcase my original writing.

If you liked Cyberbulli, stick around, because I do have a lot more planned. There's a  contemporary sapphic romance novel I plan to self publish in the next coming months. I have a much longer sapphic scif-fi adventure novel that still needs another draft or two but will certainly see the light of day eventually. And I'm hard at work on another visual novel project, a drama / mystery / sapphic romance, this one likely to end up full novel length.

Thanks for reading, and check me out on Bluesky if you want other updates.

Beatrice "Oroboro" Mckinsey