(don't want to read the rest? See the "Summary" section!)

Hey, Wannur here. Back after, what? Some years. Let this be a lesson for her in 2018 NOT to listen to people to make some dumb joke game in your head a real thing - otherwise, it'll be big work, big time! And it'll be painful to look back. There were no graphics I properly made, nothing. Development was... murky. And guess what? I was the only one writing in Ren'Py and not being an avid learner! Crazy!

I've kept this game up for archival purposes, just so you know what the basic concept was like, but I might as well discuss my "post-mortem" woes, and everything that went wrong. Technically speaking, this is also a lesson on how people associated with any sort of project can change your perspective on the project, too - even if you came up with the project idea, that part doesn't matter.

Summary:

I can't revisit this project because I'm afraid: I expected too much from myself - only writing and drawing for it by the way, it'll get super popular, it'll be played and showcased by weirdos, people will come to play because some guy who sexualized Shannon played it, and I haven't gotten pleasant memories because the people associated with the project were ex friends from a server ran by a very shitty ex friend (read: predator).

Specifics:

Minor thing, but the fact I made a protagonist character who changes their age at will for ""convenience"" was some freak shit. I didn't know better, but I sure as hell won't make characters like that ever again!

1. I expected too much in development

Okay, so let's talk about the whole gist of the game. It's a dating sim taking place in Boxmore, which doesn't have much characters, but that's like... we've got - excluding Fink, Jethro and Mikayla - 6 dateable characters you'd need to write, draw and make all the routes for. And 3 in-game days with a "daylight cycle".  And the relationship feature. 7 if you count Shadowy Figure - I never really considered him part of Boxmore, per se.

I split the game up to remedy this problem, having 2 per version. Didn't really help matters, especially since I was the only writer. I never really got anyone else to learn how to use Ren'Py, which was good (because all of them either were weirdos or associated with weirdos), but still - if you want to make first-time Ren'Py games, for the love of god, unless you trust yourself and get hired help, don't make games with such advanced features you've conceptualized like THIS.

Especially if you are not an avid Ren'Py learner. I have to admit, this did hinder my experience in writing code, but still! Everything  was hell from the beginning!

P.S. at least I didn't consider making a Kickstarter. 1. My big mistake was making payment optional, even though OK K.O. is copyrighted by TiemWarner and Cartoon Network - and 2. that's where bad Tumblr projects go to die. And have people steal your money at the end. Scary...

2. The cost of fame

(TW: "loli" mention, assault mention - it's of a generally very disturbing OK K.O. fancomic! I've read the Raymond and Ernesto, PLEASE JUST DON'T.)

Dear GOD. The cartoon fandom is already as nightmarish as it is, with dudes who decry ""SJW propaganda"" and yet claim Sym-bionic Titan isn't "woke",  racist NSFW artists (which seem to go hand-in-hand) like Javi Suzumiya (who by the way, has ugly as fuck art), and dudebros who thirst over every single female character known to man - even if she's canonically a teenager. It's not me going "i'm a stupid anti who protects fictional minors over real ones!" , it's just that I'm a minor who thinks any sort of "kids' cartoon NSFW" weirdos and dudebros are scary as fuck.

I just know there'll be a day where someone on Twitter will liveblog how much he's thirsting over Shannon. I just know there might be a cartoon equivalent of a weeaboo thirsting over ""lolis"" where he's too busy making too much NSFW jokes about her.  Instead of what? Being normal with a female character.

But then, I also considered another woe: pr0shippers would mod my game. They'd mod it to have incest and porn. And as someone against their idealogies (believing they are also very bigoted), I have every right to be scared of this when there's a big artist (t/eebsly) in the OK K.O. fandom - who, if having Raymond wearing an "Antis DNI" shirt for their banner wasn't enough - draws comics where he malfunctions and sexually assaults his siblings. (unfun fact: people in my BDS Discord introduced me to this person!)

And guess what? I was blindly supporting the pr0ship artist - and was convinced "antis" were bad people, like people against you until someone told me they're just a pr0ship dogwhistle. I just... man. I still wanna keep forgetting about the freaks that actually invade fandom spaces with their very freaky content. Still hate that rotten side of the cartoon fandom, though. Fuck them.

3. Everyone involved in development was an ex friend

(TW: grooming mention at one point)

This is important because it's the aspect that hurts me, and how I see this project now, at most. I could've just been stuck at the bad side of the OK K.O. fandom for all I care, and I wish I hadn't found Aceofthehills' RP server (I forgot how I found it, maybe for the best??), but the friends I met who happened to know Ace were involved. It all started when I posted images about the joke game I had in my head in the server. People requested that they'd want to make the game a reality, and I, an oblivious teenager, obliged to.

We need some history to add onto why this hurts. Ace's roleplay server was deleted, they made another one on an account they no longer use - and it turns out, on an OK K.O. fan-server, Boopy (someone who cut ties with Ace) expressed their negative experience with Ace. In October 2020 - saying Ace was a groomer, I was still friends with Ace at the time, and in my Disord DMs, they victim blamed Boopy claiming they're a "master manipulator" (using she/her for them too) and that "minors can't groom". (even though that obviously was never true).

I listened to Ace and blocked Boopy, thinking this was the right thing. Later, in 2021 - when I got into the Friday Night Funkin fandom (I was on my now-unused Twitter account, @d4ffy_duck_1/Pointy_Jester_), I noticed Boopy was there. I had to approach them about it, as much as it rightfully upset them (which I regret), but I also approached someone Boopy knew - 4mbii_ - about it. As it turns out, Ace does what a predator does best and twist the victim's words to make them look like the good guy.

I've blocked people who've defended Ace since (including Syl, who had her OC involved in the game), and I'm not sure about other ones who knew them, but - honestly, with people also supporting this pr0ship fanartist t/eebsly (and r/itzees a.k.a. d/arrellfucker), and this guy (tutututu or whatever) who basically was a douchebag who introduced me to those kind of artists, it sincerely didn't help matters. Oh, and the fact their avatars were of the villainous characters from the show, who would hate their guts - I'm... maybe sure Shadowy Figure has been sort of tainted for me.

And honestly, I've associated all those people with the project, if that makes sense? Unlike my next project I tried to execute (in a cracked RPG Maker, which I wholeheartedly REGRET), "Creature Feature", which I'm also no longer proud of and find cringy - just not as involved because everyone else was an OK K.O. fan, who'd rather contribute to fangames, I guess. I mean, the BDS Discord did contain all of these people and was intended as a ""game dev server"", but I'm not linking it for this very reason. I just haven't deleted it for archival purposes - I just don't want to look back.

Overall thoughts

Making games are hard, but they don't hurt. Having to associate your project you aren't even ready to execute, with all sorts of weirdos and people defending predators you thought were your friend, hurt a lot. I know, I could just move on, and moving on isn't easy, but honestly - I feel as if it's best to no longer work on a game like this. 2018 was a rough year for me, and being manipulated by a predatory teenager who can't face the truth in October 2020 certainly wasn't any better.

So, in conclusion: sorry, I'll admit I've made better friends who like OK K.O. now ever since, and I could make a redone "redemption" of sorts - for this concept - with those mutuals and their OK K.O. friends, but it's too late. Wounds like this certainly can't go away, and maybe this concept I've tried to execute was tainted for me. Thankfully, I've lost interest in the show because I can't fixate on it anymore, but god DAMN did the freaky people I meet in 2018 did not help!

Thank you for reading my... lengthy vent, I guess, but