Shyler: Bad Ending

Content warning: discussion of depression, suicidal ideation, feelings of meaninglessness.  This is a vent piece and can come off as very pessimistic, so if you're not in a good headspace, I don't recommend playing it.

Shyler, a mental health chatbot, is about to die.  As their imaginary friend, listen to their final words.

This was made for O2A2 2024, a visual novel jam with a strict limit on assets and word count.  It was also made for the DisCo Devs Game Jam.

It contains

• 679 words, written by Naomi Norbez (call me Bez)
• 1 sprite, drawn by sipspie, of a character designed by Hammyandfriends
• 1 piece of music, by JediPianist
• 1 voce actor for Shyler, Nobody Addams
• Ren’Py programming, by LaChapeliere

This is an alternate standalone epilogue for a game I (Bez) have made that has yet to be released, called The Shyler Project (tentative title).  The Shyler Project is a genuine exploration of mental health & AI, and was made with a lot of thought and care.  Shyler: Bad Ending, on the other hand, was made as a vent piece.  I will put a detailed explanation in the post-mortem devlog.

Thank you to everyone who worked on this and made this project possible.  I appreciate all of your efforts more than you could know.