Hellbound had to be made, not only for the need to create, but out of how much others' stories have mattered, and still do.

Some major inspirations definitely had to do with my love for Sly Cooper, from it's themes, the world, the style, the characters, what it had to say- *and* it's an early 2000s game, the most genuine kind of media you could find, at least in my eyes. Back when artists made art and art wasn't "content" or a placeholder for mindless money. Back when a creation could just be simple, and that was good enough, because it was genuine and had a reason for being made.

Then there's Bully, GTA V, maybe even The Last of Us sprinkled in there somewhere.

But especially, and I mean especially: Butterfly Soup. Another indie visual novel on itch.io. It's a simple queer story taking place in the early 2000s, and it might seem silly or not worth looking into, but it had such a great impact and gave me so much more meaning than I ever expected out of what would probably come off as just some random VN to most.

Aside from my own passion for story-creation, for all the themes present in Hellbound... Butterfly Soup is the one I should thank for showing me that anything is possible. Hopefully, like the fans of Butterfly Soup can recognize how special it is, others in the future will recognize just how important Hellbound is too. That it's not just a visual novel. It's an open world PS2 game, it's an animated TV show, (If I had the budget). What I mean is, it's everything I could ever hope for. And this isn't even the biggest I could dream.

Maybe someday I'll have the resources to make it something even bigger. But for now, I've brought the most important thing to me to life, and in the best way that I can. With all the writing, all the drawing I've taught myself over the years.

I can only hope others will trust in the fact that it doesn't need to be made by Netflix or Rockstar to be worthwhile. That just one solo indie dev has the capacity to make something just as special, just as real, as the bigguns.

I guess this is to say: I hope you'll love Hellbound! Cus I sure do! (Maybe even more than PS2 games)

To celebrate Hellbound's long awaited release, here's OLD Zyne art, back when he was just some murder-guy with edgy trauma and an even worse bf.