Butterfly Soup

***It's Not Fun Getting Spoiled***

*"You! I can't believe you've done this! I ought to report you to the authorities."*
**The majority of this page contains spoilers for **Butterfly Soup** that could negatively impact your gameplay experience. It's recommended to play and finish the game first before reading this page, in order to enjoy the game fully.**

***Butterfly Soup*** is a name-your-own price visual novel developed and produced by Brianna Lei using the *Ren'Py Visual Novel Engine* and distributed through *itch.io*. The first demo was released on May 5, 2017 and the final game was released on September 16, 2017.

The game is available on PC, Mac, Linux, Android, and iPad. An unofficial web and Android port of the game was created by HackerNCoder. It was published on *itch.io* under Brianna's profile on February 3, 2021. The unofficial iOS, iPadOS, and M1 Mac port of the game was created by June Murakami and was published to the App Store on October 29, 2021. The game is available in English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Indonesian, Polish, and Farsi. Its playtime is around three to four hours. A content warning is listed on the itch.io game page.

The development of a sequel, titled *Butterfly Soup 2*, was announced on February 2018. Lei announced through Twitter that the sequel will be released on October 29, 2022. The sequel was released on October 29, 2022 at 12:06 pm PDT.

## Synopsis

*Butterfly Soup* is a romantic sports visual novel about four LGBT+ Asian-American teens playing baseball and falling in love. With California’s 2008 Proposition 8 debate as a backdrop, the story switches through the perspectives of Diya, Noelle, Akarsha, and Min-seo as they navigate high school life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

## Plot

The following perspectives are written in chronological order with gameplay:

* Diya
* Noelle
* Akarsha
* Min-seo

The game starts during the summer between 3rd and 4th grade in the perspective of Diya. The screen opens up to show a hand-drawn younger Min-seo, her back to the camera holding knives. With the theme of Sleeping Beauty, Diya describes Min-seo as a young princess who likes weapons and threatens everyone by stealing and breaking their things. Fantasy Princess Min is cursed to die from a spindle and 'sure enough, one day, like a total idiot', Fantasy Min touches one. Real-life Young Min breaks character and proclaims that 'THIS IS THE WORST STORY IN HISTORY', refusing to die from a spindle-like Sleeping Beauty is supposed to. She announces that she is going to escape, to which Young Hayden, roleplaying as an Evil Dragon, tells her she's not allowed to do that as he's right there to stop her. Min confuses Hayden by saying she's already killed the Evil Dragon with a gun, which according to Hayden, she didn't have. Min retorts by saying she made one out of rocks, silencing Hayden and bringing forth Young Jun-seo, Min's twin brother, to reason with her that it's impossible. Min doesn't care whether her rock gun is realistic or not, announcing that she's won the game due to her gun. Diya, Jun-seo and Hayden are unable to reason against Min-seo's logic and agree to restart the roleplay with Diya as the new princess to be rescued. Diya questions the others as to why she was the one chosen to be the princess, according to Min it's because she's pretty and cute how her hair curls, 'it makes you look like a princess'. Hayden simply reasons that it's because she's less violent.

With the new restart of the children's game, we learn that Fantasy Princess Diya is timid and quiet, not because she didn't have anything to say, but because 'she was afraid if she opened her mouth, something would come out that shouldn't'. We also find out about rumours that Fantasy Princess Diya has a six-pack under her shirt due to her being so athletic. Fantasy Princess Diya pricks her finger on a spindle and falls into a deep sleep. Min wakes up Fantasy Princess Diya by yelling at her, making Evil Dragon Hayden laugh as 'only the hero can wake the princess up. Min proclaims herself the hero, confusing the others as they assumed Jun would be the hero since he's a boy and Min is not. Hero Min announces Jun to be a gun, grabbing his arm and aiming it at the Evil Dragon Hayden, pretending to shoot him with a 'BANG!'. Evil Dragon Hayden deflects Hero Min's bullet with his own bullet, confusing Jun as Evil Dragon Hayden is a dragon and physically is unable to hold a gun. Fantasy Princess Diya arises with a gun of her own and the player is given the options to:

* Shoot the Dragon (Hayden)
* Shoot Min (the Hero)
* Shoot Jun (the Gun?)
* Shoot the deflected bullet

Like every other option in the game, the player's choice does not affect gameplay. The bullet is shot at Evil Dragon Hayden who, with his stronger than tank armour, makes Fantasy Princess Diya's bullet bounced right off of him. Gun Jun thinks the situation is getting too out of hand and tries to reason with the others to be realistic, but is interrupted by Hero Min who claims that 'WEAPONS SOLVE EVERYTHING'. She makes a new figurative gun out of rocks, replacing Gun Jun, and shoots her gun at a smaller gun which shoots out a knife which explodes and injures Evil Dragon Hayden's elbow. This leaves him open for attack and Hero Min-seo lunges at Evil Dragon Hayden, who sidesteps and runs up the steps to the slide. He stands with his back to the wall, giving Hero Min difficulty in trying to 'kill' Evil Dragon Hayden. Diya sees that Hero Min is having difficulty and offers her help, quickly and loudly rejected by Hero Min. Evil Dragon Hayden evades Hero Min again and Hero Min trips and faceplants on the bridge, shocking Diya. Fantasy Princess Diya picks up Evil Dragon Hayden and tosses him off the playground equipment. Replaced Gun Jun tells her she cannot do that since she is a princess, but Fantasy Princess Diya throws him over the side of the playground equipment too. Min picks herself up, unaware of what Diya did, and questions where the boys are. Fantasy Princess Diya puts it down to the castle being under construction and a balcony collapsed, satisfying Min. Hero Min attempts and struggles to carry Fantasy Princess Diya down the slide, but Fantasy Princess Diya patiently goes along with it. Fantasy Princess Diya asks how she can repay Hero Min, but before Min can ask for a kiss, they fall out the bottom of the slide headfirst.

The game switches from real-time to Diya's thoughts. As the two kids lay down on the floor from their fall, Diya describes in her thoughts how she finds herself boring but sees Min as cool. She points out the person playing the game the sharpie tattoo of a giant dagger on Min's arm. She explains that in class, Min makes ninja stars out of binder paper, staples them so they hurt more and throws them at people. Diya notes that Min has never thrown a ninja star at her and believes that's it because they're the only two girls who like baseball. Diya announces that she likes Min.

The scenery changes and it is presumed that there has been a time skip. Diya, Min-seo are talking as they watch a professional baseball match. Min notes how it will be her and Diya out there on the pitch when they are old enough, which Diya says is unlikely since Min-seo's Parents won't let her join Diya's team since she's a girl and Diya will become a doctor or engineer as an adult, according to Diya's parents' goals for her. Min dismisses this as her parents told her to pass her math test, but she failed anyway. Diya tells Min that she shouldn't be proud of that and asks how she is able to cope with disappointing her parents like that since paternal disappointment is Diya's worst fear. Min says if that is the case, Diya's parents 'effed up' since she should be able to do what she wants without fear of judgment. Diya considers Min's advice as selfish, but Min retorts by saying it isn't selfish to choose her own destiny. This silences Diya and she wanders into her own thoughts again, telling the player their current location (Oakland Coliseum) and who they're there with (Min, Jun and Min's dad). Diya explains that Oakland is in California, thirty minutes-or-so away from San Francisco. The player is brought out of Diya's thoughts by Min telling Diya that she has something important to tell her before she quickly doubles back on what she said and tells Diya to forget it. This confuses Diya, but Min quickly changes the topic and asks Diya if she's having and if she's hungry. Diya notices this distraction and says it won't work on her, insisting Min continues with what she was about to say. Despite Diya refusing to fall for a distraction, she agrees to go with Min to get popcorn, a snack that she likes, and share it between the two of them.

The screen pans backwards to give a wider shot of the coliseum and the sight of Young Min and Diya sitting next to each other in a row, Min with her feet on the chair in front. This screen becomes the first interactive location and the player can choose to talk to Min or look at the baseball diamond, the empty seat next to Diya and a woman nearby.

    *Interacting with the empty seat triggers small talk between Diya and Min which reveals that the seat is Jun-seo's. The seat is currently empty as he went to go use the toilet with Min's dad. By looking at the woman, Diya notes that she is cradling what appears to be a dog. She goes to investigate but is disappointed to find it's just a baby.*

To be added (any help is appreciated)

To be added (any help is appreciated)

To be added (any help is appreciated)

## Recognition and press

* IGN Japan Best Indie Game of 2019
* IGF Excellence in Narrative Finalist 2018
* PC Gamer Best Visual Novel 2017
* Exhibited at RAINBOW ARCADE, Schwules Museum Berlin (December 2018 – May 2019)

## Trivia

* The art in the game was made with Clip Studio Paint and Adobe Illustrator. The sounds were edited with Audacity. A lot of the sound effects are actually taken from the Ace Attorney game series.
* The sprites were intended to blink but were sadly never implemented into the actual game.
* The game was supposed to be set in fall of 2008 when they’re in high school albeit with many artistic liberties when it came to the references.
	+ The IGF trailer video is especially modern-day meme-wise – since it broke the 4th wall. Brianna advises not to think too hard about it.
* When asked about song selections that didn't make it into the final game, Brianna stated that she wanted to put a lot of 90s and early 00s hits in the game for the nostalgia factor, such as Complicated, Rock Your Body, Dilemma, etc.
* Before using *Ren'Py*, development started on *Twine*, but the platform was changed after finding it unsuitable for a game as long and image-heavy as *Butterfly Soup*.
* The working title of the game was initially Queen of Diamonds. Brianna liked it for the puns (diamond/diyamin, etc.), but had to change it because the tag was already filled with random stuff like Marina and the Diamonds. Another reason was how easy it was to get wrong and how people would misremember it as “Queen of Hearts”, “Queen of Diamond”, etc. Finally, it made it sound like Diya and Min were more important than Noelle and Akarsha.
* Most of the reference photos in the game were taken by Brianna herself, with only a few of them being stock photos.
* Brianna initially wanted a scene set at Chinese school in the story, but she couldn’t figure out how to work it in.
* A lot of the game's events come from Brianna's personal experience mixed with fiction.
* There were a lot of major changes between the beginning and end of the project:
	+ Brianna's initial vision of the game was in Diya’s POV the entire time.
	+ The main conflict of the story was originally between Diya and Min. Min somehow accidentally hurt Diya and was super guilty over it, making the overall story really angsty. Brianna had a lot of trouble making it sound convincing, and realized Min/Noelle drama made way more sense.
	+ Akarsha and Noelle were originally supporting characters, but their personalities were so strong they clawed their way up to being main characters like Diya and Min.
* None of the characters in *Butterfly Soup* have last names. Brianna states that they probably never will.
* All the characters in the game were created by Brianna. For some specific details regarding creating characters with different ethnicities, Brianna had help from the internet and friends.
* Different pitches to the typing sounds are used whenever there's different character dialogues. Even if the pitches aren't consciously noticed/remembered, Brianna states that it makes it much easier to intuitively tell who’s speaking and when a speaker has changed.
* The entire game itself was roughly made by Brianna before the demo version was released. She took about two weeks to add sprites and temporary background art to the beginning, safely hid the still-artless rest of the game away, and ended up with the finished demo.
* Its presskit can be found here.

## Gallery

Butterfly Soup Main MenuGameplay ScreenshotGameplay ScreenshotGameplay Chat ScreenshotGameplay Chat ScreenshotJapanese MenuButterfly Soup IGF videoEnd Scene[From left to right] Diya, Min-seo, Akarsha, NoelleHeightsDemo HomescreenDemo Gameplay ScreenshotDemo Gameplay Chat Screenshot
## References

1. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/161188209029/butterfly-soup-demo-download-a-rough-demo-of-my
2. ↑ https://brianna-lei.itch.io/butterfly-soup/devlog/9706/butterfly-soup-is-coming-out-this-saturday-916
3. ↑ https://brianna-lei.itch.io/butterflysoupports
4. ↑ https://apps.apple.com/app/butterfly-soup/id1589764664
5. ↑ https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/28/developer-of-indie-hit-butterfly-soup-talks-sequel-plans/
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/brii\_u/status/1570819930949312513?s=20&t=QFrY1YAXfPzSt5oVpQqsJA
7. ↑ https://fluorescent-jay-d9e.notion.site/Butterfly-Soup-d549d245c374463b97b5d31537fac04e
8. ↑ https://href.li/?http://IGN%20Japan%20Best%20Indie%20Game%20of%202019%20-%20Butterfly%20Soup
9. ↑ https://href.li/?http://IGN%20Japan%20Best%20Indie%20Game%20of%202019%20-%20Butterfly%20Soup
10. ↑ https://www.pcgamer.com/best-visual-novel-2017-butterfly-soup/
11. ↑ https://fluorescent-jay-d9e.notion.site/Butterfly-Soup-d549d245c374463b97b5d31537fac04e
12. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/ButterflySoupFAQ
13. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166727493239/butterfly-soup-asks-16
14. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/166346368104/butterfly-soup-asks-14
15. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165996723949/butterfly-soup-asks-batch-10
16. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165821767019/butterfly-soup-asks-batch-8
17. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165771377569/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-7
18. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165753625584/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-6
19. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165607241839/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-4
20. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/165575212264/anonymous-butterfly-soup-asks-batch-3
21. ↑ https://brianna-lei.tumblr.com/post/163693800899/hi-i-recently-played-butterfly-soups-demo-and