Building A Sci-Fi IP Starts With Character
A Cyberpunk Universe Behind-The-Scenes, in FIVE Steps
Preface - A Sci-Fi Body Horror Cyberpunk Surgery Session
For context, I just dropped this music video tied to the story I’m breaking down here. If gore makes you queasy, maybe don’t eat spaghetti and meatballs while watching my version of cybernetic installation procedures to a glitch-fueled trip-hop soundtrack:
If you enjoyed it, hit the YT channel and drop a comment. I read them all and the activity helps!
Also, yes, this is art, it takes hours upon hours and a huge host of learned skills as well as knowledge and artistry in cinematic storytelling, poetry, sound design and audio mastering, technical workflow and multi-media narrative.
This is not a push-button AI cat video. That’s the slop. There is no argument to the contrary that is based in reality.
Introduction
I’m going to handle this post in 5 steps. For reference (and so you know what to expect):
Step 1: Start with Character
Step 2: Build the World
Step 3: Find the Narrative Spine
Step 4: Bring It to Life
Step 5: Honor Your Creation
I’ve timed this with a real-time example of my process in music video form as I’m currently in the process of building up and out this cyberpunk IP:
The Alyte Universe.
So let’s get to it, people. I’m going to move fast, so strap in!
Step 1: Start with Character
Meet Alyte.
It’s difficult to express how sacred this character is to me creatively, because I was in a rough spot a few months back when my subconscious kicked the door down, shoved her into my mind palace’s living room by the scruff and said, “Alyte, meet David. David, meet Alyte. She’s your new muse. Now get over your internal bullshit and go create her.”
This happened a few nights after I prayed and asked God to give me something that I could feel inspired by. Well, honk my hooter, ask and ye shall receive. And boy, did the Big Man deliver. (Also yes, “honk my hooter” when referring to divine inspiration is probably blasphemous but I always thought it would be cool to feel a lightning strike)
This is where it all begins for me. I get an idea for a character. No name, no world, no motivation. A truly blank slate but something about them is compelling. It will not leave my brain, ever. In this case, I saw this vulnerable cybernetic woman as wounded, and I wanted to learn her story.
So I had to make it.
I saw her as wounded through trauma and grief. Guarding herself from ever getting close to people, and causing self-isolation and more pain as a result. And yes. I fully realized after the fact that she was a vehicle for me to express my long-held traumas through storytelling, saying the things I couldn’t find the words to say as myself.
Character first. And without a name or a world, I already knew everything I needed to know about her.
She is afraid.
She is stagnant.
She pushes people away.
She desires closeness.
She longs for connection.
She aches to be seen.
She believes she is impossible to love.
She has been burned too many times to feel it.
She builds psychological walls like nobody’s business
She makes some terrible decisions and hurts too hard to heal.
Her name came to me immediately. “Alyte.” A light. Fitting, if I consider the fact that she arrived as divine inspiration.
So I’ve got this beauty in my brain, what’s next?
Step 2: Build the World
Where does she exist?
I’m a visual person, so I immediately started writing some descriptions of her. Physical descriptions, settling on heterochromia not because it’s “cool” but because it’s a narrative device that fits her perfectly - half machine, half human. One eye seeing the world as a human - the beauty and the pain - all of it. Another, an augmented optical implant, seeing the world as a machine. Cold. Indifferent. Pragmatic. One foot in each world.
I dumped a full inspired description into MidJourney, and in the first set of generations, I saw her exactly how I envisioned. This was the first graphic - before story, before world.
The cyberpunk tone here was not a mistake, of course. I imagined her this way from the get-go. Not because cyberpunk is “cool dystopian stuff” but because it’s the perfect world for a narrative about disconnection and loss of hope. About missing something you can’t quantify. About being caught between human and machine, emotion and action.
For me, this was the perfect environment for Alyte.
This is the world that hurts her. This is where her humanity fought to have hope. This is where “story” takes place. This is where she suffers and struggles.
This is the world, perfectly wrapped around her like such a blanket.
What came next? Well … this is the wild part of being a storyteller …
Step 3: Find the Narrative Spine
“I’m going to make an album!”
My true love in music is for storytellers, and there’s no greater songstress storyteller in my mind than Fiona Apple. So I set out to write lyrics. More than that, I decided to write a concept album, and do it in a style and tone that honored one of my absolute favorites. Introspective. Self-deprecating. Emotional. Raw. Modern sound.
This ended up being Alyte’s origin story. It’s called Undone, and start-to-finish this album sets up the world, stakes, inciting events and consequences in about 30 minutes:
She starts out listless and numb. She falls in love reluctantly. She warns him that it’s not going to end well. She finds a moment of blissful hope. He gets murdered. She gets revenge and …
… it doesn’t make her feel better.
Welcome to Cyberpunk Tragedy 101.
For “Narrative Spine” though, it’s larger than this. Deep within the lore of Alyte are references to philosophy (Descartes, I’m eyeing you), MBTI (INFJ thumbprints all over this thing), psychology (Id/Ego/Superego descent and ascent in the macro and micro), stages of grief (the 2nd album is a literal journey through all of it), and much more. There are layers on top of layers on top of layers for those who need rabbit holes to climb into.
And that’s the narrative spine. This isn’t “hot cyberpunk sad girl decides to be an assassin” but for those who like that surface level sheen, it’s definitely there in spades. Instead, I leaned into deep introspective work, trauma, coping mechanisms, existentialism, an exploration of identity through the lens of everyone’s favorite flawed cat-dad, Schrödinger, etc.
I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that a psych professor could run an entire course on what I’ve created across about 6,000 words and two albums.
That’s the narrative spine, and every piece fits together with intention down to the single word choice, because that’s how I always build worlds.
Step 4: Bring It to Life Across Mediums
Now I’m not here to preach to you
From the inside of a church
And I’m not here to teach you
God knows that I still search
I’m just here to tell you
Since you’re lending me your ear
That everything I’ve always done
Was done because of fear
-A verse from Small Ripples, Track 1 on Undone
-Alyte, in her “realistic” form.
-Alyte, in one of the “anime” forms I’ve been experimenting with.
As if this needs to be said at this point (and I’ve been saying it over and over again recently, and for good reason):
I am not “David Badurina, Author.”
There is far more to me and how I create than simply words. I am a storyteller through sound, through visuals, and through words. Poetry in lyrics, prose and dialogue within fiction, and a communicator in every non-fiction way as well.
So for me - IP is not just “I made this character in this world and here is a book.”
IP is more than that in my mind. It’s every angle. It’s deep exploration of very human themes within storytelling. It’s animation, it’s storytelling, it’s what you see, think, feel, read and experience.
It’s shaping a universe where everything has purpose then pulling you into it so I’ve got a wingman on the roller coaster my brain is taking me on.
Step 5: Honor Your Creation
And here’s the big takeaway, and why I used a word earlier in this post that may have seemed … strong.
Sacred.
Our brains can do miraculous things. We can take an idea, a dream, or a prayer, turn it into a character, build an entire universe, narratives, conflict, dialogue, personality and thematic through-lines and literally nobody sees any of it until we force it to manifest in our physical world.
So when you see a post like this on my substack, with a couple of cool images, or a wild sci-fi body horror video that’s actually a deep exploration of unhealthy coping with grief and a study in identity shaped in a harsh world (just saying) - you aren’t just “looking at cool stuff.”
It’s not just a story.
It’s a storyteller that was hit with inspiration he asked for and honored that inspiration by bringing it to life in as many ways as possible to share it with others.
Step into grief with me.
Step into psychology with me.
Step into identity with me.
Step into my mind, walk around, feel what I feel while seeing what I see and experiencing what I experience.
That’s connection, and that’s why I build universes the way I do.
I appreciate you, friends.
No go create.
This is brilliant, and a real insight into your process. Thanks for sharing.