RNG: Glitch | Release Comments

Hey everyone,

I want to start writing a small follow-up post with each new release as a way to provide extra insight and explain some things in detail. Being ‘mono’ in number as well as in name, I have a lot of creative decisions to make by myself, and so things can change unexpectedly during the course of making a new MonoManiac product, whether its RNG, 2042, or whatever else.

First thing I’d like to touch on is the story itself, which hopefully you’ve got a taste of if you’ve picked up RNG: Glitch by the time I post this (thank you!). I hope the nature of the RNG world itself isn’t off putting. Some things behave much more like a video game than in our world, like characters having inventories, the ability to modify themselves and the world around them, or the fact they can ‘equip’ clothing. I’ve run with the idea because it allows for more creative freedom than 2042, where I felt I had to continually create new semi-plausible pseudo-scientific MacGuffins with each character to justify things happening faster than normal, plus I could never truthfully answer the question of ‘where do all the babies go once they’re born?’ without retiring a character to a life of motherhood. RNG focuses in on this question, and offers an alternative, and slightly whacky, incentive for pregnancy that the entire plot revolves around.

It’s a departure from the 2042 ‘comic’ style format, with more time put into building the world around the characters, their interactions and conversations, and better insight into the minds of the characters during certain, um.. events. However, I’m not out to write a novel, nor do I practically have the time to produce one, while also creating the artworks. This entire chapter consists of only 2498 words, according to InDesign anyway, which I’m aware is about 1/3 of what some writers typically label a ‘short story’. My aim was to make this smartphone friendly, since that’s how my work is consumed mainly, and as the production went forward I felt the Artworks were describing things usually included in traditional, image-less erotic fiction that tended to pad out word counts, eg – what characters looks like, what they’re wearing, etc, that didn’t feel necessary in my work. I’m still trying to find the balance with this – “How much world information is needed here?”, “How much should I dedicate to conversation there?” without it becoming overworked – though it will probably be different with every release, since some sections will be focused more on character development or world building, and some will be more focused on the kinky bits. To be honest I’m not sure whether I can even really call this ‘erotic’ when compared to other things, but I’m ok with that, and I hope you are too.

There are also a few differences between what I described & teased in the run up to release, and what I actually put out.

I’ve found that writing the majority of the Chapter before stepping into creating the Artworks allowed me time to internalise what shots I wanted to create, and what I thought they should look like. This smoothed out my process significantly, as I used to spend too long re-working images after changing my mind about a plot point. However my method isn't quite right, yet. The premise for this Chapter, aside from acting as the pilot, started out as ‘neighbour’s horniness is suddenly cranked to 100, ends with mysterious consequences’, which I was ok with at first, but I found the neighbour idea a little basic once I started working on the imagery. I felt there was a disconnect between Amber’s flannel shirt, just-out-of-bed look, and the one seen on the cover, which I preferred. To give her better context in the digital dystopia of Axius I revised the Chapter’s intro to make Amber a ‘Fetcher’ carrying some unusually influential cargo as part of her latest 'Endeavour', a nod to the numerous mundane fetch quests most open world games send players on, and I really liked the idea of Amber assuming the role of a lone mercenary type, prioritising money, or 'NET', over morals. The decision to change her background was a little last minute in my opinion, but was worth it, and required me to go back over a few artworks to swap out her flannel shirt for her cover outfit, then re-render, and post process, hence the delay with release (I initially predicted last weekend). Accurate cloth simulation for each artwork takes time, but I refuse to dumb down my clothing creation process as I feel it’s a million times better looking than some of the pre-built outfits artists buy online that look painted to the characters, especially when they start filling them out a bit, if you know what I mean. I did like the flannel shirt though, so it might return in a future Chapter.

I decided to cut ‘nude versions’ from my release plans because they take more time than I personally feel they’re worth. You can practically see Amber’s body outlined in her skimpy outfit anyway, and there are already some nice contextual shots in there with her milkers on show. Everything in moderation I guess? Again, ‘equippable’ clothing defies the laws of physics, being instantaneous (if the Resident wishes. Stripteases are still an option) so creatively I won’t be stumped with the question of “If this is just supposed to be a quickie, and there’s a chance they’ll get caught, why have they taken that off?” There will always be opportunity for some nudey bits in each Chapter.

Because I’m offering less than I suggested initially, with the removal of the nude extras, and the tighter word count, I slashed the price a little from the proposed £7 GBP to £5 GBP.

Oh, and it’s Sinclair, not Reynolds anymore. I just grew to hate the surname attached to her, no offence to any Reynolds out there.

I think I’ve covered everything I wanted to say here, so the only thing left to say is thank you for the continued support, and I hope you enjoy what I’ve put together for this first Chapter.

Mono x

TL;DR: World doesn’t follow our rules, game-like. Format is still being fine-tuned. Artworks needed revised due to last minute writing changes. Extra nudes dropped, price reduced.