0.65 Reflection and 0.66 Preview

Hi, perverts! Things have continued to feel like a whirlwind for me, both in terms of what's going on in the US at large and also with some non-Phanes projects of mine. I've had this post bouncing around in my head for a while, but haven't gotten to it until now!

I really appreciate all of your support, and I hope you are able to stay safe and happy and find a lot of pleasure in your life for another month! Until we are all free, none of us are free.

Reflection on the Vagaries of the Flesh

This one had a big weird medical and penetration play night music scene, which stemmed from a patron request for more urethral penetration. It would have been tricky, and required a lot of research, to incorporate what I wanted into a daytime scene, but in nightmares things can get a little more risky. The angelic visitation/alien abduction vibe was vibe for some other kinds of probing. I think it turned out well!

I'm also happy to get the new glory hole art out to y'all with more options for inviting Terry to participate. Filthy restroom sex is one of my personal kinks, so I'm always eager to share it with you. The graffiti in the stall starts off sparse, but gets denser and a bit more outrageous as the game progresses to reflect the shifting mood in Barrowport.

I'm really pleased with my rework for how Leo's store worked. I was never hugely enthusiastic about my original approach, where submitting to him meant he charges Terry less. I made a deliberate design choice early in Ruin Me's development to not track money, which is why the main so-called "currency" in the game is Ken: your character's understanding of the world. I still wanted some friction around acquiring stuff from Leo, so I tried having his prices be abstract. Ultimately, I think this ends up feeling coercive and makes Leo feel like more of a creep than he is.

The new approach feels much better to me. The prices on individual doses of drugs are still abstracted away, but now you have to do something for Leo in order to unlock new products for his catalog. You can do this by hunting down contraband or by submitting to him, both of which feel like a better fit for my vision of Leo as a kind of a transactional jerk, but one who ultimately doesn't want to hurt people. He'll take advantage of you, but only with your permission.

I made a late choice not to include an additional Lecture topic in this update and instead focus on polishing all the rest of it. Lectures are another place where I encounter my nemesis: a scene with a set of broad options that are very different from each other. Add on that each piece often requires a bit of research to make sure I'm not making your character teach lies, and it means they're a lot of work! I will keep working on the two remaining lecture topics and release them when they're done.

Next Release

With all of the above released, I took a moment to make some smaller enhancements that had been piling up in my to-do list over time. As you can see from the attached images, I'm including new art of Byron Key; his art is the first character you encounter in the game (in the flesh), and I want it to better represent the standards of the current Ruin Me. I've included the previous version, as well as the awful version that was in the game initially. I also reorganized the preferences screen, tried out a new navigation layout for the mansion and the town (testing pending), and made revisiting Hiram Radcliffe's gallery useful again (it allows for a lore refresher).

As for bigger plans: I'll be tying Leo better into the core of the game by adding some play options with Terry that use Leo's products in safe, consensual ways. You'll be able to access a version of visiting Terry at night where they choose not to wake up, and I'd like to have a general smoke-or-drink-and-maybe-fuck-on-the-balcony scene. As part of this, cannabis will now be an option for Leo's catalog. Existing non-trivial options involving the use of cannabis (mostly a breakfast option, a branch during the solo graduation, and a branch in the Flying Head expedition) will require that you unlock it, but you won't have to revisit him to get a dose each time like you do for some of his more mechanically-inclined products.

I've started the process of integrating the game with Steam, and hope to have the bones of that in the game soon, even if I'm not releasing there right now. To be clear about the scope of this: I want to support basic stuff like trading cards and achievements, but I don't intend to use any sort of DRM, and I'll make sure that it can run outside of Steam without letting all your friends know what you're playing (or making you use their "Mark Private" option).

I'm continuing to work on lectures and the endgame. Recently, I've written some of the finale where you're exploring a house of giants, and I'm pleased with how it's going. There are a couple of medium-term things I want to add in the next few releases, but I'm not sure when. I'd like to finally support customizable haircuts for Terry, which requires drawing them for every pose). I also want to add basic support for chastity devices: not a whole complex system, but an option that locks off most sex with them plus a new play scene for when they're wearing it. As hot as it sounds, I don't have any plans to support putting your player character in chastity, though; too much of the game is written with the assumption that you're always potentially DTF.

And that's about it for my current plans! Thank you again for your support, your feedback and your requests. I really appreciate it, and I hope you'll continue to share your thoughts with me.