0.48 Reflection and 0.49 Preview

Hello, perverts! I'm glad I got this past release out when I did, because I then immediately got sick.

I mentioned in the release post that I've been dealing with some slightly-scary mental health stuff lately, and that's been going well enough that I was able to wrap up 0.48 and get it out the door. What I didn't realize at the time was that I had already contracted COVID-19.

I've been suuuper careful about infection throughout the pandemic, helped by the fact that I don't tend to venture out from my home much at all. I think I got it very early in 2020, when tests were unavailable and we didn't understand the infection vectors very well, but I've managed to avoid it since. With how the pandemic has progressed, though, I couldn't stay unscathed forever.

I'm fully vaccinated, which probably contributed to me luckily having a mild case. I had a hell of a sore throat, a bunch of congestion, and no energy for much of anything besides feeding myself and doing my best not to be miserable. I'm still a little sniffly and coughy, but I'm finally feeling able to get back into getting some work done.

Reflecting on The Chthonic Swelling

I'm glad to get this out! It's one of those stories which I felt a bit compelled to write out. I've always loved myths and stories about crossroads and psychopomps: old-fashioned liminal horror is pretty fascinating to me and I enjoyed working out what it looked like in the world of Ruin Me.

This was definitely an expedition that centered around the horror weirdness first and took a bit of planning to figure out where the sex scene would go. I think it turned out well! It was nice doing an Act I expedition again, where stuff doesn't get weird past the point of being hand-waved away. I do now feel like I need to add an Act I expedition that involves an apparently-human, femme partner for the protagonist!

There were a lot of allusions in this one. The big ones are "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" by Emily Dickinson, "The Difficulty of Crossing a Field" by Ambrose Bierce, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by (weirdo bigot) T.S. Eliot, and "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" by Stephen King. All great poems and stories that put me in a similar uncanny mood.

This was also the first big release with extensive automated testing, and I think it's paid off; I haven't gotten any reports of big issues and it gives me peace of mind that I can run through the first several days of the game in a few minutes and make sure I haven't broken anything big.

Next Release

The big feature I've been working on for the next release is an expansion to Theresa's routine system. I previously added breakfast with her, and this release will give you the opportunity to check in before bed. Depending on the routine you've picked, you may have the chance to see her get up to some lewd activities or even creep on her a little bit... if you get permission.

Voyeurism and similar kinks are things that I want to be careful to get right, because they can be A Problem if consent is mishandled. There'll be a staged series of things you can get consent for when checking in at night, depending on how Theresa's stats have progressed. Based on the routines you've picked and what you're interested in, you'll have the opportunity to touch her in her sleep (with prior consent!) or watch her with other partners.

There's a decent amount of randomness involved in this system, so for debugging and bonus feature purposes, I'm going to include a new cheat option, accessible to Center of Attention patrons. It'll let you pick the outcome of some random events so you can see scenes of your choice. At the moment I want this to include night-time check-in randomness, as well as the choice of which ambience you see in circumstances like breakfast chit-chat or visiting town. I might also have it apply to the outcome of exhibitionist play. If there are other areas of randomness you'd like to be able to control, let me know!

I've continued working on an opt-in "sophisticated content" entry that will complicate the power dynamic between you and Theresa (and others), adding places where you get teased, insulted, or have opportunities for light, consensual NTR vibes. You can probably imagine that there are a lot of places where that can show up, so I'm not sure if it'll end up in the next release or not. I intend to keep adding it a bit at a time, and once it's set up everywhere I want it, I'll let you turn it on.

Let me know your thoughts on how this release turned out and any feelings you have about my plans for the future! You can comment here or send me a private message.