0.44 Reflection and 0.45 Preview

Hi, perverts! I hope you're all doing well. I've had a bit of a chill week; I wanted to get this release out on Valentine's Day, which meant I worked more over the weekend than I normally would. I've been taking it a bit easy to recover from the mild crunch and make sure I don't burn myself out.

There's a new poll up for Center of Attention patrons asking what my priorities should be on which features to work on in the game. The themes/kinks poll was enlightening, and I'm hoping to get useful feedback on this one, as well! If you have thoughts about what category of stuff you want me to add next, consider supporting me at that level and putting in a vote!

Reflecting on Valentine's Breakfast Perversion

I'm super proud of this one! As I mentioned, I crunched a little bit on it, but I didn't want to drop any of the features I had planned.

I put together one last play scene that was a bit glaring in its absence, meaning that the one remaining obvious missing scene is one involving oral sex. I think adapting an existing pose to a new purpose worked out well.

The night music scene I added completes a set: there's now one night music scene per possible level of Theresa's Permissivity. It also features tentacles, which I don't believe have been a proper focus of the game's writing since The Mica Sign, the very first expedition that was included at release!

I put out an experimental holiday outfit, which I think turned out looking pretty good! I'm not sure how interesting folks found the idea; my hope is that having some time-linked stuff will encourage people who've been putting off trying the game to check it out. I don't know how many more I'll include, but I think I still like the idea.

Breakfast is done! It exists in part to provide a bit more rhythm and justification for the day/night cycle, hopefully giving a sense of time in the same way that ambient town events gave more of a sense of place. Plus, it let me indulge my love of gross stuff like cum in food.

I feel like the weakest part of breakfast, at the moment, is the small talk with Theresa after food has come. It provides an opportunity for her to give nudges toward progressing the game, but if there aren't any nudges available then there are a limited number of possible random quips she can deliver, and I think they definitely show their procedural nature before too long.

I don't want players to get tired of her breakfast quips or have their disbelief unsuspended, so I think I'll continue to work on that aspect of breakfast to make it a bit more rich.

Next Release

We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of Ruin Me's first release! The first post here was on Feb 24, 2020, in a very different time. The game has come a long way since then! As a way to celebrate that, the next release will focus on a lot of cleanup and improvements that have been waiting for some time.

One thing I hear a lot is that Ruin Me doesn't present itself very well. General art quality aside, the "cover art" and the initial few screenshots don't give new folks a very good idea of what the game is like and what people like about it. A big way I think I can address that is with some time spent on branding.

Over on Twitter, I posted some of the sketches I've been doing for a logo. This art, when finished, will appear on a redone title screen as well as the itch.io page and some other places. It should hopefully convey "weird sexy horror" a bit better than the current, more generic artwork.

Revamping the title screen will extend to the menus, where I'd like to add a section for patron credits. Recognizing that porn games are not something everyone wants to be linked to in the open, I'll make sure not to include anyone who hasn't specifically requested it. I'll figure out the best way to elicit folks' preferences in that department sometime soon.

I'd also like to freshen up the journal screen, finally finishing the UX overhaul I started a while back. That'll hopefully make it a bit prettier and easier to keep track of what tasks you're doing and which you've done.

Regarding actual writing: it may be a bit light this time! I want to give Theresa's post-breakfast quips some more attention, and I may end up with thoughts for a small scene or two to add, but I wouldn't expect anything very substantial this time around. Bugfixes and polishing will be my focus.

As always, please let me know if you have any issues, suggestions, or comments! You can reply here, DM me on Patreon, or email me at: phanes@phanes.me