0.43 Reflection and 0.44 Preview

Hello, perverts! With some improvements to my habits (including regular sessions of Beat Saber) I've ended up feeling more productive, enough that my main concern on Ruin Me work this past week has been making sure to be kind to my wrists. I'm excited about my plans for upcoming releases!

There's a big poll up for the Center of Attention patrons where I'm getting a current view of what themes and kinks folks are most interested in seeing more of in the game. At the moment, notable standouts are monster-person-fucking, sexual education and facts, and tender/romantic moods. A couple of those might seem unexpected, but I suppose the audience for the poll is folks who already are fans of what I've been doing. 

If you are able, consider supporting me at that level if you aren't already! In addition to polls, you'll get access to the cheat menu and the ability to make requests for bits of writing to be added to the game.

Reflecting on Atmosphere of Depravity

I feel real good about this release, even if it took longer than I'd prefer! I think the events in town make things feel a bit less sterile and lonely. I added a play scene that was a long time coming, an experimental cheat menu for high-supporting patrons, and a new outfit!

Part of implementing town events was creating a custom Ren'Py tag for random options in strings. This'll come in handy in all sorts of places; while I want the bulk of Ruin Me's text to be bespoke, sometimes there are things that happen a lot, and being able to procedurally generate text easily means I can make sure those don't get stale.

For those of you curious about the technical details, the tag is inspired by Tracery; any section of the text can be split into random options and (in the version that will be in the next release) those options can be nested or put in variables, meaning that I can use it as a simple sort of textual L-system.

The source for a piece of procedural text might look like: "As you {randtext}enter town|stroll through|go about your business|reach the main street{/randtext}, you {randtext}see a shadow, slightly-too-deep, in an alleyway|think you see a crack in midair|detect a strange flicker from a window|find your attention drawn to a gap between two buildings{/randtext}. You see there {randtext}a cluster of blinking eyes|an eldritch glow|a strange and terrible figure|an unsettling twist in space|something you can't quite describe{/randtext}, but {randtext}it's gone by the time you get closer|you lose track of it in moments|dismiss it as a trick of the light|just take a note and move on|can't investigate before it fades away|you're distracted by a nearby sound and can't find it again{/randtext}." If you play enough, you'll probably start to spot the patterns, so I made sure to allow disabling them in case they get distracting.

I'll probably post the source for this in the Ren'Py Cookbook forum once I've used it enough to be confident there aren't any major issues.

The cheat menu ("bend reality" in the patron-only Reminisce menu) is the result of interest from Center of Attention patrons. It's pretty rudimentary right now and is intended to make repeated play a bit more streamlined. I ended up just putting it behind a password so that I don't have to fragment my releases more than they already are. I already build a public version and a patron version, and the fewer steps in my (currently non-automated) release process, the fewer chances there are for me to mess up a detail.

The biggest way that I'm going to keep improving my art is to draw often, every day if possible. The #GrisSwimsuit trend came to mind as I built up that habit. It's a fun, slutty outfit design of the kind I like and it's not too hard to draw. I hope to keep working on that routine!

Next Release

As a continuation of my work to make Ruin Me feel more alive, I'll be adding a new (optional) element to the player's routine: breakfast. At the moment, you have breakfast on the first two mornings in the mansion: the first one is when Theresa does the title drop, and the second is at the end of the intro/tutorial. To continue this element, you'll now do breakfast each morning, with Theresa providing a bit of a progress report for the day.

You'll be able to talk to Meg to change your breakfast routine. You can skip breakfast entirely or do a range of sexy and/or gross things with Theresa as part of it. I'll be making use of the procedural text I made for ambiences to help keep things from getting old, since you'll see the breakfast scene often.

The other big thing I've been working on is a play scene where Theresa uses a strap-on on the player. I've gotten plenty of requests about similar things, and having it in the game supports my goals of being super queer. It'll involve some new art that expands the pose currently used for when you're on your back and Theresa is on top.

There are also a couple other bits of art I'd like to add. During urolagnia training, Theresa can drink from a teacup. I'd like to make that visible in her standing pose: that'll be useful for various fluids at breakfast, as well. If I have the time, I also want to experiment with a holiday outfit; with Valentine's Day coming up it could be a fun and appropriate addition. The outfit would be available year-round, but maybe the Tailor would give it for free if your system date is near February 14.

February also means that we're coming up on the two-year anniversary of Ruin Me's initial release! We've come a long way. I'll think about if there's anything I want to do to celebrate.

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 I had a domain issue recently, so if you sent me an email and I didn't reply, please resend it!