Announcing the Defeated Heroine mini-update

Hi, everyone and thanks for joining me for this week's very special public update. Supporters, there's a lot of new information here for you too, so please read on!

First, for those outside the paywall, it should come as no surprise that Best Frenemies, Jessica's relationship quest has triumphed in the School Council poll and will be headlining Missy 0.10. More on that in the coming weeks.

However, I have decided to take the unusual step this time of releasing a mini-update before the release of 0.10. Why? Because I have a new and very exciting game mode to implement, which will be needed for Jess's quest and also requires changes to many existing school events. Having it in place before you romance the uber-brat will make creating that quest far easier. So, let's learn all about it.

The Once and Future Loser

"I don't want to just put a collar around my own neck and lick the boots of every girl the first time I meet her. But I do want to end up with a collar around my neck, willingly licking her boots at some point down the road..."

This comment, made on a forum after the initial release of the game has always stuck with me, as it's exactly how I would want to play things, and how I'd like to design things also. For many, a heroine who fights back and loses is so much more fun than one that's just a pushover. And when this was brought up a couple of times again recently, pertaining specifically to Jessica's relationship quest - a quest I really need to get right - it started me thinking about it again.

The problem, of course, is obvious. How do you implement such a thing in a choice-based game? How is the game to know that the player actually wants the opposite of the choices they're making? I considered a few possibilities, such as using the Missy Personality Matrix to try and figure it out, but in the end, I decided that the simplest solution is the best one. Just ask.

So I proudly present: Defeat Mode!

Like the other user experience settings; Seductress Mode, Narrative Mode and Quest Hints, you will now simply turn this on or off at the start or when you update. When this mode is active, you can safely try to fight back against all of your tormentors, but with a nudge and a wink, so that the game knows you really want to lose. And you will. And it'll be sexy.

How this will work specifically is that events in which you can stand up to bad girls, or, later on, to Stacey and her friends, will now resolve differently if this mode is enabled. Instead of coming out on top, Missy will be overwhelmed or encounter some form of diablo ex machina that will cause her to lose. Enemies in combat, including wrestling matches, will gain ridiculous buffs that make them almost impossible to defeat. If you want the added experience of actually losing a combat instead of just choosing it with Narrative Mode, or selecting surrender, you can fight your hardest, but to no avail.

Some future events will contain a progression system designed specifically for Defeat Mode, in which Missy's willingness to resist will break a little more each time you encounter them until there's no fight left in her and the resist option stops appearing. Learned helplessness is a big part of the corruption experience!

This new mode will require modifications to many events in school. I'm also looking into possibly rewriting the Stacey hogtie events so that Missy can now resist at first before succumbing to her fate. For Domme players, who are no doubt dismayed by all of this, there is good news for you here too: The creation of this mode, and the design space it opens up, gives me more ways to give you what you want as well. For if, for example, you choose those options with Defeat Mode turned off, it can now be you sat on a hogtied Stacey instead! It also means that I can spare you some of the currently unskippable submissive content later down the line by allowing choices that bypass it. So while I'll try and get something new for you squeezed into this mini-update if time allows, do not despair, as you'll get something out of this, even if it comes later.

Up with the Bad Girls!

The centrepiece scene for the mini-update will be a brand new fully-rendered alternate ending to Down with the Bad Girls! in which Missy will lose. Remember that moment when Poppy and her friends ambushed you outside the school, intending to finish you off? Well... I'm sure you've imagined how that might have gone if Malia and Melanie had not intervened. Imagine no more. With Defeat Mode on, the popular girls will not appear in time and you will be dragged off to become Poppy's plaything. She will break you and you will end up her bitch anyway. There will also be a new short scene for Slave to Love in which Madeline and Chloe will catch you trying to leave with the journal.

Defeat Mode won't have much effect on events with your teachers or with Karen. Missy has always been a game about going to a ludicrously strict school and being in a punishment regime at home, and because you have so little chance to win in these situations anyway, it's unnecessary. What you will now see is Jessica, Poppy and the bad girls become seemingly untouchable and invincible, and where defeat mode will interact with school events is in things like teachers being more inclined to take their side in the event of a dispute, or even just punishing you along with them if they're caught bullying you.

I hope you're as excited as I am for the possibilities this new mode opens up. Fight your hardest, resist to the last, then end up on your knees anyway in the Defeated Heroine mini-update!

Trinian