0.62 Reflection and 0.63 Preview

Hey, perverts! Thanks for your continued support in a tumultuous time. I mentioned in my last reflection that I had a very busy September in my everyday life. October was a bit smoother, but not chill enough to make up for the lost time. I'm very happy that I was able to get a release out for Halloween; I'll talk more about how that went in a bit! The next update definitely won't be coming in November, but I'm hopeful about getting it out before too long.

If you're from the US, my commiseration for our current political situation, and if you're not, I'm sorry about everything. I'm a trans person with loved ones of color, so I'm pretty concerned about how the next several years will go. I'm going to do my best to keep putting art into the world that pushes against the poisonous rhetoric going around.

For simpler news, I've made a Bluesky account: @phanes.me You can follow me there if you're sick of Twitter! It's a pleasant enough place. It's no Cohost, but it reminds me of the Twitter of a decade ago.

Also, I've publicly announced that Ruin Me will be switching to paid! I've gone into more detail at that link and in posts here in the past, but the summary is that if you have access to the patron version right now or in the past, I intend to give you access to the full version for free (but that might change for folks who join after it goes on sale). If you don't have access to the patron version, you can pay any amount on Itch for now and you'll have access to the paid version when it comes out.

Reflection on Leo Keen Eagle

This was one of those releases where I put a lot more work into it than is perhaps immediately evident from playing. There are a few big sections to the release: Leo himself as a character, his play system, and the Citadel exploration that you access by taking the drug Archanum. I have a lot more Leo features planned or partially-finished, but I decided to release what was ready to go out at the end of October and save the rest for later.

Leo himself is a character I've had planned in some form since the game's initial release. Ruin Me has been a bit imbalanced toward partners that aren't male, and Leo's about as masculine as you can get. He's also an opportunity for the protagonist to play a submissive role that's a counterpoint to your relationship with Terry. With all that said, I also wanted to make him relevant to players who aren't interested in submitting to or fucking dudes.

Designing and drawing Leo has helped me improve my drawing skills quite a bit, and I think (or at least hope) that it has translated into a recent increase in the technical proficiency of the game's art. He (along with the rest of the art) is still a work in progress, but I'm pretty proud of how he turned out.

Leo has a personality that some folks might find off-putting, similarly to how a few people have mentioned not liking Meg. He's brash, a boundary-pusher, and not inclined to opening up much about himself. Personally, I find that hot in certain fictional contexts, but I totally get how it's not arousing for everyone. Hopefully those folks will still enjoy some of the side stuff he gives access to.

Play with Leo is something that's gone through a lot of design iterations. If you haven't played with him yet, the basic summary is that he demands an escalating series of submissive acts in order to give you a reasonable rate on the drugs he sells. If you refuse, there's no mechanical punishment (you can still buy stuff from him and don't have to grind for extra Ken or anything) but you'll know you were overcharged in the fiction of the game.

I considered making his payment system more complicated, where certain acts would earn you more "store credit" but become less effective over time, but finally settled on something much simpler: you do a new sex act to increase your Intimacy with Leo, and each time you do a new sex act for the first time, you get credit for two future purchases. Once you run out of sex acts, you can stay on his list of "preferred customers" for free. My goal is to make it feel like it's worth submitting to him if you're interested in that but not to make uninterested folks feel like they're missing out due to their preferences.

The Citadel exploration is basically a little Twine-style adventure game hiding away in a corner of Ruin Me. I want it to be totally optional, but my hope is that, once it's complete, it provides some thematic and worldbuilding insight to shed some light on the rest of the story. It will absolutely not become a major focus of development, but I've enjoyed assembling it so far and look forward to doing more.

Next Update

I gotta say that I'm not quite sure what'll go in this update. I have a bunch of things started, and I guess the update will contain whichever of them are done when it feels like a release is ready! I'll go over the big ones; if there's something you find exciting, let me know in the comments so I can take that into consideration when prioritizing.

Leo's interactions aren't done yet. He needs several more play scenes of escalating depravity. I want to add more functionality to his existing drugs: in particular, I want to allow use of sedatives for consensual sleep sex play. I'd also like to add new drugs, an aphrodisiac in particular. I want to add the option to include Terry (Theresa/Terrence) in play with Leo, either in the form of a threesome with variable power dynamics or as (optional) cuckolding/NTR. Lastly, I've got an expansion to the citadel exploration you can do by taking Archanum, giving more details on that alien world and providing some closure for your viewpoint character.

I have a new play scene with Terry laid out, providing intense sensation play. It'll have a similar structure to the existing flogging play scene. You'll be able to either pleasure or torture Terry, managing their discomfort and pleasure so they don't get overwhelmed or climax too soon. This'll be an opportunity to incorporate urethral sounding into play, if you've done the appropriate training.

The remaining secondary character without a minigame/side activity is Pappy. I'd like to give you the opportunity to actually do some professing by giving public health lectures to local young (age roughly 18-25) adults, inspired by the marriage and sex education movement that was starting up around the era of the game. Of course, in real history, this was mostly a way to control women, but in Ruin Me it'll let you give a range of healthier talks, from simple education to making Terry humiliate themself in front of a crowd. I don't currently have a resource planned for this activity (a la Uneasy Domesticity or the stuff you can get from Cathy's minigame) so it'll probably just be an alternate way to get extra Ken.

I'm going to continue adding more art as appropriate. One notable place where I've been putting off new art is the glory hole in the bar bathroom. I'd like to draw a new "pose" for the bathroom stall that also adds a couple more options such as having Terry join you in the stall so you can watch or help them suck cock.

That's a handful of kind of scattered ideas, and I'm really not sure what'll end up in the next release. That'll depend a lot on which parts of writing come easily, but please let me know if any of these features seem especially cool, as that'll help a lot! I appreciate all the support you've given me. I'd love to hear any feedback you have. You can comment here, post on the discussion board on Itch, DM me on Patreon, or email phanes@phanes.me.