0.55 Reflection and 0.56 Preview

Hi, perverts! I'm super happy to have gotten the final graduation option released! It's been a big chunk of writing looming on my to-do list. Now, the only major big event left to write for the game (i.e. bigger than a horror expedition) is the finale of the plot.

There have been a few bug fixes released since the initial 0.55 launch. If you're running into any issues, try pulling down the new version! I appreciate any bug reports I get, and will do my best to keep the game working smoothly.

I put out a poll a little while back for Center of Attention patrons on whether I should do a public web version of the game, and the general consensus was that I should do so if it wasn't too much work and it would help the game find more players. The implementation turned out to be pretty simple, thanks to hard work from the Ren'Py developers, and it's resulted in the highest number of visitors to my itch page in a week for a long time, maybe ever! There have been almost 2,000 plays in the browser in the week since release, which is a number I'm pretty proud of!

If you want to guide development, there's currently a poll up for $5+ supporters on what my priorities should be. I put these up periodically, and they really do guide my development, so please weigh in if you're able to do so! Patrons at that level also get access to the in-game cheat menu and the ability to make requests for small pieces of writing.

Reflection on A Public Display

This graduation option is the final one I have planned, and it turned out just about exactly how I wanted. The final size of the source file is 3730 lines, making it the biggest of the graduation options. I feel like there's a lot of customization available for this option without the complexity becoming overwhelming.

I made three new outfits for this one, which feels like it might be a bit imbalanced considering that the other two graduation options don't have any bespoke outfits. But I find designing outfits to be a lot of fun, and they provided extra drawing practice and learning opportunities as I start in on what's going to be a somewhat intimidating art challenge; more on that in a little bit!

I wish I could have included Ren'Py Sync in this release. Like I mentioned in the last reflection, it's a very cool bit of tech that lets you easily transfer save files between platforms. Unfortunately, as a new feature, it wasn't quite ready for all applications. Specifically, to style the Sync screens to be useable will require me to upgrade Ren'Py again. This should be relatively painless, and I hope to do it for next release!

Next Release

I'm super nervous about announcing a big feature that I'm planning for the next release, but I think it's time. One of the values I've been trying to uphold in the game is to let you be as queer as you want to be. Way back in version 0.9.0, I added the ability to make your protagonist have a nonbinary gender, and I've provided what I think is a pretty diverse array of partner options. However, there's always been a bit of a normative assumption baked into the game: the person you're corrupting as your main focus is a woman.

If all goes according to plan, starting in version 0.56.0, you'll be presented with a choice when you start a new game: do you want to train Theresa Radcliffe, or Terrence Radcliffe?

A whole lot of the behind-the-scenes work I've been doing with nomenclature and alternate training orders (for more than a year!) has been to support the option to have Terry Radcliffe be a man or a woman. In fact, all of the recent writing involving Terry has secretly supported male and female versions.

My intention is for the experience of each option to be basically the same: they are both cisgender, pansexual, relatively femme, and submissive-leaning. I'm going to do my best to limit the differences between the two to anatomical distinctions. There will need to be minor differences in order to make Terry's backstory make sense, but you shouldn't think of this as a separate "track" to the game: just another angle of customization.

Currently, I don't intend to let you switch between the two at will. Switching someone's gender for them (rather than picking in an out-of-character way at the start of the game) would add some complexity that I don't want to get into right now. If I can, I'll allow for a one-time choice for folks with an ongoing save who didn't get the chance to pick, but there will probably be limits to that thanks to some of the complexity around training.

I definitely want to hear your reactions to this plan, especially if there are some complexities or problems that you think I may not have considered! Some quick things that I suspect might be asked about:

• Both genders will be able to wear every outfit, and Terrence will have his own starting outfit.
• Terrence will have a different version of the "Train X in Vaginal Sex" task; it will be pretty similar to Theresa's, but the anatomical differences are enough that it makes sense to make it more than just a reskin.
• I don't plan to make any changes regarding how other characters react to Terry based on their gender.

Beyond that huge undertaking, I have a horror expedition that I'm working on, "The Crazed Imago," that I'm pretty excited about. It's weird, body-horror themed, and actually prompted me to post a hypothetical question about mirrors to r/AskScienceDiscussion/. The moderators removed it for unknown reasons, but it resolved a bit of a writing roadblock concerning the central conceit of the expedition. It may not end up coming in 0.56.0, but we'll see!

As I continue to go through almost all of the writing in the game to accommodate a male Terry, I'm doing revisions and improvements to some stuff that hasn't been touched in years. This is a great time for you to let me know about any issues that have been bugging you or places where stuff doesn't quite make sense!

I'm always eager to hear your feedback, whether in the comments here, the discussion board on Itch, in my DMs, or via email at phanes@phanes.me. Thank you so much for your support!