0.35 Reflection and 0.36 Preview

Hello, perverts! The 0.35 release added a bunch of miscellaneous customization features as well as a new play scene that introduced the first example of lasting effects. I've also run a couple of polls, one for the next minor ruination and one for general kink themes that folks like for Theresa. I've just posted a new poll on what play scenes should get added next.

Some poll takeaways: Urolagnia was a clear favorite for a minor ruination, followed by consensual partner-sharing/cuckqueaning with the woman being the one "cheated" on. People like the idea of Theresa taking more initiative, and also very much want her to experience supernatural sex. I'd like to introduce opportunities for these as side features/activities, since they each had a solid 2/3 support from Center of Attention patrons.

I was a bit surprised at the low level of interest in degradation of Theresa or cuckolding/NTR themes with her. I find both of those hot, but it's interesting to know that they don't have broad appeal even among the rather kinky group that supports me!

Implementation Challenges

I love Ren'py, the development system I use for Ruin Me. It lets me do pretty easy and rapid development of simple stuff, but still allows me to drop deep into Python when I want to do something not built-in to the default libraries. However, implementing the fading flogging marks was actually super challenging!

I don't entirely understand what's going on under the hood, but Ren'py seems to have a complicated scoping and variable state system supporting its UI, which allows it to be super fast at rendering complicated art, even on slow phones. However, this means that it's weirdly hard to tie the transparency of a layer of character art to a variable that's edited in play. 

To display a fading mark, you might expect to be able to do this:

always theresa_flogging_ass:

  alpha theresa flogging_ass_alpha_amount

...but that just doesn't work. The variable that tracks how visible the mark on Theresa's ass should be just isn't accessible to the code that specifies how her art should be displayed. 

Not only do you have to put that code in a function, but you have to reference that function in a custom transform outside of the layeredimage definition. And, once you do that, the image doesn't even update when the variable changes unless you add additional stuff to make it realize the variable matters So the code for a single set of marks is as follows (excerpted from a few different places):

if theresa_flog_mark_ass_a_alpha:
       "theresa_flogging_ass_a" at theresa_flog_ass_a_trans

transform theresa_flog_ass_a_trans:
   function theresa_flog_mark_ass_a_alpha_func

init python:
   def theresa_flog_mark_ass_a_alpha_func(trans, st, at):
       trans.alpha = theresa_flog_mark_ass_a_alpha

So that's all super complicated. It took a bunch of fiddling, and if you're a programmer, you can tell that it's rather cludgy in a way that makes it clear that either I don't understand the right way to do this, or there's a feature missing from Ren'py that would make it much easier to do this stuff.

But the idea of leaving marks on someone that fade over time is very hot to me, so I consider it a worthwhile expenditure of my time. :)

Next Release

The big feature in the upcoming release will be a minor ruination involving urolagnia! You'll be helping one of the "birds" to embrace her fascination with urination. I think the character I've come up with is pretty fun and I hope y'all enjoy the sequence.

I'm also interested in adding alternate versions of Theresa's default outfit, so that she visibly changes over the course of her ruination even if you haven't asked her to change her clothes. My intention is that you'll still have the option to request she stick with a more modest version of her dress if you don't like the automatic progression.

f you have any thoughts you want to share, you can comment here, DM me, or email me at: phanes@phanes.me