Ruin Me 0.26 Preview and 0.25 Behind the Scenes on Debriefings

Hello, perverts! I was glad to get the last release out. It was a busy week! In this post I'll talk a bit about the debriefing scenes after horror expeditions and give a preview of what I've got planned for this week's release.

I'm taking a break from polls for this week; I've already got a good shortlist of stuff the Center of Attention patrons are interested in. But you're always welcome to offer suggestions, comments, and requests!

Debriefings

One of the tricky things about horror is that it is really well-served by ambiguity. It's easier to make something creepy if it's not clear what's going on. However, in a story like Ruin Me's, where you're specifically an expert investigating local occurrences, it would be really unsatisfying if every story ended in an elaborate, terrified shrug.

The standard cosmic-horror fix for this, making investigating too much turn you crazy or evil, violates some of the values of the game. So I want to let the player character complete an expedition and come to a conclusion without dispelling too much of the mystery.

Besides providing a convenient way to cut away from the expedition's resolution while the drama is still fresh, the debriefings with Theresa let me achieve that goal. The game refuses to tell you what was "really" going on, and instead Theresa asks you to explain things.

To some players, this may feel like the truth is never really known. To others, it may feel like the player gets to pick which possibility is true in their game. Either way, I hope it's interesting, and that it helps to preserve some of the mystery in the horror stories.

Next Release

The most dramatic change I'm working on for next time is the beginning of a GUI update! Since release, the game has used essentially the default Ren'Py look-and-feel, which can seem pretty generic and come across as amateurish. I'm doing a first pass at updating all the styling around the dialogue textbox, the choice buttons, and the status overlay. I'll probably end up iterating on it more, but I'm trying to do the tricky work of deciding on metaphors for everything and picking the general feel.

I've been putting off a Theresa art pass for a while now, but it's time for me to start on that. As I've said before, her kneeling POV pose is probably the weakest one, and I hope I can get it updated this time around.

Beyond that, I'm doing planning on the next minor ruination, another of Dr. Harvey's "birds". I'm going to be willing to leave those partially finished, like I did with the Smoky Glasses expedition, to take some pressure off of myself but still make it likely that y'all will get new writing each week. 

If you have any comments, questions, or requests, let me know! Comment here or contact me via Patreon PM or email at: phanes@phanes.me