Ruin Me 0.22 Preview and 0.21 BTS on Promotion

Hi, perverts! I hope you are all doing wonderfully. Things are rough out there, including where I am in the US. Still, I'm doing my best to take care of myself and enjoy life safely and I hope you are, too.

In general news, the most recent poll concluded with a choice of new outfits for Theresa; the winners were period-appropriate options, which I was a little surprised at. There's a new poll up, asking for input on what queernesses and kinks will be explored first in an upcoming part of the ongoing story. The bonus CYOA image game is coming along; I've written a bunch of the text, sketched out the structure, and have started basic styling.

Coming up is a preview of what'll be in the next release, but first I want to share a peek behind the scenes at promotion and my challenges and feelings around it.

Promotion

I'd love for Ruin Me and similar work to be something that can support me, but it's not there yet. Currently, I don't have a day job, and I spend at least a part-time-job's level of time and effort on this game. I'm tremendously grateful for the support of all you patrons, but if I want to sustain this level of work on the project, I need to keep hustling for more support. :D

I have a release checklist that I go through each time I put out a new version. In addition to stuff like uploading the new versions and posting changelogs here and on itch.io, it also includes posts to three subreddits, a Twitter announcement (follow me @PhanesDionysos ), a release post at http://phanes.me , and a notification to the mods at F95zone (a prominent adult game discussion/piracy forum).

This is always stressful for me! This sort of promotion is a necessary task for any independent creator who wants to earn money for their work, though. I usually manage to get everything done, accept any constructive criticism, and avoid discouragement from any negativity, but it can be a challenge.

One particular thing that bummed me out this release is that one of my Reddit posts got removed for inappropriate content, thanks to my still-evolving drawing skills making a moderator misinterpret the screenshot. Given that a lot of folks find the game through Reddit, this was super disappointing and made me a bit down over the weekend.

This morning, though, I caught up with Ruin Me stuff I'd been avoiding to discover several new patrons and some very positive comments, which helped put things into perspective. So thank you all for your support! And let me know if you have suggestions for how to reach new people, and thank you so much if you've told people about the game.

Next Release

The big feature I'm aiming for in the next release is outfit customization for Theresa! There'll be a new minor character you can acquire a few outfits from, and you'll be able to request that Theresa meet you in a certain outfit when you visit her in her chambers.

I've still got some bugs and minor enhancements I'd like to take care of, and depending on how my work progresses I may put together another play scene from the set of options that have been popular with my Center of Attention patrons.

I always love to hear suggestions, requests, and thoughts from y'all! Please continue to let me know if there's anything you especially like or something you want to see. Your feedback is the best way for me to know how to shape my work in a way that you'll enjoy.