Ruin Me 0.18 Preview and 0.17 Behind the Scenes

Hi perverts! I hope you're doing well. I'm super happy about today's US Supreme Court decision; it's not gonna erase problems overnight, but it's nice to see queer folks legally recognized as deserving to be able to work.

We're about halfway through our current poll on the next play scenes to implement! Folks are really liking the idea of having Theresa dom the player, but a lot of other options have gotten some love. Center of Attention patrons still have time to weigh in!

We're at 49 patrons, one away from my first goal! I'm starting to sketch out what the CYOA image game I'm making will look like, and I need to pick a next goal. If you have suggestions of what the next reward for patron signups should be, let me know; I'm thinking about doing a little Twine game from the POV of Emily Amherst during the events of The Momentary Cabin, but nothing's decided.

Plot and Narrative Moves

Mild spoiler warning for the end of Act II. Skip to the "Next Release" section if you're concerned.

The end of Act II had some plot developments that complicate some of the story of the game. I'm not sure how surprising they were, but as I was writing I found myself thinking about the idea of "twists" or "reveals" in writing.

We like talking about "tropes" or "cliches" in fiction, often as lazy writing, but the truth is that most plot developments are using established ways that a narrative can form. I prefer thinking about these as "narrative moves", things you can do with a story that might be more or less expected but still progress the shape it takes.

Thinking specifically of the Act I and Act II reveals, none of the turns the story takes are unique even in Lovecraft's own work (he was a shitty person, but my work is tied to his). Act I's revelation of a dark family history has echoes of "Rats in the Walls" (and directly takes from Campbell's "The Room in the Castle"). Act II's presentation of a monster as a pathetic servant is preceded by "At the Mountains of Madness", and its use of a shocking family connection has shades of "The Dunwich Horror".

Whether a narrative move feels interesting and exciting or hokey and trite has less to do with how unique and novel it is and more to do with how well it fits and develops the story. I hope that even if you saw some of the revelations coming, you like how they set up what can come next.

Next Release

We're in Act III! That means that I can start working on a lot of things that were waiting for this act's increased scale and stakes. I'm going to be adding new horror expeditions that have a more bizarre and cosmic feel, but they probably won't show up in this week's release.

The big thing I'm confident you'll see is the start of the fourth tier of training, starting with a scene training Theresa in receiving verbal humiliation, as selected by patron poll. Note that training for Depravity and Permissivity 4 will be more broken-up than previously; instead of three scenes on the same topic, there'll be a range of options for individual scenes, and you won't have to do them all to progress.

I've also got a list of bugs and minor enhancements built up that I'm going to tackle, and I intend to at least start on some incidental conversations that will give a better feeling for how things have changed after the confrontation beneath the Reform Institute.

As always, if you have feedback, suggestions, or questions about Ruin Me and its development, please share them here, via PM, or in an email to: phanes@phanes.me

Thank you so much for your continued support.