phanes
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Ruin Me 0.15 Preview and 0.14 BTS on Sex Positivity
🕑 Added 2020-05-18 19:48:07 +0000 UTCHey, perverts! I hope you're all doing well. I have some random info snippets this week, plus a discussion of what it means to be "sex positive", and a preview of what I have planned for update 15!
Info Snippets
- The current poll for $5 patrons is asking about writing priorities; at the moment, most folks think I'm doing all right on how I balance different kinds of scenes, but if you feel differently, I'd love to hear your input!
- At time of writing, I have 43 patrons, and I've got a posted goal to release an extra thing for hitting 50: an image game in the CYOA/makeyourchoice style. I'll be starting work on it once the goal is met, so don't expect it immediately on reaching the goal. When it does get posted, it'll be patron-only.
- The patron version got pirated and posted elsewhere for the first time. It's a bummer, but for now I'm not blocking the person who did it. Obviously I'd prefer it didn't happen, but the thought of spending energy on trying to stop it feels gross to me.
Sex Positivity
Update 14 was the one that finally let you have vaginal sex with Theresa. Culturally, and in a lot of erotic games, it's an act that's given a lot of weight; "fucking" is assumed to mean PIV sex, and it's generally-accepted that it's how you "lose your virginity". I'm not really interested in spreading that idea for a whole bunch of reasons, so I did my best not to treat it as some special unique thing, while also acknowledging the ways that Theresa would be thinking about it because of how she's shaped by her environment.
This stuff makes me think about how multiple people have told me that they especially like Ruin Me because of how "sex positive" it is compared to other erotic games. At first, that reads like a silly statement. Porn games are usually all about seeing sex as a good thing to be pursued, and at least on the surface, they don't seem at all prudish.
But "sex positivity" is usually used to refer to feminist movements that seek to view sex as a natural and healthy part of all people's experiences, including women, queer folk, and (when done correctly) asexual or deliberately celibate people. And the truth is that erotic games, like a lot of mainstream porn, actually aren't always positive in that way.
A lot of games treat sex as something that is done to women, or that you coerce them into. Even queerer games, such as those in the forced feminization genre, often have the player character slowly coerced into fetishized queerness in a way that wallows in shame and treats genderbending as somehow "wrong".
There's also the fact that a lot of games feel like they're not written to reflect how people actually fuck. They depict a porny version of how sex happens that seldom rings true to me based on my own lived experience.
That's not to say that all the stuff above can't be hot! I often enjoy playing games that involve gross coercion or sissification. But I think one reason that folks who like Ruin Me enjoy my game is that I try to make it something that reflects a different view and approach. It's definitely not the only game doing this stuff, either! I'm glad that there's room and an audience for more "sex positive" games.
Next Update
I'm planning for version 0.15.0 to have a continuation of the Reform Institute story, including an opportunity to actually meet Dr. Harvey in person. This is the second of three planned parts of this Reform Institute plotline, which will conclude with the transition into Act 3! I'd also like to implement the remaining play scene selected by my Center of Attention patrons, which will have some new bondage play with Theresa.
Let me know if you have any feedback! Have a nice week and stay safe and happy.
Comments
Phanes
I definitely feel okay about folks who take the public version and post it elsewhere for free. It's too bad that they're not getting it on itch.io, where I can track the downloads to learn what people are responding to and where they can automatically be notified of updates, but I do appreciate the publicity. It's more disappointing to have private patron builds available, especially since folks can just wait a week if they don't want to pay. But I recognize that this a thing that happens to video games, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't played a whole bunch of pirated games of all kinds.
Jonathan Wesson
In regards to the pirating... well I won't lie that is how I found out about your work. So if people see the game, in my case public version, and then come here to get the latest update then that is all the best. Sure, it is a pain for you, and if they are making money off you work even more so, but look at the possible positives.
