Game Project Materials

Thank you for the feedback. Your concerns are understandable. There are some ideas I want to bring to fruition in the game that would appeal to sensibilities like yours (allowing for less tedium, less humiliation aspect), but I don’t want to put on airs that the game will appeal to absolutely everyone, never mind the fact that what I want to implement and what can be reasonably implemented are two different things. All I can really tell you is to wait and see. It’s hard to get across what exactly the game will be like especially in an in-development state, and even if people see all the information I’ve put out and say they’re interested, it hardly means they’ll like the end result with absolute certainty. As such the poll can only hold so much importance, and doesn’t mean everything. Whatever the results were, however, I would continue the project, as the idea of making a WG game is older than all the art I’ve posted online. This was more for deducing how open patrons are to the idea of the project and deciding how and what would be posted here in the future, and to a certain extent how much effort is allotted to gamedev rather than art.

Orri

But I want to add anyway that I think as a general principle people should apply their creativity how they want. I see nobody voted for uninterested, and thinking about it I assume your idea was that if most/enough people voted for being uninterested you'd maybe drop the game, or work way less on it, to focus on individual drawings like you have, but you seem to me very motivated to focus on the game instead, so you should do that even if people had been uninterested (thought that would have been a blow)

Jaques3

Haven't tried Ruina yet unfourtunately, but I've been putting off voting so long I thought I should do it now anyway. I'm a bit interested, but I can be boring with struggling with things I'd done differently (for example I saw it was about "Lilya's fall from grace" and I get that but I'm not into humiliation stuff and prefer it when those gaining weight are into it). Also I saw long ago on twitter you posting something about wondering to make the game obtuse like pathologic or something (also haven't played oops) and that's something I'm conceptually into, but I'm afraid the game would be annoying to play. It's not really nice feedback that it might not be to my taste and I'm afraid it'd be tedious, but those are unfourtunately my thoughts so far. too much of a coward to make something myself

Jaques3

That's excellent to hear. I was actually under the impression it was mostly a solo outing but you'd have companions who'd tag along from time to time you could converse with and such ala Mystic Quest but if they're just NPCs that's fine too. I'm glad we'll get to see Lilya's thoughts on things and such. Also one of the portraits for the female MC in Ruina looked far too much like your OC Fee to not pick lol. But yeah, actually playing the inspiration has made me more excited and I would highly recommend a playthrough to anybody reading this who enjoys dungeon crawlers in any capacity.

jvi

I’m glad to hear you’re playing Ruina and liking it. I’ve been afraid no one has taken the hint to go and play it, but if even one person has then my efforts have paid off. On your gripes, I think they’re understandable. Ruina is kind of a mix between old school JRPGs and table top RPGs, and in that vein the characterization of the player character and their interactions with the party members is basically left up to your imagination, at least for filling in the blanks. In my case the protagonist ended up being my favorite character after my first playthrough, though as you’ve theorized there’s a little more to them that comes up later. It’s not for everyone, so don’t worry if that aspect doesn’t click with you. As for how this relates to my game, I can assure you that Lilya will be very far from a silent protagonist and that how the actual player is to become attached to her is an important consideration I am keeping in mind, for how I want to write both her and the story as a whole. Also, in case it needed clarification, there aren’t other party members in LyLaD as it’s a solo adventure. I do want to have a mechanic that mimicks the ‘converse’ option in Ruina, more so represented as Lilya’s own thoughts, but I plan to write many lines per location/situation/other criteria since it won’t have to be split across several party members. Some way to notify the player that there’s nothing ‘new’ to read may be the route I go to solve that little issue of repetition.

Orri

Hello. Not sure where the best place to post this would be but I decided to give Ruina: Fairytale of the Forgotten Ruins a try on your recommendation. I thought it might be useful to provide some brief thoughts on the game. You're already a great artist and writer so the only place I feel like "feedback" would actually be valuable is in terms of game design. I'll try to keep things as spoiler free as possible as a courtesy. For what it's worth, I'm not that far into it. Just fought the Beast Demon in the Dragon Tower. Right away, the atmosphere is off the charts. It's very unsettling to play in a good way. I'm interested in where the story is going and I like everything about the node system and the semi-randomness going on. But you probably don't need me to tell you the game is good. So I'll move on to my general little gripes that I'm hoping might be addressed. The big one is that the main character being a completely silent protagonist is a little offputting. I get that it's done for immersion, but for me it does the opposite. I wish they at least had some internal thoughts to give them a bit of personality. I want my thief/performer to feel like a thief/performer. Secondly is that while the other characters are fun if a bit tropey, I wish there was more justification for why they decide to go dungeon delving, especially in the beginning of the game before there are really any stakes. More than that, why are they following the ratty MC into the dungeon? This loops back around into the silent protag complaint. Like the arrogant mage probably wouldn't just silently follow a dirty thief girl's orders, especially one who can't even use magic. Third, and this one is more minor, is that the converse option shouldn't display old dialogue I've already seen. It's a bit annoying. I guess the main thing is that it's a good game with good atmosphere, but it would be enhanced if I could be more attached to my intrepid band. While I understand this is a bit atypical of this genre, I think it's especially important in Ruina's case since the main character is actually plot important and couldn't be just any random Sally, judging by the dialogue of an early game boss anyway. Anyway, I hope you find my rambling useful in some way when designing your game.

jvi

1. Probably more than a year. I can’t give a legitimate guess since I’m still working on framework stuff (menus, combat, sprite display, etc.) to get it out of the way first. When it comes to designing and implementing the maps, dungeons, plot scenes, there’s no way for me to make an estimate yet. However the game will be rather long, so I can’t see it taking under a year. 2. The NPCs won’t have as many stages. Individually they will probably have 2-3 key stages and a number of other WG scenes that will be ‘bad ends’ for their respective quests (cutting you out of the normal progression). This isn’t universal however. For instance the plan with Dahlia is to really only have two routes to fatten her up, but both will be in-depth sequences. There isn’t one big format that all the NPCs will adhere to and not all have been decided on. 3. Yes. 4. Seeing the poll, I will begin posting substantial updates, videos, and new material on Patreon as well as Twitter. Minor things like my to-do list will be kept to Twitter however. 5. Probably not, as there’s a lot going on in the game such that just tweaking health, damage, and encounters wouldn’t achieve much. What’s likely is there will be a NG+ system, and on starting a new playthrough you may choose to keep your weight, curses, other negative things that build up, or even enable individual challenges or restrictions for that playthrough. That kind of thing is way in the future however, so for the time being the game is designed with one difficulty level in mind. 6. It will be free. Patrons will get early access to a demo version of the prologue area. Later on I plan to release a Patreon-exclusive version when about half of the game is finished. There will not be incremental releases and updates before completion, as I don’t think the game’s narrative or gameplay loop is very conducive to that.

Orri

A few questions 1. How long do you think it will take for the game to be made? I must stress that in asking this I don't mean to rush you, I am just curious about a general time frame. 2. Will the NPC girls also follow the 8 stage fattening system? From reading previous questions I see that they can be fattened, I'm just curious if they'll follow the same-similar stages of progression. 3. Will it be possible to fatten all the NPCs in one run? 4. Will you post game development updates on the Patreon or only the game dev twitter? 5. Will there be multiple difficulty levels? 6. Will it be free or priced, and in either case will Patreon subscribers get early access? Thanks in advance for any response.

Lump Beefbroth

Love the greater adipod, such a bug boi

These are just fantastic

RemVelvet