Release 24: Enhancement

This update adds the third tier of Forsaken training actions, which means that players can now increase the corruption levels of their Forsaken to almost 100%.  In most cases, the drawbacks of very high corruption are too heavy to be worthwhile, and the last tier of training actions will be specialized ones without much general utility.  The only major thing missing is the ability to train the Forsaken to use Defiler and Punisher actions, which will be coming in another update before too long.

However, before finishing that, I'm taking a detour to flesh out the relationship mechanics between Forsaken.  The first part of that made it into this update, as you can now leverage your Forsaken's relationships with each other to make them more compliant with your training.  When two Forsaken strongly care about each other (which currently only happens with Forsaken who were on a team together and have a friendly relationship), they'll each obey you more often in hopes that you'll be kind to the other.  However, the flipside of this is that training one to a higher Obedience level will make the other angry, and sacrificing one will make the other even angrier.  This should add some more depth to deciding which Forsaken to use.  More relationships and more ways to use them to influence Forsaken (for example, torturing a rival in order to make a high-Hostility Forsaken happy) will be coming as soon as I can figure out how to balance the mechanics.

There's also the usual set of bugfixes and minor content additions.  The portrait pack added last version now has 2 new faces.  There are also two new vignettes.  The first new vignettes is a sex scene involving the Core Morality Chosen and the Significant Morality Chosen once they've both developed a rivalry, started using sexual service in battle, and are moderately traumatized.  The second is a scene involving the Minor Morality Chosen once she has enough trauma to start considering tier-1 sinful downtime actions.  Enjoy!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the third tier of Forsaken training actions.
• Content: Forsaken now take their friends' fates into account when deciding how much to cooperate with their own training.
• Content: Added two new vignettes.
• Content: Added two new faces to the default portrait set.
• Bugfix: Chosen profiles will no longer sometimes estimate that both allies with arrive on the same round.
• Bugfix: The default portrait set folder names now match the capitalization of the default Chosen names.
• Bugfix: Portraits from different subfolders may now be displayed at the same time.
• Bugfix: Tempting Chosen during the final battle will no longer result in a bugged surrounded state.
• Bugfix: Chosen will no longer sometimes perform sinful downtime actions before reaching the appropriate corruption level.
• Other: Custom portrait packs may now differentiate between male and female Chosen.

Release 24b:

• Bugfix: Resolved a crash that could affect Forsaken from old saves during free training.

Release 23: Visualization

With this release, the game is now capable of displaying portraits for the Chosen and the Forsaken.  Every time the subject takes an action in combat, is targeted by an action in combat, appears in a post-battle scene, or generally makes an appearance, a portrait showing the character feeling an appropriate emotion will be shown.  The default portraits included in the game probably won't match up to how the player has been envisioning any particular Chosen, and the feature may be toggled off for those who prefer to leave things purely to their own imagination.  However, I encourage everyone to give it a try and see how it works, as the system is designed to be very easily customizable so that players can crop whatever images they find more fitting and display those in-game.

The current default portrait set includes only 8 different faces (each with its own set of expressions).  They're set up so that you'll never encounter duplicate faces on a single team of 3 Chosen, but anyone who plays Campaign Mode or otherwise uses Forsaken will eventually end up pitting someone against her mirror image.  I intend to continue making more portrait sets alongside the regular monthly content for the game, but in the meantime, I'm hopeful that players will make some of their own portrait sets for each other to use.  I'd be happy to host them here on the blog.

This update also has a bit of content for players who aren't at all interested in using portraits.  In addition to the usual handful of bugfixes and balance adjustments, there are two new vignettes.  The first happens when the Chosen with moderate Morality hits a decent trauma threshold, which should be a sign to the player that it's time to start trying for more sinful downtime actions.  The second is a scene between the Chosen with Core Morality and the one with Minor Morality which fires when they're both significantly corrupted and hate each other.  After all the scenes between friendly Chosen, it seemed like players who prefer to make their Chosen enemies should get something as well.  I hope that everyone enjoys this update!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added a system to display portraits.
• Content: Added two new vignettes.
• Balance: Damage values can now go higher before the soft cap begins to be applied.
• Balance: When picking a target city in campaign mode, one target will usually have fewer elites than the other.
• Balance: When training Forsaken, very low expertise values penalize any attempts to increase other expertise values.
• Interface: When training Forsaken, gained expertise values are color coded depending on whether they're getting bonuses or penalties.
• Interface: When targeted Tempted Chosen, the Inseminate and Sodomize/Torture/Force Laughter buttons are now displayed in red.
• Bugfix: Retreating before all three Chosen are introduced will no longer sometimes crash the game.
• Bugfix: Difficulty modifiers from campaign mode will no longer bleed over into new save files.
• Bugfix: In campaign mode, vignettes will no longer display after the Chosen have been defeated.
• Bugfix: Non-Superior Chosen will no longer be able to use Superior Slaughter.
• Bugfix: When three Forsaken are converted together, they'll no longer misremember how they felt about each other as Chosen.

Release 22: Continuation

 This is the long-awaited campaign mode update, which brings with it a couple of gameplay features that affect the other modes.  In its current incarnation, campaign mode doesn't add any notable sexual content that wasn't in the game already.  However, it does lay the groundwork for scenarios that wouldn't be possible in the single play mode (like going up against one of the Chosen who discovers that her old partner is eager to violate her and bring her to the Demon Lord, or Chosen coming after you in order to rescue a loved one who you imprisoned during a previous loop).  This is also the first release which allows the player to use the Forsaken in a higher-difficulty game mode, so I expect that this will be many players' first time seriously engaging with the Forsaken mechanics, and I'm still interested in hearing feedback about how well they work.

Unlike hard mode, campaign mode does not have a definite endpoint, and it does not assign the player a score at its conclusion.  Instead, the goal of campaign mode is to survive as many loops as possible against increasingly difficult teams of Chosen.  The factors that make each loop difficult include earlier deadlines and decreased damage (as with hard mode), as well as two new modifiers: a multiplier which increases both the trauma required to perform sinful downtime actions and the amount of trauma those actions resolve, and the presence of elite "Superior" Chosen.  Currently, the difficulty eventually rises beyond what players can reasonably be expected to deal with, but as more gameplay features are added, there will be more options for meeting each challenge.  Players who manage to get as far as Loop 5 in the current version should feel very proud of themselves.

As far as sexual content goes, this update adds a new variant flavor for the Tempt action which can show up in battle.  Tempt users should also be happy to hear that the sex scenes between Chosen can now also fire for female virgins, as long as the receptive partner is willing to have anal sex (either because of Tier-2 Confidence Break or because she's learned to enjoy anal while being Tempted).  Both additions were requested by the subscriber Elmsdor.  A spanking-centric vignette has also been added at the request of the subscriber Kalloi, and a third sex scene between two friendly Chosen has been added too.  The requirements for all vignettes can be checked in the new vignette checklist file included with the download.  Enjoy!

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added a campaign mode, including achievements and a new type of elite Chosen.
• Content: Sacrificing Forsaken to become breeding stock now has some simple flavor text.
• Content: Added a new variant to the Tempt action, complete with branches depending on Tempt count and corruption.
• Content: Added two new vignettes.
• Content: Added variants for female Chosen who are vaginal virgins but anal non-virgins to access sex scenes with other Chosen.
• Balance: The trauma requirements of all vignettes have been loosened.
• Balance: Increased the score bonus given for finishing hard mode before Day 35.
• Balance: In playthroughs with a final battle deadline before Day 50 (including hard mode), the second and third Chosen will arrive proportionately sooner.
• Interface: Save files are now color coded according to game mode.
• Bugfix: The text warning of the end of the final battle will no longer sometimes fail to display.
• Bugfix: Forsaken who were Tempted during their time as Chosen will no longer be generated as anal virgins.
• Bugfix: During variants of the Tempt Distortion scene which should only feature two Chosen, the second Chosen will no longer be duplicated.
• Bugfix: The game will no longer crash when retreating in battles prior to the first appearance of the third Chosen.
• Bugfix: Tempted Chosen will no longer prefer less sinful downtime actions at extremely high trauma levels.
• Bugfix: Epilogues will no longer be saved in the wrong scene slot.
• Bugfix: Corrected some cases where Forsaken combat styles would use the wrong flavor descriptions.
• Other: Added a vignette checklist to the game folder.

Release 22b:

• Bugfix: Fixed a crash that could happen when transferring a save from a previous version.

Release 22c:

• Bugfix: Fixed another crash that could happen when transferring a save from a previous version.

Release 22d:

• Bugfix: The game will no longer crash when converting exactly 1 of the 3 Chosen.
• Bugfix: In campaign mode, it is no longer possible to pass time after the decision of which city to attack next is presented.

Release 21: Distortion

This update has two major features.  The first is a significant change to the game's multiplier balance.  PLEA's trauma multiplier has been increased to x4, INJU's circumstance multiplier has been decreased to x3, EXPO's trauma multiplier has been removed (leaving only the circumstance multiplier), and the trauma penalty to each associated circumstance has been changed to only apply for every level above the lowest current trauma.  In order to keep circumstance levels from growing out of control, a new penalty has been added of x1/2 to all circumstance damage per level of the highest circumstance.

The effect of these changes on the game's difficulty is complicated.  Trauma is now more difficult to get, and PLEA is now important, so the previous dominant strategy of avoiding PLEA and stacking INJU and EXPO is now much weaker.  Because the strongest strategy is no longer as strong, this will probably result in an increase to perceived difficulty for players who had mastered using those multipliers.  However, for players who liked to use PLEA because of their personal preferences, the game will now probably feel easier, because you're no longer punished for investing in PLEA.

The other major change is the addition of an alternative corruption path which involves seducing the Chosen by being kind and gentle to them.  In order to activate this path, the player must avoid breaking all Morality and Confidence Vulnerabilities (except for T1 Confidence, use of 'begging'), must break the T2 Innocence and Dignity Vulnerabilities (Force Orgasm and Broadcast), and then reach 100k PLEA in order to use the new Tempt action.

This is meant to be a bit more challenging than just breaking Chosen the normal way, so you probably shouldn't attempt to use it on all three Chosen at once unless you're using cheats to help.  More alternative corruption paths will come eventually, each of them following the pattern of "Break two Vulnerabilities, leave the other two mostly untouched, and then achieve something difficult."

Finally, this update adds two new vignettes.  The first is a sex scene between the Chosen with Core Confidence and the one with Minor Confidence once they're both significantly corrupted (note that it requires them both to be non-virgins, so you generally won't see it if you're going for distortions).  The second is an early-game scene for the Chosen with Core Morality once she's gotten a decent amount of trauma.  The trauma required is high enough to trigger T1 sinful downtime actions, so if you see this scene, it means that it's definitely time to start aiming for some Vulnerability breaks.

For the next update, I've decided to start working on campaign mode.  There are other features I had wanted to add in order to help make campaign mode more interesting when it arrived, but I realized that those features would be a lot less interesting before campaign mode was implemented.  One or the other has to be done first, and I've decided that it makes more sense to start with campaign mode itself, since this will help tie the Forsaken into a functioning gameplay loop.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added a new corruption route.  See the end of the guide.txt for detailed information.
• Content: Added two new vignettes.
• Balance: Reworked how several damage multipliers function.
• Interface: Chosen who have above 100% Punisher effectiveness will now have that information shown on the corruption overview.
• Bugfix: The tutorial will no longer break when played with hard mode activated.
• Bugfix: Corrected some issues with the predicted exermination progression when surrounded or captured Chosen are close to freeing themselves.

Release 20: Observation

The main feature of this update is a new system by which various scenes from the personal lives of the Chosen (and the Forsaken) can be shown.  These scenes, which are referred to as "vignettes," don't have any impact on gameplay mechanics, but they do offer more depth and context for the corruption undergone by the characters.  As part of this system, scenes shown to the player are now saved and can be viewed using a new option on the main menu.  The scene viewer can be used not only for vignettes, but also for viewing the other major scenes which occur during each playthrough.

There are seven vignettes in this first batch, all of which have some sort of sexual content and most of which are very explicit and descriptive in that sexual content.  I'm still experimenting with writing styles for this kind of scene, so I'm interested in hearing feedback about how well it works.  Three of the vignettes are tied to tier-1 Innocence breaks, three are tied to tier-2 Dignity breaks, and the last one is a sex scene between two Chosen, triggered when the one with significant Confidence and the one with minor Confidence have a positive relationship and are moderately corrupted.  Each vignette can show up once per playthrough, and while they don't vary too much from playthrough to playthrough, there are dialogue differences and some minor scenario changes depending on personality and corruption level that should hopefully keep them feeling fresh and appropriate every time they come up.  I intend to continue adding a trickle of vignettes alongside the new gameplay features in future releases.

On the gameplay front, this update includes quite a few adjustments to features that players have reported problems with.  They're listed in the changelog below.

The next update will have some much more significant gameplay changes, as I plan on trying out a major rework of the multiplier balance in order to make PLEA-focused strategies more viable.  We'll also be seeing the first alternative corruption path, which involves turning the Chosen to your side using pleasure and manipulation of the public instead of violence.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the vignette system, along with an initial set of 7 vignettes.
• Interface: Added a scene viewer which may be used to rewatch vignettes, core break interactions, and a few other scenes.
• Interface: The number of turns each of the Chosen takes before arriving to help each other Chosen can now be viewed in their profiles.
• Interface: All upgrades, including those already purchased and those with no prerequisites yet owned, can now be viewed in the new "Info" menu.  Chosen profiles from Psychic Reading have been moved to this menu.
• Interface: The battle status summary is now reprinted every time the player returns to the menu to pick one of the Chosen to target during battle.
• Interface: The game will no longer attempt to prevent the player from selecting Chosen who cannot be targeted by any actions in the current turn.
• Interface: When examining surrounded or captured Chosen who are taking continuous damage, the damage they took in the previous turn is now displayed.
• Bugfix: The multiplier summary will no longer print nonsense when the multipliers are especially large.
• Bugfix: The first male Chosen to be generated will no longer sometimes use female civilian names.
• Other: Added a cheat to unlock all upgrades with the push of a single button.

Release 20b:

• Bugfix: The game will no longer crash when trying to add scene information to a new save file.

Release 20c:

• Bugfix: Caught another crash related to the same issue.

Release 20d:

• Bugfix: Creating new custom teams will no longer sometimes crash the game.

Release 19: Manipulation

This update adds the second tier of Forsaken training actions, which generally have lower Stamina costs, higher Motivation gains, and much greater Expertise rewards.  These actions will be the bread-and-butter of most training sessions, even after the later tiers get added.  The two main drawbacks to these actions are that they might be too intense for low-corruption Forsaken, and that using them during a playthrough requires purchasing upgrades (the same upgrades which also unlock Suppressor Commander types).  The latter requirement isn't very meaningful yet since there's no penalty for doing your training from the main menu, but it will be important for making the first tier of training actions more relevant during campaign mode.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback regarding where development should go next.  I'm going to dip into flavor text for one update in order to implement the vignette system (and ideally also a scene viewer) and put some more proper erotica into the game.  After that, I'm tentatively looking into alternative corruption paths.  I think this order works well since once the framework for vignettes is in, it should be easy to add a vignette or two to updates which otherwise don't have much erotic content, and slowly build up the number of viewable scenes that way.  The content of further-off updates still isn't set in stone, so feel free to continue to provide feedback regarding which features are needed most!

I've also opened up a tip jar which can be found on the site sidebar.  I won't be putting any of my releases behind paywalls, which means that I don't have anything concrete to give to people who donate.  This should be viewed purely as an option for people who are getting enough enjoyment out of the game that they feel it'd be worth paying for.

Click here to download.  Mirror.

• Content: Added the second tier of training actions for the Forsaken.
• Interface: After the Psychic Reading upgrade has been purchased, picking which of the Chosen to target first in battle will display the target's vulnerabilities on the confirmation screen.
• Bugfix: The Forsaken's total expertise values will no longer sometimes decrease during training.
• Bugfix: The game will now correctly remember which text size the player was using in the most recent save.

Coming Features

Now that the core gameplay loops have their basic functionality implemented, I think this is a good time to discuss the next stage of the game's development.  The coming update will be built around the next tier of training actions for captive Forsaken, but after that, there are many directions we could go.  The following features will all be implemented at some point.  I'm interested in hearing which ones people consider to be a higher priority for earlier development.  Feedback is very welcome both here on the blog and wherever else I post.

• More Training Actions: There are 18 more single-target training actions planned, which will eventually allow the player to train the Forsaken all the way up to 100% Hostility/Deviancy/Obedience/Disgrace.  I also plan on implementing some training types which involve using one Forsaken to help train another, but I'm not completely certain how that will work yet.
• Add/Improve Flavor Text: Some of the dialogue and descriptive text written early in development doesn't fit well with the stuff written after I had a better idea of how each personality type should come across.  There's also a lot more room for personality, clothes, equipment, etc. to be reflected in combat and sex scenes.
• Alternative Corruption Paths: This would reward players for avoiding the current semi-linear "all vulnerabilities get broken eventually" gameplay strategy.  For example, by defeating one of the Chosen without rape or violence, you might be able to get her on the "betrayal" path where she no longer wants the Demons to be defeated in the first place.
• Portrait System: There are no plans to commission art for the game, but I would like to allow the player to use a folder of portrait images which are displayed in the game window.  Each portrait pack would have a set of expressions, and the game will switch between the expressions as appropriate for the situation.  Whether this would actually be useful depends on whether players would be interested in sharing portrait packs together.
• Expanded Customization: Currently, the way the game refers to custom clothing and weapons is extremely basic, since it has no way of knowing what properties any given custom item should have.  Improving this would involve adding more flavor text and allowing the player to pick from menus in order to assign that flavor text to items.  It could also involve fully customizable flavor text packages that could be passed between players.  Similarly, there could be an even greater degree of customization for Forsaken (changing their bodies, giving them customized sexual fetishes they display during battle, etc.).
• Special Chosen: This includes androids, angels, devils, kemomimi, and probably more Chosen types, each with their own unique and powerful abilities in combat.
• Prior Relationships: These will involve some unique mechanics and lots of extra dialogue.  The "former partners" relationship will come naturally with the campaign when you come up against one of the Chosen who managed to escape from a previous final battle.  There should also be mentors, students, lovers, family members, and probably a lot more.
• Expanded Forsaken Abilities: The Forsaken should eventually be able to use equivalents of defiler actions, and they should also have unique "super moves" to mix up the combat formula.
• Special Battle Conditions: The combat formula can also be mixed up by having special conditions which apply to different battles.  For example, a battle might provide some bonus EE if you meet a certain requirement by the end, or it might take place in a special location which applies a modifier to certain damage types.
• Daily Vignettes: Similar to the talk show, the vacation, and the preparation before the final battle, these will be scenes from the daily lives of the Chosen (and the Forsaken) which highlight how they're being corrupted.  Not all of them will be sexual, but the proper sex scenes should be more in-depth and detailed than any of the sex scenes currently in the game.
• Campaign Mode: This would probably need a whole separate post to talk about, and some of the above features would need to be implemented before it would make sense to start on this one.  I'm including it here because it will also involve some sub-features that people might find interesting ("boss" Chosen, long-term goals, achievement bonuses).