Spankers, Spankees and Switches of Adult Ages,
Alright, so I’ve released the first version of Scarlet Moon 2: Eclipse Rising! It continues the story from The Scandalous Scarlet Moon with a few caveats. Namely, the sequel takes place in a universe where none of the romances happened. I know, I’m sorry. But they were sucking up too much mental energy, and I didn’t have any to spare to make the actual episodes all that interesting. This also means, incidentally, that your character never met Midnight. So I’ll be able to introduce her for the first time all over again! Isn’t a multiverse canons awesome?
Anyway, the game uses Twine (well, Tweego technically), and can be played right here on the website.
The Downloads page now has a download link that allows you to download a zip file containing the source code, an archive file that can be loaded by the Twine UI, and a copy of the HTML file for local play. You’ll need an internet connection to see the (scant!) AI-generated pinups of the superheroines and supervillains, but the game will run fine without them.
It has no combat, unfortunately, but I fleshed out the stat-check mechanics quite a bit, so I hope the action scene is still compelling. The mechanics are explained on the title page of the game.
Anyway, enjoy!
AKA
Hey everyone,
So an Anonymous fan has encouraged me to make a post giving some insight into what I’m working on right now, and I figured, hey why not. It’s been almost a year since I last posted, and I imagine most people have given up on hearing much else from me (I’ve like 90% given up myself!).
So, anyway, I’ve spent the last year mostly not working on spanking game stuff, but only mostly. I have been dicking around with different ideas. Some I wrote up a few initial passages, some never got past the “this could be a fun game premise” musings.
Starting last November, and then very sporadically since then I’ve started working on a sequel to Scarlet Moon. Scarlet Moon 2: Eclipse Rising.
I’m on my third(?) significant rewrite of the first big scene of the first episode (equivalent in scope to the chase at the start of Episode 1 of Scarlet Moon) as I try to feel out where the characters are now, what kind of stories I want to write, and what makes for interesting-but-relatively-easy-to-manage game mechanics.
That being said, it’s started to slowly pick up steam. I’ve got about 2500 lines written. For context, the first day of episode 1 in the first game was about 3500 lines. But line count is only a very rough comparison, I’d say I’m probably around halfway done, maybe a bit more, maybe a bit less.
Three developments have helped spur my return to Scarlet Moon.
First, I missed them. Their story is by no means finished, and they were a joy to write. Some, like Bright, were really only starting to develop when the first game ended. I’d love to see what additional escapade Juliana drags them into.
Second, I was playing around with the avatar generation features on spicychat. Basically, spicychat’s image generator for profile pics is an impressively good pinup generator. I wanted to see if I could create our intrepid heroines. They came out wonderfully, and it helped inspire me to return to their world. I’ll probably toss in some AI pin ups of various heroines and villains as we meet them, though don’t expect anything more elaborate than that. AI image generation is *terrible* at being consistent, and trying to do anything more elaborate than a pinup is going to be tricky and time consuming (and even generating these pin ups can take a while. For every good image, there’s dozens that are just straight up bad and incoherent).
Thirdly, I hit on a game mechanic that I think has the potential to be interesting, help inspire ideas for choices players can make, but shouldn’t be too onerous to make impactful. The mechanics work like this:
You have four stats: power, craftiness, charm, and heroism. Power, craftiness, and charm are your main stats, heroism is special.
The game will periodically give you a stat check, where you’ll have to choose between 2-3 options, each one tied to a stat, just like in Scarlet Moon. When you make that choice, a d6 is rolled and the result added to your stat. If the result is greater than or equal to 6, you pass. Otherwise you fail.
Not so different from the stat checks in the first game. But, this is where things get different. Regardless of whether you pass or fail, the stat you chose goes *down*, and one other stat goes up. If you pass, then in addition to whatever good things happen in the story, you get to choose one of the other two main stats to improve. If you fail, then something bad happens in the story, and the
game chooses one of your other two main stats to improve at random.
So if you have the choices:
Power: Punch him in the face.
Craftiness: Trick him into slipping on a banana peel.
Charm: Convince him to surrender.
And you choose Power: Punch him in the face. then the game will roll a check d6+Power >= 6. Power will then go down by 1 (can’t go below zero). If you pass, you can choose either Craftiness or Charm to increase. If you fail, the game will choose one of Craftiness or Charm to increase.
Heroism is special. Heroism will only improve when you make especially “heroic” decisions in the game. These decisions might be stat checks, or they might have a guaranteed outcome. Regardless of the outcome, if you make a heroic choice, you gain a heroism point.
Later, if you have at least one Heroism point, you will sometimes get an additional “Heroic” choice. If you succeed, heroism will go down by 1, and you can pick one of your three main stats to improve. If you fail, heroism still goes down by 1, and the game will pick one of your three main stats to improve.
So, most of the time you’re shuffling your stats around. There are two ways to improve your total stat count: Banking and spending heroism points, and picking stat choices with a stat at 0. Note you can’t choose a heroism choice if you have 0 heroism.
Of course, heroism generally means “absurdly reckless” and picking a stat choice with a stat at zero means you only have a 1/6 chance of passing. So my hope is that the game mechanics will incentivize players to occasionally do something that is liable to get them in trouble and spanked (the whole point!) to improve their stat pool. But at the same time, passing feels good, and is how you get successful outcomes for your character, so players will hopefully also generally want to do the things they’re currently good at.
Note that were won’t be any CRPG-style combat in this game. I definitely don’t have the time or mental energy for that. Rather, fights will be action scenes written in prose, and will be where you’ll have the majority of your stat checks. In this first scene, you’ll have to succeed on two out of three stat checks to win. A fairly tall order, since your stats will start out quite low (1 in each stat), but should get easier as you play if you’re smart about how you build your stat pool.
All that being said, don’t get your hopes up too much. There’s no guarantee I’ll finish this first episode, and even if I do, I don’t know if I’ll be able to write more. Treat this as vaporware for now, barely more than a sparkle in my eye.
Oh, and here are the images I generated of our intrepid superheroines:
and the two villains they’ll be contending with in the first episode (assuming it sees the light of day):
So I noticed a couple of people asking if my site is abandoned. A completely reasonable question, since I haven’t really said anything since February.
The answer is sort of, yeah, probably. But it’s not because I don’t want to keep writing spanking games. I keep messing around with different gaming ideas, and then stalling out before they get anywhere, most of them before I even put pencil to paper.
The problem is that fundamentally, RPGs and RPG combat are my true love. So any efforts to do anything else, generally just don’t hold my attention for very long. Writing CYOA and nothing but CYOA can get very monotonous for me, especially when I try to add gamification elements to it. This is what happened to the Cat Burglar game I was working on, as well as Samantha Stone.
One nice thing about Scarlet Moon was that I was able to bounce between the combat and the writing, so there was usually some part of the game I was in the mood to work on. The combat mechanics also gave me a nice way of tying in some character development into the CYOA part, so that even if there weren’t a whole lot of impactful choices in the fiction, players could at least influence how their character developed.
However, RPG combat is *difficult* and it can very easily get quite complex. Plus, of course I have yet to find any game engines that can handle a mix of CYOA and RPG combat well (all efforts I’ve seen in something like Twine have felt awkward to play, and very complicated to code, meanwhile RPGMaker is *terrible* at handling walls of text). So I have to roll my own. But UI’s are *hard*, and time consuming and I’m terrible at them. Meanwhile, real life is just getting more and more demanding as I get older.
So if I did write another game, it’d probably just be on the terminal, and most people don’t really go for that. Second, of course I’d need to figure out some RPG combat mechanics that can be fun, but also easy to work with. Scarlet Moon’s were fun, but rather difficult to work with.
So, yeah. I’ll keep maintaining the site of course, and I’m sure I’ll keep fiddling with stuff in the background, but who knows if and when I’ll ever make something else. But if I do, I’ll post both here and animeotk!
A new version of Scarlet Moon has been released that fixes a crash in the first episode experienced by anybody who uses anything other than the “genderdetermined” setting for their clothing. Basically, there was an assert floating around in there that I used for some ancient debugging session that I never removed.
Many thanks to the fan who pointed out the crash for me!
Also, been poking at Mischievous Misfortune here and there. A big problem that I’ve been wrestling with is that the Twine UI is HORRIFICALLY basic. It doesn’t let you do ANYTHING. It doesn’t even let you search in your current passage! *Notepad* lets you search! If your text editor has fewer features than Notepad, then you have *got* to work on your priorities. So that’s made development incredibly slow, clunky and frustrating, which has been killing my desire to work on it.
However! While searching the internet for solutions, I stumbled across a wonderful little program called Tweego: https://www.motoslave.net/tweego/
It’s basically a command line utility that lets you write your game in one or more files using your own damned editor, and then compiles it into a Twine game for you. No need for that horrifically basic UI. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s been making things so much smoother for me.
So yeah, hopefully we’ll start to see some actual progress on Mischievous Misfortune soon.
AKA
Just a small bugfix for a crash at the end of Scarlet Moon, when you pick one of the speedo or swim trunk options (the bare chest “shirt” you wear in that case was malformed). As reported by somebody a while back, but I’m not sure who because that e-mail deleted itself or something. 🙁
Anyway thank you forgotten bug reporter! Your help is not forgotten. Even if everything else about you has been.
Also, if this doesn’t fix the problem, please let me know!
Alright, so I think I managed to take everyone’s *wonderful* ideas and condense them into 7 aspects that I think capture everything people were wanting to see, based on the aspects they posted.
Here’s the list:
Steal Everything Nailed Down: You steal stuff. Even when it’s nailed down, and especially when you’re anxious. A normal person might pull out a fidget cube and futz with it when she’s nervous. When you’re nervous, you steal her cube. This also means you’re very very good at theft. So good in fact, you can steal her cube without her noticing. Right away. Unfortunately, people tend to eventually notice when you’re constantly stealing their stuff.
The Good Is The Enemy of the Perfect: You are a master planner with acute attention to detail, and a strong work ethic. You will plan a caper down to the smallest detail, and think of (almost) every possible way things could go wrong, and devise a plan for that too. Unfortunately, even you can’t think of everything and you really can’t handle it when things go sideways. You also detest settling for “good enough” and will strive for “perfect” even when you don’t have time or are otherwise under pressure to get something done.
Born Dom(me): You are smooth, sexy and able to convince damn near anyone to drop their pants, and/or go over your knee(for fun or otherwise). Very useful when you’re looking for information, need to distract a guard, or just want to blow off steam. On the other hand, you’re sometimes a little *too* confident in your dominant sexiness. As a result, it’s not that hard for crafty individuals to turn the tables on you either because they saw through your act, aren’t interested (and may, in fact, be a little insulted), or are a Born Sub whose just plain better at seduction than you. Also, your natural dominance may rub some people the wrong way, intimidate them too much to be helpful, or cause you to ignore them even when you shouldn’t. This is the dominant version of Born Sub.
Born Sub: You are playful, sexy and able to convince damn near anyone to jump your bones, or put you over their knee for a little bit of fun. All it takes is a little wiggle of your round, full, excessively spankable ass, and a taunting wink. Very useful when you’re looking for information, need to distract a guard, or just want to blow off steam. On the other hand, you’re sometimes a little *too* confident in your cheeky sexiness. As a result, it’s not that hard for crafty individuals to turn the tables on you either because they saw through your act, aren’t interested (and may, in fact, be a little insulted), or are a Born Dom that’s just plain better at seduction than you. Also, you have a hard time telling people “no” and may find yourself doing what they tell you, even if you don’t want to. Usually you can turn this to your advantage. But not always. This is the submissive version of Born Dom(me).
Vixen Smile: You’ve got one of those smiles. You know the ones, full of mischief and naughty glee. People look at you and immediately assume you’re up to no good. Someone put a pin on the teacher’s chair? You’re the one who ended up over her knee and howling whether you did it or not. This has gotten you into all sorts of trouble. But it also means you have lots of experience being in trouble, and are thus very well equipped to handle it. You have also learned to use your mischievous grin to distract people away from your *real* mischief to something small and inconsequential. This is the naughty counterpart to Puppy Dog Eyes.
Puppy Dog Eyes: You have big, soulful eyes, and the best damn pout this side of the Atlantic, and you know it. People take one look at you and your innocent, cherubic face and they refuse to believe you could possibly be up to any mischief. Unfortunately, your cute, youthful face makes it really hard for people to take you seriously. Adorableness dialed up to 11 is great when you’re getting out of trouble, not so great when you want people to take you seriously. This is the innocent counterpart to Vixen Smile.
Luck Favors the Clumsy: You are simultaneously the clumsiest, most unlucky person on the planet, *and* the luckiest person on the planet. If there’s something fragile nearby, you will fall and break it. If there’s a patch of ice, you will slip and fall on it. Probably into something fragile, even if makes no damn sense for a fragile vase worth thousands of dollars to be sitting on a marble stand next to a patch of ice. Of course, because you slipped on the ice, the superheroine flying towards you at superhuman speed zoomed over you instead of into you, and got herself stuck in a wall. Meanwhile, Steel Jaws of Doom snapped from the ceiling and would have captured you if they weren’t being wedged open by that marble stand you knocked over. And sure, you dropped the precious jewel you stole, but it bounced off the floor, conked its owner on the nose and landed back in your lap.
Of these, Born Dom(me) and Born Sub are dominant/submissive variants on the same scene, and will tend to apply in the same situations. They’re really just dom/sub variants of a generic “Seducer with Spankings.” Heavily inspired by When In Doubt, Sub It Out, and tries to incorporate some of the seduction themes of a few suggested aspects.
Meanwhile, Vixen Smile and Puppy Dog Eyes are my take on the Guilty Aura and Innocent Aura respectively. Steal Everything Nailed Down captures the kleptomania that Wildfire suggested and The Good Is The Enemy of the Perfect tries to capture most of the ideas suggested for elaborate plots, being an egghead, and not handling things well when they fall apart.
Note that *none* of these are the aspects I started with. So, thank a lot everyone! Your ideas really helped me come up with some good, fun aspects I think, and I’m excited to start writing.
Here is also a link to the easiest part of the game to create, its intro screen! This screen provides a (mostly) brief explanation of the game’s mechanics, and allows you to create and customize your character. I would be grateful if people could take the time to look it over and provide feedback.
Blubb2 was kind enough to look over it a while back, before we’d come up with aspects, and helped me squash a bunch of bugs, so many thanks Blubb2!
AKA
New version uploaded with a fix to a crash in Episode 5 Day 2. Thanks VikingSpanko for pointing it out!
Also, don’t forget I’m currently putting out a call for ideas for Aspects for the player to choose from in Mischievous Misfortune: Aspects of Mischieovus Misfortune
AKA
I’m doing the groundwork for Mischievous Misfortune right now. I have most of the character creation screen done, as well as the sidebar that allows character customization. Right now, the only thing left in character creation is coming up with Aspects for the player to pick.
Aspects are brief phrases that establish a fact about your character. Could be about their background, personality, how they approach problems, etc. These can then be invoked to let the player pass skill checks without rolling, or compelled to complicate your character (mostly to get their fanny whacked). Aspects can range from things that interest them (“Distracted by the Shinies”) to how they approach problems (“Act First, Think Second”) to even outside facts about the character (“Watched Over By A Mysterious Figure”).
Perhaps one of the best examples of aspects I’ve seen is the song I Am Moana from Moana. This song is basically Moana listing a bunch of her aspects: “Daughter of the Village Chief,” “Descended from Voyagers,” “It [the Sea] Calls Me,” “The Call [of the Sea] is Inside Me.”
So what I need from *you* dear readers are suggestions for aspects! Aspects should be double-edged swords: you should be able to think of a few ways the Aspect can benefit your PC, and a few ways it could make their life complicated. For example, “Act First, Think Second” may allow the PC to escape a sudden ambush, or snatch the jewel as soon as things go south, but it might also cause them to leap blindly into a trap, or even say something stupid to their Aunt, who just so happens to be tapping a rather thick looking paddle against her palm.
I want 5 Aspects, of which the player chooses 3. Currently, I have the following possibilities:
“Distracted by the Shinies”
“Act First, Think Second”
“Cocky Casanova/Cheeky Femme Fatale” – Technically this is two aspects, but they represent dominant/submissive versions of the same thing. These will mostly apply when you have an opportunity to manipulate someone (or be manipulated, or run into angry ex-lovers or whatever). The aspect invoked or compelled simply determines if you take a dominant or submissive role in your seductions.
This is your opportunity to push me into writing a bunch of situations that you like, so don’t be shy! I’m going to be looking for every opportunity to compel or invoke Aspects. So if there’s a situation you want to see a lot of, try to create an Aspect that captures it and tell me about it. Remember that the basic premise of the game is that your character is a cat burglar trying to make a buck while being hounded by a Superman-esque superhero(ine) called Moonlight, and either a Batman-esque supermanhero(ine) named Eclipse, or a Catwoman-esque burglar whose name is TBD. That’s still up in the air. Meanwhile, you and your old, but strict Aunt will be working hard to make ends meet.
Naturally, if I like someone else’s idea better, I will replace one of the aspects above, so don’t stay silent if other people have already suggested a bunch of Aspects! I’m looking for all the ideas I can get. Also, your suggestion doesn’t have to be boiled down to brief phrase. Feel free to give me some vague, wordy paragraph describing what you want the Aspect to capture. I can then take that paragraph and try to come up with an Aspect that captures it.
AKA