DommeBreaker News

Look, there were pc-related reasons the update wasn't posted October 31st, okay? Better late than never and it's not like we had anything scary for Halloween anyway. In my defense, it's been years since I've seen anything scarier than my sleep schedule, so I don't bother much with horror stuff myself. The news is good, though! The base game is nearly finished. How nearly? Let's get into it.

We mentioned a couple months ago we'd started reworking backgrounds and music. Two aspects that were done quickly early on to have all the pieces in place, but that we felt no longer held up in quality compared to the rest of the game after the polishing and UI rework. The reworked backgrounds are coming along nicely as we got a separate artist to do those, but will need some more time. Music is coming along bit by bit. More importantly, everything else is done now. Of course, there's still testing to be done.

So where does that put us time-wise for the base game? We expect to start testing internally early December and see what still needs work/fixing. We've tested every new feature and scene as it was completed, but obviously it's worth testing the full version too for overall game flow, consistency and possible new bugs. In January, we hope to send out the full base game to our external testers for feedback. Once February rolls around, we'll process the feedback and make any changes that seem necessary.



In the meantime, of course, we'll still be progressing on the Shizuru release DLC as well. Good progress has been made there and her new design looks fantastic. The writing and design for the Stage 1 combat are complete. There are outlines for the story scenes and combat for Stages 2 and 3, but those haven't been fully written/designed yet.

COMPLETED:

• Shizuru visual re-design/update
  
• Shizuru Stage 1 combat design and writing.
  

CURRENTLY:

• Music
  
• Remaining backgrounds
  
• Shizuru Stage 2 combat design and writing.
  

Our artist is still working on the new backgrounds and they're gonna take a while longer to complete. Fortunately, we're pretty sure people are more interested in the sexy art than backgrounds and we've got plenty of that. The old Store page was more of a placeholder for people to follow the monthly updates and to let people wishlist the game. Now that the base game is nearly complete, we were finally able to make a page that properly represents the game.

Those of you who remember the old Store page might recall there were 5 images and nothing too spicy to show at the time. Now we've got a much more tantalizing sampling of in-game works, including all the base game characters, some outfit variants and, of course, a couple previews of the sexy combat. The description on the Store page has also been updated with a short bio for each character and a more complete list of features. The old list of features was written in the early design days and we've added features, mechanics, scenes and a final fight since then.

Lastly, there's the cherry on top: a trailer. This trailer went live with this store update and gives an impression of the story, combat, overall game flow and teases you with some of the erotic content you'll have to earn in-game. Obviously, nothing can fully explain a game other than playing it, but we hope this trailer gives anybody who's interested a pretty good idea of what the game will be like.

We’re also thrilled to finally reveal we’re aiming for a 2026 release!

Jump in, wishlist the game, and let us know what you think of the new Store page and trailer!

FINISHED:

• New Store texts, screenshots and trailer.
  

CURRENT:

• Continuing background updates.
  
• Shizuru DLC: Erica training scene 1 writing
  
• Shizuru DLC: Stage 1 combat design, mechanics and visuals.
  

Who wants to talk about user interface? I hope you do, because I'm about to. Early days, we were using the UI style that we'd used in most of our games so far: white text on blue or pink boxes. You know, the functional kind. We just had to get things working and visually clear. Well, as you've undoubtedly heard by now, we're polishing the ever-kink-loving heck out of this game, so we decided to update the UI as well. Don't worry, we haven't succumbed to the 'sad beige' plague. The health bars, ability grid, menus and upgrade screens have all been given a higher contrast, sleeker, more professional looking re-design, but we've stuck to the blue/pink style with white text. We just made it better.



This new UI is an even bigger improvement in combat. We've made the health bars smaller and changed the player abilities from a grid to a list. This allows the player abilities to be completely vertical and only take up space on the side of the screen. Along with the smaller health bars, this frees up more space for the art, which is what we expect players to focus on. Since the player ability list is now less clearly distinct from the list of attacks the Domme will use this turn, those were moved under her health bar. Backgrounds with distinct colors for each list also make it very clear which abilities belong to whom.



The last combat addition was making each ability fold out when hovered over with the mouse. We'd discussed in the past how much information should be presented in the ability lists. There's an argument to be made for minimal info to keep the screen clear, but also obviously an argument for full, descriptive ability texts. Testers mentioned occasionally using the wrong ability before we added this feature, because they'd gotten confused about which ability does what. This is our compromise to keep the screen uncluttered while simultaneously making sure players have all necessary information. It's also a bit of future-proofing, as this will allow us to add more complex abilities in future DLC without having to explain every new ability with separate tutorials. See an ability you don't recognize? Just hover over it to learn what it does.



In the coming month, we're also going to be updating the ability and effect icons. Once that's done, we're planning to update the Store page. We currently have a couple of screenshots up to show the characters and art, but we knew there would be changes made over time, so it didn't seem worth the trouble to upload much more. We'll remind you all to check out the Store page next month, but you can go keep an eye on it yourself, if you really can't wait. While you're there, don't forget to Wishlist and Follow the game, if you haven't already.

How far are we with all the polishing and DLC making? Let's have a look-see.

COMPLETED:

• New UI.
  
• Backgrounds polishing.
  
• Some edits and text fixing.
  
• Shizuru training scene 1 concepting.
  
• Music progress.
  

CURRENT:

• Last Stacy upgrade scene art.
  
• Shizuru training scene 1 writing.
  

Progress? Don't ask me about progress! Listen, we're still working on improving the backgrounds. Meanwhile, there's writing and designing being done for Shizuru, but that's not very visually exciting without art to accompany it. Still, we're gonna be explaining the basis of Shizuru's combat and why it is what it is. See, instead of the timer-based combat where the player has to outlast the Dommes that will make up the base game (and most likely the majority of future DLC), Shizuru is gonna be a more straight up fight. Let me start this explanation at the beginning, though.

We decided early on that each DLC girl would have her own unique mechanic in some way. As mentioned previously, originally Shizuru's unique mechanic was gonna be phase effects that alter how each of the 3 phases of a fight plays out by giving her buffs/debuffs. As you may recall, we decided a couple months back to give Hana phase effects as well for the final fight of the base game. We may also add phase effects to other DLC in the future. This means Shizuru needs something else to stand out.

That's where our testers come into the picture. We mentioned once that early testers were ignoring defensive options and focusing only on offense, to their own detriment; losing fights they could've won, if they'd used a more balanced approach. This led to adding the Hints screen in the game, which gives tactical advice to help people grasp how the game is meant to be played. However, once our testers understood the game, there was one recurring bit of feedback: "Okay, but what about just a straight up fight, though?"

Seeing as Shizuru is all about pleasure through pain and her story/character makes it unlikely she'd care about Michael's usual techniques, we decided this would be the perfect fit for her DLC. Players will have to use new techniques to weaken Shizuru's resolve 3 times to win the fight. Each time they do, Shizuru will have a new modifier added that will influence how she fights, which is where phase effects come in. We haven't finalized these ideas yet (and probably won't until the artist has time to figure out what would work), but think along the lines of tying her hands together, so she resorts to more aggressive kicks or adding nipple clamps that damage her every turn in exchange for a damage boost.

The exact phase effects will reflect the pleasurable pain techniques that Michael learns throughout the story scenes of the DLC. Of course, they'll increase in intensity and sexiness as you progress through the DLC, but we'll explain more about the story setup of the Shizuru DLC another time.

So we had backgrounds for every area in the game. Have had them for a long time, in fact. However, as we're in the polishing stages, the decision was made to have them redone touched up, because they'd been made quickly in the past to get the game together. Now we want them to look better. How long will this take? Probably about another month or two, judging by the current pace. Once those are finished and added, slap those bad boys in along with music that'll be finished in that same time frame and the base game will finally be ready for complete internal testing. That should only take a week or two before we send it out to our other testers.

Fret not! We do have something more interesting than backgrounds to show for this month. Another aspect of polish is looking at scenes that could use just that little bit extra. Another bit of art. A little extra sauce. Some more of that good stuff. Like Stacy lying naked on the floor after sex. For the people not familiar with Stacy, who was introduced in our VN Stories of Submission: eNTeR the cuck, she does indeed have breast implants. Figured I should explain that as our artist did a very good job accurately depicting them. Enjoy!



By the way, if you want to know more about Stacy, Tomie, Jitsuko, Emily or Hana before the release of DommeBreaker, this is the perfect time. We're in the middle of the Steam summer sale and many of our games are currently on sale. It may not be the season of gifting, but it is the season to expand your Steam backlog. Granted, that's any season, if you're short on free time. Or just have too many games...

Anyway, on to the monthly roadmap update!

FINISHED:

• Stacy Endurance upgrade extra art
  
• 2 Of the polished backgrounds
  
• Final editing/polishing of Stacy upgrade scenes
  

CURRENT:

• Remaining backgrounds polish
  
• Redoing/polishing music tracks
  
• Shizuru combat Stage 1 initial math and writing