Princess Trainer

Writing Journal: Happily hacking away on The Adjusters #55. I should be further ahead than I am, but I'm still on track to finish for the end of the month. Still wish I had a bit more of a buffer, but at least, until the end of Book V, I know what all the plot lines are. Also: 1000 words is not that much. Either that, or I way overwrite.

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I spent the few hours before bed this week playing Akabur's Princess Trainer, and holy fuck does that game push all of my buttons!

I suspect most of you have heard of it already.

If not, the story's simple enough. It takes place in Disney's Aladdin universe, and Jafar is in power. He had tasked you with the job of training Princess Jasmine, which he intends to marry, so that she is nice and obedient and submissive for the wedding. Your job, basically, is to break her.

The game has no time limit, and is quest-based. The graphics are excellent, though they are not interactive. But it's the narrative that ends up pushing the game beyond a curiosity for cartoon perverts. It's gripping and quite dark despite the omnipresent humor. And it's pretty linear (meaning that Akabur can actually control the story) but the quests can be done essentially independently, adding just the right level of interactiveness. Did I mention it was quite dark? It's probably not for everyone, but for this guy here, it's pretty damn amazing.

The interface is a bit painful at times—there's some grinding needed in places (not much, thankfully) and the clicking gets tiring, especially if you end up repeating a scene that you've played before and there is no way to shortcut it. Technically, the game is programmed in Ren'Py, which I had not heard of but seems worth checking out if you're the creative sort.

If you're more into traditional storytelling, have a look at a story that I bookmarked a long time ago and that I've now started to read. It's Oceania by Expresso42: “Abducted and mind-wiped by a powerful corporation, Claire Savage is forced to work in an illicit brothel. Escaping sexual enslavement and fighting to regain her memories, she uncovers a shocking secret about her past and a conspiracy that threatens to plunge the world into chaos.” Come on, who can resist a description like that? Note that it's 80% sci-fi and 20% sex. But it's pretty decent sci-fi, and worth reading. (Disclaimer: I'm maybe a third of the way through, so for all I know it may completely drop off the quality cliff before the end.)