One year anniversary - lots of text and a cool image

Vae Victis - Khan was released one year ago, so in order to celebrate it I want to build a massive wall of text and leave it here for people who are completely bored and enjoy a reading challenge. There's also a nice pic included if you get tired of all the words.

I’d like to start by thanking the people who support the project via Subscribestar or Itch, help me with testing, promote the game in F95 by mentioning it here and there, help with coding, report bugs or just hang out in my Discord and reply to my rants as I work on the game. I love you guys.

I’ve been writing porn since 1997. I think my first stories were actually in English but only God knows where they (or the sites I published them on) are now. But I quickly moved to my native tongue and have been publishing in Hebrew ever since. My stories in Hebrew are all over the place with rape, incest, NTR, trans and a whole lot of vanilla because although other fetishes draw more attention, I fucking love vanilla.

The irony is that I’ve been searching for years for a platform that will allow me to write a porn game in Hebrew but when I finally decided I can do it with Ren’py I was like: “Nah, let’s do it in English”. The reason I went with English is that I wanted to have strong Fantasy elements and it would be weird and very limiting to do it in Hebrew. The vast majority of my Hebrew porn is contemporary.

For me the essense of Vae Victis - Khan is transforming power into sex. This is the emotional experience I aim to invoke in the players. The player sees a pretty Wench and he wants to sex her but he can’t because her army is too strong so he starts investing time and effort into making his army stronger. Once it is strong enough to overcome the opposing fiefdom (and its hot ruler) I hope to invoke in the players some thrill, a momentary excitement, a flash of “I have you now, bitch!”. A sense of power.

It might surprise you that the quests (or mini-quests as they were originally called, causing some people to skip them thinking they were minigames) were added relatively late, just before the release of 0.1. My original plan was to make the game more strategy based: a pure game where you manage your empire, conquer a fiefdom and get the Wench to do with her as you wish. But I just couldn’t get enough fluff into the strategy part and it took me about 2-3 minutes to get the army big enough for taking out the next fiefdom so it was like 2-3 minutes prep and then you get the Wench. Not much of a buildup. Then it just hit me: what do I do best? Write porn! Hence the quests as you know them were born.

I still think the original idea is a great idea: a good and fun strategy game where you work on your empire for 20-30 minutes before getting it ready to capture a fiefdom is a very hot concept in my opinion, but my coding skills were not up to the task. Maybe in the future.

While the essence of the game is transforming power into sex, I want to say a few words about what it’s not: It’s not about male supremacy or hatred of women. Neither the protagonist nor me are “out to put women in their natural place” or other such nonsense. I wanted to create a game where players can play a complete bastard, a self centered asshole who is strong enough to take whatever he wants.

Often when creators attempt to create a “villain feature”, they fall into one of two common traps (or tropes)
1. The villain only hurts bigger villains so it’s alright. You see in the Dexter series (didn't get to watch it), Venom movies (watched the first) etc.
2. She secretly likes it so it’s alright. Numerous porn titles.

I didn’t want any of these. I wanted to give the player the option to play a total bastard with absolutely no excuses other than “I can so I will”. I like Karder, but if you pay attention to the female cast they are often more impressive than he is: Domia who rose from a sex slave to a formidable warrior, Fahda who started from nothing to become a successful and powerful merchant, fierce little Yuki who will stop at nothing to free her daughter and more. They are often more inspiring than the protagonist who is relentless in achieving his goals but can come across as self centered, petty and even childish (yet, I love him).

Following that, the cult of Wakabia is not metaphor for feminism, it’s simply a story tool: by giving the Wakabian followers increased powers I make them more worthy opponents to Karder (and more satisfying to overcome) and since they are not supposed to have (male) sex, it makes their seduction/ravishment so much sweeter. It’s also an important part of the greater story, which I reveal between the versions.

From the beginning I wanted to create a physically strong male character. A character who can solve (some) problems simply by punching someone in the nose. It might seem counter intuitive, but writing a wimpy character is much easier than writing a powerful one because for a wimpy character everything is an obstacle and every girl can refuse him, hence problems (and solutions) are in abundance. Writing an interesting powerful character is more challenging in my opinion because I always have to balance between showing his power and not dulling the plot by allowing every problem to be solved by punching someone. In the beginning of the Tinpingia/Waioo quest, Karder meets with Gaal the elfkin in the pub, then some constables barge in. He kicks their asses but they manage to kidnap Gaal during the commotion so you do get a sense of power but not to the extent that none of the problems matter. Another example was punching Abustan the farmer in the face: go hunt your own boars, cunt.

People’s attention is naturally drawn to what’s flashy and controversial so I get it why people refer to Vae Victis - Khan as “that rapey game” but I enjoy writing the seduction parts as much as I do the more dominant ones, mainly because I get to explore the character of the ladies which tends to get a little obscured during a rape scene. Rape is never mandatory and there’s always a way to move the story forward without forcing Karder between some lady’s thighs (although I do see the appeal). I don’t include the Ravish/Seduction options for the sake of some obscure balance, I do it for the same reason I do everything else: for my own fun. As an author, I enjoy exploring more than one option.

I added Ravish/Seduction options not for the sake of balance, but I consider whether it makes sense story wise. In the Hawatia/Naniry quest I originally intended to allow Karder to ravish Yuki but then I thought about players who forget what her piece of the puzzle was and come back to ask her, which would have been a bit awkward story wise if Karder abused her earlier. In a similar note, I couldn't find a believable seduction angle to sex with combatants in the Red Arena, so it’s purely non consensual.

In a similar theme, other tags like gay or bestiality are there not because I’m trying to extend the players base players, but because I think they fit in their respective contexts. The elfkin are such a freaky little sex fiends that they will literally fuck anything, including their dogs. Same goes for the gay scenes. For me Karder is so hyper dominant that he will also fuck anyone attractive, male or female.

One of the challenges I’m trying to address is exploring the personality of the ruler Wenches. Ironically, they are the stars of the show but it’s the quest girls who get more face time before the sex starts. The players get to see too little of the Wenches currently, so taking them is somewhat less satisfying than I want it to be. One of the reasons I added them to the images of the Raids is that the players will remember they exist. I need to get them in the players face more, to get the players to care about them more.

And now for some questions from the audience:

1. Are you satisfied with the progress of the game so far?

This is a more complex question than it might appear. Unlike many first year developers, I’m not a complete rookie. I’ve been publishing porn since the late 90s and in my country I’m bigger than all my competitors combined in terms of followers, number of stories published etc. But switching to a different medium in a different language, I have to start almost from scratch: unknown, out of my element and with no fan base. While I knew success in porn games won’t come overnight, there’s still some unconscious taste of disappointment. It doesn’t help that I shackle myself in very creative ways: Subscribestar account only and a game with strong strategy elements which, quite frankly, doesn’t look like any other game that I know.

Having said all that, I am happy. I have some very loyal fans who help me develop and promote the game and also help other fans enjoy it, my ratings are surprisingly high compared to such an offbeat title and most important is that I’m in a creative paradise and I get to fulfil all my fantasies and share it with like minded perverts and fans.

2. How long do you estimate it will take to finish the whole game development?

I honestly don’t know. I have several ideas, ranging from making this some sort of a series (Vae Victis - Khan, Vae Victis - Sea of Knives and Vae Victis - Dominance or something) to making it one full game. Don’t be fooled by the number of fiefdoms on the map, it would take me one hour to generate a new map with the existing fiefdom names and make it smaller or larger. The reason I don’t feel any urge for a deadline is that I’m not cock-teasing my players. I throw tons of pussy on the MC on every version and if there’s one specific cunt you’re after and you’re not getting, well… you’ll have to wait. I want it as much as you do, by the way.

3. You were or maybe still are an erotic novel writer. I think a novel, regardless of which genre it is, is still heavily focused on the story, because there are no images or sounds. But now that you are making a Visual Novel, which I'd say is more focused on the images, do you think it's closer to porn? Like, porn stories are usually comedic and complementary to the sex scenes 

I never use the term erotica to describe my work, I called it porn from day one. Mostly to deny people the claim: “This is not erotica, this is porn!”. So yes, I write porn. As for the difference in mediums: I just love creating fantasy sex. Naturally, writing comes more easily to me but I enjoy learning new methods of creating and sharing my fantasies and I think my game benefits from my background as a writer.

4. This one is about you personally. You can ignore this if you don't want to share your background. You wrote your previous novels in Hebrew, so I assume you are Israeli, although I am aware there are Jews around the world that also speak Hebrew, but I think they use Yiddish as their main language. My impression of Israel is a very conservative country. Did you have any trouble publishing or selling your novels? Do other people mind you writing erotic novels?

Israel is much less conservative than some people think, to the point that one of our representatives to the Eurovision contest some years ago was a trans lady, representing the country in an official competition. Like many other countries we have our share of religious extremists but other than a terrible sense of fashion, they are no different than anybody else's.

5. What is the plan for the pregnancy content post-impregnation? Will there be any sort of lineage/dynasty foundation?

Currently no. I’m trying to reduce the “things I need to keep track of” as in my opinion it adds much more complexity than the fun it gives back. I may add some breeding counter someplace, though.

6. Will we see Incest with some sort of rapid-aging magic? Or will all the little bastards just be shipped off to an orphanage to go be a protagonist destined to claim their rightful place as the heir?

I never wrote a father-daughter scene but I do enjoy such scenes in The Guardian and Peasant Quest so it’s tempting to try. Just how fast do those elfkin mature anyway?

Now about the future.

Very slowly and gradually, I want to introduce more strategy/fiefdom management elements. Not full blown Sid Meier’s Civilization but I do believe the strategy elements complement the theme of the game so I want to explore them some more.

1. Improved army on army combat. I have a prototype that I want to polish, but it has a board and the ability to move some units across it and kill each other. Adding such a very simple combat module can help in introducing features like alternative generals (like Domia) each providing different bonuses, having new buildings (archers range, knights fortress etc) and more. VN mode is staying, so if you really don’t like any of this stuff, just ignore it.
2. Additional fiefdom management tools. Things like Public Executions (drops morale but boosts Obedience), Bribe the Elite (pay Gold to gain Obedience) and more. Yet I intend to use existing mechanisms (Morale/Obedience/Gold/Troops etc) without introducing new ones because I don’t want to overcomplicate the game.
3. Terror. I’m toying with the idea that Wenches will have a Courage statistics and Karder will have a Terror statistic. Terror will increase by doing nasty things like Force Yield, putting Wenches in the Dungeon and more. Once Karder’s Terror exceeds a ruling Wenche’s courage, she surrenders her kingdom and you’ll have a nice surrendering/submission scene.
4. Using existing mechanisms I want to give the players more than one way to run the Khaganate, maybe high Obedience fiefdoms will be more stable but carry Morale penalties (thus hurting yield) while a high Morale fiefdom will be more of a headache to run (lower Obedience cap?) but carry better yield.

You’ll often see aspiring developers asking “what type of game do I need to make in order for it to be popular?” or “What type of games make the most money?”. I don’t brother with these questions, I just want to create a game I’ll enjoy playing and hopefully others too. In my opinion, it’s the only way to create anything meaningful. Thanks for reading, thanks for playing and thanks for supporting me!