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Side RPGMaker Project — Description
So... I feel as though I should explain myself. This doesn't fall into the realm of content you'd normally expect to see from me, on DeviantArt or otherwise, but ever since discovering a fairly healthy community of bondage fans on this site, I've actually found myself garnering an increasing interest in the "Damsel in Distress" sort of games and other content, and I'm becoming increasingly excited for the release of Didnapper 2.

After sampling a fair number of different bondage game offerings, however, I take mild issue with the fact that the vast majority of minigames where you have to escape from some sort of bondage situation tend to be overly simple, usually only requiring you to mash 1 or 2 buttons for 2-3 seconds, then poof! you're free! And I ALSO take mild issue with the fact that many of these games consider being captured to be the Game Over state. See... for me -- a shameless bondage slut -- being captured is when the fun actually BEGINS, so I feel overly penalized when the game ends just because I was hoping to see if there was an interesting captivity scene after losing to an enemy. IMHO, I think losing and being captured should be a part of the game -- a valid option from which gameplay continues -- even if by repeatedly putting yourself in perilous situations you deny yourself the potential "best" ending. From a developer standpoint, though, I get it. Branching paths FUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

Nevertheless, I felt the need to try to tackle making a bondage escape minigame the likes of which I really wanted to play. Trying to come up with a design for this, I thought a lot about how to untie knots. When you're tied up, if you can reach a knot, you usually can't see the knot, so you have to pluck at a few of the loops until you find the one that moves. Once you pull on it enough, the other loops usually tighten, and you'll reach a point where you can't move it any more until you loosen a loop that's tightened around it. Eventually, by loosening multiple of the correct loops at once, you will still probably be tied up, but at the very least the knot will start to move more freely, and then you can use that extra mobility to possibly reach another knot... and so on... and so forth...

So, drawing on inspiration sparked by Didnapper and A Drow's Life, and applying my own game-design experience and personal bondage experience, I developed a working prototype for a minigame that's more puzzle-based than it is button-mashey. The puzzle is that there's a constant tug of war between all the different ropes tied around you. Struggling to loosen one knot will tighten another one, and no one binding can be loosened too far below the value any of the others that are overlapping it, so you have to vary your movements to find which knots are loose and which ones are tight, then, eventually, with enough time and enough perseverance, you can begin to work on untying yourself. On top of that, I added layers for exhausting yourself, becoming too "excited" (tee hee), and a system for progressive tightening/recapturing that will fight to keep you helpless (mostly for animated bindings like vines or tentacles.) Then I made a few crappy edits to some sprites and drew a shitty little graphic to go with it all. Surprisingly, all of it currently works... well enough.

Originally this minigame was going to be stupidly complicated, with puzzles on top of puzzles hidden behind more puzzles... but aside from the fact that it would probably just be unbelievably frustrating from a gameplay perspective, I also just didn't want to script all that. And even in its current state, it might still be a little too complicated, but I ultimately decided to knock it down to just five major parts, arms, legs, wrists, ankles and torso, and have them be affected in different ways by the 2-3 available movements. There's also a Blindfold and Gag that can be on or off, and they limit some of the other options available to you in the game. Much to my disbelief, the prototype actually functions, and I'm shocked that I'm actually kind of happy with how it plays right now... but I also have proprietary knowledge of how the minigame's hidden systems work, so there's no way for me to know if I'm giving the player enough information to actually solve the puzzle or not.

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The Minigame:
Examine Situation - Allows you to inspect the integrity of each of your bindings, check your health and overall wellness, as well as get a rough idea of how long before someone rescues you. If you aren't blindfolded you can also look around for a nearby item that might help you escape, but even if you're lucky enough to see one, you have to also be able to reach the item, and that depends greatly on how tied up you are.
Cry for Help - If you aren't gagged, has a chance of reducing the amount of time before someone comes to rescue you.
Struggle - Reduces the integrity of the bindings on your wrists and ankles, under certain conditions.
Squirm - Reduces the integrity of the bindings on your arms and legs, under certain conditions.
Wriggle - WIP, NYI, I'm actually not sure if this is necessary or what it should do yet. Was thinking it could be used to sort of normalize the integrity of different bindings or modify them in a greater risky-rewardy way. The game plays fine with just Struggle and Squirm, but I feel like having some third movement option would give the player a better feeling of choice and control.
Rest - Skips your turn and recovers your energy. I may also make it reduce your "excitement" because you currently don't have any other way to do that.

If you struggle/squirm too much, you will have to rest to recover your energy, which costs you time.
If your torso is bound, your "excitement" will build over time, and if you become too excited you will have a chance to "lose control" (tee hee) and you lose a few turns while you recover. This is more dangerous when trapped in vines or tentacles that will tighten on you and can recapture your already freed parts while you recover.
There is a rescue timer that slowly ticks down over time, so if you find yourself impossibly stuck, the minigame will always end eventually... my thinking is that, depending on the situation you are in, your "rescuer" might not always be a benevolent hero. The system of "rescue" mostly exists so I can run events that will allow the game to continue even if you were unable to escape.
There's also a system where if you DO manage to free different parts of yourself, it becomes progressively easier to free the rest of you. The game is never harder than when everything is tied up. If you can manage to free even one part, undoing the rest of your bindings becomes just slightly easier.

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I figured I'd post this here, and see if anyone might be interested in me putting together a little test demo or something for people to try out and play with. I was building this minigame as part of a larger RPG narrative/game, but it's honestly pretty unlikely I'll make a full RPG game out of it. I might keep dabbling in it from time to time though... who knows, we'll see. Mostly I just hope to put something out some day that will maybe inspire others to make better/more interesting bondage escape games for me to play!