Possession v22 has been released. This version just fixes a potential crash that could result when skeleton bones hit a wall between their target and their owner, resulting in them getting stuck trying to path endlessly forever. In other news, I've released a (currently free) preview version of my next game, Wizard School Dropout! You can find it at https://weirdfellows.itch.io/wizard-school-dropout You left wizard school in disgrace. Cast out of magical society, you have only one option to pay off your exorbitant student loans: crime. Using the unlicensed but probably mostly safe portal generator you found in a mysteriously abandoned tower, go on heists where you infiltrate and steal from the rich and powerful. The game is fully playable and winnable at this point, but still in development and much more content is planned. In other other news, there's now a Discord to discuss my games including Possession: https://discord.gg/2cjZ4kuFJU (Linux users: it appears there may be some incompatibilities with Steam's current runtime. If you run into an issue, under Properties > Compatibility, select "Legacy runtime 1.0")

A little late, but Possession launched five years (and a few months) ago! This update adds the "Sunken City" special level. This was previously a mod I made to show how modding worked, but since modding never took off I'm adding it to the main game. Also, at this point, I've decided to make the "demo" the full game. You can play it as much as you want, for free but please purchase if you like it to support my efforts in creating it. Purchasing also gives you a Steam key. In other news, I'm pretty far along in development of my new game, Wizard School Dropout. In it, you play a disgraced wizard cast out from magical society who turns to crime to pay off your wizard school debt. An initial release is coming soon, follow along at https://weirdfellows.itch.io/wizard-school-dropout

Patch Notes:

Content Changes:

Bug fixes:

UI:

Possession v20 has been released, fixing a bug that could cause the game to lock up during the final boss fight.

Possession v19 has been uploaded. Occasionally, for some reason, the game would save without the player character being placed on the map, causing a crash when you'd try to load the save. I haven't identified what's causing the problem to happen, but this version does have a fix where if you try to load one of these saves, the player character will be placed at the downward stairs and the save will load, letting you continue playing.

Fixes a couple of crashes that showed up on level 2 involving Necromancers and their controlled undead.

V17 has been released. Demos probably won't be updated just for this. Basically the only changes are new settings for resizing the text. UI Changes:

• New font size and tooltip font size settings.
• New setting to make the buttons on the sidebar bigger (independent of font size)
• Game cheats screen now resizes if the UI scale setting is changed.
• Added a menu button to the main game screen that can be clicked to pull up the "pause" menu.
• The health bar is now drawn in color, fading from green to red depending on how hurt you are.
• The "close" button icon is now a "back" button since that's always how I thought about it anyway, which is why it's in the top left. Hopefully this change will stop its location being a thing people get weird about.

Possession v16 has been released. Fixes: Fixed a crash that could be caused by a Swamp Witch spell UI/UX Improvements: Pressing the "target" button (default x) while in targeting mode now switches out of targeting mode

Possession v15 has been released. Fixes: Fixed a crash that could occur when possessing piles of bones in the Mausoleum Adjusted how click-to-move handles previously seen enemies, should stop less frequently now

Summary: Due to personal events I've decided to move on to working on new projects, and probably will not be releasing more content for Possession, though I will continue to fix bugs. If you want to follow what I'm doing, you can follow me on Twitter @vaughantay. I don't really post much, but any future projects I work on I will talk about there. Full Post: It's Possession's 1-year release anniversary, so now seems as good a time as any to say this. For those of you who don't know, Possession is a one-person project. That one person is me, Taylor Vaughan. Someone very close to me died suddenly and unexpectedly a few months ago. This has impacted my life in a lot of ways but has also caused a serious decrease in my productivity; it's only recently I've even gotten back into working on game projects at all, and so far I've only been putting in a couple hours one day a week. It may be a cliche, but something like that really does make you realize your time is finite. Making games isn't my full-time job. It's something I do because I enjoy it, a few hours a week I put in after work or on the weekends. Because of this, it takes me a long time to finish a game -- Possession took me nearly 6 years to make. I've got lots of ideas for things I want to make, so much so that even if I live to be 100 I'll never get to them all. For that reason, it just makes sense to me to move to a new project. Possession was neither a financial nor critical success, and it doesn't seem like it has a fan base who love it either (If I'm wrong and there's anyone who *is* a passionate fan, let me know!) - the consensus seems to be "fun for a while, but then time to move on." And I think it's fair for that to apply just as much to me as it does to the players. Although I previously said I wanted to work on adding new levels to the game, I just don't think it's something that really makes sense for me to do, or something I'd get much enjoyment out of at this point. I understand if this news might be disappointing and some people might feel cheated (though I don't think there's many out there who will really care that much), but I considered Possession a finished game on release. The extra content I talked about making was only a potential bonus. Now, I'm not abandoning the game entirely - I'll continue to fix bugs that are reported, and I may end up backporting some improvements I make to the engine (can't promise that, though). I'm not ready to announce what my next project is yet; I've got a couple ideas in mind I haven't fully settled on. Right now I've just been working adding features to the engine, like items, that'll be useful to any of them. So far, all the engine improvements I've been making are part of the public, open-source Roguelove project, so if you're interested in using it to make your own roguelike, or just to see what sort of things I'm adding, you can check it out at: https://github.com/vaughantay/roguelove/ If you want to follow what I'm doing, you can follow me on Twitter @vaughantay. I don't really post much, but any future projects I work on I will talk about there.

Possession v14 is released! (Full versions for Linux and Windows, anyway; Mac and demo versions still pending) This is mostly a bug fix release. Fixes:

• Fixed mausoleum and graveyard having their IDs stored as "true" in the game stats
• Fixed crash on the stat screen from trying to load information on the nonexistent level "true" that resulted from this
• Fixed crash on stat screen when trying to view stats on a creature that doesn't exist (due to mods not being loaded, usually)
• Fixed crash on stats screen resulting from 0-turn wins (shouldn't have actually been a problem for anyone since that'd normally be impossible, but it came up during testing so I fixed it)
• The final level should now show up on the stats screen properly. Unfortunately, wins weren't being counted as "beating" the final level, so the win % for the final level will be wrong. They're being counted going forward, though

• Electric arrows' damage to adjacent creatures now behaves properly -- it no longer deals "spread" damage to the original target
• If you're possessing a cultist-type enemy, you will no longer join a cult leader's cult when you see them (this didn't really DO anything when it happened, but it looked kinda silly)

Biggest change this version is the introduction of the Mausoleum as a potential first level. It has the same creatures as the Graveyard (because I think they're a good set to learn the game on), but a different layout so there's a bit more variety at the beginning of each game.
Content changes:

• Dwarven bombers are less likely to throw bombs on any given turn, hopefully making them slightly less annoying.
• Added an AI-only cooldown for the Brainiac's hypnotize ability, so they don't spam it constantly.
• Spiderwebs now only cause one turn of web paralysis.
• Ratlings are now all in the same faction, so if you're possessing any type of ratling, other ratlings of any type won't generally be hostile unless something else causes them to be.
• If the [redacted] is under your command, you're able to [redacted].

• You can now move the cursor over the tiles on the map borders.
• The popups that show damage now have a small variation in their speed, and speed up as they get older. This way, if a creature takes two hits at the same time you might be able to read both of them.
• Description boxes from mousing over sidebar buttons will no longer show while a window (for example, the spell screen) is open.

• Added a calc_damage callback, which can return a number to change the amount of damage being done.

Possession v12 is now available for download. New Features: Rather than auto-assigning points to your stats when you kill an enemy, you can now choose which stats you want to increase from the character screen. There's a setting to set it back to the old style where it randomly assigns Tombstones can now generate on levels where you've died, with the name of your character & date of their death. Miscellaneous: The game will now try to autosave if it crashes. It does this in a new file, so it doesn't risk corrupting your old save.

Content Changes:

• Removed the "Adjusting to New Body" condition
• Levels are now generated 60 x 60 tiles rather than 75 x 75 tiles. This also decreases the number of creatures on the level (but the density is slightly increased)
• The old 75 x 75 size can be enabled as a "Cheat" (now called "Game Modifiers") on the new game screen
• The trail of slime from the snailperson is no longer applied on water

• Fixed a crash that could be caused by moving using the mouse and then getting shot with a healing syringe by the orc healer
• Fixed a crash that happened when you quit directly from the new game screen
• Fixed a crash that could happen when clicking on certain locations in the load game screen

• On a crash, the game now saves an error log in the following locations:

Version 10 of Possession is now available. I'm changing the version numbers to reflect the release number, rather than sticking with semantic versioning (1.X.X), because it didn't make much sense. Interface Changes: -The UI can now be scaled from the Settings menu. This only affects the in-game UI, not the other menus. I wouldn't recommend using it if you're not on a 4K screen, because it doesn't look very good. Anyone who does have a 4K screen, please let me know how it looks for you, and if I should update the rest of the screens to scale as well. -If clicking would cause you to move, it now shows an arrow rather than the targeting reticule Fixes: -Fixed a crash that could be caused when receiving an achievement without Steam open

Version 1.0.8 is now available. Interface Changes: - You can use the Enter key on the numpad everywhere you can use the main Enter/Return key - You can now select "it" as your pronoun when starting a new game

A demo for Possession is now available on Steam. It lets you play through the first two floors (including two possible options for level 2), and you can pick up your progress from your demo save if you purchase the full game!

Interface Changes:

• You can now zoom in and out. This can be done using the scroll wheel, or by using the - and = keys on top of the keyboard - rebindable from settings, of course! Only applies to the gameplay graphics, not the UI (UI scaling is the next project).

• You can now easily add creatures to a special level by returning a levelCreatures table from a mod. Example: levelCreatures={graveyard={'graverobber'}}

• Fixed a crash that occurred when using the scroll wheel on the spell selection screen

Interface Changes:

• There's now a minimap! It can be disabled from the settings page.
• The stairs up are now colored yellow in ASCII mode, and have an up arrow attached to the tile in graphical mode. The up arrow is drawn on top of whatever else is on the tile, so if something is standing on the stairs it's easier to see them.
• The default preferences are now set to show creature stats on the sidebar. (This only applies to people who haven't played the game yet)

• Flying creatures who move over water while on fire now have their fire put out

• Tilesets can now have separate colors for the ground and the walls in ASCII mode (and the Graveyard has been updated to use this feature to more closely match its appearance in graphical mode)
• There's now a Map:get_blocking_feature function to check and return a movement-blocking feature in a tile

• Fixed a crash in the credits screen in ASCII mode

• Possession now launches using your system's libraries rather than the Steam runtime's. This is to fix an issue where the game was not launching on some systems (notably running Manjaro). If this causes a problem and the game's not able to launch on your system when it could before, please let me know!

Small version just to fix some crashes. Crash fixes: Fixing crash from going up stairs as a brainiac or braineater Fixing crash from vase being broken by a non-creature Fixing rare crash that occurred when getting attacked

Crashes fixed: Fixed potential crash from switching back and forth between fullscreen and windowed mode Fixed crash in the swamp from witch's AI Fixed crash when using with braineater's ability Hopefully fixed a crash that occurred when targeting abilities (I couldn't reproduce it, but I put in a check that should prevent it from happening - please let me know if this still reoccurs!) Gameplay: Awakened mummies are now possessable, but it's very difficult The ancient civilization that created the Tombs no longer shoves two mummies into a single sarcophagus (Empty sarcophagi are no longer possessable) UI: Non-possessable corpses no longer say "you can possess it easily" Settings now says "settings & controls" on main menu Demo: Steam treats adding a demo like adding a whole new game, so there'll be a delay on that. There are now Mac, Windows and Linux demos available on itch.io, though: https://weirdfellows.itch.io/possession

It's been a long journey, but Possession is finally available to purchase for Linux, Windows, and Mac. Thanks to everyone who has been waiting so patiently to play it! The wait is over now, get out there and start possessing some monsters! The release also coincides with version 1.0.3:

• Fixed mouselook not working when you change ASCII tilesize
• Fixed crash from targeting bolt of darkness on an undead creature
• Moved version info to the bottom of the screen

Version 1.0.2 has been released to testers and reviewers. Crashes fixed: Fixed crash caused by going to stats page when you haven't played yet Fixed crash caused by viewing achievements on stats page in ASCII mode Fixed crash caused by gaining an achievement in ASCII mode Other fixes: Wins and losses pages on stats page now display correctly in ASCII mode Main menu now redraws properly in ASCII mode when resizing/fullscreening the window Clicking on creatures to use abilities on them should now target the creature properly (was sometimes targeting a different creature nearby)

A new version has been uploaded to testers and should update automatically. It makes the following fixes/changes:

• "Generic" levels can now generate
• When targeting with the mouse, it now only switches targets when you actually point at a new target (fixes glitchy mouse targeting swapping back and forth quickly)
• If you click on a tile next to you that contains a creature but you can't see, it now attacks them (previously did nothing)
• Fixed a crash that happened when regenerating levels
• Using the keyboard to target spells that have a limited target type now moves between potential targets, ignoring tiles that you can't target
• Graves with grasping arms are no longer possessable

The last music track is finished! It's for the Tavern level, you can listen to it here: http://weirdfellows.com/files/possession2/tavern.mp3 More excitingly, this marks the completion of the game! I'm setting the release date to July 18th. It will release in the afternoon EST. You might wonder, if the game is done, why not release it now? Well, I'm going out of town (tomorrow!) for a few weeks and won't have the ability to make any fixes that might come up. Then when I get back, it's likely the Steam Summer Sale will start soon and I don't want to release during that. Giving myself a few more weeks also give me time to create a new trailer and screenshots to replace the ones from the in-progress version of the game, and to finish the example mod level (although if I don't get that done, I still am going to release!). This'll also give me time to send the game out to reviewers/streamers. On that note, if you're reading this and are a interested in reviewing/streaming/LPing the game, drop me a link to your previous work at contact (at) weirdfellows.com. Size of your audience isn't an issue, but I do want to make sure people emailing me for keys are actually playing games (you wouldn't believe how many emails I've gotten trying to scam free keys even for an unreleased game!)

Things are still coming along. Work on music is a big slow going because creating music digitally isn't something I have a ton of experience with (and really, creating music period isn't something I've done much of since I was in a band back in high school!) I've got a little under 3/4 of the tracks done now. As a preview, here's the track for the generic dungeon levels: http://weirdfellows.com/files/possession2/dungeon.mp3 Another thing that I realized I need to do before release is ensure that modding works properly, and to do that I need to actually create a mod! So I'm creating an entire extra level, with unique creatures, features, etc. to test that it all works. I'll also be releasing the source for so it can be used as an example for any mod-makers.
To make things clear: While Possession will support extensive modding from Day 1, Steam Workshop integration will not be in the initial release. I hope to add it down the line, but I honestly haven't really even looked into what that will entail yet so I can't promise it.

Happy new year! Just wanted to let everyone know things are still moving along. I've finished implementing all the achievements, and tested them to make sure they're all theoretically achievable:
I've also sent the game out for beta testing round 2 (this actually happened back in December). If I'd previously contacted you about testing and you didn't get the email, please let me know! I've asked the testers to have their feedback to me by the end of January. While testing is ongoing, I've been getting some work done on the music.

I believe I'm done with creating the sounds for the game! Obviously I'm sure one or two might have been missed that will come up in testing, but aside from that I should be done with them.
Now the last thing that should remain before Beta 2 is implementing and testing all the achievements. Unfortunately, although I really wanted to get the game out this year, it doesn't look like that'll be happening. I do plan to have Beta 2 out for testing next month, though.

Here's a brief update on the status of Possession. The game's gone out to a small group of initial testers, and I've got some feedback that I'll be working on. Aside from that, the main things I still need to do are:

• Sounds
• Music
• Achievements
• Steam integration for achievements

Sorry for the radio silence. This summer has been crazy busy for me. I moved, and then spent almost as much time out of town as I did in town. But I'm happy to announce that as of yesterday, Possession is finally gameplay complete! Now, it's not ready for release yet, because there are still some things that need to be done (some sounds, music, and achievements, for example), but it's ready to be sent out for gameplay testing and bug hunting! It may still be a week or two before I send the game out to testers. I have to get the distributables together, and I want to run through it one more time to make sure nothing immediately horrible stands out, but I'm ready to start putting together a list of testers. Testing will be unpaid, but testers who provide solid and detailed feedback will have their name in the credits, and receive a free copy of the game upon release. Expectations for beta testers: I will provide a feedback form, and I expect the testers to try and play through the game multiple times (not necessarily all the way through, since it is a permadeath game, but at least multiple runs), trying to do weird things and break as much as possible. Provided I manage to get the beta out in the next week or so, I'd like to have feedback in by the end of September. Let me know if you're interested! You can email me at "contact at weirdfellows dot com" (or reply here, or send me a private message). Please include what Operating System (including distribution if using Linux) and version of the OS you're running. Either Mac, Windows, or a 64-bit Linux system is fine. Depending on the number of people who are interested, I can't promise that everyone who asks will be a tester, and I may hold off until a second round of testing for some.

Happy New Year! It’s still January here so I can still say that. Here’s where things stand for Possession going into 2018… First of all, I thought I’d changed the Steam release date from January 2018 back in December, but apparently I didn’t save it, so it was still showing as January 2018 up until a week or so ago. Sorry if anyone got their hopes up, it’s not releasing in January. Predictably, I didn’t get as much done during the holidays as I’d hoped. But I’ve sat down, looked at what I still have to do, and what needs to be done before I can get the game out for testing. That’s going to be my #1 priority for time I spend on the game going forward. There are plenty of things I can work on while it’s in testing, or afterwards (like sounds and music), but I want to get the game in front of people to play through and help identify bugs, and problems or changes that have to be made. All in all though, really all I have to do to get it to that point is finish fully implementing all the levels and creatures, which is mostly done.

So this past week we hit a big milestone. After nearly four years in development, Possession is finally winnable! The final level and final boss have some special mechanics going on, but now they're implemented (at least as a rough first pass, I'm sure when testing comes in there's going to be a lot of tweaking). I don't want to spoil that, though, so instead he's a screenshot of the stats and achievements screen, which is something else that's new since last time:
Since my last post I have actually managed to get a lot done, but the last month or so have not been very productive, because I got married. Turns out that helping plan a wedding is a lot of work (go figure, right), so development had to fall by the wayside. I'm still hoping to have the game done by the end of the year, but unfortunately the last few months of the year are generally near-constant game sales on Steam (that's not a confirmation they *will* be, because I don't know and even if I did I wouldn't be allowed to say, but that's the way things usually go). I really don't think launching when last year's AAA games are on sale for $10 is a good idea, so no matter what happens release won't be until next year. I am hoping to have closed beta testing started this year, though, so keep an eye out for that, although that might also be a bit too optimistic given family holiday stuff that's going to be happening as well.