- "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
Possession
Possession 1.0.1 released to testers
Music done, release set for July 18th!
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!)
Music Update
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! Achievements done, Beta 2 out to testers
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.
Done with sounds!
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.
Update on beta testing and progress
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
All of those were things that I was working on while making the rest of the game, but decided to put on hold to finish the content and gameplay. So I already had a good amount of sounds and some music made, it's not all coming from scratch here! I've mostly been working on finishing up the sounds recently, and I've been making good progress on that.
I'll be sending the game out for a second round of testing to a larger group once I have the sounds and achievements done. I'll be working on the music and Steam integration while it's with the second round. I have several people who have expressed interest in testing who haven't gotten it yet, so for the time being I'm not taking more applicants. I'll make another post if that changes.
Beta Almost Ready!
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! Possession status 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.
Possession: Final boss done, stats screen and progress announcement
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.