Systems design note
Designing possession
in Revenant
A prototype should answer a specific design question. For Revenant, the first question was whether moving from body to body could feel like an action rather than a menu.
The player’s decision
A body offers safety, abilities and access. Spirit form opens another way through the level, but exposes the player to a draining tether. A useful possession loop needs reasons to leave a body as well as reasons to take one.
States make the rules explicit
| State | Player control | Design purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Spirit | Spirit pawn | Find a host while exposed. |
| Diving | Transition | Make entry read as a leap. |
| Embodied | Host body | Use the host and restore the tether. |
| Ejecting | Transition | Leave by choice or on host death. |
| Unmoored | Spirit pawn | A short final chance to reach a host. |
| Pulled back | No control | End the attempt and reload. |
Feedback makes failure learnable
Unaware targets create a stealth opening; dazed targets create a short opportunity after release. Blockers such as death or a ward override an opening. When an attempt fails, the player needs to know whether the problem is distance, facing direction, awareness or a protected target.
The feedback must also respect information the player has not earned. A body hidden behind a wall should not reveal itself through a failed-possession prompt.
What the first prototype was meant to prove
- Taking a valid host should grant control within 0.5 seconds.
- Chaining bodies should preserve responsive input and a coherent camera.
- Release should return the host to AI without leaving it stuck.
- The tether should make spirit form vulnerable without making failure arbitrary.
- Losing a host should have a perceptible cost.
These are design acceptance criteria, not published performance measurements.
What changed after playtesting
My playtest of the first possession prototype exposed the limits of using identical guards. Smooth transitions alone did not make choosing a body meaningful. Distinct body roles and reactions after release became the next design question.
A second issue concerns movement: passing through a gap should be an intentional interaction, with an entry and re-forming phase. It should not make the spirit behave as though the door never existed.
Production context
This is an edited portfolio summary of the project’s possession specification and prototype devlog. The project is in development and uses AI-assisted workflows. Timing values are prototype targets and tuning inputs.