Anamnesis, of Renascents and Monsters,

A text-based simulation and role playing game of exploration, warfare, intrigue and romance in a low fantasy, early 20th century environment.

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Anamnesis 260918 Released

 
Previous savegames are not compatible
 
Nothing big, just trying to get the rust off and get my motivation back. I spent some months teaching myself Godot, but ultimately decided against remaking Anamnesis with it as this would take several years of decidedly unfun work just to get to where the game is now with my current amount of available free time. Might start a new, less niche game with it at some point though.
 
Might also set up a Ko-fi at some point or something, could be a nice way to fool myself into spending more of that free time writing or developing. Just don't look forward to it because I dislike reward tiers and stuff so there will be nothing in it for you.
 

Change Log:

  • New secret procedurally generated stuff to discover each cycle when engaging with lovers and the like. (As relatively safe for work as the rest of the game).
  • You can now acquire relic pieces paying a variable Arkhe cost rather than adventuring, if certain new contexts allow it.
  • Two randomly designated renascents at the beginning of each game will be selected as your unconditional ally and nemesis. These will remain secret, but their like or hate towards you will remain fairly strong regardless of everything, even how you choose to treat them.
  • You are now asked about your character and settlement name after choosing all other options so that you don't have to name a completely random character blindly.
  • Your character's unmodified base stats are now displayed in the "Bio" screen. 
  • Starting in "Standard Mode" will put players inside a territory regardless of their starting role. Should help make the first contact with the game less overwhelming for new players. 
  • 7 new socio-environmental and personal contexts.
  • A number of bug-fixes, tweaks and some other stuff I forgot to write down.

 


Friday, October 24, 2025

Anamnesis 251024 Released

 

Previous savegames are compatible.
 

Another maintenance release. Mostly just addressing some of the issues people were having with the game.

Might finally get more time to develop the game in the near future. Perhaps even feel something remotely similar to a sense of purpose again. 

 

Bugfix 1 Released on 25-11-11: Arguably more of a small release than a bugfix. Further trimmed redundant menus and unnecessary clicks, did some balancing and fixed some display issues.

Bugfix 2 Released on 25-11-24: Removed more clicks, fixed some more display oddities, made some further balancing and added a chance for certain events to produce children outside normal relationships. Combine this with the "Lack of Contraception" social context for extra fun.

 

Change Log:

  • Outcomes for events and votings are now displayed in a single message, some redundant messages and choices were removed, and economic information is hidden from players without at least a Hideout/Outstation to save players valuable clicks.
  • Even if a renascent hates you, you'll now still be occasionally shown actions that allow you to gradually earn their favour rather than simply the option to argue with them. 
  • Updated to the latest version of the RenPy engine. This should make the game run on the latest versions of Joiplay  for most users once again.
  • 2 new units.
  • 1 new socio-environmental context.
  • Misc. bug-fixes, tweaks and stuff. 

 

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Anamnesis 250723 Released

 

Previous savegames are compatible.
 
A lousy little update. Been working 60 to 72 hours per week at my day job most of this summer. Am dead inside.

Bugfix 1 Released on 25-08-04: Hopefully fixed a bug that caused renascent companions to leave improperly.

Change Log:

  • Cycles can now have up to 6 socio-environmental contexts at once.
  • Starting a new standard game will give you a starting boon to choose between Arkhe, Merits, negative Weariness or Negative Local Tension.
  • Players can now learn about settlement development opportunities during votings. 
  • 1 new territory.
  • 2 new units.
  • 3 new socio-environmental contexts.
  • Some bug-fixes, tweaks and typos.

Monday, April 7, 2025

Anamnesis 250407 Released

 

Previous savegames are not compatible.
 

It was brought to my attention that the game is a bit of a mess when played by blind players with self-voicing enabled. Unfortunately I'm really short on free time lately and this literally requires testing hundreds of things and systems, so I decided to slap together a hopefully more playable self-voicing optimized mode and make a release for those interested in it to test, if this is not of interest to you, you can safely skip this release and wait for the next one. 

To access the new mode, after selecting "New Game", open the Ren'Py console with Shift+O, type "simpletext = 1" (without quotation marks), press Enter, then Esc to exit the console. Pressing the v key will enable self-voicing as usual with all tips and redundant text removed and territory lists replacing all maps.

Bugfix 1 Released on 25-05-18: Fixed a bug that prevented maritime trade altogether.

 

Change Log:

  • Added an experimental self-voicing optimized mode for blind players.
  • Other aristocrats might now own trading licenses, allowing you to get rid of them to secure monopolies or bypass having to purchase your own by using theirs to trade once they are under your control.
  • Local Tension will now decrease faster during the beginning of each cycle, particularly standard ones, and after obtaining strategic advantages favourable to your side. 
  • Outcast players can now attack or try to negotiate with enemy units occupying the territory in which they find themselves through the "Other actions and info" screen, formerly simply called "Other actions".
  • Information and some guidance concerning your player character's peculiarities will be shown at the "Other actions and info" screen.
  • You will now get a small, once-per-cycle reward for personally visiting each of the colony's territories at least once.
  • Blocking the granting of new trading licenses for products in which you own a monopoly now costs 0.5 Merits rather than 5.
  • It is now significantly less likely that random aristocrats you meet will try to spy on you.
  • 2 new socio-environmental contexts.
  • 2 new player character drawbacks/strengths.
  • 1 new player character peculiarity.
  • New feyfolk content, including 1 new power.
  • A few minor bug-fixes, tweaks and typos.

Tuesday, March 11, 2025

Trader Aristocrats, Goodwill and Exploration Rewards

The next version of Anamnesis will allow procedural aristocrats to engage in trade, opening a number of new options for business-oriented players. It will also make Local Tension slightly more manageable, and give players rewards for personally visiting all of the colony's territories at least once.

Those presently nebulous rival trader licenses will now be tied to individual aristocrats and you'll be notified if the aristocrat you just met happens to own a license and for what kind of goods. This information will be relevant to you is you're seeking to stablish a monopoly, as the license will expire if the aristocrat just so happens to have one of those of convenient but unfortunate accidents.

Even if you're not the kind to have acquaintances mysteriously suffer hunting accidents around you, knowing this information can still be useful as once you gain control of an aristocrat with a valid license you can either force them to relinquish the license, or use it for your advantage and start maritime trade ventures with it even if you don't personally own them, making for a nice backdoor to get into business without having to pay the outrageous costs of playing nice by the rules.

In this regard, trade has also been tweaked slightly, making monopolies more lucrative overall and drastically reducing the cost of vetting new licenses in markets you cornered from 5 Merits to 0.5.

There is now also a hidden "goodwill" variable in the game. It is essentially another aid for beginners, but it has found its way into some other systems. Basically it is a limited resource that dampens the effects of Local Tension increases. You get a moderate amount of it at the beginning of standard games to account for the judgement mistakes of new players, some of it at the beginning of advanced games and the beginning of each cycle, and smaller quantities from strategic advantages favourables to your faction and some other feyfolk effects.

Finally, and because I'm apparently feeling generous, you get yet another freebie in the form of a modest, once per cycle reward of 1 Merit and a slight reduction of Weariness and Local Tension once you have personally set foot in each of the colony's 16 territories to incentivize exploration. This comes along with a new social context for a grand race increasing that reward to 4 Merits and 1200 Arkhe if you can do this within the first 18 weeks of the cycle, which I've found to be find pretty fun because fleeing or being defeated on a fight while trying to visit a territory does not make said visit count.

Monday, February 17, 2025

Anamnesis 250217 Released


Previous savegames are not compatible.
 

I've made some beginner-friendly updates that seemed wise to put out there before engaging with more time-consuming content and features, so we get a new mid-sized release ahead of schedule.

Bugfix 1 Released on 25-02-28: Should fix a bug causing the purchase of a house not being properly registered after fleeing a territory and the game losing track of when to apply feyfolk stat buffs and debuffs along with some other minor reported stuff.

 

Change Log:

  • Renascents will now engage in procedural romantic relationships with each other on their own with a number of gameplay implications, ranging from rejecting your wooing, trying to leave or bring their lovers to your homebase, and changes in their weariness and liking for you. You can see whether they currently have a partner in the "Forces" menu.
  • Hanging around renascents with which you have a good enough relationship will let you know what kind of romantic relationship they are engaged in and allow you to break it.
  • Certain conditions must be met for renascents to wander, hide or become stuck inside territories. They might sometimes free themselves or leave on their own. Occasionally new ones will also start wandering the colony over time so you won't be limited to rescuing or recruiting only the initial ones during each cycle.
  • Renascents that dislike you enough might spontaneously leave your service and wander the colony.
  • New pity timers to balance out bad luck and rng in some situations if the game detects you've been too unlucky. Certain new modifiers and feyfolk effects for curses and ill-fortune will potentiate, negate or even invert them.
  • Added 16 new traits to the existing 14 in each territory and made player character peculiarities and lobby actions require 3 matches rather than 2 to increase consistency.
  • Tweaked the character generator for players and procedural characters to make it more varied and slightly reduce the weight of cultural background when appropriate.
  • New feyfolk content and tweaks, including 2 new powers, 3 passive effects, a retaliation and some flavour variations.
  • 2 new player character drawbacks/strengths.
  • Some more minor bug-fixes and typos.