DEVLOG — BUILDING THE CASTLE

2026-09-05

Written guides for all five worlds

Until now everything the game had to say about itself was inside the game. That works for players who already started, and badly for anyone trying to decide whether to click Play at all.

Each world now has its own page describing its landscape, its structure, its three hidden objects and what full completion asks for. They are written to be read before, during or instead of a run — none of them spoil which door is the right one, because in this game nobody knows.

A devlog was added at the same time, so the site keeps a readable record of what the game becomes.

2026-08-28

The Core — level five, and a change of resolution

The Core is the biggest level built so far: a hollow world lit by a molten sun, with marshes of giant mycelium, crystal towers, basalt organs, geyser fields and creatures that sit somewhere between dinosaur and invention.

It is also the first level to change the art style. The pixel grid stays, but the artworks are denser and more detailed — the game deliberately behaves as though it had jumped a hardware generation between the Mine and the centre of the earth.

The final stage introduces the only other human being in the game, and with him the first genuine decision: follow him out, find another way, or refuse both and keep looking.

2026-08-14

Supporter Packs replace the donation button

The old 'support the game' button was a donation, and donations are difficult to process cleanly. It has been replaced by three optional Supporter Packs, which are products: each removes ads permanently, adds a badge, unlocks a supporter artwork per world and a Pantheon gallery.

The three packs are independent — buying one does not block the others, and ads disappear from the first purchase onwards. Nothing in the packs is required to finish a level or complete the collection.

2026-07-30

The Mine, and what the objects are really for

The Mine added dwarven halls, ore seams, a rune-carved tomb surrounded by the remains of an old battle, a cave ceiling of glowing Etherium stones and an underground lake with a voice in the dark.

It also changed the story. The three objects found there — a torn book, a worn photograph of a woman and two children, and an engraved paintbrush — are the point at which the collection stops being a set of trophies and starts being a biography.

2026-07-10

The Mountain, and the first break in the soundtrack

Four outdoor stages climbing from marshland to snow, then a fifth that goes underground through a rune-carved dwarven gate. Stone trolls caught by daylight, a passing orc war band, a giant nest, and a Dahu standing perfectly level on a slope thanks to legs of different lengths.

The music breaks with the medieval strings of the first two levels for something colder and more percussive. From here on, each level's score grows out of the last one's ending rather than starting fresh.

2026-06-18

Why a game decided entirely by luck

Every door in The Castle is a coin flip, and no skill will change that. Playtests kept returning the same reaction: frustration for about ten minutes, then something calmer.

The fix was not to add skill, it was to make failure productive. Every room reached is kept forever in the collection, so a run that ends immediately still moves you forward. The game asks for patience instead of reflexes, and it says so on the first screen.