Welcome to Azthengar

Greetings, fellow Azthengarians,

The Archivist is here, and it has been quite a week. I’ve been wandering through a bit of a haze, thinking, rethinking, and trying to push Azthengar forward in a way that feels right. Not just something that works, but something that flows. Something that feels natural the moment you place your hands on the keys and begin the descent.

This week’s focus was progression. I set out with what I believed to be a strong idea: a level-up system that rewarded the player with a choice. When enough experience was gained, a selection box would appear, offering Health, Attack, or Defense. It felt familiar. It felt safe. For a brief moment, I thought I had landed on something that would truly make the game shine.

I was wrong.

The moment I experienced it in motion, I could feel the damage. The pause was immediate. The flow was broken. It did not matter how clean the system was or how logical the choices appeared. That single interruption shattered the rhythm of the game. Azthengar is not meant to stop and ask the player what they want. It is meant to pull them forward without hesitation, deeper and deeper into the unknown.

So it had to go.

What followed was days of frustration. I went over the system again and again, breaking it apart, rebuilding it, trying to find a solution that preserved progression without sacrificing immersion. It became something of an obsession. I could not let it go until it felt right.

What emerged from that process is what I now call a revolving system of three. Instead of asking the player to choose, the game now cycles through progression automatically. One level grants increased health, the next strengthens attack, and the next reinforces defense. Then the cycle repeats. There are no menus. There are no interruptions. The player simply continues forward, growing stronger as they descend.

This single change transformed the experience.

The game now moves the way it was always meant to. There is a rhythm to it, a steady and continuous motion that keeps the player grounded in the world. Progression no longer feels like a system layered on top of the game. It feels like something that exists within it, as if the dungeon itself is shaping the one who dares to explore it.

This change has been driving me to the edge for days, but now that it is complete, I can say with certainty that it was worth every moment. It feels right. It feels true to what Azthengar is meant to be.

Included in this update are the changes I have described, but there is also something more. A small addition, quietly placed, something I have been wanting to introduce for some time now. I will not spoil it here. It is better discovered than explained.

All I will say is this: when you find it, you will understand why I am so happy to finally share it.

— The Archivist