What can be said on a beautiful Sunday night on the outskirts of the city of Edmonton? It is honestly a beautiful night, plus 22°C, and no, I am not going to do the conversion for my American readers.

This weekend has been quite a peaceful one, except, of course, for the fact that I was bitten by the coding bug. Usually around this time of year, especially on weekends, my mind is racing a hundred miles a minute. But Mother’s Day was pretty relaxed. I cooked for the family while the wife relaxed and played Hogwarts Legacy. I, of course, will receive the same gift on Father’s Day.

But now, with the kids in bed, I am flying high and decided to share with you all what I have been working toward for the next build release.

I still remember when Azthengar’s source code file was only 42 KB, and I was blown away by that. Just 42 KB of data for the entire game. Now it is almost 1 MB in size, and I am sitting here wondering where the time went.

It does not help that I am watching Once Upon a Time for the first time, and they got transported back to the 1980s. All I could think about was how cool it would have been to play a clone of this game on a C64 or something. Knowing me, though, it would have been written in QBasic 1.1 on an old MS-DOS machine, a sweet 386 with a turbo button and a digital counter on the box.

I miss those days.

But anyway, I know I have been updating the game and posting quite frequently about it, and I just want you all to see the game I am making. This next release is shaping up to be a big one. It is not just a few small changes or a couple of fixes. It is a full-on gameplay expansion that gives the castle more memory, more secrets, more danger, and more of that weird haunted old-school soul I have been chasing since the beginning.

Until next time.

Don’t be a Melvin.

The 16-Point Gameplay Expansion

1. Five-Key Sealed Door System
Keys now have deeper purpose. Once the player gathers five iron keys, the castle can awaken the Woundgate, a special sealed door that demands all five keys to open.

2. The Five-Iron Vault
The Woundgate now leads to a secret side area filled with cursed gold, iron, enemies, lore, treasure, and a return path back to the castle.

3. Area-Specific Tile Decoration Pass
Different areas now have stronger visual identity, including the swamp, forest, witch home, serpent temple, Five-Iron Vault, Ice Palace, and deeper castle regions.

4. Animated Atmosphere Pass
The world now feels more alive with pulsing shrines, shimmering locked doors, bubbling swamp tiles, flickering forest details, glowing witchlight, frost sparkles, and vault glints.

5. Secret Wall and Hidden Passage System
Some walls can now hide secret passages. Players may sense them through clues, bump into them, reveal them, and uncover hidden rewards.

6. Equipment Personality Pass
Weapons, armor, and shields now have more identity. Certain gear can affect specific enemy types, resist certain dangers, or carry cursed and legendary traits.

7. Boss Foreshadowing Pass
Major boss encounters now have build-up before they happen, including warnings for the Minotaur, Azthengar, the True King, and the Archivist secret fight.

8. Castle Memory Screen
The game now tracks the player’s legend, including hidden passages, rare visions, boss milestones, relic discoveries, vault openings, ending seeds, and other accomplishments.

9. Floor Mutator System
Certain floors now have special moods and conditions, such as Blood Moon, Silent Floor, Witchmarked Floor, Dragon Heat, Starved Floor, Cursed Masonry, and Frozen Breath.

10. Shrine Choice System
Shrines now offer dark choices. The player can kneel, offer gold, offer blood, offer a key, or refuse and risk consequences.

11. Rare Elite Enemy Entrance Pass
Elite enemies now feel more dramatic when encountered, giving stronger foes a more memorable presence before battle.

12. Secret Relic Chain
Relics now connect into a hidden progression system. As the player discovers more, the castle reacts, rewards unlock, and the Crownchain can awaken.

13. Expanded Velinor Prophecy System
The Great Witch Velinor now has a stronger presence in the castle, appearing every ten floors and offering prophecy based on the player’s progress.

14. 16-Bit Sound Stinger Pass
Major moments now have short retro sound hits, including Woundgate events, shrine choices, boss omens, rare enemy entrances, relic awakenings, and Velinor prophecies.

15. Secret Ending Seed System
Hidden actions now influence the ending after True King Azthengar. The player can awaken secret ending seeds through exploration, relics, visions, shrines, and major victories.

16. Endless Mode Corruption Pass
After Floor 200, Endless Mode becomes increasingly unstable, corrupted, and haunted. The deeper the player goes, the more the castle loses its mind.