If you like Golden Krone Hotel, you can thank the Seven Day Roguelike Challenge which spawned it. I've been doing 7DRL for 10 years now.

This year I decided to try something a bit strange: a rhythm game. The official judging process has concluded and somehow my game Conga Dungeon ranked #1. I urge you to check out the games. There are a ton of amazing entries.



Along with Conga Dungeon and three GKH updates over the last year, I've also been working here and there on expanding Leyliner, a cross between a traditional roguelike and a deckbuilder. We just put out v1.4 and the game now has over 90 cards.



I've got two new projects here that I think are awesome, but I can't do everything. Leyliner feels like a long-burn process which might have a many years long Early Access period (what I should have done with GKH really).

Conga Dungeon on the other hand is probably the coolest idea (with the most mainstream appeal) I've ever come up with. I'm thinking about taking a few months to craft a nice trailer, a preview of where the game could go if I stuck with it. If people find it interesting, that'll be the validation I need to keep going on that project. I do want to return to Leyliner in the near future though. And maybe, who knows, I've got enough energy for more GKH after that.

Any thoughts on which of these two projects I should be pursuing? Let me know.

This update fixes several bugs and balance issues introduced in v1.10 as well as fixing the lag when encountering lots of monsters/obstacles (pretty noticeable sometimes on Steam Deck).



One big UI issue was the lack of potion tooltips when playing on controller or Steam Deck. All menus with potions now show the full potion tooltip. So with these two improvements to Steam Deck playability, I can say without reservation it's a damn great experience on that platform.

One other neat feature: you can mark Hawker items to buy later.

Gameplay changes:

• New monster: Skeleton Archers
  
• Added the ability to mark Hawker items to buy later. These are highlighted on the Hawker menu and the Hotel Map.
  
• Removed intelligence bonuses from TOUCH and EXECUTE and lowered the thresholds slightly on the latter to: 20/40/60/80
  
• Lowered VORTEX damage, since it was arguably the most efficient spell in the game
  
• Added spike rooms into map generation
  
• The chance of finding swords and revolvers has been increased, since these particular items are so important but armor items are mostly interchangeable.
  
• Now preventing levitation with Big, but allowing it Statue Form.
  
• Slightly lowered the speed of the Spiridus
  
• Reduced the spawn rate of Iron Maidens

Other:

• Fixed the performance issues related to too many monsters by caching monster sprites. This can be disabled in Options if it causes any problems, but it should resolve performance problems on Steam Deck.
  
• Fixed a bug where hovering a particular icon showed the real identity of a potion. Yikes!
  
• Fixed an issue with Options on Steam Deck where using the cursor didn't actually change options
  
• Now preventing transmutation to the same potion
  
• Now grouping Primer menu by bundles
  
• Fixed an erroneous log message when using BLAST and hitting no targets
  
• Added some achievements related to SECRETS
  
• Fixed an issue where template rooms that should have items sometimes did not
  
• Fixed a display issue when Officer leveled up and full healed
  
• Fixed a bug related to fighting Fane but leaving to go somewhere else
  
• Apparently seeds were completely broken (such that map generation would diverge immediately after the first room) since the last update. This should be fixed
  
• The streak counter on Despair mode now runs negative. Sorry.
  
• Fixed an issue with allies not fighting mimics
  
• Fixed a bug where you wouldn't stop resting when being attacked by mimics
  
• Fixed a minor issue where the player is less than 1 hp from full and full hp is displayed, but books are not read yet.
  
• Fixed a map generation connector issue (you might have seen areas blocked off strangely)
  
• Fixed some issues with monsters pursuing you due to visibility or noise
  
• Added option to Morgue to toggle sorting between Score and Date and defaulting to the latter so that your newest entries are at the top
  
• Fixed a bug with chairs spawning in walls
  
• Added icon to Floor 10 in Hotel Map showing the GOLDEN KRONE
  
• Unexplored floors are now highlighted differently than explored ones on the Hotel Map
  
• Changing status description for multiple stacks to say "Status+2" instead of "Status-2", which was confusing.
  
• Fixed "NaN" hit chance descriptions when deluded
  
• Removed Vortex Solomonari from the Rafters
  
• Adding current version to Options and Morgue files
  
• Fixed a "double level up" issue which actually turned out to be a missed stat increase from an earlier level up
  
• The Ring Acquired menu now closes on the press of any button
  
• Fixed a bug with diagonal buttons on the Hotel Map closing the menu
  
• Fixed a save/load bug where the levers in the Dungeon no longer appeared
  
• Added that sweet Zyalin art from the v1.7 update screen as a collectible page in the Books & Letters menu
  
• Showing the same green flashing on your character when Heavy Poisoned as just Poisoned
  
• Fixed a bug where Antidote wouldn't remove Heavy Poison if you had no Poison
  
• Styling changes to potion tooltips

This update includes full Steam Deck support including achievements, solid controls, and controller rumble. Golden Krone Hotel already played well on controller and it's now a great fit for Steam Deck. The only known issue: there's occasional lag in some areas with a lot of monsters or animated tiles; I hope to address this in the future.



A new branch, 3 new spells, and 5 new monsters have also been added.

Significant changes were made to the game's overall strategy, which now makes it easier to plan out your run but trickier to kill later bosses (which previously felt a bit too easy). Read on for even more...

If you're keeping track, this is the 5th major update since I claimed I wouldn't update the game again. Woops.

• Steam deck support
  
• Controller rumble
  
• New branch DUNGEON: Dodge spikes while facing a new human boss. This is a random swap out for Library.
  
• 5 new monsters including...
  
• Jester: a new vampire that jumps in a knight's move and attacks with poison knives causing Hysteria
  
• Bishop: a high level vampire that has a large area charged attack
  
• Floating Eye: another monster that can cast GAZE, but only if its eyelid is open
  
• Champion: a new mid level human with a charge attack
  
• Vortex Solomonar: a Solomonar variant that casts VORTEX
  
• New spell TOUCH: a single use spell that deals 50% of a monster's HP and heals your HP/MP for that amount
  
• New spell EXECUTE: kills an enemy below 30/50/70/90% HP (based on spell level)
  
• New spell HONE: grants stacking Clever bonuses
  
• The Hotel Map now shows the ring contained in each floor you've discovered
  
• Hotel bosses now get bonus stats for every ring you've acquired (5% health, 2 strength, 1 intelligence)
  
• Some of the harder bosses have been made easier, initially, to compensate for ring bonus stats
  
• New item: Hotel Map, which populates the location of all floors and rings on your Hotel Map menu
  
• Clarity has been added to monster descriptions, particularly around hit chances. Hit chances are also shown when you miss an attack. Thanks to redxaxder for some calculus wizardry on this!
  
• There's now support for win streak tracking in the Disguise menu (optional), morgue files, and leaderboards
  
• Added some holiday event art and added an option for it (you might have to manually enable it if you're interested)

• Added juice to Level Up and ring menus
  
• Some crates now have gold in them. They have a different sprite to indicate this, so while there's now incentive to destroy some obstacles (we know you love to do it) you don't have to waste your time when there's no reward
  
• Overall gold generation has been cut down dramatically.
  
• Gold drops are now based on monster XP level rather than a weird calculation based on floor number
  
• Right click now closes menus
  
• You can now examine tooltips using keyboard/controller
  
• Added Examine controls on disguise menu
  
• Added Examine button to main UI
  
• Abilities are now listed on monster descriptions
  
• Vague threat levels removed from monster descriptions
  
• Monsters now try to avoid damaging tiles when wandering
  
• Player accuracy raised by a single point, making it overall easier to hit things
  
• It's also now very slightly easier to hit things with revolver
  
• Added option to "relock" all unlocks
  
• Full potion menu now accessible from Quick Potions menu by hitting the same key
  
• Out of depth monster generation has been tweaked, hope you brought your adult diapers
  
• You now only read books when at full health
  
• Made imps less dangerous
  
• Added human-only mode accessible in Options (not advised, but there you go)
  
• Discord link added to upgrade menu
  
• Removed some of the warnings around starvation before you're actually starving. No longer necessary because you no longer instantly die of starvation.
  
• Reduced big bomb damage slightly in despair mode
  
• Clever now increases mana regen
  
• ROUNDHOUSE hits all neighbors in 4-way movement
  
• Changed sound volume so it falls off faster with distance
  
• Increased the chance of broken windows on the first floor
  
• Changed chests so they are immune to damage
  
• Styling a few statuses better
  
• Version number added to Options menu
  
• Redrew a few ring sprites to make them more distinct
  
• The Sovereign and Signet ring bonuses have been swapped because the swap better matches the ring art
  
• New floor sprite in the mix
  
• Some animation effects now rotate

• Fixed Fetter, it was completely broken before
  
• Fixed some major isssues related to monsters moving on a different floor resulting in glitchy monster artifacts (most commonly seen in Great Hall or Rafters)
  
• Better overall error handling to hopefully more often recover from and log some fatal crashes
  
• Fixed several issues with BIG and sounds/screenshake
  
• Fixed a bug where you aren't damaged immediately when pulled into water. The solution involves the player being processed after monster turns, always. This might have minor unforeseen consquences.
  
• No longer playing sounds while waiting, which should avoid some audio weirdness because 50 turns of sounds aren't played in an instant
  
• Fixed a bug where Heavy Poison wasn't removed by Antidote
  
• Now requiring Rusalka to be in their starting pool to entrance you (to avoid a softlock issue)
  
• Fixed a bug where deprecated spells could show up in the weekly
  
• Fixed a bug with psychic attack animations (slashes going in the wrong direction)
  
• Fixed underworld boss display on Hotel Map
  
• Fixed an issue with targeting the same monster repeatedly with revolver
  
• Fixed a bug with book sprite mismatches
  
• Removed the ugly scrolling completely on the disguise menu. If it doesn't fit, you can Zoom out the UI in Options
  
• Fixed an obscure bug in Pharmacopoeia, it's confidential
  
• Fixed some cheesy exploit involving chests and vamp abilities
  
• Fixed (for the 3rd, 4th time?) placing stairs far away from bosses
  
• Fixed a bug where destroying a gate removed a key, possibly even going negative
  
• Fixed a bug with chest mimics + stairs
  
• Fixed key hint display for NUMPAD buttons
  
• Fixed random disguise selection which wasn't random on game load
  
• Fixed Quills Shield status description
  
• Fixed yet another bug with Underworld boss deaths in case you killed boss + throne on the same turn
  
• Fixed a save/load bug where Day Demons went back into stasis unexpectedly
  
• Fixed Fire Mother half health bug
  
• Fixed some bugs with reading books
  
• Fixed broken tooltip control hint on Quick Potions

Thanks to Keriew for the detailed bug reports!

As always, please feel free to share your feedback on Steam or Discord. Enjoy!

Hello, my Kronies!



Since the release of v1.9, I've actually been pretty busy with work on Leyliner.

A few months ago a player informed me that the controls were completely borked on Steam Deck. I ordered a Steam Deck immediately and just got mine in the mail a few days ago.

Good news: I've been able to push out a quick build on the experimental branch that appears to work surprisingly well on Steam Deck. Controls work flawlessly out of the box. It's a pretty great experience from my limited testing.

Bad news: there are definitely a small handful of issues and I don't have time to fix them for at least a few days:

• I had to break achievement support on Steam Deck to get controls working (long, boring story) but hope to add it back in later
  
• The default zoom level might need a little work, I would recommend zooming out (top of GKH options) slightly to avoid scrollbars on certain menus
  
• Performance was a little bit laggy after several minutes.
  
• Morgue files are also broken

I have ideas for how to solve all these but need more time.

In the meantime, it would be great if anyone with a steam deck could try out the experimental branch build and let me know what you think.

People have been clamoring for a switch release (sorry not going to happen) and I gotta say having GKH on Steam Deck is a great fit, a dream come true.

Thanks to all who joined the v1.9 beta. It's now fully live.

v1.9 introduces an explosive new branch plus many new spells and abilities. A huge number of small tweaks and improvements have been included.

• New branch GREAT HALL: tons of goblins and explosions
  
• Three new spells: VORTEX, FETTER, and QUILLS
  
• Six new abilities: AURA, SHRED, WRING, GUZZLE, ASSASSINATE, and FRENZY
  
• Abilities now take 0 turns and can be chosen out of 3 options
  
• Changes to Officer, Apothecary, Assassin, Commander, and Challenger disguises
  
• UMBRA has been properly nerfed
  
• Improvements to BLINK, TEMPEST, WARD, LEVITATE, and BLAST
  
• Options menu reworked. Custom input delay option added to fix numerous control issues.
  
• Tons of bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, and UI improvements
  
• Noise system revisited and now shown on UI
  
• Secrets?!?

Full changelog:

New Content

• New branch GREAT HALL: tons of goblins and explosions
  
• New monster Goblin Hurler: throws bomb
  
• New monster Balaur Hatchling: an early game version of the Balaur but this one is completely blind.
  
• New spell VORTEX: pulls monsters in and around you and damages flying/floating monsters
  
• New spell FETTER: binds a monster in magical chains that cause levitation and prevent movement
  
• New spell QUILLS: gives you a magical shield based on your missing health that reflects melee attack damage
  
• Vampire abilities now take 0 turns and can be chosen out of 3 options just like spells
  
• New ability AURA: a rapidly shrinking aura of immunity that can be used to shield yourself or allies
  
• New ability SHRED: damages monsters near you and adds Bleeding
  
• New ability WRING: causes non-bleeders to become bleeders
  
• New ability GUZZLE: collects all nearby blood
  
• New ability ASSASSINATE: teleport next to the closest enemy and give them stunned and vulnerable statuses for 1 turn
  
• New ability FRENZY: sets your HP to 1 and gives you a quills shield equal to your missing health
  
• New Legendary Grimoire that gives more spell options or more mana
  
• New MALLEABLE MODE. All spells, abilities, stat upgrades, etc. are chosen for you.
  
• Added 4 new entrances to the hotel
  
• New item Hunter's Lens: improves your critical hit chances

Graphics changes

• The explosion animation has been redrawn to look a lot better
  
• Chests now explode their items onto the surrounding tiles instead of just being a menu
  
• One turn illumination from spells now draws instantly
  
• Bats added to the title screen
  
• Added fadeouts to a few spell animations like FIRESTORM
  
• Primers have been colored blue to more clearly distinguish them from grimoires
  
• Now drawing blood behind torches... it looked really weird before
  
• New chair obstacle with 4 direction sprites
  
• Camera zooms in when talking to friendlies

Gameplay & UI

• Noise is now displayed on the main UI. Many actions that were missing noise now have them and the system has been rebalanced.
  
• Commander now starts with AURA, Assassin with FADE, and Alchemist with WRING
  
• Apothecary given another extra poison resist level
  
• Officer now gets a full HP/MP heal on level up
  
• Challenger now starts with an ability when starting as vampire
  
• Significantly buffed weekly challenge archenemies (they were real pushovers before)
  
• Raised the chance for Challenger to start as vampire to 50:50
  
• UMBRA has been nerfed. It should still be a great spell but not so good it trivializes the game.
  
• UMBRA minions are sped up but weaker, so you don't have to wait on them so much.
  
• No more UMBRA healing on Revenant
  
• Hotel stairs can now collapse. Collapsed stairs require an extra turn to climb.
  
• Allied vampires no longer steal your blood unless they need it and you don't
  
• Stun and frozen moment now reduce evasion to 0
  
• Fixed a bug with Vulnerable inadvertently reducing Defense. With this change, Vulnerable should cause slightly less extra damage.
  
• Critical chance is shown on the character sheet
  
• Werewolves have been reworked: They now have a huge crit chance and heal/satiate on crit
  
• SWAP has been folded into BLINK (if a monster is in that direction, you swap)
  
• TEMPEST is now a lot more consistent
  
• BLINK has been made more accurate with further guaranteed distance
  
• WARD cost reduced
  
• BLAST can now destroy walls starting at level 2
  
• QUAKE damage now requires line of sight
  
• LEVITATE speed up increased by 1
  
• Big sludge XP cut in half (because you also get XP for the spawned sludges)
  
• Ice House monsters are now immune to cold so they won't die in the icy water
  
• Spiridus has been made flying
  
• Demon Blood potions are again guaranteed in every run
  
• Bleeding now does 1 damage in Easy, 3 in Despair
  
• Monsters will now stay in the same relative position when climbing stairs with you if possible
  
• Reduced Magma Golem chance per turn to create magma
  
• Bounty Potion payout is now purely based on turn count which should be way more consistent
  
• Tooltips added to small disguise buttons
  
• Message added if user tries and fails to use diagonal movement for various reasons
  
• Moroi and Samca are now vulnerable to moonlight
  
• Hunter gets QUILLS now instead of ENRAGE, which wasn't really something you could play around
  
• Added the times when you changed form to the morgue
  
• Goblin Anarchist now only combusts with a 1 tile radius regardless of if they blow up before or after death

Options & Controls

• The option menu has been reworked: options are now grouped by subheaders
  
• All options now have detailed descriptions
  
• Added visible values to slider options
  
• Added a custom input repeat option that fixes a slew of horrible control issues for some people (this includes accidentally flying across the map if you hold down a movement key or shooting the revolver 10 times in a split second and ruining the tutorial)
  
• Added the ability to bind some arbitrary keys that were not supported before (e.g. Alt)
  
• Option added to disable xp sound
  
• Added a button to open the minimap
  
• Added a button to open the hotel map
  
• The "center" controller button is now mappable
  
• Added playstation controller icons
  
• Ability direction selection has been improved
  
• Right click now works for examine in keyboard examine mode
  
• The player can no longer "shoot themselves" which previously did nothing but wasted a bullet

UI

• Spell and ability names are greyed out when unusable
  
• Broken windows are highlighted on the minimap
  
• Hunger status is now shown for non-human forms like bat form
  
• Low level human spell casters now show all possible spells on description so you don't have to examine each one
  
• Resistance tooltips now have precise detail
  
• Shadow Form description now shows total values instead of per level values
  
• Added success rate chance to CHARM failure messages
  
• Next Page indicator on books
  
• Added a death tip about examine
  
• Added a death tip if you die with Vulnerable
  
• Death tips now have red highlighting on important words
  
• Added a note on fountain descriptions to say they might identify the associated potion

Bug fixes & Tweaks

• Fixed several display issues with the player or monsters falling in pits
  
• FINALLY fixed the generation of ugly doors, I think
  
• Fixed some display issues with the health bar
  
• Fixed a bug with Samca and frozen moment
  
• Fixed a weird display message involving Holy Water
  
• Fixed some dash bugs
  
• Fixed river portal sprite
  
• Fixed several ASCII display issues
  
• Fixed a display issue with commander and firefly
  
• Fixed a bug with pushing Samcas through sunlight while vulnerable
  
• Fixed some bugs with shadow minions dying to sunlight
  
• Fixed an issue with Goblin Anarchist allies hurting you, which was annoying
  
• Fixed some staircases not spawning far enough from boss
  
• Fixed a double death message from Goblin Anarchist
  
• Fixed a bug with talking to bats, which you can now properly do
  
• Fixed a bug with allies refusing to swap with you if near water
  
• Clarity reworded, for clarity
  
• Fixed a bug with tooltips overlapping hotel map and other menus
  
• Fixed some issues with low screenshake values overriding higher ones
  
• More clarity on staying in the SHADOWS in the tutorial

This is a followup to the last announcement that v1.9 is live on the experimental branch.

Here are a few fixes and tweaks to that:

Major

• Fixed a locking issue when selecting demon blood abilities after a save/load
  
• Chests now explode their items onto the surrounding tiles instead of just being a menu
  
• Greatly improved QUILLS damage
  
• Removed the slow moving camera system completely due to performance concerns
  
• Made several early game monsters have slightly less dexterity (easier to hit and dodge)

Minor

• Fixed odd staircases descriptions (e.g. "staircase to floor 17")
  
• Fixed a misleading UMBRA description
  
• Added chairs to kitchen entry
  
• Fixed a bug with map gen connectors that was messing up Sewers
  
• Fixed a small sprite bug with larva
  
• Removed move confirm on bomb traps
  
• Tweaked WRING a bit to make it less overpowered
  
• Fixed a longstanding issue where the resistances could get scrambled on the character sheet or morgue file
  
• Improving title screen rendering for fast refresh rates (already noted a bug with this though)
  
• Fixed an issue where Harpies would run away from you even if they couldn't see you

Thanks for all the feedback so far and please keep it coming.

tldr: You are invited to come beta test the v1.9 release which you can access in Steam through Golden Krone Hotel -> Properties -> Betas -> experimental.

• New branch GREAT HALL: tons of goblins and explosions
  
• Three new spells: VORTEX, FETTER, and QUILLS
  
• Six new abilities: AURA, SHRED, WRING, GUZZLE, ASSASSINATE, and FRENZY
  
• Abilities now take 0 turns and can be chosen out of 3 options
  
• Changes to Officer, Apothecary, Assassin, Commander, and Challenger disguises
  
• UMBRA has been properly nerfed
  
• Improvements to BLINK, TEMPEST, WARD, LEVITATE, and BLAST
  
• Options menu reworked. Custom input delay option added to fix numerous control issues.
  
• Tons of bug fixes, gameplay tweaks, and UI improvements
  
• Secrets?!?

I'm usually pretty quiet about beta testing, but here's the problem. For a variety of life reasons, I've gotten in a habit of releasing only about once per year. And I only get a flood of feedback after I declare the testing done and publicly announce the release. This results in things like UMBRA being wildy broken for months which is a real shame. I've made a lot of spell and ability changes, so I'm hoping to really kick the tires this time around.

Also I want to take a moment to say I'M SUPER PROUD OF THIS RELEASE. The new branch is totally wild and is one of the more interesting branches introduced so far. Some of the new art is among the best the game has ever seen including a new bomb animation. The new vampire abilities are so ridiculous that I can't believe I added them. You'll be shocked the first time you eat a... well, I don't want to spoil it all. And now we have spooky bats on the title screen (shoutout to acro for providing the bat art). :)




I've also fixed an issue that went on steathily for 5+ years and which neither the players that experienced it nor I fully understood, but which totally sucked. Some players would perform an action (like moving or firing the revolver) 10 times a second and they assumed the game was intentionally designed this way (???) so I didn't hear about it for a long time.

Full changelog:

New Content

• New branch GREAT HALL: tons of goblins and explosions
  
• New monster Goblin Hurler: throws bomb
  
• New spell VORTEX: pulls monsters in and around you and damages flying/floating monsters
  
• New spell FETTER: binds a monster in magical chains that cause levitation and prevent movement
  
• New spell QUILLS: gives you a magical shield based on your missing health that reflects melee attack damage
  
• Vampire abilities now take 0 turns and can be chosen out of 3 options just like spells
  
• New ability AURA: a rapidly shrinking aura of immunity that can be used to shield yourself or allies
  
• New ability SHRED: damages monsters near you and adds Bleeding
  
• New ability WRING: causes non-bleeders to become bleeders
  
• New ability GUZZLE: collects all nearby blood
  
• New ability ASSASSINATE: teleport next to the closest enemy and give them stunned and vulnerable statuses for 1 turn
  
• New ability FRENZY: sets your hp to 1 and gives you a quills shield equal to your missing health
  
• New Legendary Grimoire that gives more spell options or more mana
  
• New MALLEABLE MODE. All spells, abilities, stat upgrades, etc. are chosen for you.
  
• Added 4 new entrances to the hotel
  
• New item Hunter's Lens: improves your critical hit chances

Graphics changes

• The explosion animation has been redrawn to look a lot better
  
• One turn illumination from spells now draws instantly
  
• Bats added to the title screen
  
• Added fadeouts to a few spell animations like FIRESTORM
  
• Primers have been colored blue to more clearly distinguish them from grimoires
  
• Now drawing blood behind torches... it looked really weird before
  
• New chair obstacle with 4 direction sprites
  
• Reworked camera system that slowly follows player
  
• Camera pans during dramatic moments and zooms in when talking to friendlies

Gameplay & UI

• Commander now starts with AURA, Assassin with FADE, and Alchemist with WRING
  
• Apothecary given another extra poison resist level
  
• Officer now gets a full HP/MP heal on level up
  
• Challenger now starts with an ability when starting as vampire
  
• Significantly buffed weekly challenge archenemies (they were real pushovers before)
  
• Raised the chance for Challenger to start as vampire to 50:50
  
• UMBRA has been nerfed. It should still be a great spell but not so good it trivializes the game.
  
• UMBRA minions are sped up but weaker, so you don't have to wait on them so much.
  
• No more UMBRA healing on Revenant
  
• Hotel stairs can now collapse. Collapsed stairs require an extra turn to climb.
  
• Allied vampires no longer steal your blood unless they need it and you don't
  
• Stun and frozen moment now reduce evasion to 0
  
• Fixed a bug with Vulnerable inadvertently reducing Defense. With this change, Vulnerable should cause slightly less extra damage.
  
• Critical chance is shown on the character sheet
  
• Werewolves have been reworked: They now have a huge crit chance and heal/satiate on crit
  
• SWAP has been folded into BLINK (if a monster is in that direction, you swap)
  
• TEMPEST is now a lot more consistent
  
• BLINK has been made more accurate with further guaranteed distance
  
• WARD cost reduced
  
• BLAST can now destroy walls starting at level 2
  
• QUAKE damage now requires line of sight
  
• LEVITATE speed up increased by 1
  
• Big sludge XP cut in half (because you also get XP for the spawned sludges)
  
• Ice Houses are now immune to cold so they won't die in the icy water
  
• Spiridus has been made flying
  
• Demon Blood potions are again guaranteed in every run
  
• Bleeding now does 1 damage in Easy, 3 in Despair
  
• Monsters will now stay in the same relative position when climbing stairs with you if possible
  
• Reduced Magma Golem chance per turn to create magma
  
• Bounty Potion payout is now purely based on turn count which should be way more consistent
  
• Tooltips added to small disguise buttons
  
• Message added if user tries and fails to use diagonal movement for various reasons
  
• Moroi and Samca are now vulnerable to moonlight
  
• Hunter gets QUILLS now instead of ENRAGE, which wasn't really something you could play around
  
• Added the times when you changed form to the morgue
  
• Goblin Anarchist now only combusts with a 1 tile radius regardless of if they blow up before or after death

Options & Controls

• The option menu has been reworked: options are now grouped by subheaders
  
• All options now have detailed descriptions
  
• Added visible values to slider options
  
• Added a custom input repeat option that fixes a slew of horrible control issues for some people (this includes accidentally flying across the map if you hold down a movement key or shooting the revolver 10 times in a split second and ruining the tutorial)
  
• Added the ability to bind some arbitrary keys that were not supported before (e.g. Alt)
  
• Option added to disable xp sound
  
• Added a button to open the minimap
  
• Added a button to open the hotel map
  
• The "center" controller button is now mappable
  
• Added playstation controller icons
  
• Ability direction selection has been improved
  
• Right click now works for examine in keyboard examine mode
  
• The player can no longer "shoot themselves" which previously did nothing but wasted a bullet

UI

• Spell and ability names are greyed out when unusable
  
• Broken windows are highlighted on the minimap
  
• Hunger status is now shown for non-human forms like bat form
  
• Low level human spell casters now show all possible spells on description so you don't have to examine each one
  
• Resistance tooltips now have precise detail
  
• Shadow Form description now shows total values instead of per level values
  
• Added success rate chance to CHARM failure messages
  
• Next Page indicator on books
  
• Added a death tip about examine
  
• Added a death tip if you die with Vulnerable
  
• Death tips now have red highlighting on important words
  
• Added a note on fountain descriptions to say they might identify the associated potion

Bug fixes & Tweaks

• FINALLY fixed the generation of ugly doors, I think
  
• Fixed some display issues with the health bar
  
• Fixed a bug with Samca and frozen moment
  
• Fixed a weird display message involving Holy Water
  
• Fixed some dash bugs
  
• Fixed river portal sprite
  
• Fixed several ASCII display issues
  
• Fixed a display issue with commander and firefly
  
• Fixed a bug with pushing Samcas through sunlight while vulnerable
  
• Fixed some bugs with shadow minions dying to sunlight
  
• Fixed an issue with Goblin Anarchist allies hurting you, which was annoying
  
• Fixed some staircases not spawning far enough from boss
  
• Fixed a double death message from Goblin Anarchist
  
• Fixed a bug with talking to bats, which you can now properly do
  
• Fixed a bug with allies refusing to swap with you if near water
  
• Clarity reworded, for clarity
  
• Fixed a bug with tooltips overlapping hotel map and other menus
  
• Fixed some issues with low screenshake values overriding higher ones
  
• More clarity on staying in the SHADOWS in the tutorial

Enjoy, but please expect bugs! Please share any feedback on our discord or the steam forums.

Last thing, here's some seeds that guarantee the new branch:

• goblin1
  
• goblin3
  
• goblin5

Back again with a sizable update right before Halloween.

ALSO. This weekend is the 2021 Roguelike Celebration! I'll be giving a talk on Saturday, October 16th. Golden Krone Hotel is also featured in a Steam sale tied to the celebration. Check it out!

• New sounds and music including 9 new songs by Christopher Loza
  
• Starvation rework with no more instant deaths
  
• New branches: Baths and Sewers
  
• New monsters: Harpy, Sludge, Samca
  
• New spell: UMBRA
  
• Hotel entrance rework
  
• Magical drinking fountains added
  
• YOU CAN PET THE DOG
  
• And lots more!

• Nine new songs by Christopher Loza
  
• "Classic" soundtrack removed (this was an alternative free music soundtrack, not good)
  
• Music selection is matched to intensity of current situation
  
• Music won't change if repeatedly and quickly switching floors
  
• New sounds like splashing, footsteps, and entering a portal
  
• Sounds now play in stereo (e.g. sounds far to the left only play on left speaker)
  
• Electric melee attacks now have a unique noise

• Starvation has been reworked. No more instant deaths. You instead take continuous damage and no longer regen mana once completely starving.
  
• Lower starting satiation to offset the starvation rework

• New branch: Baths. A random swap out for Greenhouse. Fight lightning fast Harpies and the entrancing Rusalki.
  
• New branch: Sewers. A random swap out for Grotto. This branch has an optional miniboss, the Rat King, and a new monster, Sludge.
  
• Sludges split into two when attacked and leave behind toxic sludge piles that spew poison gas when stepped on.
  
• New enemy: Samca. A weaker version of Moroi that is not easily struck.
  
• New status effect: Bleeding. When struck by repeated physical attacks from the same enemy in a single turn, some of the immediate damage is converted into slow bleeding.
  
• New spell: UMBRA. Become permanently more powerful with each cast, but at great cost.

• Drinking fountains that act like time limited, one use potions
  
• Commander disguise can convert potential allies that are equal to their level (as opposed to only greater than their level)
  
• BOMB allows you to choose a potion instead of selecting randomly
  
• Primer now transmutes a potion if you have no unidentified potions
  
• Brutemaster's pet wolf get stronger when they level up
  
• And you can pet the wolf!
  
• The Abberation status (provided by Flux potion) gives you double attacks in addition to random damage types.
  
• Fire Mother has been made flying
  
• Player speed can no longer drop below 4
  
• Antidotes are now a guaranteed potion and made slightly stronger
  
• Added a neutral Firefly monster
  
• Time crystals made slightly rarer
  
• Stained glass windows are visible during the day even if otherwise complete darkness
  
• Made a few good statuses last longer.

• Reworked the hotel entrance with 11 new rooms that can appear on any side of the hotel. Each new entrance gives a significant and immediate boon.
  
• More level generation templates
  
• Templates are randomly rotated offering more level variety
  
• Branch stairs should now be guaranteed to spawn far away from bosses.

• Reworked stained glass windows to look taller/better
  
• Humans/vamps hit by electric attacks have a cartoony skeleton animation
  
• Skeletons slightly redrawn and cuter
  
• Redrew stairs going down
  
• Monsters that spawn additional monsters (e.g. Wolf Spider) are more convincingly animated when producing those monsters
  
• Gallery and Baths now have columns instead of single wall tiles

• Stairs and items are are shown at full brightness even in darkness. This turns out to not look particularly weird but is a huge accessibility win.
  
• XP displays as a percentage towards the next level instead of... whatever that was
  
• Revolver aiming now remembers your last target
  
• Status effects indicator appears directly above character when first granted status
  
• Special now appears on the character sheet
  
• Made critical hits feel meatier
  
• Hawkers display as green on the mini-map
  
• Autoresting now stops when mana is recovered and health is full
  
• Removed move confirmation when blind
  
• Moved note about numpad to diagonal section for clarity
  
• Changed unstable description to be more clear
  
• Fixed spacing on title screen menu for better hovering
  
• Changed "quenched" to "doused" in Burning description to avoid confusion with Quench ability
  
• Added tip to game over screen about magic/resting making hunger worse
  
• Status badges now fade in and initially glow
  
• Added note about full potion menu to quick potions
  
• Three new achievements related to Sewers, Baths, and UMBRA.
  
• Clarified Vulnerable status description

• MIASMA bug fixes including fixing a bug where diagonal casts sometimes missed their target completely
  
• Fixed a major freezing issue that occurred when ISPs blocked vulgat.com
  
• Fixed an issue where some animations were too fast
  
• Fixed an issue with branch names not abbreviating on the hotel map
  
• Fixed an Alchemist bug with potion icons
  
• Fixed a bug with husks getting permanently "stunned"
  
• No longer displaying character shadows over pits

This update is one of the largest to ever hit GKH. It includes:

• Graphical improvements: individual potion icons, wall shadows, rounded corners on water/lava, several new sprites, hovering animations for flying monsters, and more
  
• A complete disguise rework that gives each disguise a Special property
  
• 3 new disguises: Bombardier, Ice Mage, and Commander
  
• New branches: MENAGERIE and ICE HOUSE
  
• A new Weekly challenge mode
  
• Speedrun and seed support
  
• AI pathfinding improvements - Charm is much more usable
  
• More sounds, bug fixes, and secrets...

To commemorate the introduction of the new Weekly challenge mode, I'm also a running a competition. Here are the rules:

1. The competition runs one week: Monday, August 31st - Sunday, September 6th.
   
2. Play the new Weekly mode and upload your morgue file
   
3. The top score for Week 1 wins - track the leaderboard here.
   
4. The prize? Get your own tombstone in the Graveyard with your chosen name and an "epitaph" (a short phrase chosen by you). Alternatively, choose the epitaph for my tombstone.
   
5. This comp is a one shot event. If you find a way to submit a second score, it won't count.

Compare the previous version to v1.7:

• Rounded corners on water/lava and a much nicer water animation
  
• Flying/levitating monsters are now animated!
  
• There is now a shadow near the bottom of walls making them appear less "floaty"
  
• Individual icons for each potion bundle, which makes your collection easier to understand at a glance
  
• Redrew the awful looking stone walls
  
• New floor tile in the mix
  
• You can now see 2 tiles deep through cave walls, making them look chunkier and eliminating ugly gaps.
  
• You may have noticed some odd behavior with obstacles like tables, particularly that if they were forcibly moved they didn't seem to cleanly animate. It wasn't your imagination and it's been fixed.
  
• Pits have gotten a makeover. Dust particles float out of pits to make them more distinct from dark areas. The edge of pits matches the surrounding tiles better now.
  
• Improvements to the visual effects of CHARM, GLACIATE, and QUAKE
  
• Effects for some monster spells that summon monsters
  
• Added a nice fade in effect to pages in the book menu.
  
• Fixed some weirdness that occurs the split second after taking a portal.
  
• Clearing outdated sunlight/moonlight from previously seen tiles which tended to look rather jarring and confusing as well.

• The disguise menu has been refactored from scratch. No more sensory overload with all the gory details of 15+ options staring at you.
  
• Almost every disguise has been tweaked
  
• Each disguise except the Officer now has a unique Special, something that no other disguise can get.
  
• New disguise: Bombardier. Starts with the BOMB spell and is particularly proficient at using it.
  
• New disguise: Ice Mage. Can only learn ice spells. Ice resistance and fire vulnerability. Starts with ENCASE.
  
• New disguise: Commander. Addresses a very common complaint: why do your fellow humans and vampires never pitch in to help you?

• Officer gets improved leggings in addition to the other improved gear
  
• Vagabond has reduced metabolism
  
• Scholar will find improved grimoires
  
• Assassin now gets Invisibility Potion instead of Blood and a bonus to dexterity when Hidden/Invisible.
  
• Cultist has reduced cooldowns on demon blood abilities.
  
• Shapeshifter no longer starts as a werewolf (it seemed to be a major letdown when people realized it was only temporary), but can easily become one on Floor 1. The timing of Lycanthropy triggered by moonlight has been extended.
  
• Sharpshooter's bullets pierce through enemies, potentially hitting multiple targets in a line.
  
• Alchemist knows the identity of all potions. Primers, which usually identify potions, instead reroll a chosen potion to something else. Also Flux has been swapped for Lizard Leg.
  
• Merchant will heal when picking up gold piles.
  
• Apothecary's horrible stats have been made slightly better.
  
• Berserker has a 25% chance to knockback enemies when landing hits.

• ENCASE. Creates a wall of ice blocks around you. The ice can be pushed around.
  
• BOMB. Creates deadly explosions that can destroy walls, but a potion is required to fuel each cast.

• The MENAGERIE/ICEHOUSE branches have a 50% chance of showing up in each run in place of MAZE/HIVE. The maze seemed to be one of the most boring areas in the game, so hopefully having both possibilities offers more variety.
  
• MENAGERIE: a collection of all new exotic enemies. Some enemies are confined to cages; others will find their way out regardless.
  
• ICEHOUSE: a dangerous ice themed branch, which still fills the role of a food cache.

• A new mode: Weekly. One chance per week to beat the game. Everyone gets the same map and same disguise.
  
• Half the time, a random disguise is selected.
  
• The other half, you get a new disguise which is unique to the weekly challenge: Challenger, which rolls random attributes, spells, and potions every time.
  
• You are prevented from descending beyond Underworld 2 during the weekly challenge. Competing on score will be more about getting as many of the 9 rings as you can in as few turns as possible rather than an endless slog through Underworld.

• New weekly challenge leaderboards
  
• Added more filtering options to the leaderboards

• The seed of each run is recorded on morgue files
  
• You can choose a seed on the disguise menu (make sure to pick the same disguise for this to be effective)

• Run time is recorded and preserved across saves
  
• An optional run timer can be displayed on screen
  
• Time added to morgue files
  
• Best time for each class/difficulty added to disguise menu

• Sounds for opening chests
  
• Sounds for picking up potions, bullets, books, armor, guns, swords, etc.

• A new mid level vampire type "Knight" that is strongly resistant to damage types other than sunlight. I'm hoping this adds more incentive to interact with the sunlight mechanics.
  
• Lava Croc. Imagine a crocodile pulling you into water. Now imagine a crocodile pulling you into lava.
  
• A bunch of unique monsters added to the MENAGERIE/ICEHOUSE: Monkey, Tiger, Poison Toad, Shark, Elephant, Yeti, Polar Bear

• The Queen Bee and Varcolac have each had their XP halved. Varcolac was actually giving out more XP than later, harder bosses. Queen Bee was propelling people to late game power way too easily.
  
• Sand Vipers removed from the Greenhouse. These were both way deadlier than new players expected and too exploitable for experienced players.
  
• Greenmen are now healed by water

• Charm changes: Better ally pathfinding, Cap on succesful charms per spell level, Higher failure chance, Pet wolf is slightly stronger
  
• HEAL now heals allies too when you're full health
  
• Increased QUAKE damage by 50%
  
• 5 new achievements: new disguises, weekly, and under 20 minutes
  
• Monsters will now prioritize non-pits when following up stairs. They can still fall down the pits by accident, but only if the area is too crowded.
  
• Improved swapping behavior. Neutrals move out of the way of enemies and allies. Allies that are the same kind as an enemy will move out of their way too.
  
• Preventing death from poison and a few other things while resting. You will still die, but the game won't allow you to do it in one button press.
  
• New option for changing the number of on screen log messages
  
• A few spells can no longer be cast if doing so would be pointless (e.g. no potions for BOMB)
  
• True damage numbers now shown in log instead of maxing out at remaining HP
  
• Removed screenshake when attacks are happening off screen
  
• The character sheet can now be open AND closed with the same button: C
  
• Goblin Anarchists behave similarly to the BOMB spell including destroying walls.
  
• New soaking "Wet" status. Increases resistance to fire, removes the Burning status, and slightly damages vampires after exiting water.
  
• Levitation now lets you move while in Statue Form.
  
• Most ice monsters no longer slide on ice. This prevents the Ice Father from killing himself repeatedly, which was pretty confusing.
  
• The chance to sometimes avoid sliding on ice has been doubled from 5% to 10%.
  
• Status effect reporting is a little cleaner without the unnecessary duration when removed.
  
• Slightly improved the look of buttons in the Morgue.
  
• Reworked the tutorial section on sunlight. Players were given 99 bullets to play with, but only a single bullet is required. Many players literally thought the game required you to shoot the enemies dozens of times. This area may now be more deadly for people not paying attention, but hopefully the point is driven home.
  
• The tutorial can now be skipped at any time from Options.
  
• Added an "unlock everything" option to Options.
  
• The message displayed when attempting to climb the final staircase without the required rings has been made more clear. I watched too many people guess at what to do.
  
• Reduced the game executable size by 500MB

• Some easter eggs for my Patrons.
  
• ??
  
• ?????

• Fixed a rare bug that could happen if an enemy was trying to slide into a tile while it was getting replaced with something else (e.g. TEMPEST).
  
• Keyboard revolver aiming has been fixed to have parity with the mouse
  
• Fixed some huge bugs with pits
  
• In general, a whole class of movement related issues should now be prevented
  
• Fixed a bug on morgue files where vampire turns + human turns did not quite equal total turns.
  
• Tons of typo fixes.

Huge thanks to Athros, Acro, Tone, and Tom Loughlin for their help in testing this update!

If you find any issues, please reach out! Instructions for doing so are in the forums.

Enjoy!

I know I said last July that I would no longer update the game. That's generally true as far as big content updates go, but I've wanted to tackle a few quality of life issues.

These things have been requested for quite a while.

I thought the game had ample warning about starvation, but it turns out tunnel vision is forcing a lot of players to miss the standard warning. So I'm adding a modal warning whenever you're near starving.

Also, all levels are mapped on the Hotel Map as soon as you see stairs leading to them. You also get a little log message which might help you spot staircases more easily.



The game engine was totally not built around having allies, so I had to rewrite huge sections of it. But now there's a new spell CHARM, which lets you convert wild beasts to your side. Yes, I'm talking rats, bats, balaurs, even crocodiles.

Only being able to tame beasts might seem limited but there are a few surprises if you look hard enough...

Along with that, there's a new class, Brutemaster, which starts out with CHARM plus a pet wolf.

How about something completely different? The new Revenant class bypasses most of the normal game mechanics. There is no healing from blood, no regen (HP or MP), and no hunger whatsoever. Instead this class heals every time you drink a potion, so drink up!

The last class I added before this was the Apothecary. Though very powerful late game, they're a bear to play early on and it's easy to shoot yourself in the face with your own MIASMA spell. I've added one pip of poison resist for this disguise.

What really drove me to do this update is I realized I could possibly fix a long running performance issue with the game. It turns out that Pixi, the rendering library I was using, was slowly growing a texture cache and never releasing it. The result was that the game ate up about 50MB extra memory on each new run. Within 20 runs, that's a gigabyte of extra memory. Several runs could cause the game to bog down severely. Woops!

I believe this has been fixed.

I believe I have fixed the cause of controller lag reported by several players. Things should be much smoother!

Four of 'em!

One in particular that you might notice is a fix regarding map generation with doors. Sometimes extra doors were generated not surrounded by any walls. That's been corrected.

I also fixed a somewhat rare bug that only occurred if the Ice Throne and Ice Father were killed on the same round about 50% of the time.

And I fixed a bug where vampires didn't take damage when standing in sunlight if they came into your field of view for the first time.

And lastly, I have improved the way some errors are logged so I should be able to track more issues if they arise.


And by the way Happy Halloween!