22 of July, 2020 - recent news from a distant planet have announced that the memories can now be accessed through a "Nintendo Switch" device. Though it certainly seems like a very ancient piece of technology, it appears that it might be capable to inject the experience through any human mind.

N__I__N__T__E__N__D__O______S__W__I__T__C__H______W__E__B__S__I__T__E[www.nintendo.com]

The experience is entering and affecting human dreams and emotions in subtle ways already. Here are some of the remote transcripts that we have been able to intercept from planet Earth:

"Feels like a dream of the games I grew up with...clearly tries to evoke feelings of a time when videogames were these strange, thorny things" -Dominic Tarason (Rock Paper Shotgun)

"It's an absorbing, ultimately rewarding title with many cool setpieces, and it isn't afraid to be retro in its design rather than just pay lip service to the aesthetic." -Stuart Gipp (Retronauts)

"It's one of the most evocative worlds I've seen in a game despite the 2-bit style." -Sam Greer (Eurogamer)

'The overall effect is uncanny.' "I felt like I had been transported back in time to a simpler, noticeably more cyan and magenta world." -David Wildgoose (GameSpot)

"Artistically, The Eternal Castle Remastered is superb." -Brad Gallaway (Gamecritics)

"Developers have done everything to challenge the senses and everything we understand about video games." -Matt S. (Digitally Downloaded)

To any survivors out there, beware. Apparently this device might cause to immerse yourself or speedrun through levels featuring random events, encounters, traps, riddles and exploration, in a semi-procedural world. The experiences might change you in ways that we are not able to predict. If any of you are in possession of such a device, please be extremely cautious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Z7XbuaMMw
The memory on the "Nintendo Switch" device can already be accessed through the Americas, and will be soon released in Europe and Australia on August 21st. Only then we shall know our true destiny.

To learn more, visit: http://www.theeternalcastle.net/
The Eternal Castle Twitter: @EternalCastle87
The Eternal Castle Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/3cJdnfE

We have an important announcement to make. Please read carefully to avoid magnetic A.I. interferences.

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Over and out
[end transmission]

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/963450/The_Eternal_Castle_REMASTERED/

[incoming transmission]


Somehow the AI intercepted the main command center and was able to connect some of us to ancient memories of lost warriors from the past. We don't know how that happened, but the important thing is that we stay safe and away from those memories!

A recent UPDATE delivered an EXTRA CHAPTER that could potentially unlock those memories. It is vital to us that you FORGET THESE MEMORIES. Stay away, stay safe. We cannot predict what kind of disaster could happen if those events will enter our units' consciousness.
Fortunately, unless you have seen the AI at least once, you will not be able to access all of this.

Having said that, I will depart. My mission for now is complete. I will hopefully reawaken in the future, in hopes of a brighter tomorrow.


[end transmission]

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/963450/The_Eternal_Castle_REMASTERED/

[incoming transmission]

> If anyone can read me, this is the main headquarters communication system.
We have sent many soldiers, and most of them have died. However the meditation implant seems to have created some kind of global dream network that subconsciously taught us what is happening down there. We now believe that this planet is indeed hostile and presents a series of issues that need to be solved ASAP.

> We have noticed that many units BELIEVED that they have captured the AI. That is incorrect. The AI tricked them into thinking that what they were experiencing was real through corrupted meditation shrines. These assets will make anyone believe that death is only the beginning and that anything experienced after that will somehow re-wind death back to the last visited shrine.
Our specialists have decoded the truth. The only way to get the mother A.I. and bring her back to us is to reach her without ever experiencing death. By pressing the SHIFT or BACK/SELECT command on the ship's main menu after completing the whole dream, you will have the ability to be sent in a special expedition without the possibility to predict the future, perceiving multiple levels of reality within several layers of interaction.
Only one reoccurring side-effect: it appears that although the world remains consistent, some of the living beings act differently. As if they were somehow able to move through multiple awakening loops. That means that every loop will become more and more tiring, therefore it will be much harder to bring the A.I. back home without experiencing real death on each run.

> Having warned the receiver about this undeniable threat, we hope that your next expedition will be far more safe.
Do not make the A.I. fool you with her mind tricks. We need her back, our whole civilization depends on you.

[end transmission]

It has been a quite difficult ride, many have lived the whole dream already, and not many have reached the real castle after awakening from the dream. But most of all, very few have been able to kill the Tea Master™.

I have seen the Tea Master™ slay many, hundreds, several dozen times, but only a couple were able to beat him in a fair melee fight.

Grab an axe, hammer, or mace, and try to kill him.
If you think the fight might be too easy, fight him with your bare fists.
If you think that isn't really a challenge, try no items as well.

This zen martial arts master will not bother you if you don't bother him, and he has nothing to offer other than a single glider fragment that he will give you no matter what.
But if you're up to the challenge, try to beat his ass. Let us know if you succeed, and if you want, feel free to post some proof with some video links in the comments section.

Our suggestion is to do this while dreaming, not when you're awake.

Good luck,
The Eternal Castle team

Thank you for following us through this journey! It's been a very good ride, and our only hopes is that you will enjoy the result at least a fraction of how much we enjoyed creating it.

Enough talk. Buckle up, we are now getting close to the stratosphere, and ready to land.

3...

2...

1---

https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/963450/The_Eternal_Castle_REMASTERED/

[incoming transmission]

We received information about the world, and it’s pretty threatning. Not only the civilizations that occupy the lands are for the most part hostile, they are in desperate need of power sources such as the GLIDERS that are powering your ship.

As you probably know, GLIDERS are powerful elements that we find in life, they are unique patterns that travel across our universe, the only form of perpetual motion that we are aware of so far.[en.wikipedia.org]

Glider A: (teleport unit) Glider B: (Aerospike Engine) Glider C: (Digital Nanoelectronic) Glider D: (TPS element) It is vital that you do not lose them and that you arrive on land safe, before reaching the mother AI that we all need to get back.

These are some of the threats that you should be aware of:


Part of the land includes a civilization that idolizes a mentally deranged individual who claims to be immortal. Some consider him an actual God. Do not get near those people, they don’t want anyone that comes from the outside world to be part of their society.

We know very little about their so-called “God”. Rumors say that he lives inside a pyramid and eats his victims. He is known to be the most powerful fighter of these lands.


The AI has been fighting against humans, rapidly constructing robots and corrupting soldiers to keep herself safe. A whole city is under siege, and most of the battle is between those who want to keep their humanity, and a commander who has been mentally absorbed by the mother AI.

If you fly close to the city you may be attacked, so try to keep your distance as much as you can.


We detected unusual activity on the West side near an abandoned cemetery. It is unclear what is happening over there, all we know is that a chemist used to live there before. Our suggestion is to avoid that area at all costs. We cannot afford to send out another unit.

We are getting close to launch, so keep in mind these three locations, and do your best to avoid them.

Those three individuals might be way too dangerous to approach: it is not worth the risk. Just stay alive and reach the CASTLE. Pick up the AI and send it back to base, that is the only way to save us.

Bring her back home, we are counting on you.

Over and out,
The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] team

[end transmission]

There are only two and a half more weeks left before we release the game to the public, and this week’s post will be about the world design, what went into it, how it evolved, and where we got our inspirations from.



When we first decided to write the game, the main thing we wanted to capture was the feel of finding an ancient relic from a forgotten time and place, so me and my friend Manfredi decided to go somewhere that reminded us of that. We got in his car, I showed him all the concepts I made, and we drove down to his summer vacation home in Maremma during the cold and wet fall of 2015. It felt like a ghost town.

Manfredi and Giulio at Elba island, across the Maremma swamps in front of the recently collapsed abandoned mining pier structure in 2018 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvWo4oX4BVY
Even though we didn't have much experience in game design, we decided to create the world so it would feel very different depending on the location you decided to play in first. We wanted to make a hard game like the ones that we played at the time, without it being excessively clunky or frustrating. We tried to add some modern game design to the formula, while keeping a rough, but somewhat realistic AI to make everything feel a bit more organic.

As a final approach we decided to stick with the feel that you would find in popular or b-series horror, science fiction, action, and adventure movies from the 80s, mixed with our personal childhood memories, in addition to many locations we bumped into throughout the years:
different locations that inspired us throughout production

When we finished writing the draft we were hyped, but it wasn’t till 1 or 2 years after that week that we were able to start production. That's when I got together with Giulio Perrone and Daniele Vicinanzo, after jamming out a mini-game in less than a week (full free game here: https://lmenchia.itch.io/enter-the-moshpit).
It was a very simple kind of game, but because it was so easy and fun to do, I acknowledged that this was the right team to move forward with.

The final version of the world is divided into 5 main parts: Introduction crash area (tutorial), Ancient Ruins, Forgotten City, Unholy Lab, and the Castle. Each area has its own kind of gameplay:
Ancient Ruins is more focused on melee fighting, while Forgotten City more like an action shooter, and Unholy Lab has more of a puzzle/stealth kind of vibe.
Each world has different hidden items that overall help you throughout the game, in different ways depending on which one of the worlds you decide to pick first. All of this is built in a way to make the gameplay somewhat different every time, as well as slightly unpredictable. Even though the story is technically linear, our goal was to create an experience that feels somewhat different every time, so part of the game is also procedural.

(top left) very early design idea of the Unholy Lab [EAST] made with anything we could find; (top right) early sketch of the world; (bottom) final map of the world

Because of this, now we have the world changing in the background based on where you will be in the map, rather than just having a random background behind you. The following pictures rotate around the castle in the distance as an example, first one from the ship crash [S0UTH], second one from the Ancient Ruins [WEST], Forgotten City[NORTH], Unholy Lab [EAST]:
And if you want to be more specific about the location that you’re at while playing, you will be able to access the map from your personal Human-Interface-Device by pressing the ESC or START key.

(world locations from left to right) ancient ruins[WEST]; forgotten city[NORTH]; unholy lab[EAST]

Having said that, hopefully when you play you will be aware that the whole world is not completely random, but carefully thought out in a way that the journey will always feel somewhat coherent.

This is all for this week’s post. If you found this somewhat interesting, keep sharing: that will make more of a difference that you might think. Next week we’ll be talking about boss fights and the whole spiritual meaning behind The Eternal Castle.

Over and out,
Leonard

http://www.theeternalcastle.net/

Here is a personal story we would like to share with you.

This is a story of a kid who once found a light blue floppy disk in a dusty drawer in his old house. Because there weren't that many videogame disks just laying around, and especially no internet connection where he was from in the countryside in the early 90s, he often hoped that one day one of the boring old MS Dos software disks from his dad's office would magically turn into an incredible game that he hadn't played before.
This light blue floppy he found looked like one of those old software disks, except that its label was ripped off, and the front was partially broken (the metal part of the disk would easily rip off, but it would still work).

The moment he turned on his 486, inserted the floppy in the A: drive, heard the satisfying loading sound, and saw the screen turn black, he knew that he was going to start a journey into the unknown. An adventure that would change his life forever in ways that he would not be able to predict.

The thing that struck him initially was being blinded by those powerful cyan and magenta colors in front of his face. Not much of what he saw made sense, not a lot of shapes, sounds or images worked at all, and as a matter of fact, he was actually pretty convinced that the game itself was probably broken (or perhaps it was pirated in a way that the vga/ega color palettes were removed to make the whole game folder fit in a 720Kb floppy drive).

The game looked a lot like wide shots from a movie, but he could move the main character through beautiful, atmospheric landscapes, or terrifying dungeons and buildings from the distant future. He was immediately immersed.

He played for hours, non-stop. His parents weren't home that day, therefore his 1-hour-limit-per-day rule would not apply. So he kept going. So many emotions, so much depth, so much variety of actions made him feel like this wasn't just an ordinary action game, it was a dynamic story. A personal experience told through the eyes of someone who went through many life journeys, an experience that was able to connect on a human level more than any other media he's ever seen before.

One day he stopped playing, he turned off his PC, and removed the floppy from the drive. There was only one problem. The metal piece of the floppy remained stuck inside the computer, in a way that when he turned on the computer again it would display the message: "Boot failed: could not read the boot disk".

He was mortified, terrified. He could not tell his parents because he felt so bad about breaking something he cared so much about, so he didn't. As a result, his dad sent the computer to get fixed, the metal piece was gone, and all he had left was a broken unusable floppy.

Eventually that floppy got thrown out, so he never got to play that game again. Such an easy thing to fix, but he was too young at the time to know what to do. He kept thinking about it ever since.

Giulio and Daniele brainstorming some early gameplay mechanics in our our garage (2016)

After decades, I decided to craft The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] as a homage to that experience. Me and a close friend of mine (Manfredi Montemaggi) locked ourselves in a house during a couple of rainy weeks in the middle of the Maremma swamps, and built the world in a way that it felt as close as possible to everything that we loved about cinematic platformers like Prince of Persia, Another World, Flashback, mixed with what could be remembered about this unique game experience.

After a couple of years in the making with a tiny inexperienced yet determined team (Giulio Perrone, Daniele Vicinanzo), after struggles, fights, and very tough challenges, what came out was this. It's not perfect, but it's something we ended up being very proud of.
Hope that if you end up trying this game you will journey through an adventure that will mark you at least a small fraction of how much it marked us.

We will keep updating you every week until release, with more stories about the world, the making, and what went through the creation of this simple, yet extraordinary project.

Over and out,
The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] team