The idea
A one sitting game has a natural problem: the sitting ends. We did not want to solve that by making the game longer, because that breaks the promise on the front page. Challenge mode is our answer: the same castle, the same length, but with a clock and with rules you choose to make harder.
Four curses
Curses are stackable modifiers you pick before a challenge run. Among them: randomized rosters shuffle which enemies appear in which rooms, so a memorized route stops working; reinforcements muster extra guards into rooms; and a Warden cameo brings the boss down for a visit well before the top. Stacking curses raises the difficulty shown under the clock, and the leaderboard records the time for the build you ran.
The clock and the HUD
The challenge HUD shows the elapsed time, the difficulty under it, and a hand off from the tier card when the tier changes. A CHALLENGE MODE label stays on screen so nobody confuses a challenge run with the story run when they come back to a paused game.
A stashed account
The part we spent the most care on is invisible: a challenge run plays on a copy of your progression. Your story save, its boons and its cleared rooms are stashed and restored when the challenge ends, no matter how it ends. You cannot lose your evening's progress to a mode that exists for fun.
Published on 4 October 2026 with the first batch of devlog entries. Drafted from the project's commit log and decision records with AI writing tools, then edited by Alexis Rivard.