Yeah, that's right! Some of you old comers who played the original know what I'm talking about, but for those who don't: the Top Floor is the last Floor of Castle Oblivion. Everything I've worked on has led up to this point!

During my absence, I was able to finish 1 Floor each week + the stuff that happens in between, as well as some optional stuff. All I can say right now is that we're getting close. This close:

Total Percent Completion: 92%

This is not the only news I come bearing. The Lord of the Castle aka the Mad Philosopher himself finally got himself the badass portrait that he deserves!

The Mad Philosopher, the architect who built the Castle itself, brick-by-brick and memory-by-memory, and the Castle’s current Lord. Dilan has lived a long life in the Castle running experiment after experiment. Trifles like “ethics” won’t stand in his way of advancing humanity. He’s far too busy to deal with Vincent.
More awesome character descriptions can be found here.

Not only does he have an awesome portrait, but he also has a couple of facesets with fitting expressions. He also has an awesome sprite, of course.
And that's not all! Our quiet and lovable character, Azen, has received an upgrade more fitting his role as a Dark Knight.

All this is thanks to the talented writer (and franken-spriter?), the13thsecret, who I'm working with on this project. The game would be nowhere near as engaging and hooking if it weren't for his pure awesomeness.

Screenshot Time:


Yes, just look at those sparkles, Celcia. Believe or not, those sparkles might actually sell the game on their own.

From the looks of this monster, it might just be called 'Fury Seeker'. But what do I know?

Welcome to the Deep Void. How tough are ya?

Thank goodness I still live up in the Overworld.

This guy means business. You should see his HP!

No, but we're almost there, Vincent.

Serious Talk:
So, I'm guessing that most of you are just wondering: "...when the heck is this going to be released!?".

I...may or may not have an answer to that. Due to the 'Gam Mak Flow' I've been having while working on this game, I'm happy to tell that the release date I hoped and dreamed for might have come to fruition. Yes, this means that the full game will be released THIS year, before 2016!

This is not final or anything, but I'm hoping to release the game by the 21st of December. I won't pull modern industry approach, everything, including all Optional Bosses, Sidequests and whatever, will be ready from Day 1. Think of this as an early Christmas gift from me.

While the game probably will be finished pretty soon, it won't be able to reach its 'final form' without you; the Beta Testers.

Call out for Beta Testers:

Yes, it's that time of the year development. Before I can release the game officially to the public, I'll need you guys/gals to help me test this beast. I'm currently looking for any beta testers in general, but mostly, those who'll be able to have some spare time in order to test and give feedback before the planned released (who knows, if things turn out really well, this might happen sooner than expected).

Current List of Beta Testers:
Adena
kenlan
Zephire98
WalkerMage102
(Hopefully my writer, the13thsecret, will join here as well.)

So if you want to be a part of this final stretch, as a Beta Tester, please, lend me your voice, either by commenting, PMing, or whatever you prefer. I'm all over the web! Any and all help is immensely appreciated!

(I will most likely make a new blog later about this matter alone sometime in the near future.)

At the moment, I'm not the only one playing testing the game. My good Indonesian friend, Adena, has taken his time to Alpha/Early Beta Test the game. This means that the Beta Version of Castle Oblivion: Remake will be even more polished and bug-ridden! We've already found some small bugs/errors which have been fixed.

Last Words:

While I've been playing and testing the game, I've grown to enjoy it a lot more than I first expected (mainly because I'm the creator, and creators always hate their own work the most, no matter what everyone else thinks.). I can honestly say, as a developer, game designer, creator and human being, that I'm really proud of my work. I'm carrying strong belief and hope that this game will really be 'something'. It feels like if I'm being able to enjoy my game myself, there's a good chance the players will as well.

This may or may not be the third-to-last blog post before the game's release. Look forward to that.
(Let's hold our thumbs that this will be worthy enough to make its way to Best of Blogs #010!)