Lanternfall: Dungeon Town

Nornworks

About this game

Lanternfall is a pixel-art town-and-dungeon sim. You are the Warden of a clearing at the end of a road, with a stair in the middle of it that goes down further than anyone has come back from. Build the town, take in the adventurers who walk up the road, and send them down the stair with lanterns, rations and a plan. Watch the run, read the sheet when they come home, and answer the town's questions with the gold they bring up.

BUILD THE TOWN
• Thirty-odd buildings with three levels each: inns, taverns, a bakery, a smithy, a library, a shrine, a bathhouse, a festival square, a manor
• Neighbour combos: a fountain among stalls makes a square, three lanternposts a lit row — a sign hangs by the door when it happens
• Paths, lanternposts, gardens and statues; a map that grows with your rank from Camp to Lantern City

TAKE IN ADVENTURERS
• Squires, hunters, apprentices, acolytes, rogues and bards, each with a sheet: stats, a job, skills, gear and traits
• They wait at the door until you say yes; they want beds, bread, a drink, a fight and a friend
• Advanced jobs at the Dojo and Academy, prestige jobs from the Library's studies, and one unique post at the end of the story

GO DOWN THE STAIR
• Eight Reaches and six Dens, every floor generated from a seed and painted by hand-drawn pixel art: the Rootcellar, the Drowned Stair, the Fungal Court, the Ember Forge, the Glass Gardens, the Nightmarket, the Hush and the Heart
• Plan a run at the Gate: how deep, who goes, a tactic, the supplies, and the danger card that tells you how it looks
• Light against gloom: lanterns, oil and torches matter as much as swords; four signals from the surface; rescues for parties that fall
• Bosses with manners — one bows, one talks to a bard, one wants rent — and a floor of glass that copies your own party

A TOWN THAT ANSWERS
• The Smithy's upgrades, the Library's research, the Enchanter's charms, the Monster Pen and a tamed companion below
• Four festivals a year with awards and the Crown surveyor's stars against three rival towns; weather, merchants, guests
• A Company that brings gold, a real lantern, and a drilling shaft the Hollow does not like
• A story in nine chapters with three endings, then Twilight: endless dream floors, weekly Hollow moods, and a serial you can commission

MADE SMALL ON PURPOSE
• Hand-drawn 32-pixel art, a tiny synthesised soundtrack, no account, no ads, no purchases, no network
• Text size, colour-safe mode and a low-end performance profile in the settings
• Your town is saved on your device; a backup code copies it anywhere

What’s new

The first release: the town from Camp to Lantern City, eight Reaches and six Dens, the year's festivals, the story's nine chapters and three endings, then Twilight.