Candlewyth - Dev Log

etscrivner · February 11, 2026, 12:49am

Hello all, I’ve begun work on my third game for the Playdate. I’ve had a lot of fun developing for this device, and have decided to try my hand at a first-person grid-based dungeon crawler.

It’s still in very early development but below are some screenshots of the map editor and a fully explorable map running on Playdate.

The game has a (relatively sparse) page on itch right now: Candlewyth by etscrivner

I’ve also started a (weekly, for now) devlog hosted on itch and will be posting updates in this thread too. The first devlog is here: Devlog #1: The Plumbing - Candlewyth by etscrivner

If any of this sounds interesting to you consider following along here.

silverweed · February 11, 2026, 9:15am

Looks cool! Is the view in the bottom of the editor actually coming from the simulator? How does that work?

etscrivner · February 11, 2026, 3:47pm

Thanks! To answer your questions: isn’t coming directly from the simulator but it does (1) use the same rendering code and (2) render at the same scale.

etscrivner · February 12, 2026, 3:58pm

Just published Devlog #2. This week we’re discussing UI and music composition: Devlog #2: The Scaffolding - Candlewyth by etscrivner

etscrivner · February 20, 2026, 7:43pm

Just published Devlog #3. This week we’re discussing concept art, the town as testbed for the UI system, and initial combat design: Devlog #3: Into The Weeds - Candlewyth by etscrivner

etscrivner · February 28, 2026, 1:55am

For anyone who may be following along Devlog #4 where I discuss getting the skeleton gameplay loop in and a bunch of UI improvements.

CandlewythServiceUI

etscrivner · March 10, 2026, 4:32pm

Devlog #5 on refactoring the combat system

etscrivner · March 20, 2026, 9:53pm

Devlog #6: Inventory, Dungeon Scripts, Dialog

Massive set of updates. If you’ve ever wondered how RPG dialog systems work well I’ve got quite a lot of details and code in here on that.

etscrivner · April 22, 2026, 5:14pm

Devlog #7: Asset Pipeline and Particle Systems

Huge number of updates. It’s been a little bit over a month since the last update, but work still continues.

CandlewythDungeon

etscrivner · September 15, 2026, 3:17pm

It's been 4+ months but Devlog #8 was just published. This details the work myself and our artist (Andrei Onhore) are doing on building out a new style for the game. Below are some screenshots of this work.