Steam News18 May 20261mo ago

Dev Update #8: The Insides

Spies Inside and Out HELLO, spies! We took a few weeks off after the Spring Cleaning update, but we are back and continuing our journey through working on our new Wizard Boy castle!

In this update4

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Full Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate update

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What changed

0 fixes6 additions0 changes0 removals

Gameplay
Compatibility

addedSpies Inside and OutHELLO, spies! We took a few weeks off after the Spring Cleaning update, but we are back and continuing our journey through working on our new Wizard Boy castle!

addedThe Castle InnardsYou might remember from a previous update that I stated that I hadn't shown much of the castle interior due to us not having done lighting yet. We are now officially in the middle of doing interior design, lighting included, and what's come out of that is the ability for me to actually show off some of the screenshots from the new area!

addedThe Castle InnardsWe've been working on a bunch of new hallways. Turns out, when you have a large space, having hallways to get from place to place is really important.

addedAdditionally. . .I, John, have been working on some new environment whiteboxes, one of which is probably familiar to some of you (it involves spiders). Specifically, we're still toying around with the idea of having breakout "dungeon like" areas. That said, it has become more apparent that we're going to need to pace ourselves with the project of "content outside of the castle." We've realized just how difficult it's been to get this large castle put together, and since the goal is to make sure we are only making quality content instead of just having more content for the sake of having more content, it takes a bunch of time to make something that we're happy with. I'm currently experimenting with some breakout dungeon areas to see how plausible it would be to get them put together with the resources we have and in a way we're happy with, and it's been a pretty positive experiment so far! BUT PLEASE NOTE: our main priority is to make the sandbox environment of the castle into the best it can be, so these are definitely a back-burner thing until we get that finished, and then we'll be making decisions on how to proceed with that side of the content once we're at that point. But, here's some zoomed-out looks of what I've been experimenting with:

addedSome New CharactersWe also have a couple new characters to go along with the big new castle!

addedWhen Will You Update the Testing Branch?Once we get a full V1 of the main loop of the new castle, I'm planning on updating the testing branch with that content to get feedback/thoughts, which I'm hoping will be able to happen within the next month or two. The layout has actually changed fairly significantly from the current version on the beta branch, so expect it to be a bit more complex while trying to cut the fat as well. Just takes time to get everything done!

Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate changes

addedHELLO, spies! We took a few weeks off after the Spring Cleaning update, but we are back and continuing our journey through working on our new Wizard Boy castle!

addedYou might remember from a previous update that I stated that I hadn't shown much of the castle interior due to us not having done lighting yet. We are now officially in the middle of doing interior design, lighting included, and what's come out of that is the ability for me to actually show off some of the screenshots from the new area!

addedWe've been working on a bunch of new hallways. Turns out, when you have a large space, having hallways to get from place to place is really important.

addedI, John, have been working on some new environment whiteboxes, one of which is probably familiar to some of you (it involves spiders). Specifically, we're still toying around with the idea of having breakout "dungeon like" areas. That said, it has become more apparent that we're going to need to pace ourselves with the project of "content outside of the castle." We've realized just how difficult it's been to get this large castle put together, and since the goal is to make sure we are only making quality content instead of just having more content for the sake of having more content, it takes a bunch of time to make something that we're happy with. I'm currently experimenting with some breakout dungeon areas to see how plausible it would be to get them put together with the resources we have and in a way we're happy with, and it's been a pretty positive experiment so far! BUT PLEASE NOTE: our main priority is to make the sandbox environment of the castle into the best it can be, so these are definitely a back-burner thing until we get that finished, and then we'll be making decisions on how to proceed with that side of the content once we're at that point. But, here's some zoomed-out looks of what I've been experimenting with:

addedWe also have a couple new characters to go along with the big new castle!

Spies Inside and Out

HELLO, spies! We took a few weeks off after the Spring Cleaning update, but we are back and continuing our journey through working on our new Wizard Boy castle!

Here's where we're at:

The Castle Innards

You might remember from a previous update that I stated that I hadn't shown much of the castle interior due to us not having done lighting yet. We are now officially in the middle of doing interior design, lighting included, and what's come out of that is the ability for me to actually show off some of the screenshots from the new area!

Without further ado, here's a selection of some of the environments we've been working on!

We've been working on a bunch of new hallways. Turns out, when you have a large space, having hallways to get from place to place is really important.

There's a very important returning character from the demo that you might be able to find in the dungeon.

I've always felt like being able to play chess with Perambulate is super needed for our final version of Wizard Boy.

Ignore Spider Johnson.

The castle layout has actually be pretty significantly edited from what's currently live on the testing branch, as ultimately we weren't feeling like it was quite the vision what we had imagined for it yet. I personally feel much more confident with the layout we're working with now, and I really believe you all will be able to feel the difference as soon as you get your hands on it.

Additionally. . .

I, John, have been working on some new environment whiteboxes, one of which is probably familiar to some of you (it involves spiders). Specifically, we're still toying around with the idea of having breakout "dungeon like" areas. That said, it has become more apparent that we're going to need to pace ourselves with the project of "content outside of the castle." We've realized just how difficult it's been to get this large castle put together, and since the goal is to make sure we are only making quality content instead of just having more content for the sake of having more content, it takes a bunch of time to make something that we're happy with. I'm currently experimenting with some breakout dungeon areas to see how plausible it would be to get them put together with the resources we have and in a way we're happy with, and it's been a pretty positive experiment so far! BUT PLEASE NOTE: our main priority is to make the sandbox environment of the castle into the best it can be, so these are definitely a back-burner thing until we get that finished, and then we'll be making decisions on how to proceed with that side of the content once we're at that point. But, here's some zoomed-out looks of what I've been experimenting with:

I'm really hoping to be able to bring these into the full game at a reasonable rate and have been taking some time to put together a distinct plan on how to divvy up jobs going into the future. It's actually a little tough to figure all of this out, but I believe I've figured out a nice middle-ground option that will give us the flexibility we need while not sacrificing quality. Will hopefully have more to share on that soon!

Some New Characters

We also have a couple new characters to go along with the big new castle!

Meet Hungrid! He's really hungry, and version one included eating. . . things other than just food, which I quickly realized that outside of the context of Wizard Boy, that's pretty horrifying, so he has been toned down a bit.

This is Spider Johnson. Make your own opinions about him.

This guy.

When Will You Update the Testing Branch?

Once we get a full V1 of the main loop of the new castle, I'm planning on updating the testing branch with that content to get feedback/thoughts, which I'm hoping will be able to happen within the next month or two. The layout has actually changed fairly significantly from the current version on the beta branch, so expect it to be a bit more complex while trying to cut the fat as well. Just takes time to get everything done!

That's it for now! Please remember to leave us a review if you're enjoying playing Wizard Boy, and we're doing everything we can to make sure it's worth your time!

John S.

Source

Steam News / 18 May 2026

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