Castle Tintagel
A downloadable game
Castle Tintagel
Embark on a epic quest of revenge in this nostalgic retro action platformer. Exclusively built for the playdate. Play as Gawain, the last remaining knight of the round table and fight your way through the evil that Morgana has unleashed onto this world. Take down epic bosses with the aid of Merlin and Gwenevere in the fight to reclaim Tintagel Castle from the evil Sorceress Morgana.
Featuring
- Stage based action platforming
- Over 30 unique enemies
- Unique spells
- Epic boss fights
- Nostalgic chiptune music
Installation Instructions
Download the PDX here and side load it on to your Playdate.
Please refer to Sideloading Playdate games on the Playdate help site for side loading the game onto your device.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $8.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Making of Castle Tintagel, Part 2Jun 21, 2023
- Castle Tintagel - Accessibility SettingsJun 20, 2023
- Making of Castle Tintagel, Part 1Jun 18, 2023
- Castle Tintagel - Playdate LaunchJun 16, 2023
Comments
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Bug: I got the first eye thing (one of six needed for the damage upgrade) in Library and then lost all of my lives. The eye was no longer in my inventory, but the eye did not reappear in the level in follow up attempts. I assume I was locked out of the upgrade.
I thought I was going crazy and maybe just saw things, but after beating the last boss I decided to reset the data and quickly get back to the library to confirm it is there. Hopefully I beat it in my first attempt now and don't lose it again.
I had my first crash at the library boss, so I had to test it haha. Seems to be working fine now, it respawns as expected. Since I can't reproduce it, I'm not sure what caused it to become unobtainable in my last playthrough
Oh wow, interesting. Each eye has a unique key that gets written to a save file. Might have been a weird race condition or something.
Just wanted to report a bug: When I was playing the North Tower level, for some reason, every time I tried to go to the next part by leaving the screen to the right I got damage like there was an invisible enemy there I bumped into. Made it very hard to progress. Apart from that, lovely game!
Update: it started on North Tower but it’s on every level now. I just tried replaying the first level again.
Update 2: restarting the game fixed it for now but I found a second bug: Leaving a screen to the right by jumping sometimes results in not being visible on the next screen, followed by instant death (with a sound effect like when you fall)
FYI: I’m on the latest Playdate firmware and I have the latest version of your game.
Hi! Sorry for the frustration this may have caused you. and thanks for reporting the issue. "Leaving a screen to the right by jumping sometimes results in not being visible on the next screen, followed by instant death (with a sound effect like when you fall)"
Are you seeing this in a specific area? Or is this reproducible everywhere?
I don’t think it’s in a specific area since it already happened 3 times now in my playthrough.
Gotcha, ill try and get a repro for it. Thank you
I'm having a love/hate relationship with this game. Loving the Castlevania vibe, and the boss fights, but hating...
Don't wanna be a hater - this is a good game! - but it feels like there's a need for a little more polish, especially for players who just jump on their Playdates for a 10 minute session & don't plan to play it straight through. A "save progress through the level" option, a "skip story after first showing" option, and more QA would make it near perfect.
What a great game! I’m also old enough to have played the original games that inspired it when the released, but I’ve never been any good at them! Your difficulty options are a true game changer (literally, I guess?!) for me as I can now see (and hear!) more of your wonderful game in my limited sessions. Thank you! Once again, sooooo good!
Appreciate the kind words and glad to hear the difficulty settings are helping you play it at your own pace! Thanks for the support.
very nice and polished game!
Thank you! :)
Oh, MY this looks amazing! Going to pick up through catalog but just wanted to drop a note in here thanking you for putting this game together :D
Thanks for the kind words! Please do let me know what you think when you get through it :)
Just beat the second boss and reached The Great Hall. Hands-down this is one the best games on Playdate. Really well done! It is both beautiful and brutal and the boss fights are fantastic. There are so many enemy types and the levels are the perfect length with a good amount of challenge. I love the mechanic of leveling up the spells and the little crank sections throughout, as well. And can't wait to try parrying with the shield. O.o
FYI - I am currently playing on Unlimited Lives and Weakened Enemies. I will likely toggle these off for any future play-throughs but they feel absolutely necessary to even out the difficulty for me. Thanks for including these options! ...I could probably turn off Weakened Enemies even on my first play through now that I have an understanding of the game - but I couldn't stand to watch that intro text anymore and had to make things a little easier on myself lol
My only suggestion is to change "start game" to "continue game" if save data is found. My poor heart skips a beat every time I boot up the game & think my progress has been lost LOL
Looking forward to finishing this soon :D
Haha, that's awesome. I am glad you are enjoying it. Yeah, It was a bit of a toss up with the level length. I had to consider the difficulty when determining how long levels should be. Checkpoints are also placed in such a way that shouldn't feel too brutal. I think the options really help folks play the game their own way which is honestly better than not enjoying the game at all, so I am happy its helping people out.
"My only suggestion is to change "start game" to "continue game" if save data is found. My poor heart skips a beat every time I boot up the game & think my progress has been lost LOL"
Noted for the future, sorry about that haha.
I am currently focusing on another project targeting PC, but once that wraps, I would love to explore a sequel or even prequel on the playdate for Castle Tintagel. I have some ideas for a follow up and have learned a lot from player feedback.
Appreciate the support! Hope you enjoy the rest of the game :)
An amazing old school action game - hard as balls, but I'm that old so I dig it!
Thank you for the support! Glad you are enjoying it :)
Hello, and congratulations for this game ! As a lot of other very well made games though, it really is too hard and too punishing for the casual player that I am. I'm sure I'm not the only Playdate enthusiast that would rather chill with his console than die and retry a thousand times 😅 Any chance we can get rid of the life counter (as an option) any time soon ?
I don't mind the grind, but I can't restart this first level from the beginning any more 😵💫
Cheers !
There is an unlimited lives checkbox in the options menu. Please let me know if you are unable to see that option, thanks for playing and hope that helps!
Wow, I feel silly now 😬 I thank you very much for this answer, and hope this game will see many updates !
Please for the love of god make the intro skippable 🙏🏼
Haven't played the game yet, excited to try it!
As a workaround for now, once you start the first level hit the menu button and select the “Exit Area” option. This will save your progress and you won’t have to see the intro again.
I think this game is awesome! Thank you!
Thank you so much! Feel free to leave a review, appreciate the support.
Hi,
I want to buy the game again through Catalog. is there a way you can give me a refund for my itch.io purchase if I show you proof that I bought the game again on Catalog?
Feel free to send me an email at pixelatedopus@gmail.com with the info and we can chat there.
I also emailed you with the same question, thanks!
Unfortunately as I just found out, I cannot issue refunds directly since funds are collected by itch directly. Try reaching out to itch for support.
Thank you
Awesome game! Got it through the playdate catalog today. I suck so took me a while to get past the first level but having fun. I appreciate the old school challenge!
Thanks for the feedback! Glad you are enjoying it!
I understand that you wanted to reproduce the rules of old school games where there are no saves, where only a limited number of lives. But we live in 2023 and technology makes it possible to make saves without problems. Moreover, we don't have that much time to waste our time playing the game over and over again. You can't make games like that anymore. This is a mockery of the player and a waste of our time.
My patience was enough for 15 minutes of play. I like the game and I will wait for you to solve the problem so that I don't have to go through the game again and again. What have I done wrong to you that you are punishing me like this? Return to the game when I can enjoy the process and not the torture.
Please see my response below, I hope that video helps you. The game has save functionality after completing a stage.
This is a cool game, but I don't like having to play the game over and over again. It feels like mockery. I want to enjoy the process. There are scenes where it's completely unclear how to behave, and you're forced to make mistakes and spend all your lives without even understanding what to do. And then you have to start the game over again. My patience is running out. Soon I will get tired and I will demand money because the game is too difficult. Settings for weak enemies and saving don't help. Why, when I beat the first boss, didn't I start with a new scene but instead am required to replay the game?
Hi, When you beat the first boss(The Ogre) you should have completed the level and not have to replay the first level. Your progress will be saved. There is a playthrough I put together here that may help you along the way. The game is difficult yes, but it is not unfair. I never set out to make a game that is just difficult for the sake of being difficult. Every moment is calculated and is tested to ensure its fair.
🤣 Ah, it turns out I only met the mini boss.
What’s the problem with adding “infinity of life” in the settings? This would make the game easier for many, players like me. Thanks!
The boss looks difficult, it looks like I'll have to replay the game 10 times to defeat him. You, as a developer, could practice this scene by replaying this scene over and over without going through the entire game. Let's be honest. You practiced your acting, every single scene when you created it. We don't have such an opportunity.
I will provide an update that allows you to toggle infinite lives for anyone interested.
This is fantastic news. I really enjoy playing this game. However, feeling a great deal of frustration when having to start the game over doesn't make for a good experience. I don't appreciate these kinds of emotions. Thank you for listening to your players and adding the feature to progress through the game without having to start over. I can't wait! 🖤 🙏
Hey! No worries! The build is updated on both itch and catalog so feel free to apply the update. You will see an unlimited lives checkbox in the settings. Hope you enjoy the rest of the game! Thanks for playing.
It might be worth adding to the game level settings.
Introducing difficulty levels in the game settings could certainly appeal to a wider range of players.
This adjustment could potentially make the game more dynamic and versatile, allowing it to cater to different player preferences and enhance the overall user experience.
I thought about this, but I think the individual options provide the most flexibility. In the future I’ll build a better system around this. Appreciate the feedback overall. Thank you
Was this ever submitted into the playdate catalog? I want to buy this game but I also want to support playdate with a percentage. Wanted to act if they accepted it before I buy? 🤔
Hi! It is coming out tomorrow morning on catalog, 10am PST.
oh! That is fantastic news thank you for the update! I'll pick it up first thing tomorrow then! Kind regards! I'll give feedback when that happens 😁
Thanks so much for the support! Look forward to the feedback :)
Really great fun. I hope an easy mode will be added so I can replay this game without having to restart levels after running out of lives
Thank you! You shouldn’t have to restart levels. There is a save feature between level completion so completed levels should not have to be restarted. I will consider more difficulty options though. Thank you for the feedback :)
Should definitely be included in Playdate's Catalog!
Thanks! Coming soon ;)
Is there any way to skip the opening story/pages of text? Great the first time, but after that it feels excruciating to have to wait 1min 45 seconds before being able to actually play. A long-press button to skip would be great, cranking to fast foward would also be entertaining. Loving the game otherwise!
Hi! As a workaround, you can actually leave the first area after the dialogue segment with Merlin. Go To Overworld when opening the menu. This will trigger a save so you won’t have to see the opening again should you run out of lives on the first stage.
I’ll look into adding a crank to skip option, thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for the support!
I guess I hadn't gotten far enough yet to even know there was a map! (or that it would save between play sessions). Just got my play date recently and haven't had a chance to play for a decent amount of time yet (plus I'm not very good at the game yet haha). Keep up the good work, and consider me a fan!
Thanks for the kind words! Look forward to hearing what you think.
Great little Castlevania Like game.
Remind me to the old Castlevania Time on my first Gameboy in my Childhood.
Thanks for the support! Happy to hear that it brought back some old memories :)
Pretty good as far as I've played. If I had one criticism, it would be that a lot of the smaller enemies and projectiles are pretty hard to see. In non perfect light, they tend to blend into the background.
Btw the music is top notch!
Hi! Yes it was definitely tricky to get the right amount of contrast with the player and the backgrounds. The enemies tend to have a white outline to draw attention to them as the backgrounds are relatively dark. Thanks for the support!
A game in the purest tradition of the genre, tough but fair, always rewarding. A must have, congratulations to the developer.
Thank you so much for the kind words :). Very happy to hear you enjoyed it!
Very cool game, really have enjoyed it. But I also struggle with the difficulty. I have checked the ”more savepoints” but I still run out of lives and then you have to restart the whole game. I think you should add an ”infinite lifes” toggle. I get that the game should be hard, but I see little reason to not let people who bought it being able to play through it as they wish. Id really like to get past the first boss but with the limited nr of lifes I dont think it’ll happen.
Thanks for a great game and yeah for anyone looking for a good platformer this is one of em.
Hey! Thanks for the feedback. The game does save progress between level completion so you don't have to completely replay a level once its complete. Nonetheless, appreciate the feedback and I will look into ways to add options for new players.
COOL I can’t wait to play it
Hope you enjoy it! :)
don’t agree with those saying it’s too hard. i’ve been wanting a classicvania on my playdate more than anything else and this game delivers. feels like it’s made by a real student of the genre. it embraces certain aspects of the style (you will get knocked back), takes limitations even further (no ducking), lightens up on others (controllable movement in the air), and subverts expectations in clever ways. the difficultly is perfect and wonderfully rewarding to overcome. every time i’m convinced an enemy placement is unfair i find im incorrect after just approaching the situation with a little more patience and concentration. so happy to finally see a challenge like this game come along. tiny quibbles with some of the art but otherwise, don’t change a thing. if it hits the catalog i’ll buy it again.
Thank you for the kind words and the honest review. Glad you enjoyed the game and found the challenge rewarding. I do agree that the art can get some improvement. I will keep developing my skills in that space to ensure future releases hit that quality bar. Truly grateful for you support! :)
Agreed with other comments on the difficulty seeming high. With the game overs I’m still at the start of the game after 30 minutes. Along with what other people have mentioned it seems like the player’s mobility, compared to enemy speed/attacks, allows for easy damage and pit deaths.
Hi! Thanks for the feedback.
I have personally ensured that the game is beat-able without taking any damage or losing any lives. These style of games can sometimes feel frustrating, but once you get a feel for the enemy attack patterns it should become easier and its that much more rewarding when you overcome the challenge.
If you find you are still have trouble, there was a recent update I have released that will allow you to adjust difficulty settings. You can increase the frequency of checkpoints and/or increase damage towards enemies. I hope that helps!
Didn't notice the update - thank you. I've continued playing and the game does get easier with time like you mentioned and being able to farm the first area for the first few upgrades is nice. That being said - I pulled up the original Castlevania to compare since I have a NES and the first three Castlevania cartridges. In thirty minutes I was able to get past the first three bosses vs just being stuck in a starting area for thirty minutes. I'm definitely familiar with difficult games but there's still a difference between difficult and feeling like you've lost time. Only leaving this comment because I see developers make comments along those lines more frequently these days and it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Sorry for the mini-rant. Thank you for the game :)
Hey, no worries! Don't apologize. I am always open to feedback and will definitely consider it. I appreciate your tenacity and hope you enjoy the rest of the game!
Hello again. I’ve had a few crashes and can pull the logs to share if there is a good place to send them. Also had a moment (in area 4? I need to double check where) where I immediately died on entering a room.
Hi, please email the logs to pixelatedopus@gmail.com and thank you! Immediate death when entering the room is a known issue I am currently working on fixing.
Great game but tough for beginners. Are you considering putting in any accessibility options (e.g. half damage or save points) for those who are less dexterous?
Thank you :). There are currently check points setup throughout the levels, but I like the idea of half damage or something to that effect that might help out for accessibility. I actually think having damage output increase might also be a good way to solve that problem, i.e 2x damage from the start. I have a planned update with some more content in the future, I will definitely keep in mind adding some options to help less dexterous players. I appreciate the feedback! Was there an area/moment in the game felt that was unfair in terms of difficulty? I am always looking for feedback so please feel free to let me know.
It was mainly the lives system and having to start again from the beginning of the level after running out of lives. I understand that the original Castlevania games were not that easy but it can be frustrating to have to restart.
Thanks for the feedback. I think adding some accessibility options might be a great start. More checkpoints (I.e every room) and weakened enemies.
Just want to chime in and add my support for accessibility options too! Unlimited lives and more checkpoints would go a long way to make the game more enjoyable (personally speaking).
I don’t think damage modifiers would make a big difference since half of my deaths so far were caused by being knocked into a bottomless pit 😅
There is an item in the town shop that increases lives by 1 permanently. That should help out a bit. However, I will update the game to add some accessibility options especially increased checkpoint frequency. Appreciate the +1.
is the crank used in this game ?
It is, but it is used sparingly. One thing I wanted to avoid was overusing the crank. The reason for that is simple, I still wanted this to feel like a classic platformer. The crank was meant to supplement the gameplay, but not completely replace it. I also did not want to overstimulate the player with all the various forms of input at once. The crank is usually used in places where there is no need to attack or move to evade an enemy.
thanks...buying .
Thank you for the support! Feel free to let me know what you think regarding the crank usage :)
How is Tintagel pronounced? Thanks - Don, Hello Playdate Podcast
Hi! The phonetic spelling is “Tin-ta-jl”. You can also Google it to get some audio feedback on the pronunciation.
this looks incredible! Any plans to submit to Catalog? I’m tempted to buy right away, but all my itch.io games end up not getting updated so I’m trying to purchase on catalog when I can 🤔
Thanks! Yes I have submitted to catalog for consideration. Waiting to hear back and see if it will get accepted.
Best Playdate game I’ve played!
The third boss took me forever to beat. Great challenge! 10/10 -ign
Haha! Thank you for the support :) I am glad you enjoyed it.