Nights End
Development Changelog

What's new, build by build

Nights End is in active development ahead of its Steam launch. This page tracks every feature and change as it goes in — so you can see exactly what the game is becoming. Newest builds first.

🟢 Now on Steam: build 0.66 — display modes (incl. 1920×1080), full companion outfitting & command, self-lighting dungeons, and a raft of readability fixes are all live. Building toward Early Access; wishlist to be there when the long dark breaks.

0.111 — The bestiary comes alive

In Development
  • Creatures now breathe in the Compendium. Every monster in the bestiary plays its idle animation on the page — shifting, breathing, alive — instead of standing frozen in a T-pose.
  • The game no longer pauses while you read. Opening the bestiary keeps the world running behind it, so time doesn't stop for your party (or, in co-op, for anyone else). Handy for a quick lookup — but read somewhere safe, because you can still be attacked.
  • Fixed health bars bleeding through the book. Enemy and ally life bars no longer show through the Compendium's pages.

0.110 — The golems move

In Development
  • All four golems are fully animated. The clay, flesh, iron and stone golems now have the complete set — idle, walk, run, attack, cast and death — so they lumber and swing like the rest of the roster instead of sliding as statues.

0.109 — Leaner loot

In Development
  • Drops tuned down so loot feels earned. Ordinary monsters now drop far less gear (and lean toward gold), while elites and bosses remain the place to hunt — bosses still give you the best shot at the rarest items. Magic Find continues to raise both how often loot drops and your odds at the top tiers.

0.106 – 0.108 — A model for every monster

In Development
  • Every creature has its own model now. All 340+ monsters were given dedicated 3D models — no more foes borrowing another creature's shape to stand in. (Previously only a few dozen had unique art.)
  • Humanoid enemies are animated. Human-shaped foes received full animation sets — idle, walk, run, attack, cast and death — matching the skeletons and companions, so they move like proper characters.
  • Compendium polish. A creature's 3D model now appears on your very first kill, and long or oversized creatures (like the venomous snake) are framed correctly in the book's 3D view instead of overflowing the page.

0.103 – 0.105 — The Monster Compendium & true 5e monsters

In Development
  • New: the Monster Compendium. A living bestiary book, opened with B from your inventory. Every one of 340+ creatures gets a page that unlocks the more you kill it — name, then hit points, damage, resistances, weaknesses, and finally its full behaviour, loot and lore. The right page shows the creature's actual 3D model, revealed once you've seen it in the world. It's kept for the life of your account, outside your save files, so it survives new games.
  • Monster defences now matter. Every creature's 5e resistances, weaknesses and immunities are live in combat: a fire elemental shrugs off flame, a troll takes double from fire or acid and regenerates otherwise, undead can't be poisoned, and golems, lycanthropes and ghosts take half from ordinary weapons — bring something enchanted.
  • Deadlier, fairer foes. Strong monsters now multiattack (each strike rolls against your armour, so good armour still saves you), your area spells allow a saving throw for half, and dragons, liches and the like resist magic and shrug off crowd control.

0.101 – 0.102 — Truer Beasts & Swarms

In Development
  • Dedicated creature models. Several animals that were borrowing the wrong shape now have their own — the giant weasel, draft horse and venomous snake look like themselves at last.
  • Every swarm swarms. Rats, bats, ravens, insects, piranhas, snakes and crawling claws now each flock as a matching cloud of little creatures rather than a single blob.

0.100 — Reach the Rune Stone

In Development
  • Fixed an unreachable stronghold entrance. Some wild-region rune stones were blocking the very tile you had to stand on, so the "step onto the rune stone" prompt showed but you couldn't actually enter. You can now walk right up and dive in.

0.99 — Every Stat Matters

In Development
  • Real D&D 5e combat. Your basic attacks now roll to hit against a foe's Armor Class — and the reverse, so enemies roll against yours. Armor, shields, DEX and magic gear finally make you harder to hit, not just prettier on the sheet.
  • Ability scores & jewelry count. Strength and Dexterity (and any ring that boosts them) now raise both your accuracy and your damage.
  • Critical hits & resistances. Natural 20s crit for double damage, and resistance gear halves that element's harm. Nothing on your character sheet is cosmetic anymore.
  • New Game Codex. A complete, searchable reference — controls, classes, combat math, spells, items and all 342 creatures — now lives on this site. Read the Codex →

0.97 – 0.98 — One Key to Close

In Development
  • Consistent menus. Q now closes any open window, and Esc cancels or backs out — no more guessing which key dismisses which screen.
  • Clearer skill bar. Your basic attack (skill slot 1) now shows LMB for mouse or A for controller, since that's what fires it. Q is no longer part of the attack bar.

0.90 – 0.96 — Custom Undead Legions

In Development
  • Hand-built creatures. New custom-modeled skeletons — archers, mages, a knight, a rogue and a necromancer — now stalk the undead strongholds, each with full attack, cast, hit and death animations.
  • Optimized art. Every creature was rebuilt under a strict polygon budget for smooth performance, with clean fallbacks so new models drop straight into play.

0.85 – 0.89 — Performance Overhaul

In Development
  • Massive memory cut. A shared-asset model system slashed memory use roughly seven-fold, ending the long-load stutters and keeping the game smooth in packed fights.
  • Natural swarms. Rat and bat swarms now scatter and regroup as a living flock of critters instead of one lumpy shape.

0.79 – 0.84 — Stability & Polish

In Development
  • Fewer crashes. Fixed a load crash tied to certain bounty targets, added crash-and-diagnostics logging for faster fixes, and cleaned up the leave-dungeon loading flow.
  • Readable loading & legal. Larger, better-colored loading text; SRD attribution and the correct JBWGAMES LLC copyright now shown in-game.

0.76 – 0.78 — Deeper Strongholds

In Development
  • Dungeons go deep. Strongholds now run 3 to 40 floors per region — chosen per region and stable across visits — instead of a fixed shallow cap, just like the classics.
  • No more hitches. Every monster type in a region is now preloaded on entry, killing the mid-fight streaming stutters.

0.75 — Maps & Notices

In Development
  • Dungeon minimap now maps itself — instead of a black square, the dungeon minimap fills in the corridors and rooms you've explored, fog-of-war style, just like the overworld map.
  • “Region Stabilized” banner — a clear top-of-screen notice the moment you lock a region's borders.
  • Readable location label — the text under the minimap no longer runs off the right edge of the screen.

0.74 — Unequip Crash Fixed

In Development
  • Fixed a crash when clicking a gear slot to unequip — the game could hard-crash when you clicked an equipped item on the paper-doll to take it off. It's solid now.

0.73 — Cleaner Wild Zones

In Development
  • No more phantom fences — the home village's fence no longer bleeds into every region you travel to, and a region's dungeon/keep/tower no longer sits on top of it.
  • Entrance stones you can actually reach — the rune-stone that takes you into a stronghold now sits clearly out in front of the building instead of buried under it.

0.72 — Dungeon Lights Light the Room

In Development
  • Braziers, lanterns and wall torches are real light sources now — each one lights the room and the foes standing in it, just like your own torch, not just a pool on the floor. A big brazier reaches as wide as your brightest lantern; a wall torch like a plain torch. Rooms stay lit by their own fires even with your torch stowed — so an unlit dungeon is a place of pooled firelight and shadow between, instead of a black void.

0.71 — Cross the Border

In Development
  • Region borders work again — walking to the edge of a region now carries you into the neighbouring one (with its loading screen), on every edge of every region. A stable region leads to its true neighbour; an unstable one flings you somewhere in the realm. Previously you'd just stop dead at the edge and never travel onward.

0.69 — Companion Storage & Paper-Dolls

In Development
  • Full 40-slot companion storage — a companion's bag now holds 40, matching your own pack, and the trade screen shows all 40 on both sides with scrolling (arrow keys, or the mouse wheel over either panel).
  • One job per screen — the trade screen is now pure storage (no equipped slots crowding it); gear a companion on their own paper-doll from the retinue menu. Storage and equipping no longer overlap.
  • Companion paper-dolls have a proper backdrop — each companion's equip screen now shows a class-fitting figure behind the slots, like your own, instead of a blank panel.

0.68 — Stairs & Boss Clarity

In Development
  • Arrive by the right stairway — climb or descend and you now step out beside the stairs that lead back the way you came, instead of across the floor by the wrong staircase.
  • Know your boss — the floor boss wears a gold [ BOSS ] nameplate so you can pick it out of the pack, and felling it throws up an unmistakable “BOSS SLAIN!” alongside the stronghold-cleared banner.

0.67 — Dungeon Lights as Real Light

In Development
  • Dungeon fires truly light the delve — wall torches, braziers and lanterns each carve back the darkness the way your own torch does, so a well-lit hall reads as lit even with your torch stowed — no more dungeon lights that only glow without lighting the stone around them.

0.64 – 0.66 — Readability & Polish

Live on Steam
  • Clearer menus — the Controls/Help screen and companion command hints are bigger and easier to read, and the loot-rule keys are spelled out plainly.

0.63 — Dungeon Lighting & Depth

Live on Steam
  • Dungeons light themselves — wall torches, braziers and lanterns now cast real light pools across the room (not just your carried torch), and they're placed densely so every stretch of the delve is lit by its own fires.
  • Know how deep you're going — the delve now shows "Floor 3 / 5" so you can see the full depth, with the final floor flagged as the boss floor.

0.61 – 0.62 — Companion Command Polish

Live on Steam
  • Gear companions on their own 14-slot paper-doll — opening a companion shows a full paper-doll (like your own) with their class restrictions in the tooltip, not yours. Double-click to equip.
  • One place to command them — right on that screen you also set their combat stance, loot-quality rules, and send them on a sell-run. Out in the field the retinue menu shows just your companions (recruiting stays in town).
  • Draggable HD window — the 1920×1080 windowed mode is now a normal movable window.

0.60 — Display Modes

Live on Steam
  • Three display modes — Options now offers Windowed 1280×720, a true 16:9 Windowed 1920×1080, and Fullscreen. (The HD window makes for crisp 1080p screenshots.)

0.59 — Double-Click & Polish

Live on Steam
  • Double-click to equip/unequip — a single click selects an item (to read it); a double-click equips a bag item or unequips a doll slot. No more accidental equips.

0.58 — Full Companion Outfitting

Live on Steam
  • Companions use all 14 equipment slots you do — helm, rings, amulet, cloak, gloves, belt and the rest, not just weapon/armor/shield. Every slot boosts their survivability and damage, and it all persists through save & load.

0.57 — Cascading Loot System

Live on Steam
  • A deep, cascading loot system inspired by the best action-RPGs: each foe rolls its own drops, Magic Find bends the odds toward the rarer tiers, gear is drawn from bases suited to the region's level, and Magic/Rare/Epic pieces roll tag-matched affixes locked to the zone's power. Loot now scales to the region, so the frontier rewards the frontier — every affix reads on the tooltip.

0.56 — Companion Trade Screen

Live on Steam
  • A chest-style trade screen with each companion — hand items to and from their bag and equip them anywhere in the field, all from one two-panel window.

0.54 – 0.55 — Companion Command & Comfort Fixes

Live on Steam
  • Command your companions — set each to scavenge loot at or above a quality you pick (All → Legendary); they fill a bag as you fight, then you send them on a sell-run to town (they leave into an "away" roster on a distance-based timer and return with the gold). Manage stance, quality, gear and sell-runs anywhere; the Fallen tomb now holds five with a five-slot "Away" list and live countdowns.
  • Comfort fixes — your carried light casts a real pool on the floor so dungeons read clearly on every display; a visible fullscreen cursor; and "I have things to sell" opens straight to the sell window.

0.48 – 0.53 — The Living World

Live on Steam
  • A whole world to conquer — every one of the 1,024 regions now holds its own stronghold to clear: a dungeon, a keep, a tower or a castle, each with its own look, biome, foes and named boss. No two corners of the map feel the same.
  • Difficulty that grows outward — the land gets steadily deadlier the farther you roam from home (level 1–5 at the hearth, ~110 at the frontier). Out-level a region and its foes turn easy — and stop paying experience — drawing you ever onward. No level cap; New Game+ lifts the whole world above you.
  • Towns throughout the land — a settlement is never more than a few regions away, each with a shop, a healer's shrine and bounty work. Lonelier regions still offer a roadside shrine and merchant, so you're never stranded far from a heal or a trade.
  • Quests in every region — someone always has work for you, and your bounty quarry roams the wilds of whatever region you're in.
  • Strongholds worth exploring — elite guardians, locked treasure vaults (pick them with thieves' tools) and hidden traps stand between you and each boss. No more boss-rush delves.
  • Stabilise the realm — every region begins unstable, its borders flinging you across the map; clear its stronghold to lock it down. Steady all 1,024 and the whirlpool to the final boss opens. Your home ground is earned by felling the Old Watchtower's boss.
  • Quality of life — a visible mouse cursor in fullscreen, and a steadier, more readable difficulty curve across the map.

0.41 – 0.47 — The Full Spellbook & the Summoned

Live on Steam
  • Summon system — conjured allies that fight beside you and fade after a time; they seek the nearest foe (never through walls) and vanish in a burst when their time runs out.
  • Three new companions — a Summoner that conjures one of every elemental (fire, water, earth, air, ice), a Necromancer that raises undead by rank (skeleton → zombie → ghoul → skeletal mage → wraith), and a Bard whose song heals the party and boosts its damage. Raise a retinue of up to five.
  • Newly modelled elementals — fully animated fire, water, earth, air and ice elemental creatures, each with its own spell icon.
  • A far deeper spellbook — buffs (Haste, Bless, Stoneskin, Regeneration), cleanses and battlefield resurrection, crowd control (Entangle, Web, Slow, Hold Person, Sleep, Fear), blink-step mobility, and area magic (Wall of Fire, Cloudkill, Spirit Guardians) — plus elemental and undead summoning spells for your own hero.
  • Smoother than ever — everything a region can show is loaded up front, so summoning and combat run hitch-free.

0.38 – 0.40 — Spellcraft & Spectacle

Live on Steam
  • Elemental spell effects — a full particle system: cast flashes, comet-trailed bolts, and impact bursts in each element's colour.
  • Spells look the part — fireballs are flaming orbs, frost is an icicle streaking at the target, lightning is a crackling bolt; nature, holy, arcane and necrotic each read at a glance.
  • Status auras cling to the body — a shocked foe crackles with sparks, a burning one sheds embers, a frozen one shimmers, a bleeding one drips.
  • Smarter loot — weapon drops now favour your class (Rangers finally see bows) with a share reserved for your companions' weapons.

0.36 – 0.37 — True Line of Sight

Live on Steam
  • Walls matter — you can no longer see health bars, melee, shoot or blast enemies through dungeon walls, and neither can your companions.
  • Companions navigate — hirelings collide with walls and follow corridors instead of ghosting through stone.

0.31 – 0.35 — Light, Loyalty & the Cloud

Live on Steam
  • Meaningful light — better light sources cast a wider, brighter pool (candle → torch → lamp → hooded lantern → bullseye lantern), and dungeon braziers out-light a wall torch by their size.
  • Never lose a companion — hirelings are recalled if left behind, descend with you between floors, and a fallen one is reliably recoverable in the tomb.
  • Steam Cloud saves — all three save slots sync across your machines.
  • Inventory polish — the scroll wheel stays locked to the bag, tooltips read clearly, and Save & Quit lets you pick a slot.

0.26 – 0.30 — Rules, Support & Readability

Live on Steam
  • D&D 5e Armor Class — a proper 5e AC (armor + capped Dexterity + shield), with your loot's raw power shown as a separate Damage Reduction stat.
  • Help & Support in-game — a Health & Safety notice plus links to the privacy policy, terms and the help desk.
  • Options from the pause menu and colour-coded potion bottles everywhere (yellow stamina, red healing…).

0.17 – 0.25 — The Companion & Inventory Era

Milestones
  • Character sheet (press C) — a Diablo / Last-Epoch-style page: attributes with gear bonuses, offense, defense and utility.
  • Companions, deepened — hirelings gain XP and levels, fight to the death, and are recovered and revived in town; a Fallen tomb lets you reclaim their gear.
  • Quick-belt potions — colour-coded healing, mana, antidote and stamina, higher tiers drunk first.
  • Light & delving — a working hooded lantern used before torches, chests that re-open as containers, and a bigger scrollable 40-slot pack.

The Foundation

Milestones
  • Real-time combat — melee, ranged and an ~80-spell magic system with martial skills, block, parry and dodge.
  • An endless world — procedural overworld, dungeons, keeps, towers and a zone-sized finale castle, with a day/night and weather cycle.
  • Deep loot & crafting — five rarity tiers, elemental affixes, sets, gem sockets, and a blacksmith's forge to enchant, reforge and dismantle.
  • 326-creature bestiary, a dozen classes and nine kin, hireling companions, story arc with New Game+, and drop-in Steam co-op.