Silverwing's Lair

Princess Asurja's Morning 2.0

Khaelenmore Thaal — Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

For a long time we were thinking about giving my older games a proper treatment.

Princess Asurja's Morning was an experiment and, judging by player reaction, a successful one, so we've decided to start with it.

Ping - 2026.14 - One Final Ping, and It's a Good Thing

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

As usual, time has come for us to share the updates. Despite a lot of work being done on Don't Follow the Butterfly, an ongoing work on Princess Asurja's Morning re-release, and good progress on Dreams of Space (I have not even announced this one, and maybe shouldn't …

A Dragon and the Tower - Wallpapers by Sabra Naikomy

Khaelenmore Thaal — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sabra Naikomy has prepared some amazing wallpapers based on our game, A Dragon and the Tower.

You can download the game here. You will also find links to the same wallpapers in zipped format on the game's page.

As usual, waiting for your feedback: inbox@silverwing.one.

Ping - 2026.03 - Vacation's End

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

My New Year vacation is nearly over. It's time to get back to main work and streams, as well as summarise what was done in two weeks of (nearly) unending coding.

Snail

You've seen it. I've tested what I could and decided to keep using Lua: the original …

Update: Runtime Choice

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As promised, I tried to experiment with various runtimes for our new engine. The archive contains:

A source code for implementation of a pathfinding algorithm in C, Lua and Pawn
A compiled amx executable from Pawn code (32-bit cell size)
A compiled Windows executable from C code (Mingw-64-10.0.0 …

Ping - 2025.52 - Happy New Year! (Again already?)

Khaelenmore Thaal — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello and Happy New Year and Merry Christmas to everyone!

A Dragon and the Tower

A successful 1.1 release with Esperanto translation and Windows 95, 98, ME and 2000 support.

We have also opened all the scripts we used for packaging A Dragon and the Tower.

I would really …

So We Want to Write a Game Engine - Part 1 - Setting Expectations

Khaelenmore Thaal — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As for any big project, the first thing to do when writing a game engine is to set the requirements. This will define the general direction of work and will guide all further decisions.

Right from the start we define compatibility and portability as the highest priorities for our project …

Building SDL-INSTEAD for Windows 95 and Pentium CPU

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 12:00:00 +0000

There are a number of difficulties with this:

VC Runtime 8.0 used in existing builds of some dependencies is not compatible with Windows 95(requires Windows 98 at least).
Most of the components are built with i686 instruction set, which is only available starting with Pentium Pro.

This article …

Using mingw-w64 with Custom CRT

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article is based on mingw-w64 version 10, which is included with Debian Bookworm. It should be pretty straightforward to do the same thing with other mingw-w64 versions.

Why would you need this?

Compiling standard library for a different CPU may yield more compatibility.

In my case, I would like …

A Dragon and the Tower 1.1.1 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This update fixes an issue non-critical for game completion. We recommend you to update

A Dragon and the Tower updated to version 1.1.1

Fixed issues with English version of the game

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here …

A Dragon and the Tower 1.1.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This is a performance update, you don't need to update unless you've encountered any issues

A Dragon and the Tower updated to version 1.1.0

Esperanto translation added (thanks to arbtttrn6)
Tiny Instead and Plainstead support merged into the main branch
Massive performance optimisations and simplified animations mode for …

Ping - 2025.19 - Monthly Report of No Progress

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 04 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Seemingly every time after an active month there is a month of decline. Project status:

A Dragon and the Tower -- 1.1 is still being worked on; Expected updates:
- Lowered system requirements: Official support of Windows 95 or newer, Pentium 2 CPUs; Unofficially -- i486-compatible CPU is required; You'll need something …

Ping - 2025.13 - Limited Success or Complete Failure?

Khaelenmore Thaal — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A month full of events:

Streaming continues steadily; No work done on systematising the played games though;
Website updated -- compatible with (nearly) all browsers now (for real, not just "latest-chrome-based-99%");
- "Compatible" does not mean that the site will look exactly the same; It does, though, mean that the site will …

Ping - 2025.08 - Slow and Steady

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

February is nearing its end and it's time once again to look back at what has been done and what is to be done.

No releases so far, but the progress is steady (albeit slow):

Plainstead version of A Dragon and the Tower has some critical fixes and can be …

Ping - 2025.04 - Chasing N hares

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ambitious goals are good... When you can reach them. Which is not the case for us. January is over and the progress is... Modest at most.

It's not easy to work on projects in spare time, since you have to share it with a lot of other things. A lot …

Ping - 2024.52 - Happy New Year!

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year, everyone!

Time to summarise the last year:

A Dragon and the Tower was released with 499 downloads across all platforms (gathered on 29.11.2024 в 19:18 UTC);
- My first successful attempt at writing music for a game; I'm not sure if I want to continue …

A Dragon and the Tower 1.0.4 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Wed, 25 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This update fixes an issue non-critical for game completion. We recommend you to update

A Dragon and the Tower updated to version 1.0.4

A couple of typos fixed

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here.

A Dragon and the Tower 1.0.3 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This update fixes an issue non-critical for game completion. We recommend you to update

A Dragon and the Tower updated to version 1.0.3

Change default text input method to correctly handle user's keyboard layout
Rope can now be used immediately

Game Manual is also updated

Added troubleshooting section …

A Dragon and the Tower 1.0.2 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

This update fixes an issue non-critical for game completion. We recommend you to update

A Dragon and the Tower updated to version 1.0.2

An error in the terminal is fixed

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here.

A Dragon and the Tower 1.0.1 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a minor update, you don't need to update if you're already playing

A Dragon and the Tower updated to version 1.0.1

Improved automatic scaling on small screens

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here.

Ping - May 2024 - A Dragon and the Tower - Beta Test

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The time has come to start the beta testing of our game.

If you want to participate, please contact me in any meaningful way.

Depending on the number of testers, I may split the process into waves, to show the fixed game to new people.

As soon as we are …

Ping - September 2022 - The New Beginning

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 01 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Lives of great men all remind us

We may make our lives sublime

And departing leave behind us

Footprints in the sands of time

—Hawkwind

Three months have passed since our last message, and, as expected, our actions brought the result. So we have some news:

We have resumed working …

Ping - June 2022 - Light at the end of the tunnel

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

After three months of inactivity, we think it is time to make some announcement. Though we cannot speak confidently about our plans and future, we still can give you some news.

Bad news first:

In the nearest month or two you'll most probably not hear from me -- I am extremely …

Ping - December 2021 - Happy New Year

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year to everyone!

Sharing news and plans for 2022.

Ping - June 2021 - Cursed old forest

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

We have released a new game -- Cursed Old Forest. A caravan of a trader, who decided to journey through The Dark Forest has a lot of perils waiting for it. It's up to you to help Vivar reach his goal. The game is only available in Russian

Awakening 0.10.5 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 10 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.10.5.

Some minor issues in texts and game logic fixed. Text issues in tutorial.

Thanks to Canwolf.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here.

KUSBFloppy Formatter 1.0.2

Khaelenmore Thaal — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We have updated KUSBFloppy Formatter. Fixes:

Added progress bar for mass formatting.
Fixed work with new lsblk versions.
Allow editing image label from main interface(double click image name).
Fixed inability to format images without changing device.

You can download KUSBFloppy Formatter here.

If you have any problems, you may …

Ping - March 2021 - Site update, plans and changes

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 21 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

Last month was not easy -- reality has insistently intruded into my comfy nest and required my attention. This is the reason we have fewer news, than we would like, but nonetheless -- here they are. Look inside for details.

Ping - November 2020 - A small video on A Dragon and the Tower

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

We have made a small video on our next game. It will show you some new things.

Awakening 0.10.3 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.10.3.

Some minor issues in texts and game logic fixed.

Thanks to Anton "bergentroll" Karmanov.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here.

Awakening 0.10.2 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.10.2.

Some minor issues in texts and game logic fixed.

Thanks to Andrew Lobanov and Anton "bergentroll" Karmanov.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here …

Awakening 0.10.1 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.10.1.

Some minor issues in texts and game logic fixed.

Thanks to Anton "bergentroll" Karmanov.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues via email: inbox@silverwing.one.

You can download the game here.

Ping - October 2020 - Closing the forums, updating server software, alpha testing of A Dragon and the Tower

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Shortly, most important stuff:

The forum is closed

Some services may be unavailable for short periods of time on 24.10.2020

Ping - August 2020 - Participating in Locomotive and releasing Princess Asurja's Morning

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hi everyone!

This time we're a bit late with ping, but we are ready to show you a new game. The game is called Princess Asurja's Morning and is available here. Currently the game is only available in Russian and we have no exact plans on translating it to English …

A new screenshot for A Dragon and the Tower

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

We have added a new screenshot for our new project, A Dragon and The Tower. On the screenshot you can see the game's actual gameplay.

Full information on the game is available here.

Ping - July 2020 - "A Dragon and the Tower" Announcement

Khaelenmore Thaal — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone!

We have kept quiet for some time and there is a reason for that. Time has come to tell you about a new game, that we are making together with Sabra Naikomy.

A Dragon and the Tower

You are a dragon. A real one -- huge, winged, flying and …

KUSBFloppy Formatter 1.0.1

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 21 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I have updated KUSBFloppy Formatter. Two problems have been fixed:

Impossible to format images starting from index 99
Incorrect numbering of images

You can download KUSBFloppy Formatter here.

In case you encounter any problems, you can use our forum or you can write us on our email.

Awakening 0.10.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 07 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.10.0.

Some minor issues in texts and game logic fixed. Added some words to dictionary. Battle with kraken slightly tweaked. A rare save-game issue should be fixed now.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues on …

Awakening 0.9.2 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 01:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.9.2.

Inventory did not hide in certain cutscenes.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues on our forums and feel free to discuss the game there. You can also contact us via email: inbox@silverwing.one …

Awakening 0.9.1 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Awakening has been updated to 0.9.1.

Tutorial is now available regardless of how you install and start the game.

The game is also available on instead-games.ru.

Please report any bugs and issues on our forums and feel free to discuss the game there. You can also contact …

Awakening 0.9.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 01 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Save games from previous versions are incompatible.

Awakening has been updated to 0.9.0.

A lot of changes and improvements has been made in various aspects of the game. Multiple quests have been fixed and changed. Some puzzles have been improved. Added a couple of texts, to give player …

Awakening 0.8.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Save games from previous versions are incompatible.

Awakening has been updated to 0.8.0.

Changes:

Saving is enabled in nearly all places(except battles and other places where character is endangered)
Added Atlantis map for easier navigation
Added(restored) radio for communicating with Leviathan crew
You can now "recall …

Awakening 0.7.7 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Saves from 0.7 versions are compatible.

Awakening has been updated to 0.7.7.

Fixed tons of errors and typos.

Added snapshots, now you can retry easily if you fail.

The game is now available on instead-games.ru.

If updating from 0.7.5 and lower: Game folder name …

Awakening 0.7.6 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Saves from 0.7 versions are compatible.

Awakening has been updated to 0.7.6.

Fixed typos and logical errors.

Fixed improper work of some puzzles.

Game folder name has been changed. To use old saves, move the from directory ~/.instead/saves/atlantis.idf ~/.instead/saves/awakening.idf

Please report …

Ping - June 2019

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:30:00 +0000

Hi everyone.

A few moments ago we have published news about finishing work on Awakening 0.7, and this means the game is nearly complete.

-- Wait. That has already been written. In the previous post. Why do we need ping then?

-- Yojj knows.

With these thoughts I decided to change …

Awakening 0.7.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Save games from previous versions are incompatible.

Awakening is updated to version 0.7.0.

We have completed everything planned for 0.7. There are major improvements in the game:

Music has been added.
Graphics have been added wherever needed.
Custom theme.
Changed some gameplay moments, that we believe to …

Ping - May 2019

Khaelenmore Thaal — Fri, 31 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Whatever

—Anybody

Hi everyone.

May is over and we are working on Awakening 0.7. We cannot yet make new version available, but we want to share some of the work done.

I find it very hard to share information about this game beacause I want to avoid spoilers at …

Ping - April 2019

Khaelenmore Thaal — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Deep inside of our hearts beat sounds of heavy metal

—Pathfinder

Hi everyone.

April has passed and we still has nothing to say in ping. You can see that right now a new utility is available KUSBFloppyFormatter, which is very useful for users of retro-computers with floppy drives replaced by …

Awakening 0.6.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Save games from previous versions are incompatible.

Awakening is updated to version 0.6.0.

Our main goal in 0.6 was to finalize game's content. We have added missing dialogs and improved game's endings.

Now we are on a finish line - 0.7 is the last large update before …

Ping - March 2019

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I wander around the streets so lonely and empty

Lost in a crowd, but I can't hide

Is there a place where I can escape to?

A desert island where I can die

—Dave Brock

Hi everyone.

March is over and we haven't done anything. At least montly "Ping" is …

Ping - February 2019

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There is something called tomorrow

Keep it free and safe from harm

It makes you dream and ends your sorrow

Lead them all to understand

—Dol Theeta

Hi everyone.

Febrary got away from us. Awakening 1.0 is still somewhere behind the horizon and we continue work on it.

This …

KCDEmu 1.0.0

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 24 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Today we present you with a small tool that we believe will be as helpful to you as it is to us.

KCDEmu is a graphical user interface for CDEmu, which is amazing optical drive emulator for GNU/Linux. We made KCDEmu in order to provide an easy way to …

Awakening 0.5.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Save games from previous versions are incompatible.

Awakening is updated to version 0.5.0.

We have made lots of fixes. We believe it is finally proper to say that this version is stable and safe to play.

We still have lots to do in terms of missing content:

we …

Ping - January 2019

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hey! You're banjaxed!

Hey! You're screwed!

And death is coming for you!

Trapped on an island, lost at sea!

Shipwrecked, you'll cease to be!

—Alestorm

Hi everyone.

January is over, and you still see no Awakening 1.0. No, we are not dead, we are working on it, but it …

Awakening 0.4.0 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 18:00:00 +0000

We have updated Awakening to version 0.4.0. Save games from previous versions are incompatible.

We have made a lot of changes to chapter 2 and epilogue.

The game still cannot be considered stable, so if you dare to play it - save often and in different slots.

Please report …

Awakening 0.3.2 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 22:30:00 +0000

We have updated Awakening to version 0.3.2. Save games are mostly compatible except some rare cases.

We recommend to save often and in different slots(until stable version arrives).

What does it fix?

We have done lots of fixes in Chapters 1 and 2. From game-breaking bugs to …

Awakening 0.3.1 Released

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sun, 23 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We have updated Awakening to version 0.3.1. Save games are compatible unless you have not already met an unwinnable condition.

What does it fix?

Unwinnable condition in Chapter 1
Some minor text issues
Some minor dialog changes

If you have encountered unwinnable condition -- you can write us, so …

Welcome aboard

Khaelenmore Thaal — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Cause if you have a battlecruiser,

Hell, who needs a car?

—Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain

2018 is nearly over and we at last have some good news.

First, we are nearing the end of development of our first game - Awakening.

Right now we are presenting you with a testing …