Your Dungeon Comes Alive! New Strategies, Keeper's Orders & the Grand Expedition

Hello, Architects!

Over the past few days, we've been working on one of the biggest updates yet for Fame & Fear: Dungeon Architect.

Our goal was simple: make every decision matter and turn your dungeon into a place that truly reacts to the choices you make.

We've introduced new tools to plan your days, understand adventurer behavior, intervene during visits, and discover which strategies actually work.

But that's not all! There's also a completely revamped early-game experience, major improvements to inns, a world that adapts to your dungeon's reputation, and a brand-new challenge for experienced players.

Let's take a look!

Plan Your Next Masterpiece... or Disaster!

You can now predict how adventurers might move through your dungeon!

We've added a new Heatmap mode that lets you visualize expected visitor traffic before opening your dungeon.

Identify busy areas, strategic passages, rarely visited rooms, and potential bottlenecks.

The prediction takes into account your dungeon's layout, available paths, treasures, services, and visitor characteristics.

It's not a guarantee of what will happen, but it's a powerful tool for planning better traps, organizing routes, and preparing a few nasty surprises for unsuspecting adventurers.

And what happens once the day begins?

Selecting a visitor now reveals their destination, the reasons behind their decisions, and what they're planning to do next.

Why are they heading to an inn? Why are they running away? Why did they decide to explore that particular room?

Now you'll have a much better idea of what's going on inside their heads.

Keeper's Orders: Take Control of the Chaos!

Watching adventurers stumble through your dungeon is entertaining. But why stop at watching?

Introducing Keeper's Orders, three special interventions you can use each day to influence events without interrupting the simulation.

Lure

Temporarily makes an area more attractive to adventurers, encouraging them to explore it through existing accessible routes.

Perfect for guiding a curious visitor toward a carefully prepared surprise!

Overcharge

Boosts the damage of a trap's next successful activation by 30%.

There's a catch, though: after delivering that extra punch, the trap will need more time to recharge.

Seal

Temporarily closes a passage for 12 seconds, forcing adventurers to reconsider their route.

Don't worry, the system prevents you from sealing passages when doing so would compromise essential escape routes.

You have three uses in total per day, shared across all three orders.

Choose wisely. A well-timed intervention could completely change how your day unfolds!

A Smart Dungeon Needs a Well-Informed Architect

We've expanded the statistics and improved the daily report to help you understand what's really happening inside your dungeon.

Traps and monsters can now display performance information, including activations, damage dealt, targets hit, and combat activity.

Natural synergies between objects are also easier to identify.

A slowing trap can help a nearby monster land more attacks. A treasure can make an area more attractive. Comfort, fear, and available services can all influence how visitors behave.

It's no longer just about building something stronger. It's about building something that works better.

The end-of-day report now includes up to three observations based on what actually happened.

You'll be able to see whether an area was ignored, which objects contributed the most during combat, how many visitors refused entry because of your ticket price, and much more.

The idea is simple: give you useful information to improve your dungeon during the following night.

Inns Are Now Available Earlier!

One of the biggest changes in this update involves inns.

Counters, tables, chairs, and staff are now available starting at Rank F!

You no longer have to wait until Rank C to start offering basic services to your visitors.

Beds and guest rooms still unlock at Rank C.

We've also expanded furniture compatibility. Tables, seating, counters, and beds from different themes can now be used as functional inn furniture.

And don't worry: you can still use these objects as regular decorations anywhere in your dungeon.

Waitresses now wander around the main room during their downtime, returning to work as soon as new orders arrive.

We've also improved guest positioning, furniture navigation, and reservation handling.

Inns are no longer treated as regular shortcuts by adventurers. Visitors enter to use an actual service, with the necessary exceptions for invasions and emergencies.

The World Is Starting to React to Your Choices

What kind of dungeon are you building?

A deadly deathtrap where few adventurers make it out alive? A popular attraction filled with treasure? Or perhaps a place famous for its surprisingly good hospitality?

Your strategies can now influence the visitors who arrive in the following days.

The game tracks your dungeon's recent performance and can develop trends based on lethality, trap usage, and the popularity of your services.

These trends can influence the composition, preparation, and spending power of incoming adventurer groups, within carefully balanced limits.

An especially dangerous dungeon might start attracting better-prepared adventurers.

A successful inn, on the other hand, could encourage wealthier visitors to stop by.

These reactions develop gradually, without penalizing players during their first days of learning the game.

Your dungeon is building a reputation. And the world is paying attention.

A New Challenge for Legendary Architects!

Thought reaching Rank SS was enough to prove your greatness?

We've got a surprise for you.

Experienced players can now take on The Kingdom's Grand Expedition, an optional endgame event available at Rank SS.

Once you accept the challenge, you'll have three days to prepare your dungeon before a particularly dangerous expedition arrives.

And no, success doesn't necessarily mean killing every single adventurer.

You'll have to survive the assault and meet the event's objectives.

Complete the challenge and you'll earn the prestigious title of Legendary Dungeon!

And most importantly, your adventure doesn't end there.

Sandbox mode continues as normal, allowing you to expand, improve, and manage your creation for as long as you like.

There's no forced ending.

A Better Experience for New Architects

We've also redesigned the introductory guide to make the game easier to understand from the very beginning.

The new tutorial follows eight steps across your first two days.

You'll learn how to build paths, place defenses, make treasures accessible, watch your first visitors explore the dungeon, and analyze the daily report.

Afterward, the game will encourage you to modify your dungeon and compare the results of the next day with the previous one.

The tutorial can be skipped, and your progress is preserved in your saves.

We've also improved visibility during visits by increasing ambient lighting, making characters and structures easier to see.

A Cleaner Interface and Better Progression

The interface has received a major overhaul too!

The new compact HUD leaves more space for your dungeon, while Book, Management, and Heatmap provide access to the main tools.

The construction catalog now offers compact and expanded layouts, with search and filters available whenever you need them.

Visitor, object, entrance, and inn details now share a single contextual panel, reducing overlapping windows and unnecessary clutter.

We've also improved how ranks from F to SS are presented, making progression clearer and allowing you to preview unlocks before purchasing a promotion.

Admission economics have been adjusted as well.

Regular visitors can now spend up to 50% of their wallet on admission, leaving some money available for services inside your dungeon.

Combat, Animations & Bug Fixes

Of course, we haven't forgotten about the adventurers... or their worst nightmares!

Here's a look at some of the other improvements:

• Stun system: new dedicated animations for adventurer classes, complete with visual effects and temporary interruption of movement and attacks.

• Mage spells: Arcane and Ember visual effects, featuring improved casting sequences, projectiles, trails, and impacts.

• Minotaur: improved axe grip and refined ability animations.

• Anubis Guardian & Amethyst Spider: corrected ground positioning.

• Spider Queen: removed a duplicate boss definition while preserving compatibility with existing saves and blueprints.

• Tavern furniture: improved colliders and selection accuracy for several objects.

• Save system: improved the reliability of saving and loading, including the handling of previously completed daily reports.

We've also updated numerous interface strings across all five supported languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish, and German.

Existing save files remain compatible with the new features.

What's Next?

With this update, we wanted to strengthen the heart of Fame & Fear: Dungeon Architect.

Building a dungeon shouldn't just mean placing monsters, traps, and decorations.

It should mean coming up with a strategy, putting it to the test, watching the consequences unfold, and improving your creation day after day.

In the next updates, we'll be focusing primarily on new objects, decorations, and customization options, while continuing to improve the game based on your feedback.

A huge thank you to everyone who's been following development, playing the game, and sharing suggestions.

The dungeon keeps growing, and there's plenty more to come!

Happy building, Architects! 🏰