Greetings, Your Majesty.
This update focuses on one major goal: making I WAS A KING feel less like a terminal experiment and more like a complete royal court simulation.
Over the last several builds, we rebuilt large parts of the Steam GUI pipeline, improved music playback, reduced visual flicker, cleaned up repeated text output, and added a no-install browser demo path for new players.
Major Improvements
Royal GUI rendering has been rebuilt
The court log area has been reworked to reduce flicker and improve readability.
Earlier versions could redraw too much of the interface whenever a new block of text appeared. This could cause visible flashing during typewriter output or when new court messages were added.
The log renderer now uses a more stable layered Canvas approach. Text appears over the royal court background without large opaque blocks, while preserving the atmosphere of the palace scene.
BGM playback is now properly supported
Background music has been integrated into the Steam GUI version.
The game now uses mood signals from the gameplay layer to control music playback in the presentation layer. This means the core rules remain deterministic, while the GUI handles music as a flexible presentation system.
Music support is also more fault-tolerant. If the audio backend is unavailable, the game continues to run normally without breaking the build or gameplay.
Build stability has been improved
The Windows and Linux build scripts have been hardened.
pygame is now handled inside the build virtual environment, and the game no longer depends on a global Python installation. If the official pygame package is unavailable in a given Python environment, the build can fall back to pygame-ce or safely disable BGM without failing the entire build.
This should make Steam package generation more reliable across Windows and Linux.
Input and startup flow have been improved
The early startup sequence has been refined.
If the player does not enter a royal name during the initial naming step, the game now proceeds automatically after a short delay using a default title. This prevents the game from feeling stuck at the first prompt.
Input is also locked while local AI text is being generated, preventing the player from accidentally sending commands while the court is still speaking.
Repeated and confusing output has been cleaned up
Several repeated court messages have been removed or rewritten.
The game no longer prints unnecessary internal prompts, tone classification messages, or duplicated decree echoes in the court log. The Scribe should now speak more naturally and less mechanically.
We also reviewed the petition/agenda flow to prevent cases where only one petition appeared when two were expected.
Indicators and dashboard UI have been cleaned up
The right-side government dashboard has been simplified.
Several less useful or placeholder indicators were removed, and the remaining meters now use a cleaner rectangular fill style. The settings controls have also been moved into the dashboard area to keep the main command input area clearer.
Model routing has been corrected
The GUI launch path has been updated so that the intended local model configuration is actually passed into the payload layer.
This fixes a case where the payload had newer defaults, but the GUI launcher was still overriding them with older model arguments.
Web demo support has been added
A separate no-LLM web demo build has been prepared for the IWAK website.
This browser demo does not require local models, Ollama, Steam, or a native Linux/Windows runtime. It is designed as a lightweight introduction to the game’s atmosphere, decree flow, typewriter presentation, and deterministic consequence system. Visit https://king.heritage-labs.net and you'll experience demo.
What Has Not Changed
This update does not change the core save format, deterministic gameplay rules, or the basic agenda/choice structure.
The goal of this update is stability and presentation polish, not a balance overhaul.
Current Focus
The next goal is to keep polishing the Steam GUI experience:
smoother text presentation
more consistent BGM transitions
cleaner court language
better onboarding
improved trailer and store media
Thank you for following the development of I WAS A KING
The throne is becoming quieter, clearer, and more immersive. Thanks for your attention.