The first cave playtest exposed a problem beneath the entrance: its tall shaft box obstructed walking on the floor. Version 0.23.0 replaces that full-height trim with a shallow collar and adds a new illustrated flame treatment to the two torches.
A collar at the opening.
Four short stone walls now frame the opening near forest level and stop well above the cave floor. The real hole and ladder remain, with open walking space under the collar.
Native keyboard play descended to the cave, then walked east from the foot of the ladder through the area blocked by the old box. Didga crossed it with all six hearts and zero respawns.
A flame with a little life.
The new eight-frame illustrated flame supplies a 2D animation at each torch. A warm halo and bright core accompany the stronger light, with twelve individual embers per torch drifting upward.
Light flicker and distance falloff keep the nearby rock readable without flattening the chamber’s darker corners. The flame, glow and ember effects remain underground. Pausing or hiding the game freezes their animation instead of letting it continue behind a menu or another tab.
Keep the first frame safe.
A separate startup error could stop movement even while buttons still responded. The first animation-frame timestamp could precede the setup timestamp, producing a negative elapsed time. That value reached the torch update and threw an error, interrupting the game loop.
The main loop now treats a negative elapsed time as zero before advancing physics and torch effects. New regressions exercise the actual frame calculation and then the real torch update and player movement.
The same way down and back.
Near the ladder, press C or Space to grab it, then use W and S to climb. The contextual Climb down / Climb up button remains available. Return to the forest by the same ladder.
The twelve surface stars, power gloves, runes and Gobma encounter remain part of the adventure. This refinement adds no extra cave collectibles.
What has been checked.
All 406 game checks and 15 website-package checks passed. The checks cover the collar and floor routes, flame artwork and effects, pause/background behavior, complete dependencies and the two startup-timing regressions.
An integrated route using the actual world physics completed in 26.55 simulated seconds, retaining two stars, three runes, Breaker gloves and four hearts, with zero warps or respawns. That is a software route, separate from the native eastward walk.
Native browser play confirmed descent, the eastward passage, changing flame frames, light intensity and all 24 individual ember positions. Pause retained identical effect diagnostics. The movement check retained six hearts with zero respawns. Opening the recorder also kept the effect diagnostics unchanged; the microphone remained off and no sharing or microphone request was made.
The complete down-and-back route is covered by the software check. A safe native round-trip was not established: after the ascent and a wait on the surface, Gobma defeated Didga. Physical-controller behavior has not been verified for this revision. These images come from the local native checks; the published release receives its own verification. Original character artwork, preserved games and source snapshots remain intact.