KENAZ - The Last Torch

Hel's halls are dark, and you carry the last torch.

KENAZ is a short turn-based tactics roguelike about light. Ten halls in two worlds - Helheim and the ice of Niflheim - stand between you and Hel's gate, each full of dead torches and cold braziers that burn in the hall's own colour once lit. Light them all, and Hel gives way: her dead burn in the light and the gate opens. But in the dark you only see eyes - and when they flare red, something is winding up.

• Light is the goal. Step next to a dead torch with yours and it catches: the light spreads, the dark draws back, and your own flame blazes up again. Only when every flame of a hall burns does its gate open.
• The torch is the heroine. No sword, no shield. Your torch sets on fire whatever it strikes, and burning foes light up the dark. Sweep it through three foes at once, throw it to kindle a far corner - and stand in the dark until you call it back.
• The torch is your life. It burns down every turn and its circle of light shrinks. Let it die and Hel's cold bites.
• Foes of the dark. While a hall is dark, Hel sends her dead: a grave glows red in the dark and opens the next turn - carry light to it and it stays shut. Only the last flame of the hall ends it. An archer drawing on you in the dark gives itself away by a faint glow. Shades that live only where your light does not reach and burn away in it. Frost wights that blow out the torches you lit.
• Two guardians. Nidhöggr breaks the surface of Hvergelmir halfway down; at the gate Garmr has torn his chain and hunts you. Light hurts them too.
• Choose your way. Between the halls the path forks: rest at Urd's embers, or take one of Loki's gambles - a chosen foe or a colder hall - and let him pay you for it.
• Loki's embers. After each hall the Norns offer runes - and Loki slips one of his own among them: eight runes of fire, each a bargain with a burning hook. Loki is the voice of the game: he greets every hall, whispers at every crossroads and laughs at how you fell - and at the very end he makes you an offer. Two endings.

A run takes 20-25 minutes, and no two runs are alike: several places draw one of two halls, the dead who wait there change, and a hall may come mirrored. Your best runs go on the leaderboard. Fall in a hall, and Loki turns the hourglass: three times a run you may try that hall again (buy him another turn with your glory) - or start anew with a fresh torch. Keyboard or mouse. Sound on: Loki talks.

Made for the jam. KENAZ is a spin-off of my roguelike Nordveigr and reuses its rules engine, tiles and most foes. New for the jam (October 24-31): the whole light system (darkness, eyes in the dark, sconces and braziers to light, light that spreads, "Hel gives way"), the torch-bearer and her torch fighting (burning, the sweep, the throw that kindles), the fuel and the cold, Hel's dead rising from the dark until the last flame burns, the forks between the halls, two new foes (shade and frost wight), Loki's ætt of eight fire runes, fifteen handcrafted halls in two worlds, each with its own flame colour, Nordveigr's two guardian arenas relit with sconces and braziers, Nidhöggr as a second guardian, the leaderboard, Loki's voice, the story, the final choice with two endings, and new painted art and sound for all of it.

Made with AI. The game was built by an AI with me as director and playtester: code, design and texts by Claude (Anthropic), the painted pictures and sprites with GPT Image via Scenario and reduced to game pixels by a script, sound effects and Loki's voice with ElevenLabs, the music generated in code. I played, judged and steered.

If you like it, the full saga is free: Nordveigr on itch.io - four worlds, 32 runes, five heroes and the Norns themselves.

Feedback is very welcome in the comments below.