I Thought Fans Would Reject Climb Knight—But They Loved This Retro Arcade-Style Game

Hello, AppSir Games fans!  

It’s me, Darius—The Dev. Back again with another dev diary.  

After wrapping up Spooky Pixel Hero, I was completely burnt out from making story-driven retro horror games. I was feeling incredibly pressured, and my brain was fried from figuring out new ways to tell AppSir’s stories in a unique way, so I decided to take on a smaller project before diving into the next big chapter in the franchise.  

That’s how Climb Knight came to be—an arcade-style high score game inspired by classic handhelds. Think early Game Boy, those old brick games, Nokia phones with Snake, and even ancient PDAs like the Apple Newton. I wanted to capture that simple but addictive gameplay that defined the era.  

Honestly, I was hesitant to release it. Fans love my story-driven platformers like Spooky Pixel Hero and DERE EVIL EXE, so I wasn’t sure how a more hypercasual game would be received.  

But when I finally launched it, something unexpected happened—people started playing. A lot. I didn’t expect players to embrace a more straightforward game like this since I thought I had conditioned them to expect something more unconventional from my games. Seeing so many players push their limits and climb the leaderboards has been awesome.  

And now, here’s the big news—Climb Knight is getting a major update on February 25 at 10 AM GMT! This update brings something strange and exciting: three unlockable 1-bit mini-games and a mysterious virtual advisor inspired by quirky shareware applications of the Apple Newton.

Thanks to everyone who’s played and supported Climb Knight! It’s crazy to see it take off like this, and I’m grateful for each and every one of you. Let me know what you think of the update when it launches!  

Until next time—more games to come.