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A jam submission

ArchtowerView game page

Archtower is a nonstandard mix of Roguelite and ActionRPG. Explore mysterious Tower!
Submitted by Mr_SMOKE (@mnfl14) — 2 days, 23 hours before the deadline
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Archtower's itch.io page

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Comments

Submitted(+1)

'tis fun and pretty. Movement feels pretty good too and I appreciate the squashing of bugs. However I didn't quite understand how to upgrade / level up things, maybe the UI isn't finished yet.

Developer(+1)

If you have atleast 3rd level you can upgrade your skills, for that you need to open skills window (press U), there you can check skills and choose available upgrades, hover over to check descriptions, perk points cost and level requirements, then if you see those nodes in blue color just click on them. Don't use npc in the camp for upgrades, it's obsolete, but he can still let you respec for coins.

Submitted(+1)

Simple and somewhat familar premise but execute with so much juice that it's hard to care, and it still manages to defy expectations in a number of ways. 

Off the bat the sound and music is good, really fucking good. Very satisfying and creates a lot of atmosphere that the game wouldn't have otherwise. Immediately makes a good impression. 

The decision to go with handcrafted levels rather than using proc gen was a very good choice too, made playing the game a lot more satisfying initially since you can come to grips with enemy patterns before being introduced to new ones which cause you to perform the "combat dance" of the game a little differently. It seems like there's a degree of randomness with what class is available to the player at the beginning of the floor that does tap into some of that roguelite RNG fun potential. 

I had a hard time figuring out what the point of the "poisoner" class was supposed to do that the firestarter class didn't do better, but it was admittedly my least played class. Firestarter was harder to come to grips with than fighter but is very satisfying once you do. (protip: run to agro all the enemies until you reach the locked gate, then use the AOE to take groups of them out at once)


Good game, really can't think of any compelling reason to critique it as a free product. If you plan on selling it on Steam I think that a little bit of exposition and worldbuilding would be called for, but it's a very fun little game as it stands now. 

Developer (3 edits)

Thank you for such detailed review!
I'm thinking on doing handcrafted levels and generated ones, either it will be special mode, or extra levels on the existing floor (unlocking for exploration), for those who want to explore more.
As for classes with their randomized hpmax, I'm planning on changing it to STR/DEX/INT randomness later.
Poisoner/Firestarter difference is that the 1st is going for more on dotting and debuffing, will have options to work with weapons as well, and the 2nd is more like mage caster (will have castable skills), will have his ways to go either for fast dotting, or for instant damage focus, or something like that.
And yes, I have in plans to throw game on Steam some day, but I will have to do much more work before that :)

(+1)

Good game. Good Job!

Submitted

Everything was moving so fast, it was borderline unplayable. The fire effects were flickering so quickly I'm wondering if its moving faster than designed.

Developer (2 edits)

It must be a gamemaker bug that happens with 144Hz displays. Press Page Up in gameplay to show FPS, if it doubled (120 FPS intead of 60) then this is the case. Try using fix, turn V-sync on, press Cntrl+Alt+F2, also some people report that alt-tabbing helps.

Submitted

That's probably it, I'm running on a 144Hz display. I'll see if that fixes it.

Submitted(+1)

Immediate thoughts: Fun game, though I'd like to hear enemy footsteps so that they don't sneak up on me completely

Submitted(+1)

I like the music and the new abilities.

I wish fire starters could be immune to fire and poison starters immune to poison. Mostly since warior is clearly the best

(+2)

sometimes my eyes hurt but this game is 2 0 0 % f u n 

Submitted

Oh I thought it was a girl

Submitted

Would you mind if I DM'd you?

Developer

I'm sorry, but what is DM?

Submitted

You made that in GMK? I'm so sorry, but it's okay because I can do the same exact thing only I'm not bound by royalty fees.

(+2)

Except his game is actually GOOD

Submitted

Yeah when you had someone else write your engine for you, I mean who knows how it really works. Did you use actual mathematics?