Pretty decent game, I only have a couple of complains and bugs to report:
At the start of the game, if you select "Camp", the character selection pops up, but you can still click "Tower" since that menu doesn't disappear. If you do so, the character selection still shows up, until you RMB, then the tower menu is actually shown.
Setting UI to low rez will cause conversations to be offscreen.
Players and enemies will stop moving when walking against walls if the direction they're trying to move in is too perpendicular to the walls, despite the directional input probably allowing "sliding" against them. In short, it's easy to get stuck in geometry by walking against it.
I wish I got introduced to more class/weapons variety early on. I got a bit tired of being only able to melee for three or more levels. Maybe start the player with daggers or something similar, but have a small limited ammount of them?
Levels seem a bit too long for what they have to offer. They become monotonous really fast, consider having bigger and more significant room shapes, and perhaps floor height differences.
First boss is a bit boring; I appreciate the minions coming in but I feel there needs to be more ways to damage the boss than just perpetual 1 damage or baiting him into the flames.
It'd be neat to see lights in the level actually illuminate their surroundings and then perhaps have completely dark levels at some points where you might need to use some sort of torch mechanic.
Offhand attack cooldown seems really long, though maybe there's offhand-only weapons later on that would justify that cost...
I'd like to see what my pp/s regen is somewhere.
Electric hitscan enemies are pretty boring mechanics-wise. I'd rather they focused on some spot around the player and then discharged there + the ray also hurts if you cross it for the half a second it's on screen. Right now they just hit you as long as you're in range and line of sight and honestly they became really annoying.
Leveling up felt pretty slow, though maybe it's partly due to the first levels having too few enemies (and yet too many barrels).
Would be cool if the boss had his own music track.
Shop controls are weird. Why is RMB used to buy when everything else in the game works with drag and drop?
Would be nice if fire mages tried to run away a little while not attacking you if you start chasing them, they sort of just idle there.
>Players and enemies will stop moving when walking against walls if the direction they're trying to move in is too perpendicular to the walls, despite the directional input probably allowing "sliding" against them. Yeah that's a problem, don't know how to fix it yet.
>I wish I got introduced to more class/weapons variety early on. I think I'll add sling weapons for starter levels.
>First boss is a bit boring; I appreciate the minions coming in but I feel there needs to be more ways to damage the boss than just perpetual 1 damage or baiting him into the flames. You will deal more damage with stronger damage it is just that he has good defences that reduces most attacks to 1 damage, on 5-6 char level you will deal more damage then that.
>It'd be neat to see lights in the level actually illuminate their surroundings and then perhaps have completely dark levels at some points where you might need to use some sort of torch mechanic. It's not easy to make better light system with gamemaker restrictions, but I'll see what I can do. Also, you may notice that character has light source, this is something like a torch, without torch management.
>Offhand attack cooldown seems really long, though maybe there's offhand-only weapons later on that would justify that cost... Some classes have ways to reduce that cooldown, some to increase damage, and others to have damage effects like bleeds and interrupts, which depends on weapon type. I think I'll add offhand specific weapons too.
>I'd like to see what my pp/s regen is somewhere. You can open stats+inventory window (default - 'I'), and hover over 'Power' string for PP, 'Rage' for RP, 'Tricks' for TP, 'Focus' for FP, 'Energy' for EP. There you will see info on regen of this resource.
>Electric hitscan enemies They actually not a hitscan, they make a target sopt slightly behind target with little pan randomization (more for normal, less for hard), on normal you can see their range (better in 3rd person). Right now you can LOS them by getting away, or hiding behind walls and statues, but I'll look how to improve that, like making them slow on casting on hard and making them stop moving at all on normal.
>Leveling up felt pretty slow, though maybe it's partly due to the first levels having too few enemies (and yet too many barrels). Its like 30% slower on normal, maybe I'll make it a bit faster, but I'll also planning to make more ways to get you chars leveled, like selling exp books for some currency, getting better expirienced and equipped new chars from generated roster, and/or getting more exp for being expirienced on those floors and/or with specific enemies, and maybe some generated reusable quests.
>Shop controls are weird. Why is RMB used to buy when everything else in the game works with drag and drop? Actually drag'n'drop was planned as secondary for equipping and selling/buying, you can equip evering by RMB, and Shift+RMB to equip to extraslot. But I could add option to buy with LMB also.
>Would be nice if fire mages tried to run away a little while not attacking you if you start chasing them, they sort of just idle there. Firemages and thunderguys are like holerics, they just think they will slain you easily with their overpower, also their minds not too clear. Poisoners and archers, and stealthers act a bit more cunning.
Good to know the boss won't just reduce every attack to 1 damage, but I killed every enemy on my way there and by the time I hit the boss I think I was early level 4, so I don't think there's much I could've done.
I'd like to see indication as to where I have already been, that made me a little confused. Maybe keep the lights on, maybe leave a trail. Idk. Will definitely play again when there is full release. amazing soul aesthetics.
Thank you for playing! :) You can turn minimap on (default key: M), it will show where are you, what rooms you checked, and even gray walls on minimap will show that you've been there on previous runs.
Fun and polished. In my humble opinion I think movement and combat are too fast, and the rooms a little big, but that's just my personal preference. I liked the ran-gen characters and really felt myself get into the flow after a while.
Gameplay already feels smooth and engaging though for now levels seems a bit plain as you do nothing but killing enemies and avoiding traps.
I love that it has a skill tree and inventory system but there is little variety for now.
What it needs are more ways to develop character and more interactions during the game that allows player to make some decisions.
Also I must to make a note here, you made a good progress. I once played Archtower v0.2.5 when I randomly found it on Itch because it's took my attention (and I'm very picky when it's about games I should play and I rarely find a real interesting games here) Also probably because I had a save file of older version, when I pressed Camp in the main menu I got an error (something related to inventory). Had to go to Floor and kill my character.
What I see now is actually makes me happy, you definitely put an effort into your game!
Good luck for your game! You have good odds to make some good roguelite, just add more possibilities and content. I hope for randomized levels in the future updates as well.
Thank you for your feedback! >What it needs are more ways to develop character and more interactions during the game that allows player to make some decisions. There will be upgrades for incresing main stats (STR, DEX, INT) or/and choosing for feats (similar to dnd system). Also there will be quests, you already can take single one in the camp at 2nd char level. >I got an error (something related to inventory) Yeah, thats outdated save files. >I hope for randomized levels in the future updates as well. I'll see how to do it, never tryied it earlier, also I dig more for exploration, so preset levels would work for that better, but I do realize that it could get really boring over time, so I'm thinking on options like make generated mode optional, or make if for hardest difficulty that will be unlocked after beating all floors, and other thoughts.
Thank you for your encouragement words, I wish you luck too! :)
As soon as I started this game I was reminded of Pixel Dungeon. It really does feel like a 3D version of that. I like that you have the option of 1st person or 3rd person view, I'm not sure which one I prefer.
Interesting choice letting you resume from the floor you died on, but kind of pointless because spawning as a level 1 character on floor 2-2 with no gear or skills is never going to end well. I threw myself at that a few times just to see if it was doable, but it was not.
I couldn't tell if the floors were procedural or not, but they did seem kind of linear. It might be more interesting if the paths branch a bit more, eg. the locked door is near the beginning or the left fork, but the key is on the opposite part of the floor. I guess backtracking wouldn't really work right now though, because all the enemies stay dead- you would need to have them spawn randomly. More enemy variety wouldn't hurt either! Even just having rats to go with the bats on the early levels for example.
I think the skill and inventory system is rock solid, I just wish I had gotten more use out of it (I only ever found one other weapon, and it was worse than the one I started with.) I noticed gold coins but no item shop, at least I didn't make it long enough to reach one.
This is the kind of game I would play on my phone while commuting, if you were considering making it a mobile game I think it could be a great fit.
I didn't encounter any bugs and the engine seems polished enough for what it needs to do. Good job!
>level 1 character on floor 2-2 with no gear or skills is never going to end well Later there will be options to call more expirienced newcomers with better gear, and/or call one of your other characters (those will wait in tavern/inn, or something like that)
>but no item shop With that gold you can by items from shop keeper at the Camp, he stays near the bonfire.
>mobile game Not sure yet, but I'll try it later, and if it'll work I'll do it.
Minecraft fans would probably love this. I never liked Minecraft though, so i didn't play particularly long. However I thought the sound design was pretty dang good. Maybe a little too loud on default, had to turn it down a bit. Just seemed like a very cool, polished experience from the short amount of time I tried, well done.
Cool stuff, not my cup of tea but here some feedback
my biggest issue is that i have a hard time knowing when my attacks will connect or if they are out of range, maybe you can extend or show that somehow.
nice intro/tutorial also enjoy the skills and all that. lots of content already.
>The idle animation isn't great Its just I'm shit artist, and its hard to work with so low resolution sprites, but its much faster. I'm trying to keep it clean as possible with my current experience.
>I think tab would be a better default key for the inventory I'm not sure about it, but you can remap this in settings.
>attack the wizard that greets you at the tower I think that will happen later in development ;)
>independent sliders for music and sound effects I was thinking on that too, at least I can make switch on/off BGM option.
Thank you for playing! > I didn't really get is how the character selection and leveling up works. Do the characters share experience? There are two separate levels, character level (gray bar near hp bar) and clan level (bottom wide tiny bar), clan level is shared between character. And intro characters don't affect other your guys, they are just temporary for this intro.
Comments
Pretty decent game, I only have a couple of complains and bugs to report:
Looking forward to future updates!
Thank you for such big feedback!
>Players and enemies will stop moving when walking against walls if the direction they're trying to move in is too perpendicular to the walls, despite the directional input probably allowing "sliding" against them.
Yeah that's a problem, don't know how to fix it yet.
>I wish I got introduced to more class/weapons variety early on.
I think I'll add sling weapons for starter levels.
>First boss is a bit boring; I appreciate the minions coming in but I feel there needs to be more ways to damage the boss than just perpetual 1 damage or baiting him into the flames.
You will deal more damage with stronger damage it is just that he has good defences that reduces most attacks to 1 damage, on 5-6 char level you will deal more damage then that.
>It'd be neat to see lights in the level actually illuminate their surroundings and then perhaps have completely dark levels at some points where you might need to use some sort of torch mechanic.
It's not easy to make better light system with gamemaker restrictions, but I'll see what I can do. Also, you may notice that character has light source, this is something like a torch, without torch management.
>Offhand attack cooldown seems really long, though maybe there's offhand-only weapons later on that would justify that cost...
Some classes have ways to reduce that cooldown, some to increase damage, and others to have damage effects like bleeds and interrupts, which depends on weapon type. I think I'll add offhand specific weapons too.
>I'd like to see what my pp/s regen is somewhere.
You can open stats+inventory window (default - 'I'), and hover over 'Power' string for PP, 'Rage' for RP, 'Tricks' for TP, 'Focus' for FP, 'Energy' for EP. There you will see info on regen of this resource.
>Electric hitscan enemies
They actually not a hitscan, they make a target sopt slightly behind target with little pan randomization (more for normal, less for hard), on normal you can see their range (better in 3rd person). Right now you can LOS them by getting away, or hiding behind walls and statues, but I'll look how to improve that, like making them slow on casting on hard and making them stop moving at all on normal.
>Leveling up felt pretty slow, though maybe it's partly due to the first levels having too few enemies (and yet too many barrels).
Its like 30% slower on normal, maybe I'll make it a bit faster, but I'll also planning to make more ways to get you chars leveled, like selling exp books for some currency, getting better expirienced and equipped new chars from generated roster, and/or getting more exp for being expirienced on those floors and/or with specific enemies, and maybe some generated reusable quests.
>Shop controls are weird. Why is RMB used to buy when everything else in the game works with drag and drop?
Actually drag'n'drop was planned as secondary for equipping and selling/buying, you can equip evering by RMB, and Shift+RMB to equip to extraslot. But I could add option to buy with LMB also.
>Would be nice if fire mages tried to run away a little while not attacking you if you start chasing them, they sort of just idle there.
Firemages and thunderguys are like holerics, they just think they will slain you easily with their overpower, also their minds not too clear. Poisoners and archers, and stealthers act a bit more cunning.
Good to know the boss won't just reduce every attack to 1 damage, but I killed every enemy on my way there and by the time I hit the boss I think I was early level 4, so I don't think there's much I could've done.
I'd like to see indication as to where I have already been, that made me a little confused. Maybe keep the lights on, maybe leave a trail. Idk. Will definitely play again when there is full release. amazing soul aesthetics.
Thank you for playing! :)
You can turn minimap on (default key: M), it will show where are you, what rooms you checked, and even gray walls on minimap will show that you've been there on previous runs.
Fun and polished. In my humble opinion I think movement and combat are too fast, and the rooms a little big, but that's just my personal preference. I liked the ran-gen characters and really felt myself get into the flow after a while.
Really well made 2.5D roguelite.
Gameplay already feels smooth and engaging though for now levels seems
a bit plain as you do nothing but killing enemies and avoiding traps.
I love that it has a skill tree and inventory system but there is little variety for now.
What it needs are more ways to develop character and
more interactions during the game that allows player to make some decisions.
Also I must to make a note here, you made a good progress.
I once played Archtower v0.2.5 when I randomly found it on Itch because it's took my attention
(and I'm very picky when it's about games I should play and I rarely find a real interesting games here)
Also probably because I had a save file of older version, when I pressed Camp in the main menu I got an error (something related to inventory). Had to go to Floor and kill my character.
What I see now is actually makes me happy, you definitely put an effort into your game!
Good luck for your game! You have good odds to make some good roguelite, just add more possibilities and content. I hope for randomized levels in the future updates as well.
Thank you for your feedback!
>What it needs are more ways to develop character and
more interactions during the game that allows player to make some decisions.
There will be upgrades for incresing main stats (STR, DEX, INT) or/and choosing for feats (similar to dnd system). Also there will be quests, you already can take single one in the camp at 2nd char level.
>I got an error (something related to inventory)
Yeah, thats outdated save files.
>I hope for randomized levels in the future updates as well.
I'll see how to do it, never tryied it earlier, also I dig more for exploration, so preset levels would work for that better, but I do realize that it could get really boring over time, so I'm thinking on options like make generated mode optional, or make if for hardest difficulty that will be unlocked after beating all floors, and other thoughts.
Thank you for your encouragement words, I wish you luck too! :)
As soon as I started this game I was reminded of Pixel Dungeon. It really does feel like a 3D version of that. I like that you have the option of 1st person or 3rd person view, I'm not sure which one I prefer.
Interesting choice letting you resume from the floor you died on, but kind of pointless because spawning as a level 1 character on floor 2-2 with no gear or skills is never going to end well. I threw myself at that a few times just to see if it was doable, but it was not.
I couldn't tell if the floors were procedural or not, but they did seem kind of linear. It might be more interesting if the paths branch a bit more, eg. the locked door is near the beginning or the left fork, but the key is on the opposite part of the floor. I guess backtracking wouldn't really work right now though, because all the enemies stay dead- you would need to have them spawn randomly. More enemy variety wouldn't hurt either! Even just having rats to go with the bats on the early levels for example.
I think the skill and inventory system is rock solid, I just wish I had gotten more use out of it (I only ever found one other weapon, and it was worse than the one I started with.) I noticed gold coins but no item shop, at least I didn't make it long enough to reach one.
This is the kind of game I would play on my phone while commuting, if you were considering making it a mobile game I think it could be a great fit.
I didn't encounter any bugs and the engine seems polished enough for what it needs to do. Good job!
Thanks for your detailed feedback!
>level 1 character on floor 2-2 with no gear or skills is never going to end well
Later there will be options to call more expirienced newcomers with better gear, and/or call one of your other characters (those will wait in tavern/inn, or something like that)
>but no item shop
With that gold you can by items from shop keeper at the Camp, he stays near the bonfire.
>mobile game
Not sure yet, but I'll try it later, and if it'll work I'll do it.
Minecraft fans would probably love this. I never liked Minecraft though, so i didn't play particularly long. However I thought the sound design was pretty dang good. Maybe a little too loud on default, had to turn it down a bit. Just seemed like a very cool, polished experience from the short amount of time I tried, well done.
Minecraft fans?
Cool stuff, not my cup of tea but here some feedback
Very well done, it looks like you know what you are doing.
Annoyances:
Thank you for playing! :)
>The idle animation isn't great
Its just I'm shit artist, and its hard to work with so low resolution sprites, but its much faster. I'm trying to keep it clean as possible with my current experience.
>I think tab would be a better default key for the inventory
I'm not sure about it, but you can remap this in settings.
>attack the wizard that greets you at the tower
I think that will happen later in development ;)
>independent sliders for music and sound effects
I was thinking on that too, at least I can make switch on/off BGM option.
Very enjoyable and polished expierence so far. Combat is fluid and fun. Difficulty is nice.
What I didn't really get is how the character selection and leveling up works. Do the characters share experience?
Thank you for playing!
> I didn't really get is how the character selection and leveling up works. Do the characters share experience?
There are two separate levels, character level (gray bar near hp bar) and clan level (bottom wide tiny bar), clan level is shared between character. And intro characters don't affect other your guys, they are just temporary for this intro.
Hmm this one is tough to describe.
-Can't say I'm a fan of the visuals. I found them really hard to parse.
-Sound design is fairly on point. It was nice being alerted when something saw me, as half the time I didn't see it.
-The MC is super tiny, like he's a 4 year old.
That said, while it wasn't for me, nice progress! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for playing :)
>The MC is super tiny, like he's a 4 year old
In lore the tower was built by giants, this is why everything looks so big
Oh, that all makes a lot of sense. Nice lore. :)
Some thoughts:
I'm usually not one for roguelikes, but I'll keep my eye on this. Good stuff.
Hey, thank you for playing!
>feel like it could be worded better
Yeah, thats right, it could be much more better