Given that your in-browser demo and your reply about having changed what the demo contains make it clear you’re not restricted by “This is a custom engine written directly against Win32 APIs”, would you please consider offering a non-Windows option on GOG.com?
If you’re not willing to provide native Linux and macOS builds, is there any chance you’d at least be willing to talk to GOG.com about offering a non-demo browser build in a zip file as an extra?
I can report that the demo plays perfectly well in Ungoogled Chromium on Linux.
Thank you, yes I actually do plan to got native linux and mac builds on GOG as soon as possible! Linux will probably be available shortly, but a mac build is a few weeks out because it's less straightforward and difficult for me to test (I don't own a mac so I need to borrow one). Apologies for not having these available yet!
Glad to hear it… and no problem. As a programmer, I’ve done my own research to discover how technically difficult and legally impossible Apple makes it to to do anything involving compiling and codesigning binaries for macOS without actually using a mac to do it.
(And, likewise, I effectively also own no mac… “effectively” because I’m a retro-hobbyist and the Power Mac G4 running Mac OS 9.2 (the last interesting Mac OS) in my hobby corner is technically a mac and capable of running some versions of OSX… just far too old to be useful for this.)
Ha, same I do actually have an old mac but when I put a relatively modern OS on it to test things, it now crashes when I try to run anything. I have a couple friends with macs who will test things for me, it just takes time to coordinate, and frequently takes dozens of test builds to finally get one to work.
Native linux builds are much more straightforward and I have a linux box handy that I use for web dev work.
I've just wanted to drop by and say what a wonderful game you've made. After playing the demo, and seeing your cats, I had to get it on Steam. At first I thought, uff, this is tough. And now, weeks later, I'm on Ascension 20. I don't know how that happened. :'D
I'm also very fond of the rainbow 'hat' mushroom. Just when I thought I couldn't love the game more. I'm looking forward to see you expanding on Tower Escape, I hope there are plans! But also what your next project will be. <3
Thank you so much for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! There will be some smaller updates to Tower Escape coming soon, and I expect to have updates on our next game within the next few months!
Hello! My name is Camilla. Your game seems to be very interesting! I'm a game localization specialist and I would like to translate your game in Italian for FREE as I'm building my portfolio. I already had some experience in the field. Let me know if you are interested.
New minions are unlocked by scoring points with that clan, so if you play with minions from a clan you'll unlock more of them for the next game. With the full game release coming in less than a month, I've limited the demo to include just what can be unlocked in 2-3 normal playthroughs, so there are some minions (especially in the Corrupted & Enchanted clans) who will only be unlockable in the full game (as well as the majority of relics).
I'd appreciate any feedback about the variety available here actually, as I do want the demo to offer the full game experience while still of course giving people something extra if they decide to purchase. If you think the options are too limited here I'd consider increasing what's available.
Thanks so much! A lot of features were planned from the start and just take time, but I'd say about half of it is from you and others playing those early builds and making so many great suggestions :D :D
Ha, that's very clever! You can definitely push things with the permanent upgrade minions and free zombies. You do have to be careful though, as each wave gets harder so you could potentially get yourself into a bad situation if you delay too long. I really don't mind "broken" combos in the game (they can be fun), but anything that seems like too much of a "grind this optimal strategy every game" is a negative gameplay effect I'd like to address so I'll review this one.
I love the game. Tower Defense is one of my favorite game genres and this is an insanely interesting riff on the theme. I also can not tell you how gratifying the mouse mode is; my hands tremble sometimes and the mouse makes this something I can play even when I can't reliably get my fingers to do what I want.
I've run into a bug on three play-throughs now. One or more minions froze on the map rather than dying not letting the wave complete. It happened with different minion types and on different floors so I don't know how helpful this will be.
Thank you, can you offer any more information that might help me reproduce? I don't usually play with the mouse mode, so I'll do some extra testing there to see if it's related. Is there a particular strategy you usually use? Do you usually put on fast-forward? Is the minion still animated and do they get targeted by the towers? Could there have been a particular minion on the screen at the time, like maybe lich?
edit: Also, do you play on the web or windows download?
I play on the web. I tend to vary my strategy based on the level one deck, but I always buy the vamp and jack when they come up. The minion was stuck in place on the path with red spurting off of it - like the hit animation - but the defenders did not continue to attack and the heart that shows its health was completely black. I know that it happened on different floors each time but it was always below the fifth floor. I do usually put on the fast forward. I don't remember if there was another minion that was on the screen at the time.
I'll try to keep a better record for you if it comes up again.
Thanks so much, I'll try to reproduce! I've seen similar things happen as a result of a minion special ability erroring out, most likely one with an on nearby death effect. I've also thought about adding a cleanup script that will detect a stuck minion in case something like that ever does happen, and remove them so it doesn't prevent the level from completing.
Love the game and the new updates. The introduction of gems is a game changer and i like the new enemy skins and combining mechanism.
I noticed a glitch when you have the game at double speed and you finish a level, the following round your snake will move at double speed. Which threw me off and made me die cuz it was difficult to maneuver at that speed.
zombubba is super op and when u give it health reducing gems so it makes more zombies its even better plus if you upgrade the zombies you get stiches from them best strategy
Great strategy! With the gems' ability to push delay and speed one way or another, it should also open up more synergies with getting various units to walk together who wouldn't before. Let me know if you find any more good ones!
I find more often than not, if a game makes you feel like an idiot it's probably because something could have been communicated more clearly. If this was confusion around the combine function, I can understand that assumption. I plan to add a bit more messaging and help to the game around that function in particular as it's a bit lacking right now.
Sure, I'd consider something like that. It might be a bit tricky though, since in addition to giving access to every card, we'd have to give all crystals too, as well as the relics when those are in, since they can affect synergies quite a lot. I'll give some thought to how it could work though, thanks for the suggestion!
It's awesome how fast are this growing, and the idea of this Not Tower Defense it's just awesome, keep going! I'll stay playing every version till the end
Thanks for trying it, and yes this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night! I feel like the traditional snake mode is more interesting and rewarding gameplay, but at the same time understand it's more tedious and some people would prefer to play with the mouse.
My current plan is to add bonuses that are disabled in mouse snake mode. They might give you extra coins, or may just add score (but score could be tied to unlocking things in-game, so this would be a real bonus). For instance, one bonus would be for making a path without your snake ever overlapping itself.
The idea would basically be that the traditional snake mode is the "main" gameplay mode, and you should play it to unlock progress in the game, but that the mouse snake will be an optional more casual option for a quick game or to try out a new strategy.
Honestly, not that bad. Not having to deal on the fly with errors in my pathing felt nice. Also, the fact that I could see the enemy range was even nicer.
A small issue I found is that I felt troubled by the automated pathing. Like, I get that it tries to choose the shortest path (or something similar), but I found myself in melee range of an enemy at least 2-3 times, this because maybe I didn't notice it re-adjusted.
All in all, an interesting experience I will definitely try again.
2) A real captain guides it's man.
I will need to get used to it. Honestly, I suffered quite a bit and it almost felt like a different game. Still, I will win next time :D
3) You sure this is the right direction?
Honestly, the Maze is ROUGH.
Let me just tell you that the floor that killed me had a final stretch before the stairs with a level 2 melee on one side and a level 2 + a level 1 on the other. I honestly felt it was a doomed situation. I have a feeling Maze Floors will be one of the greatest challenges.
4) General thoughts, no cool catchphrase here,
Honestly, I didn't dislike all of this cool new shields, but they definitely felt less worth to go around to get them.
As a start, I feel like the Gold Shield should be worth more. It can only take one hit, so I feel like making it be worth something like 2-3 coins would encourage players to take more risks.
Could I ask you what the "Stealth" ability does? I suppose it might give the unit a lower stage of aggro, but I feel like I might as well ask.
I tried a Swarming army this time, with goblins and imps and it did not work as well as the previous patch, so I guess next time I'll try to use some big dudes and go in waves.
Have a great one!
Thanks for your hard work!
--
P.S.
Something to close off, before I forget.
I had the feeling that, from time to time, Mushrooms showed a delay of 2, instead of 3. I might have just hovered over another unit, but I don't know if there is any way to check this.
I believe it might have happened in the shop. As soon as the unit got added to my army the delay was the correct one.
I am not completely sure if it actually happened, but I believed it might be better to tell and be wrong, than not tell at all.
Thanks for trying this stuff out. I could probably alter the pathfinder on the mouse snake to have a bias toward straight lines, since I think that's generally what people want to do.
The mazes are definitely meant to be a challenge, I actually have been experimenting with an even nastier algorithm for Level 1.
The magic shields need balance, for sure. I've found that they can be great in certain situations but 90% of the time they poof as soon as you pick them up. I may just add durability to them as well to take multiple hits. You're also right that the gold shield should be worth more.
Stealth is the opposite of Aggro, I'll explain them both. Aggro means that when there are multiple possible targets for a defender, they will always pick one with aggro (so if a defender has someone targeted and an aggro minion enters their range, they will switch to that minion). Stealth is exactly the opposite, so if there is ever any non-stealth minion available to target, the defender will not target the one with stealth.
I'll keep an eye out for the Shroomy issue, but I can't think of any way that could happen.
It was super fun, but would you consider putting maybe a x3 speed? Zombie vampire strat takes literally 15 minutes to finish one wave xD. Also the collapsing menu, but I see you've addressed it already.
Tbh, Chadpire and Pumpkins seem a bit strong, since you can keep farming the same level over and over. I think selling units or discarding units can help the game. It doesn't have to be for coins either just because you can go over the menu amount.
I also think since it is a rougelike there could be a unit typing skill tree that could be cool to help with an endless run
We could probably add x3 speed, although I think I'd rather give the player something more interesting to do with a deck like that because it's kind of a boring and tedious (but effective) strategy. Our next big push is going to be into minion management, where we'll probably be adding ways to upgrade, sell, and maybe even break down or combine units.
The cooldown/delay update nerfs vamp a bit (although jack less so), but I think they're still the best minions in the game. I'd like to keep it potentially just as broken but make it a little trickier to accomplish, so it's not guaranteed best strategy every run.
A great game concept that has a unique set of strategies. My favorite wave is a swarm of goblins followed by the uh gnoll? yeah gnoll. The monster that gives shields to nearby monsters.
I'd love some kind of cooldown reduction with monster synergy. I beat the demo, but I was having issues getting my troops to stay clumped due to the inherent long-cooldown nature of the bigger monsters. I got to a point where buying monsters was not a good idea because their cooldowns would throw off the timing on my line-up. The last half of the game didn't include much buying because it would be disadvantageous. That might be the intended gameplay, but the game entices me with the store at the start of every level.
Gnoll is a bit OP in the current build, and sorry to say, but he's getting a slight nerf. The shields he spawns will now be "Buckler Shields" which can only block 1 hit and if they're dropped they are removed from the game instead of being left on the map. I think he'll still be a very strong choice though.
I agree with the uselessness of late-game money right now. We'll eventually be adding minion upgrades and relics to the game, which will give you something more useful to spend your money on after you've got a perfectly balanced minion deck.
minion upgrades! I knew it was missing something. I love the idea. Keep up the good work.
Yeah the shields were a strong. I just liked seeing all the shields on my goblins before they grab the gold. 1 hit bucklers sound like a great alternative
2)monsters with hooks, so basically with a few seconds cooldown they bring items that are scattered around them to the path, but they can't carry multiple items just bring them closer.
3)monsters that are stronger then the normal ones, but they can't carry any items and if they are the only ones that made it to exit, it doesn't count as a win, basically monsters that are stronger than regular ones, but you can't have army made just from them.
4)maybe bring some interesting things into snake stage as well, multiple types of snakes and upgrades for them, for example snake that can make portal once a wave, it teleports them let's say 7 blocks away, or snake that can place buff area 2-3 times a wave, in this area monsters receive certain buffs. upgrades will obviously enhance their skills.
5)monsters that get stronger after each death and reverse, monsters that are stronger but get weaker after every death, eventually getting useless if you are careless.
6)funny idea but I think it's too specific and hard to make I guess, so basically it's unit that can move only in a certain way, by jumping, it jumps from one turning point to the other, while airborne he can't be damaged, he can jump only 5 blocks, if he can't detect turn within this 5 blocks range he just walks and is vulnerable , so you need to make a turn with your snake once in a while for this unit to be useful...it's kinda complicated so I think we can reduce this to just a unit that "jumps" instead of walking and is invincible while he's jumping.
7)I'm not talking about new types of defenders, because it's too obvious but what about traps? areas on the map where there is some kind of bonus(chest for example) but it is surrounded by traps, traps can be elemental(slowing, poisoning, stunning), or they can just damage your units.
8)maybe bundle of units? so when you buy one unit it's actually a bunch of them that are deployed simultaneously.
9)monsters that can interact with each other, so for example goblin and some kind of blob monster, when blob monster dies it leaves behind some substance, when goblin touches it, he becomes empowered. or goblin-lord, while he's alive every goblin-unit becomes stronger, lich-every undead unit becomes stronger and so on.
10)or a kind of unit that becomes stronger every time once of his kind dies, but only for this wave.
...yeah so many ideas, I hope some of them at least make it to the full game, good luck once again ;)
1) We've talked about this a lot, but it's a tricky one to balance. The only way to make such a minion not completely OP is to make them weak, in which case there's no real point in them carrying so much stuff. Still, we're considering it.
2) Really interesting idea, but again hard to balance right, and could potentially result in them picking up things the player *doesn't* want.
3) Giving this a lot of thought, it's a great idea!
4) We've talked a lot about this. Top on the list of snake abilities is dropping buffs, and doing either damage to defenders or being able to break walls.
5) Cool idea! Not sure how I never added this seeing as we have so many similar abilities.
6) Hard to envision how this would work but I like the idea. I've thought a lot about how I'd add flying minions and maybe it would be close to this.
7) If we add traps they will likely be hidden during snake phase too, because we're extra evil.
8) Interesting idea, but I'm not sure I see the difference between this and, say, several goblins.
9) Definitely the sort of synergy we'd like to end up with, thanks for this idea!
A fun little game! I do wish there was a way to redo my path when I eventually mess it up, but maybe that's just part of the challenge. Also I get to about midgame and find my minions just get too separated and so blown up one by one by the defenders. Probably just need to "git good"
It's part of the challenge for sure, but we're exploring some options on a few changes to the snake mode, potentially based on difficulty setting or different game modes.
1)maybe after completing the game you unlock sandbox mod or something like that where you just can have fun with all the units in the game, manually place defenders e.t.c
2)having debuffers would also be nice, monsters that can disable defenders attack, reduce damage or attack speed, make them miss attacks e.t.c
3)maybe some more information while choosing monsters? for example Nearby Death, how much is the radius exactly? btw I feel like it needs to be buffed for everyone because it's extremely hard to use it.
4)maybe some upgrades besides monsters? for example: "recharge time of first 10 deployed monster is reduced by 1" maybe it should depend on cost also, for example golem's recharge time will be reduced by 3 instead of 1, but it can't be reduced below certain amount.
5) being able to sell monsters also would be helpful.
6)about boss monsters, I had an idea that boss will spawn after certain amount of dead monsters, depending on their prices, for example: you buy a boss, it costs 25 gold and to summon it, enemies must kill units for 100 gold in total.
1) We've discussed an infinite play mode that gets unlocked after winning, that does down underground and gets progressively harder. A sandbox mode is a cool idea too!
2) There is currently a debuff in-game already (Rocky stuns attackers), but it's not communicated very well visually yet. I'll be adding more for sure, maybe even from special items and not necessarily the minions themselves.
3) Great suggestion, I plan to add a mouseover on the minions like the defenders so you can visualize their ability range. I could also add it to the cards.
4) Upgrades will definitely happen. Right now I'm thinking they'll be finite and potentially share a system with equipment slots.
5) We'll definitely be adding either selling minions, combining them into upgraded versions, or breaking them down for parts (gruesome, I know).
6) Really cool idea! Maybe a relic could summon a very powerful minion after certain conditions that's not directly purchasable!
I feel like some kind of upgrades for monsters would be cool, maybe evolutions/mutations or something like that, i also had an idea about monster like slimes which if you have enough will merge into one more powerful slime, or something like combo, where if you have certain number and type of monsters you will get bonuses, this will bring more tactic and deck building aspect into the game, maybe some random events, or events that we could buy for money, or for new currency like mana, for example: event - graveyard, every third death will spawn skeleton, cost 2-3 coins(i think new mana stat would work better with this).
maybe more boss-like monsters, which are much stronger, have many abilities but are expensive as hell, there can be only limited amount of them, maybe in order to summon them you have to meet some requirements or something along this lines.
this game has huge potential, I'm in love with the concept and I want this game to success, huge props to developer/s ;)
Thanks for playing and for the great ideas! We'll be adding relics soon which could have abilities similar to the ones you're describing. Also would love to add more big boss monsters too!
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man I wish I had 8 dollars in my bank account
Given that your in-browser demo and your reply about having changed what the demo contains make it clear you’re not restricted by “This is a custom engine written directly against Win32 APIs”, would you please consider offering a non-Windows option on GOG.com?
If you’re not willing to provide native Linux and macOS builds, is there any chance you’d at least be willing to talk to GOG.com about offering a non-demo browser build in a zip file as an extra?
I can report that the demo plays perfectly well in Ungoogled Chromium on Linux.
Thank you, yes I actually do plan to got native linux and mac builds on GOG as soon as possible! Linux will probably be available shortly, but a mac build is a few weeks out because it's less straightforward and difficult for me to test (I don't own a mac so I need to borrow one). Apologies for not having these available yet!
Glad to hear it… and no problem. As a programmer, I’ve done my own research to discover how technically difficult and legally impossible Apple makes it to to do anything involving compiling and codesigning binaries for macOS without actually using a mac to do it.
(And, likewise, I effectively also own no mac… “effectively” because I’m a retro-hobbyist and the Power Mac G4 running Mac OS 9.2 (the last interesting Mac OS) in my hobby corner is technically a mac and capable of running some versions of OSX… just far too old to be useful for this.)
Ha, same I do actually have an old mac but when I put a relatively modern OS on it to test things, it now crashes when I try to run anything. I have a couple friends with macs who will test things for me, it just takes time to coordinate, and frequently takes dozens of test builds to finally get one to work.
Native linux builds are much more straightforward and I have a linux box handy that I use for web dev work.
Hello!
I've just wanted to drop by and say what a wonderful game you've made. After playing the demo, and seeing your cats, I had to get it on Steam. At first I thought, uff, this is tough. And now, weeks later, I'm on Ascension 20. I don't know how that happened. :'D
I'm also very fond of the rainbow 'hat' mushroom. Just when I thought I couldn't love the game more. I'm looking forward to see you expanding on Tower Escape, I hope there are plans! But also what your next project will be. <3
Cheers,
J.
Thank you so much for playing, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! There will be some smaller updates to Tower Escape coming soon, and I expect to have updates on our next game within the next few months!
Hello! My name is Camilla. Your game seems to be very interesting! I'm a game localization specialist and I would like to translate your game in Italian for FREE as I'm building my portfolio. I already had some experience in the field. Let me know if you are interested.
Cheers,
Camilla :)
Amazing Game!
Just came back and saw there was a full game... <_< >_> im buying it
AND NOBODY CAN STOP ME!!!
this game is sick, but having a speed heavy deck is far too op
how does the unlocking of new minions work? i remember some units that costed a lot that arent in the shop anymore
New minions are unlocked by scoring points with that clan, so if you play with minions from a clan you'll unlock more of them for the next game. With the full game release coming in less than a month, I've limited the demo to include just what can be unlocked in 2-3 normal playthroughs, so there are some minions (especially in the Corrupted & Enchanted clans) who will only be unlockable in the full game (as well as the majority of relics).
I'd appreciate any feedback about the variety available here actually, as I do want the demo to offer the full game experience while still of course giving people something extra if they decide to purchase. If you think the options are too limited here I'd consider increasing what's available.
Wow the game has gone so far ever since I first played now its turned into this amazing contraption
Thanks so much! A lot of features were planned from the start and just take time, but I'd say about half of it is from you and others playing those early builds and making so many great suggestions :D :D
how to get sandbox
step 1: get a high speed high health combined bully
step 2: get the big zombie that gives more zombies
step 3: dont collect keys
congrats you have infinte money and cant lose no matter what
Ha, that's very clever! You can definitely push things with the permanent upgrade minions and free zombies. You do have to be careful though, as each wave gets harder so you could potentially get yourself into a bad situation if you delay too long. I really don't mind "broken" combos in the game (they can be fun), but anything that seems like too much of a "grind this optimal strategy every game" is a negative gameplay effect I'd like to address so I'll review this one.
I love the game. Tower Defense is one of my favorite game genres and this is an insanely interesting riff on the theme. I also can not tell you how gratifying the mouse mode is; my hands tremble sometimes and the mouse makes this something I can play even when I can't reliably get my fingers to do what I want.
I've run into a bug on three play-throughs now. One or more minions froze on the map rather than dying not letting the wave complete. It happened with different minion types and on different floors so I don't know how helpful this will be.
Thank you, can you offer any more information that might help me reproduce? I don't usually play with the mouse mode, so I'll do some extra testing there to see if it's related. Is there a particular strategy you usually use? Do you usually put on fast-forward? Is the minion still animated and do they get targeted by the towers? Could there have been a particular minion on the screen at the time, like maybe lich?
edit: Also, do you play on the web or windows download?
I play on the web. I tend to vary my strategy based on the level one deck, but I always buy the vamp and jack when they come up. The minion was stuck in place on the path with red spurting off of it - like the hit animation - but the defenders did not continue to attack and the heart that shows its health was completely black. I know that it happened on different floors each time but it was always below the fifth floor. I do usually put on the fast forward. I don't remember if there was another minion that was on the screen at the time.
I'll try to keep a better record for you if it comes up again.
Thanks so much, I'll try to reproduce! I've seen similar things happen as a result of a minion special ability erroring out, most likely one with an on nearby death effect. I've also thought about adding a cleanup script that will detect a stuck minion in case something like that ever does happen, and remove them so it doesn't prevent the level from completing.
Thanks for your help!
Love the game and the new updates. The introduction of gems is a game changer and i like the new enemy skins and combining mechanism.
I noticed a glitch when you have the game at double speed and you finish a level, the following round your snake will move at double speed. Which threw me off and made me die cuz it was difficult to maneuver at that speed.
Ah, thanks for catching that, I'll get a patch together asap!
Also, when do we get a nintendo switch version? lol
I need to sell enough copies to buy a switch first, haha!
first win on easy
zombubba is super op and when u give it health reducing gems so it makes more zombies its even better plus if you upgrade the zombies you get stiches from them best strategy
Great strategy! With the gems' ability to push delay and speed one way or another, it should also open up more synergies with getting various units to walk together who wouldn't before. Let me know if you find any more good ones!
wow im an idiot i thought 3 zombabies = 1 zombie hah
I find more often than not, if a game makes you feel like an idiot it's probably because something could have been communicated more clearly. If this was confusion around the combine function, I can understand that assumption. I plan to add a bit more messaging and help to the game around that function in particular as it's a bit lacking right now.
i wonder if they will ever make a sandbox mode OvO then you could test builds when you go for a real run
Sure, I'd consider something like that. It might be a bit tricky though, since in addition to giving access to every card, we'd have to give all crystals too, as well as the relics when those are in, since they can affect synergies quite a lot. I'll give some thought to how it could work though, thanks for the suggestion!
i like the new mechanics like gems and how you have to reroll instead of it auto rerolling and losing a good shop.
Right? When I made the reroll change I thought I was being mean, but then I played it and it's actually less frustrating haha!
It's awesome how fast are this growing, and the idea of this Not Tower Defense it's just awesome, keep going! I'll stay playing every version till the end
insane update wow, thanks for your work:D
I'm glad you like it, please let me know if you have any feedback!
I love the mouse mode. It makes this game much more fun and easy to replay. You don't have to think as much or let user error kill your runs.
Have you considered giving manual mode a slight speed bonus to encourage people to use it? Making your minions move quicker while on it.
It rewards the difficulty of aiming the snake, and the mouse mode allows perfect precision.
This is a great game, and I'm looking forward to the updates. It provides a very fun experience.
Thanks for trying it, and yes this is the sort of thing that keeps me up at night! I feel like the traditional snake mode is more interesting and rewarding gameplay, but at the same time understand it's more tedious and some people would prefer to play with the mouse.
My current plan is to add bonuses that are disabled in mouse snake mode. They might give you extra coins, or may just add score (but score could be tied to unlocking things in-game, so this would be a real bonus). For instance, one bonus would be for making a path without your snake ever overlapping itself.
The idea would basically be that the traditional snake mode is the "main" gameplay mode, and you should play it to unlock progress in the game, but that the mouse snake will be an optional more casual option for a quick game or to try out a new strategy.
Is it possible to play older versions of the game? I'd love to play 1.1
I think I still have the old zips and could put an archive up somwhere, but you can play the very oldest version here if you'd like https://slightlymadman.itch.io/tiger-tower-escape
I'm back to try out the newest changes!
1) Baiting the snake with a mouse:
Honestly, not that bad.
Not having to deal on the fly with errors in my pathing felt nice.
Also, the fact that I could see the enemy range was even nicer.
A small issue I found is that I felt troubled by the automated pathing.
Like, I get that it tries to choose the shortest path (or something similar), but I found myself in melee range of an enemy at least 2-3 times, this because maybe I didn't notice it re-adjusted.
All in all, an interesting experience I will definitely try again.
2) A real captain guides it's man.
I will need to get used to it.
Honestly, I suffered quite a bit and it almost felt like a different game.
Still, I will win next time :D
3) You sure this is the right direction?
Honestly, the Maze is ROUGH.
Let me just tell you that the floor that killed me had a final stretch before the stairs with a level 2 melee on one side and a level 2 + a level 1 on the other.
I honestly felt it was a doomed situation.
I have a feeling Maze Floors will be one of the greatest challenges.
4) General thoughts, no cool catchphrase here,
Honestly, I didn't dislike all of this cool new shields, but they definitely felt less worth to go around to get them.
As a start, I feel like the Gold Shield should be worth more.
It can only take one hit, so I feel like making it be worth something like 2-3 coins would encourage players to take more risks.
Could I ask you what the "Stealth" ability does? I suppose it might give the unit a lower stage of aggro, but I feel like I might as well ask.
I tried a Swarming army this time, with goblins and imps and it did not work as well as the previous patch, so I guess next time I'll try to use some big dudes and go in waves.
Have a great one!
Thanks for your hard work!
--
P.S.
Something to close off, before I forget.
I had the feeling that, from time to time, Mushrooms showed a delay of 2, instead of 3.
I might have just hovered over another unit, but I don't know if there is any way to check this.
I believe it might have happened in the shop.
As soon as the unit got added to my army the delay was the correct one.
I am not completely sure if it actually happened, but I believed it might be better to tell and be wrong, than not tell at all.
Have a great one, once again!
Thanks for trying this stuff out. I could probably alter the pathfinder on the mouse snake to have a bias toward straight lines, since I think that's generally what people want to do.
The mazes are definitely meant to be a challenge, I actually have been experimenting with an even nastier algorithm for Level 1.
The magic shields need balance, for sure. I've found that they can be great in certain situations but 90% of the time they poof as soon as you pick them up. I may just add durability to them as well to take multiple hits. You're also right that the gold shield should be worth more.
Stealth is the opposite of Aggro, I'll explain them both. Aggro means that when there are multiple possible targets for a defender, they will always pick one with aggro (so if a defender has someone targeted and an aggro minion enters their range, they will switch to that minion). Stealth is exactly the opposite, so if there is ever any non-stealth minion available to target, the defender will not target the one with stealth.
I'll keep an eye out for the Shroomy issue, but I can't think of any way that could happen.
Thanks again!
Thank you for replying!
Keep up the great work!
It was super fun, but would you consider putting maybe a x3 speed? Zombie vampire strat takes literally 15 minutes to finish one wave xD. Also the collapsing menu, but I see you've addressed it already.
Tbh, Chadpire and Pumpkins seem a bit strong, since you can keep farming the same level over and over. I think selling units or discarding units can help the game. It doesn't have to be for coins either just because you can go over the menu amount.
I also think since it is a rougelike there could be a unit typing skill tree that could be cool to help with an endless run
We could probably add x3 speed, although I think I'd rather give the player something more interesting to do with a deck like that because it's kind of a boring and tedious (but effective) strategy. Our next big push is going to be into minion management, where we'll probably be adding ways to upgrade, sell, and maybe even break down or combine units.
The cooldown/delay update nerfs vamp a bit (although jack less so), but I think they're still the best minions in the game. I'd like to keep it potentially just as broken but make it a little trickier to accomplish, so it's not guaranteed best strategy every run.
Thanks for playing and for your feedback!
A great game concept that has a unique set of strategies. My favorite wave is a swarm of goblins followed by the uh gnoll? yeah gnoll. The monster that gives shields to nearby monsters.
I'd love some kind of cooldown reduction with monster synergy. I beat the demo, but I was having issues getting my troops to stay clumped due to the inherent long-cooldown nature of the bigger monsters. I got to a point where buying monsters was not a good idea because their cooldowns would throw off the timing on my line-up. The last half of the game didn't include much buying because it would be disadvantageous. That might be the intended gameplay, but the game entices me with the store at the start of every level.
Gnoll is a bit OP in the current build, and sorry to say, but he's getting a slight nerf. The shields he spawns will now be "Buckler Shields" which can only block 1 hit and if they're dropped they are removed from the game instead of being left on the map. I think he'll still be a very strong choice though.
I agree with the uselessness of late-game money right now. We'll eventually be adding minion upgrades and relics to the game, which will give you something more useful to spend your money on after you've got a perfectly balanced minion deck.
Thanks for playing and for the feedback!
minion upgrades! I knew it was missing something. I love the idea. Keep up the good work.
Yeah the shields were a strong. I just liked seeing all the shields on my goblins before they grab the gold. 1 hit bucklers sound like a great alternative
and a few more ideas :D
1)monsters that can carry multiple items.
2)monsters with hooks, so basically with a few seconds cooldown they bring items that are scattered around them to the path, but they can't carry multiple items just bring them closer.
3)monsters that are stronger then the normal ones, but they can't carry any items and if they are the only ones that made it to exit, it doesn't count as a win, basically monsters that are stronger than regular ones, but you can't have army made just from them.
4)maybe bring some interesting things into snake stage as well, multiple types of snakes and upgrades for them, for example snake that can make portal once a wave, it teleports them let's say 7 blocks away, or snake that can place buff area 2-3 times a wave, in this area monsters receive certain buffs. upgrades will obviously enhance their skills.
5)monsters that get stronger after each death and reverse, monsters that are stronger but get weaker after every death, eventually getting useless if you are careless.
6)funny idea but I think it's too specific and hard to make I guess, so basically it's unit that can move only in a certain way, by jumping, it jumps from one turning point to the other, while airborne he can't be damaged, he can jump only 5 blocks, if he can't detect turn within this 5 blocks range he just walks and is vulnerable , so you need to make a turn with your snake once in a while for this unit to be useful...it's kinda complicated so I think we can reduce this to just a unit that "jumps" instead of walking and is invincible while he's jumping.
7)I'm not talking about new types of defenders, because it's too obvious but what about traps? areas on the map where there is some kind of bonus(chest for example) but it is surrounded by traps, traps can be elemental(slowing, poisoning, stunning), or they can just damage your units.
8)maybe bundle of units? so when you buy one unit it's actually a bunch of them that are deployed simultaneously.
9)monsters that can interact with each other, so for example goblin and some kind of blob monster, when blob monster dies it leaves behind some substance, when goblin touches it, he becomes empowered. or goblin-lord, while he's alive every goblin-unit becomes stronger, lich-every undead unit becomes stronger and so on.
10)or a kind of unit that becomes stronger every time once of his kind dies, but only for this wave.
...yeah so many ideas, I hope some of them at least make it to the full game, good luck once again ;)
1) We've talked about this a lot, but it's a tricky one to balance. The only way to make such a minion not completely OP is to make them weak, in which case there's no real point in them carrying so much stuff. Still, we're considering it.
2) Really interesting idea, but again hard to balance right, and could potentially result in them picking up things the player *doesn't* want.
3) Giving this a lot of thought, it's a great idea!
4) We've talked a lot about this. Top on the list of snake abilities is dropping buffs, and doing either damage to defenders or being able to break walls.
5) Cool idea! Not sure how I never added this seeing as we have so many similar abilities.
6) Hard to envision how this would work but I like the idea. I've thought a lot about how I'd add flying minions and maybe it would be close to this.
7) If we add traps they will likely be hidden during snake phase too, because we're extra evil.
8) Interesting idea, but I'm not sure I see the difference between this and, say, several goblins.
9) Definitely the sort of synergy we'd like to end up with, thanks for this idea!
10) Another great idea!
Thanks for all these!
A fun little game! I do wish there was a way to redo my path when I eventually mess it up, but maybe that's just part of the challenge. Also I get to about midgame and find my minions just get too separated and so blown up one by one by the defenders. Probably just need to "git good"
It's part of the challenge for sure, but we're exploring some options on a few changes to the snake mode, potentially based on difficulty setting or different game modes.
new ideas:
1)maybe after completing the game you unlock sandbox mod or something like that where you just can have fun with all the units in the game, manually place defenders e.t.c
2)having debuffers would also be nice, monsters that can disable defenders attack, reduce damage or attack speed, make them miss attacks e.t.c
3)maybe some more information while choosing monsters? for example Nearby Death, how much is the radius exactly? btw I feel like it needs to be buffed for everyone because it's extremely hard to use it.
4)maybe some upgrades besides monsters? for example: "recharge time of first 10 deployed monster is reduced by 1" maybe it should depend on cost also, for example golem's recharge time will be reduced by 3 instead of 1, but it can't be reduced below certain amount.
5) being able to sell monsters also would be helpful.
6)about boss monsters, I had an idea that boss will spawn after certain amount of dead monsters, depending on their prices, for example: you buy a boss, it costs 25 gold and to summon it, enemies must kill units for 100 gold in total.
1) We've discussed an infinite play mode that gets unlocked after winning, that does down underground and gets progressively harder. A sandbox mode is a cool idea too!
2) There is currently a debuff in-game already (Rocky stuns attackers), but it's not communicated very well visually yet. I'll be adding more for sure, maybe even from special items and not necessarily the minions themselves.
3) Great suggestion, I plan to add a mouseover on the minions like the defenders so you can visualize their ability range. I could also add it to the cards.
4) Upgrades will definitely happen. Right now I'm thinking they'll be finite and potentially share a system with equipment slots.
5) We'll definitely be adding either selling minions, combining them into upgraded versions, or breaking them down for parts (gruesome, I know).
6) Really cool idea! Maybe a relic could summon a very powerful minion after certain conditions that's not directly purchasable!
Thanks again!
I feel like some kind of upgrades for monsters would be cool, maybe evolutions/mutations or something like that, i also had an idea about monster like slimes which if you have enough will merge into one more powerful slime, or something like combo, where if you have certain number and type of monsters you will get bonuses, this will bring more tactic and deck building aspect into the game, maybe some random events, or events that we could buy for money, or for new currency like mana, for example: event - graveyard, every third death will spawn skeleton, cost 2-3 coins(i think new mana stat would work better with this).
maybe more boss-like monsters, which are much stronger, have many abilities but are expensive as hell, there can be only limited amount of them, maybe in order to summon them you have to meet some requirements or something along this lines.
this game has huge potential, I'm in love with the concept and I want this game to success, huge props to developer/s ;)
Thanks for playing and for the great ideas! We'll be adding relics soon which could have abilities similar to the ones you're describing. Also would love to add more big boss monsters too!