itch.io

Instructions:

1. Download the game from the game's main page or play the in-browser version at the top of the page. Download the "Tower of Babel v0.5.0 - Playtest #5" version that matches your operating system.
2. Unzip the downloaded file.
3. Start the Tower of Babel application/executable in the unzipped folder.
4. Play the game. Mess around, or: 
   1. Make a new Game Save and start in "Valley Village". Look around and try to advance your quests (press L to see them). Particularly the "A Word of Caution" quest.
   2. Look through the various UIs and Controls we have for them. Most can be accessed from one another if you press Esc.
   3. On the same or a different Game Save, load/Fast Travel into the "Testing" level. 
      1. You can recruit companions to fight with you (Mia and Marco). 
      2. You can fight against some of the other types of enemies to experience some of the other kinds of abilities and enemy group compositions in the game. 
      3. Loot the chests for items. 
      4. If you level Marco to level 4, you can do the Marco's Staff quest in the Testing level as well.
   4. If you're not sure what to do or where to start to play the game, check out the Getting Started (In the Game) community post.
5. Fill out the feedback form for this playtest. https://forms.gle/D9eFEhdeez7rT98s7
6. If you would like, you can also post feedback with comments on this community post. Feel free to provide any feedback you would like to that is relevant to the game as it is presented in this version.

Thanks for participating in our playtest! Your feedback is appreciated!

IMPORTANT NOTES

 SAVING PROGRESS

• This game operates with game saves, and therefore requires manual saving in order to preserve progress between sessions (or following a death). We may eventually add an auto-save functionality, but it is not in yet. Especially since the game is in early development and bugs can occur, we highly recommend you save often.
• Saving can be done by going to the Pause Screen and pressing a Save button while you're within a Sanctuary. Sanctuaries are generally places near spawn locations and are generally free of enemies; you'll see a "Sanctuary" interface appear while in one, on the bottom left of the screen.

GETTING UNSTUCK

• If the game seems to not change for 10+ seconds or you're trapped by geography:
• IN COMBAT: Press Esc to open an interface with buttons. Try to press Flee first, otherwise Menu. Don't press the Flee button more than once.
• OUT OF COMBAT: If you're in a Sanctuary, press N and Fast Travel to another unlocked place (on another row). If you aren't, press Esc and the Exit to Menu without Saving button (twice).

CAMERA CONROL

• You can move the camera side-to-side and up-and-down. If you can't intuit it, you may want to look at the Controls (press Y while playing or look from Menu).
• You can also give feedback if you have it to help make it feel better.
• The input responsiveness changes somewhat between platforms, so you may want to try another platform.

COMBAT CONFUSION

• What all is happening may not be super clear yet. We hope to improve on that, especially with tooltips to describe what abilities do and what the effect icons under your character's stats mean and will do.

PERFORMANCE

• Playing a downloaded version of the game may result in better performance, especially in the underground Slums/Market level.
• Camera input responsiveness changes somewhat between platforms, so you may want to try another platform.

After you've downloaded the game and it's running, you may not be sure what to do next. 

The following topics are covered in this post:

• Starting playing for the first time / Creating a new character (game save)
• Controls
• Saving your progress
• Loading an existing character (game save)
• Getting Stuck

If you felt that something was not made clear within the game itself or if something is not functioning in the way you'd expect it to, please feel free to give feedback about this so that we can improve upon communicating what players should do within the game itself. Please leave this feedback in the currently-active Playtest community post, if there is one. Otherwise, you can make a new post mentioning your feedback.

Starting playing for the first time / Creating a new character (game save)

1. From the main menu, press the Game Saves button. This will take you to an interface where you can create or load game saves, each of which will store progress independently from each other. 
2. While in the Games Saves interface, press the Start new game button on one of the Unused game saves. This will begin the process of creating a new game save.
3. When prompted to Create your character, enter the name you would like your main character to have for the game save in the input field labeled 'Character name...'. Then press Start game to complete the process of creating the new game save. In the future, we may add character customization features, which will be handled through this interface.
4. After pressing the Start game, you will be taken to a screen where you can choose a place to start at. When the game is complete, this will not appear on a player's first playthrough - they will automatically be sent to the Tutorial. However, until that is ready, you are able to see this screen and choose where to do. Pick any choice whose button is able to be pressed. The options that include 'Testing' in their names are temporary and are meant to show off content in a more condensed format. They are recommended for experiencing the game's mechanics, but not the overall story or world.
5. After selecting a starting location, you'll be taken to the corresponding level. You're now playing your character and are ready to explore the world! Check out the Controls in-game if you need help figuring out what to press to do different things.  

Controls

In order to understand the basic controls of our game, we recommend spending some time looking over the Controls interface in-game. This can either be accessed from the main menu by pressing the Controls button, or while playing by pressing the Y key. The latter will only work  while you're in levels that you can move around in, though; it will not work while in combat.

The left side of the Controls interface describes controls relevant to maneuvering in and interacting with the world, while the right side of the interface describes controls relevant to operating or opening the game's various interfaces.

While the main interface is open in exploration levels, you can press the tabs at the top of the screen to switch between different interfaces.

Saving your progress

Our game requires that you save your progress if you want to maintain it for playing in the future. If you close the application or return to the menu without saving, progress on a game save will not be kept. We may add an auto-save feature later on, but for now, it's important that you manually save the game, and doing so more often is always a good idea when the game is in development.

You can save the game by navigating the Pause Screen (press Escape/Esc) and then pressing one of the Save buttons. If you want to want to continue playing, press the Save Game button; if you want to conclude your playing session, you can press the Save and Exit to Menu button. The restriction is not implemented yet, but we plan to only allow players to save the game while they're in a safe part of the world.

The reason the game works in this way is intentional. We do this so that you can have more control by, for example, choosing to reload the game save if you made a mistake or used something (like an ability that consumes a rare item) that you realize you didn't want to, and to raise stakes, such as by having the game return to the last save should you die. 

Loading an existing character (game save)

1. From the main menu, press the Game Saves button. 
2. While in the Games Saves interface, press the Load game button on one of the game saves that do not say Unused game save. They will have the character's name you choose in place of that message, if you entered a character name. This will load the character.
3. After pressing the Load game, you will be taken to a screen where you can choose a place to start at. Pick any choice whose button is able to be pressed and you will start the game at the corresponding checkpoint. As you discover more checkpoints while playing, more of these choices will unlock on this screen.
4. After you've pressed a button, you should be loaded into the corresponding location and should be once again playing on your old character! All of your progress should be loaded. 

Getting Stuck

On rare occasions, you may find yourself stuck and unable to do anything. If you think you're in this situation, look for any buttons on the screen; if you see any, press them, as doing so will often restore functionality to your . If you are in a level that If this does not fix the issue, you will likely need to close the application and open it again.

We have observed this kind of issue happening only in limited situations.  

Known circumstances:

• When beginning Combat with an enemy - sometimes things seem to just freeze and combat does not advance. 

Recommendations:

• We recommend saving the game often. Doing this will ensure that even if you run into an issue that requires restarting the game, less progress will be lost. To do this, navigate to the Pause Screen (press the Escape/Esc key) and then press the Save button. You can resume your gameplay immediately by pressing the Resume Game button or pressing the Escape/Esc key again.

Playtest #4 - Taking place from March 4, 2021 - March 11, 2021

Playtest Focus:

The focus of this playtest is to gather feedback on the functionality of the game and on the layout of the level presented (the Slums). 

A more detailed description of what we're looking for or that you can avoid worrying about can be found below the Instructions in this post.

Instructions:

1. Download the game from the game's main page. Download the "Tower of Babel v0.4.0 - Playtest #4" version that matches your operating system.
2. Unzip the downloaded file.
3. Start the Tower of Babel application/executable in the unzipped folder.
4. Play the game. Mess around for a while. See what you can figure out and note how things look and feel. 
   1. You can explore the Slums level to experience the atmosphere, scale, and aesthetic of the world.
   2. You can play on the Testing level that demonstrates additional planned mechanics such as Chests and Quests, which will eventually be implemented throughout the rest of the game. 
   3. You can engage in Combat with enemies in either level by approaching creatures. 
   4. You can test out the Controls and look through the various Interfaces to see what everything does and to get an idea of what all will be added to the game. 
   5. If you're not sure what to do or where to start to play the game, check out the Getting Started (In the Game) community post.
5. Fill out the feedback form for this playtest. https://forms.gle/5C8859AKtHjDEKEe8
6. If you would like, you can also post feedback with comments on this community post. Feel free to provide any feedback you would like to that is relevant to the game as it is presented in this version.

Thanks for participating in our playtest! Your feedback is appreciated!

Playtest Focus (Detailed):

The focus of this playtest is to gather feedback on the functionality of the game and on the layout of the level presented (the Slums).

We are aware that many parts of the game are incomplete, both in terms of functionality and in terms of the level construction. Feedback on these incomplete aspects are welcome, but do not feel any pressure to address all of them as we are aware of much of what still needs to be completed.

Things that you may want to focus your attention and feedback on:

• How movement and camera control feels and works
  
• The layout and flow of the Slums level
• The atmosphere and aesthetics of the Slums level
• How Combat functions in general, how it looks, and how it feels to engage with
• How intuitive, functional, or attractive any of the user interfaces in the game are or are not
• How various Rewards feel to get
• How Quests feel to advance
• How interacting with things in the world feels

Things that you can avoid communicating to us about, unless you specifically want to discuss them:

• Missing collision on objects in the Slums level
• Missing art/icons/textures on objects or interfaces
• A lack of sound
  
• A lack of animations in combat
• A lack of animations on NPCs
• Character Details are not being displayed in the Character Management window
• Any user interface that says "Not Yet Implemented"
• The lack of communication about what exactly is going on in Combat and what various abilities do (we have many plans to improve this, but haven't had time to implement them yet)
• Semi-transparent spheres around the world (these are temporary and will be removed later, they are mostly there to visualize the detection radius for various things)
• Advancement in Quests not being communicated clearly  (this will be improved once we add Dialogue, the Quest Tracker, and alerts across the screen)
• Character abilities in combat (balance, what they do, etc.)

future feature goals:

-add icons to the map that display:

• significant features of tiles (such as tracks, items, corpses, interactables, etc.) 
• indicate when there is something of interest on an undiscovered/uninspected tile
• show dangerous/especially curious tiles and/or tile transitions (such as a cliff, which can be dangerous to climb up/down)