Stream for IndieArk festival

[ 2023-11-10 09:26:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes:

• Incubus new ability: heal on spell cast
• Succubus new ability: speed boost on spell cast
• Butcher speed boost removed and damage done by ability reduced to 3 (was 6)
• Slaughter damage reduced (as above), but retains speed boost
• Fixed some display issues around Gilbert and added a Tier 4 rank icon
• Enhanced minion petting and they love you back
• Fixed unremovable curses being lost on combine
• Updated missing Chinese, Japanese, and Korean translations from some recent patches

[ 2023-08-25 21:28:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Spells were added fairly late in the development process, and while they can be pivotal in terms of gameplay impact, they're at this point still the most under-developed feature in Tower Escape. Today's update is the first step in a larger plan to make them a bigger part of the game, with much more to come shortly as we begin to rebalance The Damned's ablities. We're adding 3 new spells: Slow Time, Disorient, and Weaken. Slow Time is a new and unique effect that slows down projectiles as they go through the air. It can really benefit fast-moving minions, allowing them to outrun projectiles with ease as they run for the exit. Disorient & Weaken can disable Guards similarly to Stun, but are cheaper and available earlier, and have more specific effects (shared with the Exiled's debuff abilities). Full changelist:

• New spell: Slow Time - Projectiles -66% speed for 2s
• New spell: Disorient - All Guards Range -1 tile for 2s
• New spell: Weaken - All Guards -1 dmg for 2s
• Updated Stun's card art to thematically match Disorient & Weaken
• Updated Gilbert's sprite to be more of a visual upgrade from Mike
• Fixed Kunzite's ability so the spawned minions properly follow the gem holder

[ 2023-07-17 15:25:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello again, a fresh new round of updates today, mostly around our beloved minerals. The 5-star gems are getting a new sprite that's a little less cumbersome on the card, and we're adding 7 new gems with special abilities. We've also tweaked some of the existing gems, and added "chip" versions of the tradeoff gems (gems with a negative as well as positive effect). The chips have the same malus as the whole versions, but a reduced bonus effect, making them most useful as a way of reducing a minion's stats (perhaps reducing speed to keep them on pace with others, or reducing health to trigger death effects easier). With the gems rounded out nicely, one of the next areas we'll be expanding on is the melt system. We're working on a new reward algorithm that will have a set reward system (based on clan, level, and xp), so you know exactly what you'll get before melting instead of a random chance. From there, we'll be moving on to spells as the next area that needs a bit of love. In addition to brand new spells, The Damned will see some ability change-ups that add greater spell synergy to the clan. Changelist:

• New art for Alexandrite, Carnelian, Coral, Peridot, Quartz (thank you Admurin for the sprites)
• Adds new gems: Cuprite, Kunzite, Tourmaline, Scolecite, Tanzanite, Azurite, Pyrope
• Adds chip versions of: Topaz, Beryl, Agate, Spinel, Garnet, Jade
• Avarice's speed boost removed and is now Carnelian's gem ability
• Peridot now has self-healing
• Return Shroomy's original sprite
• Adds Gilbert (level 4 Shroomy)
• Adds missing achievement for winning with Exiled clan (if you have previously accomplished this, it will be granted automatically when you launch the game)

[ 2023-06-29 13:41:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy pride month! A few updates for you today:

• Gnomy has a new trans pride hat (this is a permanent change and is canon)
• Shroomy has a new rainbow cap (temporary change for the month of June)
• Fixes some missing labels for the Exiled
• Fixes the incorrect number of sockets for Foxy, Bully, and Yellow Cultist

Shroomy army image credit: Mysz is Cute from the Tower Escape Discord

[ 2023-06-01 14:49:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

* Fix wispy not regaining immunity after shield destroyed * Fix possible duplicate charms on challenge levels * Fix crash on endless mode at floor 0

[ 2023-04-12 00:37:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

As the Necromancer plotted escape from The Tower, trouble was brewing far away in the Elven Kingdom. A clan of elves lived in exile and were persecuted because they worshipped the night and possessed powerful psychic abilities. After centuries of mistreatment, they took advantage of the elves' distraction in the war against The Enchanted, Damned, Undead, and Corrupted, to stage their own rebellion and join forces with the enemies of their enemy.

Introducing: The Exiled

Led by their newly crowned Empress Josephine, The Exiled are a new clan with brand new powers to explore. Their psychic attacks allow them to stun and disorient their enemies, as well as draining life force to heal and speed up themselves. They also bring with them some fellow creatures of the night, such as bats, ravens, spiders, and gargoyles, to join the fight.

But wait, there's more!

As the war raged on, word of The Necromancer's plight spread to other realms. The Elves have many enemies, far and wide, and The Necromancer has many friends. You can now recruit new Clanless minions, such as The Jade Army and The Four Harbingers.

Gods and Curses

Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, there are also 5 new gods that can be summoned from the depths of your Necronomicon. While very hard to find, you may come across their worshippers and cultists, who will help you gather curses and summon them. Curses function similarly to gems, but have harsh downsides and are in some cases not removable. With each curse however, cultists and worshippers can help increase your chances of summoning one of the old gods.

We are The Champions

Many people have asked for meta-progression style enhancements that allow you spend currency collected in-game for permanent bonuses over time. While I still prefer to go with a skill-based gameplay style over one that simply requires grinding, I think the new Champion system will provide something for everyone. Any points you score for a clan can now be spent to unlock and upgrade Champions, which can replace one of your starting minions in any new game. You can upgrade that minion's health, speed, or even give them an extra gem socket. This also allows you to choose your starting minion when selecting a new Advanced Start game.

Are there any new relics though?

Of course! With 15 new relics to enhance your gameplay, as well as new curses and the clanless and exiled minions, we've added almost a hundred new cards to bring the total to over 325 cards and variations! Thank you again to everyone who has played and enjoyed the game so far! I hope this new free content update will help to address the concerns some have had with the game feeling like it lacks as much content as they expected, and I personally think it's really fun and adds many new dimensions to the game! Thanks, Ben "SlightlyMadman"

Full changelist:

• Adds exiled
• dark knight nerf, fix broad pendant, new tower map and exits
• Buffed Dark Wizard, Dragoon, and Illusionist. Fixed map exit issues. Fixed card locks being incorrect. Moved entry spawn to middle of left
• Fixes bugs with crypt levels and spider eggs hatching. Guard spawn rebalance: more guards will spawn in earlier levels and slightly fewer in later. Lots of UI/UX enhancements to the map.
• Adds a new "Upgrade Champions" page to the menu. Here you can spend points accumulated from your score to unlock new starting champions and upgrade their stats. Once unlocked, Advanced Start will give you the option of starting with them (they replace your common minion). Advanced start also changed so the other option is a random selection of 2 minions, 1 relic, or coins.
• Adds challenge levels, Doggo/Wolfo have higher hp and less sp, prevent potions from being used more than once, advanced start now has guaranteed minion levels based on highest champion unlocked, wizards cannot spawn on the left 1/3 of the map
• Adds the Jade Army (clanless minions), Buffs Tigre and Lich
• Adds the 4 Harbingers (Conquest, Death, Famine, War), legendary clanless minions you can only get once, who have bonkers stats and give permanent stat changes to all minions when added
• Challenge levels highlighted red, always give the advanced start champion option if you've spent points, random advanced starts +3 coins, fix unused stairs coming back on load, speed limit 100mph, fix champion names not saving, fix map remembering the previous path
• Scrollbars, shieldbearer prefers shields, feather nerf, exits have challenge indicators, better snake pathing, moon ring & pendant, persist bonus sockets on upgrade
• Tweak rarity rates, ascension rerolls start at $2 but reset 1 roll per floor, new relics: Coin Purse & Golden Gear
• Fixed a couple bugs with the last update and added a new ability to Cthulu (slows nearby projectiles)
• new relics: Friend Armor, Golden Buckle, Garuda Feather, Power Gloves
• hopefully fixes missing keys, candle/broom/brain now spawn as normal relics, trick or treat now gives 1 curse-based relic and 3 curses, old curses rebalanced, new curses added: cursed eye, ear, nail, tooth, bone, horn, and garlic, curses now show up in the "anything slot" in the store and always cost 0
• refactored champion system a bit (now has a max of 3 total upgrades), added basic minions as champion options, fixed bug with champion sorcerer spawning an imp
• Rebalanced the "tradeoff" gems (topaz, beryl, spinel, etc.) to all being 3-star and the cut versions now have the same negative but increased positive. Skeleton -1 cost, Pixy, Gnomy, Rocky, Sentry -1 cost, Foxy & Bully swapped stars and rebalanced accordingly.
• Adds new relics: Chip Bag, Miser's Pants, Gold Apple, Endless Vial, Cursed Doll, Pack Hero, Bat Wings
• Zargon (Cyclops rank 2) buff (heals and speed boosts shielded minions), Tigre buff (increased heal), Adds rank indicators to cards (this was in the last update but I forgot to mention it), Card tooltips now show stat breakdowns in description ([base stat]+[bonuses from relics/gems/etc.], +[permanent buffs]), Card tooltips now show the number of times a minion's ability has been triggered
• Adds a new Combine UI to the minion and inventory screens. Pressing Combine if you have exactly the number needed will combine automatically (same as before), but if you have more than required you'll get a modal allowing you to remove the suggested matches and replace with a different one. Also now looks at gems socketed on minions for combine matches (these show up in the combine modal with a the parent minion's image behind the gem image).
• Add keyboard/controller support to combine modal, allow shift-click to combine all of a certain card (bypassing the modal), add visual clues on mouse-over to combine modal to make adding and removing matches more clear, show relevant charm in matches
• Rebuild gem socketing modal with full card stats and scrollbar, tweaked tower spawn/upgrade animations, fix sorcerer spawning out of order, allow basic champions to be chosen
• Tweaked difficulty settings: Fewer boss wizards spawn on challenge levels (was 3 per wave on hard, now is 3,2,2,1,1,0..), store star chances all moved 1 floor earlier, Easy difficulty now has more guard upgrades, fixed a range bug that was allowing Dark Knight to hit guards it shouldn't, fixed a bug with small shields disappearing, fixed wispy staying targetable after dropping a small shield. Made guard spawn/upgrade sparkles more visible.
• Fix more shield spawning bugs, tweak easy difficulty slightly harder (fewer items), add max star indication to the store screen
• Fixes UI bugs related to button pressing and clicking during tower spawn animation, Major spawn scaling revamp (easy/medium significantly harder, but hard/asc should be mostly the same, with slightly more guards on wave 1 and fewer on later waves), Infinity shield is now 3-star, some relic price changes, added unlock costs to some new minions and relics, cleaned up star display in store, added tab to book of names for clanless minions
• Adds screen shake on minion death, adds toggles to the ingame settings panel to turn on or off tutorial tips and screen shake

[ 2023-04-10 13:16:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tweaks a text label for steam deck compatibility

[ 2023-03-30 16:38:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes an issue where the "Hero's Helm" relic was causing its bonuses to show on minions in the store. Also re-enabling steam cloud sync, as the save/load crashes seem to be fixed now.

[ 2023-03-13 17:11:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes a bug where minions collecting treasure were not scoring points on Easy difficulty.

[ 2023-03-12 19:05:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes issues with save & quit when locked cards were in the store, then continuing the game without fully exiting the application.

[ 2023-03-06 13:40:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello Necromancers! Hold onto your cowls, because this is a big one! If you don't have time to read, feel free to skip to the sneak preview at the bottom. First a note: saves created with previous versions will not be recognized in v1.10. If you want to finish a 1.9 save before updating, you can access the old version in the betas labeled "v1.9". It's been about 2 weeks since release, and the feedback has been absolutely amazing! I've been reading every single review, playthrough video, discussion post, and discord message that I can, and furiously scribbling in my trusty notepad. I then burn those notes, say an incantation, and line after line of c# code starts to fill my screen. Or maybe I just drink a lot of coffee and start typing, it's hard to remember. A number of balance issues have been addressed. The map generator has bene tweaked significantly to reduce run-ending bottlenecks. They can still happen, but should at least be only smaller portions of the amp rather than multiple screen-spanning hallways that have to be repeated each wave. In particular, the Lava and Maze levels will now have multiple possible paths to the exits instead of a single "solution" to the maze. A number of minions have been tweaked or changed significantly, especially in The Damned clan (who was widely considered to be the weakest at higher difficulties). Most of all though, people asked for more. More gems, more relics, more minions. Your wish is my command, as they say, so let's start with the gems. There are now 42 gems total, mostly expanding on the trade-off style of gems, where they buff one or more stats significantly at the expense of a debuff elsewhere, but also included are 7 new gems with unique special abilities. Jet and Amber will help you control aggro on your minions, and the 5 new Legendary gems can add brand new abilities to any minion. You'll find 6 new relics, all of which are unlocked from the start and mostly fill in the common and uncommon tiers. Even more relics will be following soon. For minions, we've added a 3rd combine tier to the common (2-star) minions, same as the basic (1-star) minions already have. This should really help get some extra mileage out of those minions you pick up at the start of the game, so they can be combined into something even more powerful rather than just getting shoved to the back or stuck next to a Vamp. I know that's not exactly *new* minions, but we're saving those for something special. Our next content update will introduce a full new clan, The Exiled:
The clan is still a work in-progress, but they will be taking a new direction for the game, with offense-focused abilities. This will not be a full attack mode however, but rather a focus on reducing the capabilities of the tower guards. Full change list:

• Replaced save/load function with a more robust system that should fix game locks and crashes
• Fix Avarice description wrapping
• Progress bars go all the way to end
• Starting clan selection tooltip is more clear
• Card names change when language changes
• Permadeath Coffin now adds Stitch
• Permadeath Lantern now adds Riff
• Permadeath Bub now adds Stitch
• Minion stat bonuses now show in the deck panel on win
• Fix Delay tooltip on spells, actually fix the win screen stat bonuses (and fix on lose screen too)
• Sort cards properly in new unlocks display
• Remove chips from chests in last 2 levels
• Show rarer cards slightly later
• Reduce base scores on easier difficulties but increase bonus scores for clean sweep and perfect survival
• Lock UI controls when the level/wave complete panel is shown
• Properly remove combine icons on store page after combining a card
• Show X/Y for minions survived
• Slightly reduce coin spawns on later levels
• Slightly reduce coin rewards in chests
• Specify "Small" shield in text for Infinity shield and Verve elixir
• Key bonus levels have even more keys
• Fix store errors
• Chest rewards always have at least 2 coins
• Show map on-screen for top levels if tips disabled
• Tweaked map gen for more distinct map types (crypt has more defined rooms, cave hos tiny chambers, maze has a horizontal bias, lava unchanged)
• Improved scroll buttons disabled visibility
• Buff doc & chomp
• More map get tweaks: lava now has open sides and maze has random wall sections punched through to create more options
• New Gems!
• Added Opals
• Rare & Legendary cards are more rare
• Adds new tier 3 minions for 2-stars
• Fixed issues with feathers and potions and sound
• Reduced duration of speed potions
• Doc gets Cultist's ability
• Cultist now spawns imps each level
• Scott now gives bonus coins each level
• Increased projectile speeds slightly
• Fixes a bug when starting a new game with advanced start after being scrolled down to the end of the minions page in a previous game
• Fixes Sentry and spells allowing negative delay
• Fixes an exploit with duping minions
• Kobold buff
• Remove advanced start free rerolls
• Buff enchiridion
• Add more resolution options
• New relics: Hero's Helm, Coward's Boots, Rancor Shield, Dried Clover, Shroom of Us, Lock Pendant.
• Bogle less ally healing
• Don't spawn items near entrance/exit

[ 2023-03-02 21:44:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes a bug where dragging a minion with both mouse buttons simultaneously could be used to duplicate and combine minions infinitely (thanks Sifd!)

[ 2023-02-27 16:41:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes an exploit related to the undo snake dialog, a big thanks to Nauk for finding this and bringing it to our attention in the forums!

[ 2023-02-22 15:29:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes:

• Fixes locked store items remaining between games
• Fixes a UI issue on the map screen when playing multiple games in one session
• The Play Again button now returns you to the game settings page so you can switch clans or other settings
• The win and loss screens properly return to the summary when playing multiple games in one session, instead of staying on the tab you left at in the last game

[ 2023-02-21 15:05:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

First the good stuff: this update includes an overhaul of the win/lose screens, as well as enhancements to the Book of Names and other places where unlocks are shown, to be much more clear about unlock progress and what is required to unlock cards in the future. My hope is that this will make the card unlocking system much clearer and not feel just like a mystery box. For the less good, we're aware that some players are experiencing crashes either on loading save games or quitting the game. I spent the weekend refactoring our scene system which seemed to be the problem, but were still seeing intermittent issues. It may be related to the steam cloud saves functionality, so for now I've disabled steam cloud save sync. This is not a permanent change and I know a lot of players really like this feature, so we'll be bringing it back as soon as possible. For the moment though, our top priority is to prevent crash bugs first and foremost. If anyone is still experiencing a crash or game freeze, one thing that has worked is verifying your game files in steam (right-click on the game in steam, go to Properties, Local Files, then click "Verify integrity of game files"). I've also included two small gameplay tweaks that should have positive effects. The ranges of archers and wizards have been reduced, especially in their upgraded versions, but the Wizard DPS has been increased. This significantly increases your opportunity to path around the Wizard's range and makes success in the game slightly more skill based. Second, the Onyx Chip has had its health and speed effects reduced, but the delay penalty has been removed. This might sound like a nerf, but for newer players the extra delay could often disrupt the minions pacing too significantly and the gem itself really ended up being a trap for new players. Finally, thank you to all the players who have been making amazing suggestions in the discussion forums here as well as our Discord! Please keep them coming, and I'd especially like to hear if anyone is still encountering either a crash to desktop or a game lock/freeze (especially when loading a save or quitting the game), so I can continue to eliminate any lingering traces of this bug. Sincerely, Ben "SlightlyMadman"

[ 2023-02-20 17:11:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixes 101 Minions achievement sometimes not triggering
• Fixes an exploit on the minions screen

[ 2023-02-18 00:23:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Many apologies to German speakers who encountered an unfortunate mistranslation in the "Extra Chest" level bonus tooltip! And a huge thanks to Redgomor in the Final Screw discord for catching the mistake, and Tobi for additional corrections (and a huge apology to Redgomor for mis-attributing this initially)! Additional changes as follows:

• Fix grub sprite position
• German language fixes
• Additional translation fixes
• Fix book not opening on game launch
• Dropped items snap to center of tiles between waves
• Max lever tower guards can now upgrade damage
• Fix issue with switching book pages while dragging a minion card
• Fate pendant is 4-star
• No more legendary cards in advanced start
• Fix bug with Lantern where it was giving both the regular and permadeath effects

[ 2023-02-17 19:36:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thank you everyone for an absolutely amazing launch! It makes me so happy to see everyone playing and all the positive reviews! While I'm thrilled there there are few complaints, I've noticed the most common being that you like the game and want even more! As I have mentioned before, I plan to continue to support and add new content to the game, and I wanted to offer a small preview of what the first content update will include. First and foremost will be new relics and gems. While there are over 50 relics in the game now, most of them are not unlocked until multiple playthroughs, and I recognize there isn't a lot of relic variety in the early game. To address this we'll be adding some new relics and especially increasing the number of relics available at the start. New gems will go beyond simply boosting stats, but will actually give your minions special passives and abilities. These will allow for some really incredible synergies as you'll now be able to combo a minion with themselves via gems, instead of having to struggle to keep them in range of other minions. Meta-progression is something that has become standard in many similar games, and I'm working on a few ideas about how to add it to Tower Escape as well. Most likely this will come in the form of being able to "spend" your points from previous games on boosts for your cards in all future runs. I'll reveal more details about how this works as we finalize the mechanism. For a little bit further into the future, I have some extra surprises in store. Let's just say for now that it will include a new set of Charm, Pendant, and Ring icons. Again, thank you everyone for making my first game launch an incredible experience! I'm happy to see so many enjoying the game and will continue to improve it and make it the best game it can be. Sincerely, Ben "SlightlyMadman" from Final Screw

[ 2023-02-17 02:08:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes an issue where certain steam achievements were not being given. If you missed any game win achievements, they should be granted retroactively the next time you run the game.

[ 2023-02-16 14:02:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes an issue where the game would freeze or crash sometimes when trying to exit or restart a new game.

[ 2023-02-15 20:33:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Come join us for the game release and watch the dev play Tower Escape!

[ 2023-02-15 16:02:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Come join us for the game release and watch the dev play Tower Escape!

[ 2023-02-15 13:03:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Last April, I signed up for a tiny game jam called TigerJ(am) #3 with the theme of Everything is Backwards. Me and my friend Mike were brainstorming ideas and came up with the concept of a backwards tower defense, where you have to play as the bad guys, and instead of going up in levels, you start at the top and go down. It was silly and ugly (another restriction of the jam was a rather cruel 4-color palette restriction), but more than any other game Id made before, it was simple and fun.
After 25 years working as a software engineer in everything from basement startups to big FAANG, I decided it was time to follow my dream. I put in my two-week notice and created a coming soon page on steam. Its been a wild ride, and Ive had a lot of help getting here, and today is finally the day I get to share the full game with the world! I especially want to thank the amazing folks at IndieArk for going above and beyond in supporting this release, as well as my amazing Discord community and my playtesters there! I consider todays release to be the complete game (I decided some time ago not to put everyone through the ups and downs of early access), but I still have lots of ideas that got cut before release, and are still on the table for future updates! Thanks for reading this, and good luck escaping the tower! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009860/

[ 2023-02-15 11:14:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Tower escape will be released on February 15, Please add the game to your wishlist and share it with your friends! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009860/

Game features:

• Assemble a team of 100+ minions from 4 clans. Utilize their diverse abilities to navigate and escape intricate mazes.
• 20+ upgrades and abilities. Customize and upgrade your minions to enhance their performance.
• Collect 50 powerful relics to further enhance your runs and make each playthrough unique.
• 4 different game modes. Regular, classic snake, permadeath, and endless challenge!
• Uncover hidden secrets, including new minions and relics, as you progress through the game.

We welcome you to join our community Discord: https://discord.gg/2AwK6wmAUh

[ 2023-02-08 04:28:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes a bug where minions dying on stairs when in range of a Cultist would cause the game to lock.

[ 2023-02-06 14:54:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes

• Adds Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese Localizations
• Rebalanced minion stats, focused on making rarer minions more powerful
• Fixes game saving in demo

[ 2023-02-04 21:37:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Adds localizations:

• Chinese (Simplified)
• Japanese
• German

Coming soon: Chinese (Traditional), Korean, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese

[ 2023-02-01 03:14:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone We are very excited to announce that Tower Escape is working with IndieArk!
Simplified and traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean will be added to the game. We are working on these languages and look forward to meeting the players in the Asian region in the best possible condition! the full version of Tower escape will be released on February 15, please keep an eye on the game, we can not wait to show it to you! We welcome you to join our community Discord: https://discord.gg/2AwK6wmAUh

[ 2023-02-01 02:00:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes:

• Added new fireball impact effect
• Added visual effect for when special abilities trigger, on both the originator and target
• Shaman healing reduced slightly
• Shieldbearer health increased and speed reduced
• Adds new alternate abilities for minion permadeath mode to Bub, Zombie, Zombubba, Lich, and the Coffin & Lantern relics
• Endless mode is now only available with minion permadeath
• Permadeath only available if you've won a game previously
• Losing a heart now gives you bonus coins (any mode)
• Non-starting-clan relics don't show up as starting rewards in advanced start
• Snake path will now show guard ranges overlapped by the entire current "segment"
• Snake pathfinding that draws the segment will now take guard ranges into account
• Minion roster on the left-hand side now clearly shows who survived and who died after each wave

[ 2023-01-31 01:08:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changelog:

• New advanced start screen visuals
• Additional new sound effects
• New gems
• Fixed infinite spell bug
• Endless mode difficulty fix
• Additional fast-forward speed added (3x)
• Added tutorial pop-ups to interface screens
• Fixed lopsided guard spawn in first wave
• Inventory reordering fix
• Snake undo is now per segment (if added with the mouse), and now enabled on right-click
• New minions
• Minion stat and cost rebalance
• Book of names performance fix
• Locked cards will now tell you if they're locked because it's the demo or you haven't gotten the score yet

[ 2023-01-23 20:50:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Watch Tower Escape played by the dev!

[ 2023-01-17 02:04:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes:

• Fixed demo scoring so that it's possible to unlock some cards
• Added new sound effects for shields, potions, bonus scores, and chests opening

[ 2023-01-04 19:12:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a bit since the last update, but I promise you this one is worth the wait! We've been so busy adding new features that by the time one was tested and ready to go, there was already another new feature in that needed to be tested, and I got a bit carried away! The fist and biggest update is the introduction of a whole lot of new Relics and Spells! The goal of both is that these should be transformative items in your game. Instead of just a simple bonus that tweaks a number a bit higher, adding any relic should encourage you to completely rethink your strategies around it. Please let me know in comments if you feel this isn't the case with any of them, as it probably needs a buff. Potentially even more game-changing are the new modes and advanced start options. Endless Dungeon mode can now be played so there's no escape, you'll just go deeper into the basement levels forever. Minion Permadeath has also been added and is an extremely challenging game mode, but adds a whole new spin on the game that's really interesting and exciting to play. The Advanced Start mode (and be aware that the current screen here is a barebones placeholder) is a small bonus that rewards you for getting far in a game by letting you skip the first few levels and get a starting bonus. I hope you enjoy it, this puts us very close to feature-complete (with maybe a little more content coming soon), and so we'll be mostly focusing on UI improvements and balance tweaks from here on out! Changelog:

• New snake move option: when in mouse move mode you can use the keyboard or controller to move the snake one space at a time.
• Adds minion permadeath toggle
• Adds endless mode
• Advanced start (if you get past level 8 you will have the option in your next game to skip the first levels and get a choice of minion/relic or gold)
• Minions who die show a brief death portrait in the side bar and leave a blood stain
• Adds an ascension difficulty after winning on hard
• Cleans up keyboard/controller interaction in normal snake mode (non-classic)
• Level locks now persist between saves
• Update the highlighting on the current map when changed.
• Adds 33 new Relics!
• Added 4 new spells: Shield, Repair, Summon, Raise Dead.
• Removed spells from minion stores (the only way to get them is special spell stores).
• Removed Spade Charm/Pendant/Ring and combined its effects with Star.
• Cleaned up the UI on the minion and inventory screens (dragging has better visual feedback, you can scroll while dragging, inventory now has page buttons, fixed some ordering issues)
• Implemented Steam Cloud saves

[ 2023-01-03 20:24:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's official, folks: you can now pet the dog! Or for that matter, give head pats to any of your good boy MVP minions. Some might say this isn't really a "feature" if it has not direct in-game effect, but those people have clearly never patted a fully upgraded minotaur on the head and told him he's a good boy. Additional updates:

• Right click on a room in the map to mark it, and when you enter a new level the stairs to marked rooms will be indicated with a glow. These markings do not persist in the save game for now, but they'll be added in the next major update (I don't like breaking save compatibility for minor features).
• Added German language localizations. Please report any bugs or poor translations! I don't speak German so there are likely problems.
• Resolution changes are now allowed while full-screen. Setting this to your native resolution should fix blurriness when full-screen.
• Added a new tab to the victory screen where you can see your minions and inventory. Please screen shot your winning team and brag in the comments!
• Added an icon to cards in your deck, as well as in-store, which can be combined.

[ 2022-12-15 22:45:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's new feature day! The bad news first: this is a save-breaking change (as indicated by the major version bump), but I think you'll find it worth the loss, as we're now rolling out a node-base tower navigation system. After the first few floors, every floor will have three chambers. You'll be given multiple exits in the level and choosing one will determine which chamber you enter next. You can learn more about what you're in for by looking at the map. Hover over the icons and you'll see additional detail. You can also hover over the exits themselves in-game for more information. If you move along the left or right chambers, your choices for the next level will be limited to only what's adjacent to them. Moving down the middle will ensure you always have the most choices for the next one. The chambers will often have a special theme for their store, such as showing cards mostly from a certain clan, or having gems, spells, or even relics for sale. You might also get bonuses in the level itself: coins, power-up items, or even an additional chest. Happy escaping!

[ 2022-12-06 02:13:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Lots of small tweaks in this update, as we're working on some major upcoming features, but thing worth calling out is a suggestion we've had a few times now: minion renaming! Any minion can now be renamed from the minion management screen, so feel free to name all your imps after your pets! I'm personally partial to celebrity name puns. Additional changes:

• Gem rebalance - removed the bad attributes from the 3 basic single-stat gems
• Minion & item tweaks - potions and shields are more effective, increased the power of many minion abilities, mostly the healers
• New Kobold & Hobgoblin abilities - they now get stronger based on the number of Kobolds or Corrupted in your deck
• Expanded tutorials - the tutorial scroll in the early levels is now more interactive and highlights things on-screen
• Full help menu - the Help (?) tab in the book now has extensive game information and tips

[ 2022-12-01 15:34:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

We've been working hard getting the final touches on things for our open playtesting on G.Round, so I have to apologize for going so long without an update! Rest assured that we haven't been idle. The balance hammer and nerf guns are always firing back and forth here, and we gone many rounds but I think the current build is in a pretty good spot so I wanted to get it out to you all. Of course every update should have a big feature, and today I'm happy to announce an oft-requested feature: Saving and Loading a run in progress! Most runs don't go longer than an hour or so, but of course sometimes life gets in the way, so you can now save and quit from the in-game settings menu, and you'll be given the option to continue from that point at any time later. Currently only one save game is allowed at a time, but that could be expanded later. I also hope to add steam cloud saving soon. Other features and tweaks:

• Zombies now add delay every time they die, and Zombubbas lose health. Tier 2 upgraded versions no longer spawn tier 2 upgraded zombies/zombabies, but have their death penalty removed.
• 3-star minions were split into two tiers, and old 4-star are now 5
• The "tutorial" levels are now only 3 and they have fewer coin spawns
• Changed later waves to have more guard level ups
• Rerolls now operate on a Fibonacci scale (0,1,1,2,3,5...), with medium and hard starting at positions 2 and 3, and while easy resets to 0 every level, medium only goes back 2 places, and hard never goes down.
• Healing potions heal all at once
• Free snake undos on easy/med, keyboard snake mode can press backspace to undo
• Hover state tweaks: hold alt to show all ranges
• Med/hard slightly easier
• Lots of keyboard/controller fixes
• Fixed menu show/hide resetting spells
• Mouse wheel scrolls minion list

[ 2022-11-22 00:22:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

All Hallows' Eve has come to an end, and sadly that means the "Trick R Treat" relic is a rare find until next year. Of course we must give as we take, so today's update introduces a brand new scoring system. On the surface this might seem like a small update compared to the tricks & treats of last week, but scoring introduces a lot of exciting potential! We've already begun to draft out a set of Steam achievements that can now be unlocked thanks to a persistent data layer, although these won't be available in the demo. Next will come card unlocking, which means that very soon the available cards at game start are going to be reduced to just a handful. In order to unlock the rarer minions, you'll have to play a run (successful or not) and accumulate score with that clan. This also sets us up for a feature soon to come which many have asked for: saving a game mid-run to continue later. We expect to fully integrate steam cloud saves as well. Sadly this option likely won't be available in the web release due to technical limitations in the storage layer. Enjoy the new build, and good luck with your high scores! Please take screenshots of your best and post them to our steam page, itch.io comments, or come and brag on our Discord!

[ 2022-11-01 14:36:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm excited to introduce the new "Trick r Treat" Relic! "Trick r Treat" does nothing on its own, but when you choose it you're given a random assortment of 6 "Tricks" and "Treats." Treats function like Gems and can be socketed to a minion. The usually will decrease delay, but at a cost of other negative traits. This can be worth it to help make high-delay minions more useful, or maybe you just want to make your minions slow and weak so your Vamps can have a feast? Or maybe you'll get lucky and end up with a few "Tricks" in the bag, which will boost the effect of treats on minions, and potentially outweigh their negative effects. The random assortment and variety of effects on these cards ensure that every playthrough will have something new to try that works a bit differently than the last one. Don't miss the Tricks and Treats while they're still easy to find! After Halloween the "Trick r Treat" relic will be a rare find!

[ 2022-10-26 18:06:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween everyone! I'm excited to introduce the new "Trick r Treat" Relic! "Trick r Treat" does nothing on its own, but when you choose it you're given a random assortment of 6 "Tricks" and "Treats." Treats function like Gems and can be socketed to a minion. The usually will decrease delay, but at a cost of other negative traits. This can be worth it to help make high-delay minions more useful, or maybe you just want to make your minions slow and weak so your Vamps can have a feast? Or maybe you'll get lucky and end up with a few "Tricks" in the bag, which will boost the effect of treats on minions, and potentially outweigh their negative effects. The random assortment and variety of effects on these cards ensure that every playthrough will have something new to try that works a bit differently than the last one. Play all week through Halloween to unlock these special limited time loot items!

[ 2022-10-26 16:41:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Fixes a bug that would lock the game when Incubus/Succubus/Butcher trigger the death of Swampy.

[ 2022-10-26 01:48:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Halloween everyone! As this is by far my favorite holiday, I knew I had to do something special in a game that just seems so perfect for it. With the recent introduction of the new relic system, and the expansion of the gem and socketable system, we decided to take that in a fun new direction with the new "Trick r Treat" Relic. "Trick r Treat" does nothing on its own, but when you choose it you're given a random assortment of 6 "Tricks" and "Treats." Treats function like Gems and can be socketed to a minion. The usually will decrease delay, but at a cost of other negative traits. This can be worth it to help make high-delay minions more useful, or maybe you just want to make your minions slow and weak so your Vamps can have a feast? Or maybe you'll get lucky and end up with a few "Tricks" in the bag, which will boost the effect of treats on minions, and potentially outweigh their negative effects. The random assortment and variety of effects on these cards ensure that every playthrough will have something new to try that works a bit differently than the last one. And of course, this being a game in active development, we've been making lots more improvements since the last update as well!

• Added chest animation to reward screen
• Gem rebalance
• Incubus, Succubus, Butcher ability tweaks
• Kobold & Hobgoblin ability tweaks
• New fonts
• Added stat icons to descriptions
• Card sliding and other UI effects
• Tricks & Treats

[ 2022-10-24 14:22:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Kicking off our new Halloween content update with a live-stream and watch the dev walk through some of the new features. Come see the new Tricks & Treats, new Relics, as well as another run through of all the new minions and features added recently.

[ 2022-10-23 15:57:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

There's a whole lot of new content to try out here, so I'm going to keep this short and let you discover most of it yourself. I've added new minions to each clan, as well as a 3rd tier for the starter minions (imp, goblin, shroomy, zombaby) so they can now be combined an additional time. The new minions have all unique abilities to discover and I think you'll find some of them really fun! I've also rebalanced many of the existing minions, and tweaked or changed their powers. New features

• 20 New minions (2 per clan, plus 2 upgrades, plus 4 new tier-3 starter minions)
• Shields all take 3 hits (including gold shields and summoned shields)
• New relics
• New spells
• Minion and gem stat tweaks
• Increase difficulty on later waves on hard
• Show spawned minions in hand panel

Bugs

• Fix spawn ability bugs
• Fix bonus colors on minion cards

[ 2022-10-16 19:29:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hang out with Ben & Mike, and watch us play Tower Escape!

[ 2022-10-13 16:51:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hang out with Ben and watch me play Tower Escape! I'll talk about strategies, game history, the lore behind all the characters, and the road map for new features ahead! I'll be showing off the latest build that includes 20 new minions, lots of new Relics & Spells, and more!

[ 2022-10-12 16:06:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'm happy to release a major UI overhaul I've been working on with the incredibly talented Immunity! In addition to the incredible new title screen, we've reworked all the UI elements within the game, and added brand new card backs and art all throughout. We tossed in a couple new features while we were at it, like a clan selection screen when creating a new game so you can finally choose your starting minions. There's also a brand new page added to the book menus, which shows a map of your progress and your full run stats. Changes:

• New title
• New UI
• Card art
• Health bars also added to the mini cards, replacing the hearts
• Fixed a gem combine exploit
• Added level 2 potions
• Barry had the wrong upgrade sprite
• Combine button activation issue
• Updated credits

[ 2022-10-04 22:03:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ben & Mike will be playing the game and talking through some of the game mechanics and different strategies. Come join us and hang out!

[ 2022-10-03 15:58:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introducing new Relics to boost your minions from the Undead clan! Collect pumpkins, candy, cauldrons, and more! If those nasty elves won't give you any treats, be sure to leave behind a trick or two for them! Find these special items in the game by collecting treasure chests.

[ 2022-10-03 12:54:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ben & Mike will be playing the game and talking through some of the game mechanics and different strategies. Come join us and hang out!

[ 2022-10-02 13:09:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hang out with Ben "SlightlyMadman" & Mike "mikefictitious" and watch them play Tower Escape. We'll talk about strategies, game history, the lore behind all the characters, and the road map for new features ahead!

[ 2022-10-01 17:15:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hang out with Ben & Mike and watch them play Tower Escape. We'll talk about strategies, game history, the lore behind all the characters, and the road map for new features ahead!

[ 2022-10-01 16:34:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Ben & Mike will be playing the game and talking through some of the game mechanics and different strategies. Come join us and hang out!

[ 2022-10-01 15:44:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Two big features today, as well as some small stuff! The biggest addition is that minions now have an on-screen HP bar! Especially with the new healing spell, it can be very important to track your minions' health, and the hearts on the sidebar just don't cut it, so I think you'll find the new hp bars very useful. The second is something that's been asked for by many: locking cards in the store! You can right-click on a card to lock it, and it will stay through rerolls and on the next level refresh. You can lock all 4 if you want, and there is no cost to doing so (except the opportunity cost of missing another potential card on rerolls). Change list:

• Health bars
• UI icon tweaks
• Fix ability ranges not being set properly
• Card locking
• Credits fix (YouFulca was not credited for the new music)
• Combined minions no longer get the sum of all permanent bonuses, but the max value of any
• Minion text tweaks (for clarity)

[ 2022-09-24 16:46:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Just barely missed the weekend on this one, but better late than never! It has been a huge week with lots of incredible input from the beautiful people of youtube, and some amazing suggestions on the discord, and I've got a two-page todo list now, so I'm hard at work! I thought I'd start by running down a number of easy tasks that can have big impact:

New features

• Now card designs to make stats a bit easier to read
• New music tracks by YouFulca (all the old music is still there too)
• Gems can now be removed from minions
• Spells now each have their own delay stat (slightly different from minion delay, this determines the wait time until the next spell can be cast)
• Card rarity is now shown (stars on the side, more stars are rarer cards)

Tweaks

• The game over screen will now ask if you want to retry on an easier setting, and likewise the win screen suggests a harder one (if applicable)
• The combine preview shows what the actual stats will be after calculating upgrades (keep in mind this still will remove gem effects)
• Rerolls exclude an cards currently shown in the store from coming up again
• Gems may now combine with only 2, and any combination of 2 normal or chipped gems will combine into a cut gem

[ 2022-09-20 00:33:13 CET ] [ Original post ]