Hello All,

This new update adds another exciting new way to play The Baleful Tower, Local Co Op. Now you are able to plug in up to four controllers and ascend the tower as a group. One of my key inspirations for adding any multiplayer mode in the first place was the different cooperative multiplayer games my brothers and I played growing up. Now with this mode, the three of us can do the same with my game and work together to clear the tower of monsters. Or, maybe we will do what my friends did when I had them over to test this mode for the first time and take advantage of the friendly fire settings and use Floor 0 as a Deathmatch Map, where only the survivor continues on to actually ascend the tower.


Ive also added a couple of bug fixes and improved the controller functionality across different menus.

Now, in my testing, I experienced some issues with Steam Input when using multiple controllers. If you have issues with the game not recognizing the different gamepads, Steam Input might be the culprit. If you keep having issues, reach out I will try to help troubleshoot.

Enjoy,
Grant

• Added Local Multiplayer Mode
  
• Added gamepad support for Online Multiplayer Lobby and Session Selection Menu
  
• Added a buzzer sound that plays when the player attempts to buy an item, but is unable to
  
• Added arrows in some UI menus to show which widget (slider, drop down, etc.) is being focused on when using gamepad
  
• Fixed bug where there was a chance of multiple goals being set on a floor with the last one set being the active one, potentially causing issues with repeated goals in a biome or exit being permanently hidden
  
• Fixed issues with spectator camera in Online Multiplayer
  
• Added a brief popup explaining how to change spectator camera when dying in Online Multiplayer
  
• Added D-Pad support for switching Spectator View in online multiplayer
  
• Fixed bug where the player would need to press the pause button twice to the game after using the UI button to unpause
  
• Changed some behind the scenes behavior for setting player character selection data in Online Multiplayer Lobby. This should reduce irregular behavior that occurs when players leave and then rejoin the same session
  

Hello All,

Development of The Baleful Tower is continuing at a steady pace, and I am excited to share the latest update with you all.

Let me introduce the Necromancer class, which is unlocked by killing Zombies in the tower. Similar to the Mage, this is a more ranged oriented class with a focus on three powerful abilities. The first is the Life Drain, a melee attack that heals the user for every enemy hit. There is also the Terrifying Leer, a ranged attack that damages and Panics every enemy it passes through, making them run away from players in their abject fear. The centerpiece of the Necromancers toolkit is the ability to summon Skeletal Warriors to fight by their side. The Necromancer can summon up to seven of these fearsome fighters to dispatch the various foes that reside in The Baleful Tower. The Necromancers Essence is the Necrotic Leech, which has a small chance to heal the player every time they kill an enemy. Like all Essences, its potency can be increased and it can be mixed and matched with those of other classes by defeating the Zombies that spawn on the floors where previous adventurers have fallen.



Also new to this update is the Electric Biome, starting at floor 61. This biome contains various electric coils that shoot lightning bolts that will both damage and stun players, if they are not careful. There are also several powerful enemies within this biome, of course. At the end of it, Players can expect to face the Stormhawk, a lightning charged bird of prey whose attacks cover the field of battle, forcing players to be nimble and avoid an onslaught coming from all sides. Only when the Stormhawk gets tired and needs to recharge on the various perches on its floor can the player hope to damage it, by destroying the perch on which it is currently sitting.



There are also fifteen new enemies in this update. My goal with these was to increase the variety of the types of enemies you will encounter. For starters, each biome now has three exclusive enemy types, instead of two. There are also a couple new enemies that attack by emitting a sort of particle beam, be it an icy breath, poison gas or some other material. There are also regular enemies that have circular area of effect attacks centered on their location, similar to the Paladins Blinding Flash ability. But most importantly, there are now enemies that will buff certain stats of their nearby allies. Each biome has one of these three enemies, the Hastener, which increases speed, the Swordbringer, which increases attack, and the Shieldbearer, which increases defense.

In addition to these updates, Ive also worked on various minor changes in hopes of correcting balance and improving stability. Im very proud of the work Ive done for this update and think it improves the game considerably. I really hope that you all like it. Below is the full list of changes.

Enjoy,
Grant

• Added the Necromancer Class
  
• Added Electric Biome and Stormhawk Boss
  
• Added 15 new enemy types
  
  
  
  • Frostback - Ice Biome Exclusive
    
  • Hydrox - Swamp Biome Exclusive
    
  • Carrot - Plant Biome Exclusive
    
  • Thermador - Fire Biome Exclusive
    
  • Lumen - Light Biome Exclusive
    
  • Corrupted - Dark Biome Exclusive
    
  • Charger - Electric Biome Exclusive
    
  • Sparky - Electric Biome Exclusive
    
  • Diode - Electric Biome Exclusive
    
  • Hastener - Support Enemy
    
  • Swordbringer - Support Enemy
    
  • Shieldbearer - Support Enemy
    
  • Spore - Standard Enemy
    
  • Goblin - Standard Enemy
    
  • Plaguebringer - Standard Enemy
    
• Added the option to have aiming be toggled by Left Shift key, as opposed to holding it down
  
• Players now restore 5% of their Max Mana immediately upon transitioning between floors
  
• Fixed bug where enemies would approach player and then wait to perform their first attack after spawning, rather than attacking as soon as the player is within range
  
• Added Anti-Cheap Shot Protection to prevent a single attack from killing the player if they have 25% of their health or more
  
• Changed spawn rate of different enemies
  
• Game Over Screen in Multiplayer now shows the different players usernames
  
• Increased potency of Burn and Poison damage by a factor of 4
  
• Reduced Floor Timer on non Hurry to Exit floors by 15 seconds
  
• Barbarian Ground Pound Ability now has a 5% chance of Stunning fellow players when Friendly Fire is set to Enhanced
  
• Fixed some irregular behavior of Blaze animations
  
• Fixed issue with sounds on the Client for Naturalist Thorn Bomb Ability
  
• Corrected the spelling of Bestiary in Main Menu
  
• Various minor balance tweaks
  
• Improved software stability
  

Hello All,

I apologize for the long period of silence since the last major update. Things have been a bit busy over here. In that time, I graduated college and got a new job that has been keeping me fairly busy and required me to move to a new state. But despite this, I have continued working on The Baleful Tower in my quest to make it the best game it can possibly be.

This update is a prime example of me proving myself wrong. Early in the process of making this game, when I sent the first couple development builds to my friends prior to the initial Early Access release, a few of them made negative comments regarding the art and graphics. My response to this was basically to just ignore them, because I liked the look that the 2D, unlit rendering provided. But later, when testing this update, several of my friends mentioned that some of the enemy units and projectiles blended in too much with the color of the floor. Since this was a complaint about the functionality of the game rather than a purely aesthetic critique, I began looking into ways to improve the readability of the game while maintaining the cartoonish art style. So I eventually added a simple cell shader, and after I tested it the first time, I had to admit that all my friends' initial critiques were correct and the game looks much better now. While the changes may be subtle, especially in a side by side comparison, it makes a great difference in motion.

Also, in the period after I graduated but before I had my new job lined up, I was working on the game and testing everything, when I came to another realization that ran counter to my initial idea of the game. When I sent the very first build of the game to my friends to test (a build that is drastically different from what you can play today), I included a note in the ReadMe file stating I will not be adding any sort of multiplayer, especially not online multiplayer. You'd have to make a really compelling case to convince me otherwise. I'm talking Grant I'll do all the work myself level of compelling. However, as I continued working on the game that summer on my parents farm, I realized that the best version of this game is one where you can play together with your friends, sort of replicating the experience of playing a game on a 4-player arcade cabinet.

And so began a lengthy and challenging process, that admittedly might have been a bit ill-advised, of adding online multiplayer. It was an especially rough process since I did not have multiplayer in mind when making the game originally, so I essentially had to tear the whole thing apart and put the pieces back together within a client server architecture. This was a lengthy process, and I learned an awful lot doing it, in particular that I should probably make all games going forward with multiplayer in mind, even if I just plan on it being single player, just in case I change my mind. But anyways, after a lengthy period of developing, testing and iteration, we now have functional, a four player cooperative online multiplayer mode. And its really fun. I am very excited for you all to try it out. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Below is a bulleted list of some of the more specific changes.

Enjoy,
Grant

Patch Notes:

• Added Online Multiplayer
  
• Redid graphics to use a cell shader instead
  
• Redid the game balance in order to increase the overall pace of play
  
  
  
  • Increased the attack of all player classes and enemies
    
  • Reduced max health of enemies
    
  • Redid the stat scaling of enemies (per floor and biome) and player classes (per level)
    
  • Increased the movement speed of all player classes
    
  • Considerably increased the roll animation rate for all player classes
    
  • Lowered the value of goal thresholds for each floor
    
  • Reduced the time allotted for each floor
    
  • Reduced the price of all shop items
    
  • Increased the frequency and quantity of enemy spawning
    
  • Altered the mana cost, cooldown time and potency of player abilities
    
  • Tripled the attack power of the regular bombs bought in shop
    
  • Reduced the unlock thresholds for all player classes
    
  • Reduced the duration of all player status ailments
    
  • Altered the max health of the bosses
    
  • Barbarian Rage no longer lowers Defense
    
• Fixed a bug where the character select might occasionally start spinning wildly
  
• Added support for A and D keys as input in character select and Bestiary
  
• Extended Zombie line of sight range
  
• Fixed a bug of erratic behavior for the effects volume slider
  
• Fixed bug where the shop would block the exit ladder
  
• Added the Shop to the tutorial
  
• Added a bell sound that rings at the beginning of floors with a shop
  
• Redid the Fishmonger enemy behavior. Now it makes quick dashes in a single direction rather than chasing the player
  
• Fixed some bug that might cause game to hitch up or crash when using the Barbarian Spinning Ax or Bard Harp Throw ability
  
• Altered the chances of Mindflayer projectile causing status ailments
  
• Fixed bug where Mindflayer projectiles would be unaffected by Reflective Coating effect
  
• Player movement when Panicked should be less erratic
  
• Added a frame rate cap
  
• Fixed problem where Crimson King would get stuck in a state where he would no longer attack
  
• Fixed bug where the Zombie Naturalist Vine Strike would stay spawned and keep growing in size after the Zombie is killed
  
• Fixed issue with normal music failing to resume when transitioning floors with the Bards Music Box playing
  
• Emperor Penguin now bounces off players when sliding
  
• Changed the mesh of the Blinding Mine in the Light Biome to better distinguish it from the gold coins
  
• Added a sound effect that plays when stepping on a Blinding Mine
  
• Holy Priestess now attacks with the gold ring variation of the Ground Pound attack occasionally if a player is too close to her
  
• Fixed bug where the second set of vines on the Great Pumpkin might push the player above the field of play
  

This update should simply fix the issue from the previous version where Achievements did not unlock. Please let me know if it does not work.

-Grant

Small update that fixes Great Pumpkin boss fight never starting when playing as Paladin.

• New Playable Class: Paladin
  
• New Dark Biome
  
• New Boss: Shadow Tamer and Shadow Beast
  
• Six New Enemies: Ogre, Skeleton, Elite Goblin, Ringer, Noxian, Prairie Cat
  
• Added an in game Shop with 11 consumable items that can be used: Health Potion, Mana Potion, Stamina Potion, Big Shot, Big Swing, 3 Random Level Ups, Random Essence, Reflective Coating, Magnetic Field, Life Seed, 3 Bombs
  
• Added second Beastiary entries for all enemies
  
• Various balance fixes
  

Thank you all for buying and playing The Baleful Tower!

Over the past couple months, I've been working on a major update, which will be out soon. I have already sent out updates with minor fixes based on your feedback, but this upcoming update will have a lot of new stuff for you all.

First of all is the addition of consumable items and a shop that appears at random floors, three times for each Biome. The shop has three random items each time. The different items are

• Big Shot -- Temporarily increases the size of your melee weapon
  
• Big Swing -- Temporarily increases the size of all your projectiles
  
• Health Potion -- Restores Health
  
• Mana Potion -- Restores Mana
  
• Stamina Potion -- Restores all ability cooldowns
  
• 3 Random Level Ups -- Using this spawns 3 Random Level Ups to increase player stats/skills
  
• Random Essence -- Using this spawns a Random Essence, like those the Zombie versions of previous players drop when defeated
  
• 3 Bombs -- 3 Bombs to use against enemies
  
• Life Seed -- One time revive that is used immediately upon death
  
• Magnetic Field -- Nearby items move towards player temporarily
  
• Reflective Coating -- Temporarily bounce back enemy projectiles