Things always take a bit longer than expected, but at least a lot of the initial dungeon dressings are now created, as well as most of the spells and skills effect. In this game, the player plays a Magica, so spells is of course the main arsenal. But he also draws training from the Brotherhood, more focused on trap-avoidance and dagger usage, as well as Ka-Zabar the unnarmed martial arts in Shadowrest. Toying with concept for a 'game trailer', I think something with the enclosed video will be 'it' for now, will try to reduce the flickering on the closeup and trim in a lot shorter. Anyway, here are some footage that portrays the game fairly decent. Find loot (items to use, money to spend on the bard, spells, skills and stuff to wear), explore the dungeons, kill the opponents, fight the bosses, destroy the orbs to gain access to the lich tower. Sounds easy, but its not. Game takes around 20 min per dungeon to complete, so with 4 dungeons needing to be conquered, one sucessfull run will take around 1.5 hrs. But dont worry, you won't get that far.
Class selector And now that the worst bugs are sorted out, it is almost time to submit the first build to appstore. Not all content will be released at once though, so there are already new features, items, spells, monsters and dungeons ready to be submitted. Enclosed is the 'class selector' screen. Unlike a traditional rougelike where the player plays a warrior, mage or thief, the classes in LTOD is all variants of the mage class. Mage-thief, battle mage, adventurer etc etc. Some classes are easier to start off with, some will perhaps give greater benefits later on. Spells and skills in this game have to be found (or bought at random), and there is a finite number the player can have. The starting skills/spells are set though, and are part of the players 'knowlengde in life'.
Final stages ! Hello Hans getting cold here in Norway now ! Anyway, what is getting hotter is appstore submitting. It was an even longer delay as the game will be shipped with 7 dungeons instead of the originaly intended 4 (3 on hold until it got clear there was a market or not for this game.. but its only money, right ?).. So total 'stuff' count now is: 7 unique locations, player needs to defeat 3 to gain access to the 4'th and final. each location has 6 unique monsters (4 'grinders' and 2 boss types) + the pestering assassin, adding up for a total of 43 different things to kill. Even by scimping number of frames down to a minimum, that is still 504 painfully pixel created frames of monsters.. not counting the near 200 frames for the hero mage and his ka-zabar skills. For stuff to be found there is around 30 consumable items.. mostly potions, but also wands, scrolls, throwing daggers and .. 'stuff'. For skills there are 20, 16 spells and equipable stuff: daggers,staff,books,robes,amulets and rings, each one with 5-6 varied art images. So it will take a while to actualy have seen it all. Combatvise it should be easy to do.. select melee attack or magic attack, and stuff happens based on your varied active and passive skills. Or boost/aid with a little rage potion. You have limited number of spells and skills, and the combination of them + combination of items determines the behaviour of the mage. So you need a little 'luck' finding what you need when you need it, but it is also desicions to be made what item to keep, how to spend your money (on permanent bard boosts, that increases in strength for each successive purchase, or buy items from the merchant who have higher stats than what you find in the current dungeon.. or do you spend an entire item slot and 40 gold on a town portal scroll, the only way to pop back and buy some mana when you have entered a dungeon). No archivements, but players get a final dungeon score, based on number of steps survived, monsters killed, treasures found etc etc, and can raise the leaderboard. I added a new gameplay video that shows bits and elements from the various dungeons. So if you like or think you like a slow paced, procedural generated rougelike-boardgame thing, remember to pick it up.. further additions to the game is just screaming to be created, but needs some hard cash to be realised. An average game will last 30-60 mins with ending of heros death. Knowing what dungeon to visit with your current skills, what monsters to try avoid etc will tip the odds in your favour. Finding a boss is also a dual edgded blade. They all have the potential to be the last opponent the player sees in the game, and without some tricks in the bag, it is perhaps better to not engage them. Sometimes the player dont have the choice though, as a teleporter trap might bring them right into the lions den. So pro tip: dont be sloppy on having low health and energy on the boss levels ! Nothings stings more than dying with a lot of mana in reserve. Expect 60-100 mins for a complete success. But don't expect success, because you will fail)
Congratulations on the submission! Lich Tower of Doom looks amazing, will it still be iPad only without iPhone/iPod compatibility?
Hi, it is not_in submission_, it is very close. Hopfully early next week. Missing is a few torch animations and a level 'sealer' (previous level is closed off as you enter a new one, and a visual cue is given). The entire setup is unfortunatly not fitted for iphone, it is not a matter of scaling and repositioning elements. I did start to try slice and cut, but ended up with something that would have been a total different game. For a little while I speculated on doing that: 2 different games in one build, but it got too 'hairy' (is that an english expression ? So for now, the game as is will be an Ipad release, its entire design and playstyle does not suit anything smaller than a mini. As there are so much assets though, a followup game that will play on iPhone is intended, but it will play differently (same theme, setting, chars etc though)
Thanks Bool. Purchases are good, because then there is money to give to the artist so they can create more stuff. And on a personal note Id like nothing more than adding a lot of new stuff, mini quests, more monsters, more spells, more variations in animations, more everything, Id guess that the more of these games top of my head- you have enjoyed to some level, the greater the chance you get your dollars worth (and more) from LTOD (and vica versa): Dungelot, Dungeon plunder,King Cashing/Tower of Fortune, Cardinal Quest/Cavern/100 rouges/Sword of Fargoal/Rouge Touch, bit dungeon, Deep Dungeons of Doom, Knights of Pen and Paper. To go a bit back to the question of Iphone: I dont think LTOD is so perfect for a iPhone, in the same way I dont think slaying plays very well on an iPad. It is not impossible to do though, and I have ran some tests. It requires manual repositioning of several hundred of the 1700 current graphical assets, as well as text, changing the button system etc etc. If there is a market for this game though, the porting is an option we might do. If there is not a marked, the assets will more likely go into a different game in same setting, perhaps better fitted for smaller game-runs- typically a game will last around the same time as a 10000000 game. But time and market will tell. The exiting part is that this game will either drown into appstore sea of forgotten titles, or generate enough players to keep going for a while with expansions etc With, no IAP, this game will not go free.. ever, under no circumstances. So if interested, just pick it up once released. Or ask here for any pre-purchase questions you might have for the dollars
Hi, the name is stuck at Lich tower of doom, as title descibes. When final build is uploaded in the very near future, "rpg" or other silly extensions might be added for the pure reason to add more search words in appstore
We got a bit issues on final build, so delay is about 3 weeks more than wanted (dont ask me, you will get a very angry reply from me what happened ) Anyway, the game is now on apple review stack. So, why should you buy this game ? Well, if you like the concept, support it ! It is as simple as that. Already a first (FREE !) expansion is in the making with more enemies and more hero actions. also (FREE !), we want to add rescue 'ops, special treasure rooms, minor quests, more enemy responses, more enemies, more treasures, more actions, more stuff, more loot, more ... MORE !!! More do cost money, and even this is not a venture to earn lots of money (pretty far from it as the game is pretty far from any mainstream popularity), people do need to get payed. We want to do it withouth IAP. Buy once, play forever, and get any new content forever as long as new purchases somwhat makes up for it. So that's why you should buy Buy this game, rest assured the money brought in will be spent enhancing the game.
Calculords, City Card Nights and now this? My wife won't be seeing very much of me! You sir, have another sale here. Money in hand with my finger on the buy button. Very solid looking game, and you're constant updates show you also care about your audience. Job very well done!!!
Confidence hopflully well placed (gulp ) It is only so much I can do with the budget, and so much planned that are still on the 'to do' list. I am unfortunatly cursed with the 'want to please' gene, combined with 30 years of gaming geeknes... I know it cannot satisfy all, and even for a ridiculous low asking price (anticipated sales vs cost to create), all I can say in honeslty is that it is created with love, and all and any fund exessing cost to create will go uncut into expanding into the 'ultimate' vision.
