This is it. I am proud to share with you all Version 1.00 of The Baleful Tower. It’s pretty wild for me that this project has finally reached a point where I can reasonably consider it “done.” Sure, I will definitely take time to support it as needed, but I think I’ve included just about everything I can from the notebook of ideas I’ve spent the past several years filling. I originally started actively working on this game over four years ago, but I originally began sketching out enemies and thinking about player classes years before then. Since I started active development on The Baleful Tower, back in my childhood bedroom during the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve graduated from college with my Bachelor’s Degree, I started my first “real” job and, just within this past month, I started a new job that had me move across the country, leaving my longtime home in the American Midwest for its Southeastern region. And throughout all the major life changes and events that have occurred throughout those years, I’ve been picking away bit by bit, some weeks much more actively than others, to try and finish creating what I originally had in mind all those years ago.
I’m immensely grateful for each and every one of you that has spent your time and money on this little side project of mind. While I am going to focus more on my new job and my next game (I’ve been turning an idea over in my head for about a year now, but didn’t want to actually start working on it until I finished The Baleful Tower), please reach out if you encounter any issues or need support, and I will be happy to assist. I will still be providing support as needed, but this is the end of the planned content and feature updates.
This new update contains the last of the twelve player classes I had originally envisioned: The Kinetic. The Kinetic is kind of like a battlemage that relies on telekinetic abilities. They have no physical weapons to speak of, but can conjure spinning blades, projectiles and shields through the sheer force of their minds. For their three active abilities, they can call forth weights from the sky that fall and crush the enemies before them, repel all nearby enemies in a strong mental blast or pull far away foes towards them, so that they may dispatch them with their strong melee attacks. Their mental control over the material world can also harm foes in a more passive manner, as well, for their Essence grants their attacks the chance to cause their enemies muscles to atrophy, Slowing them for a period of time. I really enjoyed working on this class and playing it in my testing. It was really fun to pull enemies in and then force them away with a Repelling Blast. I hope you will like it as much as I do. I’ve also added the Final Biome, the end of the Baleful Tower. This biome is a combination of all the dangers you have seen before, with the environmental hazards from all nine previous biomes appearing within. It is also home to three powerful exclusive enemies: the Magos, Minotaur and Valkyrie. In addition to these three, I have added three more enemies that may appear in the other biomes: the Chomper, Manticore and what might be the silliest of my creations: the Bowler, who throws their ball in a curved trajectory, and it also makes a strike sound if it hits its target. At Floor 99 resides the Baleful Guardian, the final boss of the Baleful Tower. She is a fearsome adversary that combines attacks from all prior bosses and all playable classes in a deadly fight. If you manage to defeat the Baleful Guardian, you will find the core of the tower on Floor 100. Destroy it to see the ending movie as well as unlock some new features for subsequent runs. The first of which is the fact that while the Tower may have physical limits on the outside, inside it continues forever. Players may continue beyond the 100th floor, but they will find greater challenges. In particular, they will need to fight more bosses at the end of each biome. For example, in Floor 110, the players will need to defeat the Emperor Penguin as well as a random other boss. At Floor 210, they will fight the Emperor Penguin and two other random bosses. This continues until players are fighting all ten bosses at the end of each biome. If a player has already cleared 100 floors, they may skip straight to that point and start their journey from there. The other fun new feature that gets unlocked upon clearing 100 floors is the Boss Rush Mode. In this, players will fight all the bosses in rapid succession, and, like with the previous new feature, after they fight through all ten, they can keep going and fight two, three, four, etc. at a time. In addition to all these new features, I have included some more bug fixes and balance tweaks. The full patch notes are listed below.
I also would like to take a moment to thank everyone that has helped me during this development process. I would not have been able to make this without your support. In particular, I would like to thank Alex Hahn, Jake Adkins, Shafer Hess, Troy Gayman, Jamison Whitaker, Spencer Seim, J.D. Crites, Jared Botte, Roman Cyliaz, Will Cross, Cal Siers, Rylan Smith, Anthony Geraci, Sunny Judge, Raviteja Vajja, Sadid Khan, Zach Neuhofer, Vidit Pandya, Akul Ghormade, Skyler Brown, Adam Kubicek, Jim Adkins, James Adkins and Annette Adkins.
Thank you and enjoy, Grant
Added the Kinetic Class
Added Final Biome and Baleful Guardian Boss
Added 6 new enemy types
Chomper
Bowler
Manticore
Magos - Final Biome Exclusive
Minotaur - Final Biome Exclusive
Valkyrie - Final Biome Exclusive
Added ending video on 100th Floor
Added feature that when players continue beyond the 100th floor, they face an additional boss in each type for every loop through the 100 floors. For example, on Floor 110, players will fight the Emperor Penguin and a random other boss. On Floor 210, they will face the Emperor Penguin and two random other bosses. This continues until players fight all ten bosses in every boss fight.
If a player has cleared a multiple of 100 floors, then they are now able to skip to their highest cleared multiple of 100 and start from there, with an appropriate level set for each of their stats.
In online multiplayer, this is determined by the hosting player’s highest cleared floor
Added a new Boss Rush Mode that is unlocked after beating the 100th floor for the first time.
In online multiplayer, players who have unlocked Boss Rush Mode can host sessions with it enabled
Added all Bosses to the Bestiary
Added sound effects for the bosses’ attacks
In multiplayer games, if one player is trying to exit the floor, and other players are too far away, in addition to prompting the player to gather their party, all players too far from the exit are now prompted to head towards it.
Adjusted the goal threshold setting for longer runs that exceed the amount of unique floors to be more reasonable
Increased Player Ability Strength scaling by 20%
Tripled the Burrg’s possible ranged attack inaccuracy
Lowered Burrg’s starting health
Increased Skeleton move speed
Lowered minimum possible Withstand Damage Goal Threshold on Daydream difficulty from 33% of the average max health of all players to 12.5%
Reduced player roll animation rate scaling per Speed level by 33.3%
Fixed issue with UI scaling in Mac versions making the Hints Page too big for the screen
Randomized the starting positions of the Gorgon’s Statues
Fixed bug where Fishmonger’s Shark Fins, Zombie Bard’s Harp Throw and half of the Crimson King’s
Firewalls would turn invisible on client in online multiplayer upon their first collision with a wall
Fixed bug where none of the Zombie buff effects would appear on clients in online multiplayer
Fixed bug where the client would crash in online multiplayer games on the ending of Ranger’s Poison Arrows buff
Fixed issue where Radslug wastes would damage player if their melee weapons collides with it
Fixed bug where the “Saving Game” popup would appear at moments where it was not actually performing a save operation
Fixed bug where Player 1’s items would duplicate to Player 2
Fixed issues with music playing inconsistently on clients in online Multiplayer
Tried to fix issues with the camera not exiting Spectator Mode in online multiplayer when a player is revived. I am not going to say that this will never happen again, but it should be incredibly rare, and if it does happen, there is another backup where the first time the revived player attempts any action, that the camera should snap back to focus on their character.
Introducing the Ranger Class - Early Access Version 0.60
Hello All,
This update for The Baleful Tower contains the 11th of the planned 12 character classes: the Ranger. The Ranger, as the name would suggest, is another ranged focused class, with some very powerful abilities. The first is Poison Arrows, when activated, all of the Ranger’s ranged attacks will poison their targets upon collision, in addition to dealing damage. The Ranger also has the ability to place Traps throughout the map, immobilizing enemies that walk into them, and deal damage to their Ensnared captive repeatedly over time. Perhaps most important for the Ranger is the ability to summon their Wolf companion. The Ranger’s Wolves are incredibly strong, loyal summons that can tear through enemies at close range, while the Ranger lobbies arrows from afar. Unlike the Necromancer, who can summon up to 7 of the Skeletal Warriors, Rangers can only have one Wolf at their side at any given time, however the might of the single Wolf is markedly greater than that of a single Skeletal Warrior. All of these abilities are supplemented by the Ranger’s Essence: Hunter’s Resilience. Whenever the Ranger would have normally succumbed to some ailment, such as getting Frozen or Panicked, there is a chance that the Ranger immediately recovers, and this chance increases at higher values of their Essence. In addition to the new Ranger class, this update also adds in the penultimate biome in The Baleful Tower: the Monochrome Biome. This biome is notably different from the others in its containing more elaborate and mechanical hazards and enemies, with a soundtrack inspired by industrial rock music to match. The first of new enemies that can only be found in the Monochrome Biome is the Rover, a small, tank-like enemy that can shoot a fast, high powered rocket from one side and emit a powerful particle beam attack from the other. There is also the Mecah-Droid, tall mechanical foes, all hard metal and whirring gears, that leap onto their foes, viciously slicing at them with their massive blades. The last of the enemies exclusive to the Monochrome Biome is the Chronomancer, mages whose spell attacks have a chance at Slowing their targets, causing them to move and attack at half speed for some time. This magic that the Chronomancers use exists throughout all the floors in the Monochrome Biome, which are littered with clocks on the ground, spinning at all manner of different speeds, slowing down any intruder who walks over them. All these mechanical creations are the products of the boss of the Monochrome Biome: The Artificer. The Artificer might first appear unimposing, a relatively small fellow flying around on the hovercraft he fashioned for himself, but from his control console on that craft, he can unleash a litany of deadly attacks onto the players. At any point, a series of rapidly spinning blades might expand out from the base of his craft, dealing repeated damage to all nearby opponents. He might also issue commands to the satellite dishes positioned in the corners of the room, which will then send out a series of drone projectiles that will fly across the map, launching smaller projectiles from their sides at regular intervals. He will also constantly call forth windup soldiers that will chase after the intruding players and explode after a short time, damaging all within the blast radius. As the Artificer sustains damage from the player, he will engage some more countermeasures, such as using some of the Chronomancer’s magic to create “slow zones” in the floor, which regularly expand and contract, slowing all players and summons in their radius. Lastly, the Artificer will erect shields that orbit around himself, in hopes of blocking incoming attacks. All of this combines to make the Artificer likely the greatest challenge players might face, so far, in The Baleful Tower. In addition to these regular updates, I’ve added some quality of life improvements, per some greatly appreciated player feedback. The first of which is having the goal for each floor popup over the player’s head at the beginning of the floor, making it abundantly clear to players who might be in a bit of a rush what the objective is. I’ve also made a Hints Page that can be accessed via the Pause or Main Menus. This lists all the controls as well as descriptions for all the items available to purchase at the shop and some general tips about some of the more obtuse mechanics in the game. And lastly, I’ve added sound effects that play whenever enemies fire their ranged attacks, in hopes of increasing the sense of immersion and providing some additional player awareness to the combat situation at any given time. If everything goes as planned, the next update for The Baleful Tower will be the official 1.00 release. I set out over four years ago now, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, to make a game containing all the ideas that I had occasionally jotted down in an old notebook for several years, and have been working on it in some capacity in my spare time ever since. Now, we are getting close to having what I envisioned all those years ago finally existing in a complete package. I’m proud of the work I have done so far to get to this point, and I am immeasurably grateful to all of you who have given me your hard earned money in exchange for my work, and I am especially grateful to those who have reached out with feedback and have helped me shape this game into the best version of itself. I cannot wait to have the full picture finally in place in the coming months.
Thank you and enjoy, Grant
Added the Ranger Class
Added Monochrome Biome and Artificer Boss
Added 10 new enemy types
Kobold
Slicer
Salamander
Troll
Frog
Harpy
Radar
Rover - Monochrome Biome Exclusive
Mecah-Droid - Monochrome Biome Exclusive
Chronomancer - Monochrome Biome Exclusive
Added new Slow ailment
Renamed Entangled ailment “Ensnared”
Added a Hints pages that display some useful information, accessible via the Pause and Main Menus
Floor goal now pops up above the player’s head at the beginning of each floor
Added sound effects for enemy projectiles
Lowered unlock threshold values for Pugilist
Fixed issue where Groovy’s attack would not cause Summons to dance if they enter the area of effect
Playing the tutorial now has the player play as any of the unlocked player classes, selected at random
The Zombie at the end of the tutorial now can be one of any of the classes available in the game, irregardless of the class’s unlock status
Replaced two of the statues in the Gorgon fight with statue versions of the Ranger
Gorgon projectile explodes into smaller projectiles upon collision now, in addition to after a period of time
Disabled collision for Statues after Gorgon is defeated
Fixed a bug where Gorgon would sometimes not die when her health reaches 0
Introducing the Pugilist Class - Early Access Version 0.50
Hello All,
This next update for The Baleful Tower features the addition of the 10th playable character class, the Pugilist. The Pugilist is unlocked by killing enemies with melee attacks, which is fitting, since it is very much a melee oriented class. Pugilists specialize in quick melee attacks, allowing them to deal considerable damage in a short period of time. Their abilities consist of Flurry of Blows, a combo of ten rapid strikes, Flaming Fists, which allow all their melee attacks to have a good chance to burn enemies and the Flying Kick, which sends them soaring across the map, damaging all that fall in their wake. In addition, the Pugilist has an incredibly useful essence: whenever they are hit by a melee attack, there is a chance that the Pugilist automatically lands a counter on the attacker. I really had a great time playing this class in my testing prior to release, and I think you all will too.
In addition to the Pugilist, there is now also the new Rock Biome, lorded over by the Gorgon boss on Floor 80. The Rock Biome is home to three powerful exclusive enemies: the Rock and Roller, a tag team partnership between two enemies, the Eye Blight, whose ominous gaze has a chance to Petrify players where they stand, and the Golem, a powerful lumbering melee attack who swings its giant stone fists at players. In addition, there are also seven other new enemies added in this update, such as the Radslug, which leaves behind a toxic trail that players must avoid, the Medic, who instead of attacking the player heals its allies, and Groovy, a sentient disco ball that, when it gets the party started, compels all nearby players to cease fighting and start dancing.
The Rock Biome culminates in a fight with the powerful Gorgon. Like the Eye Blight, the Gorgon’s gaze can Petrify players, leaving them immobile and vulnerable to incoming attacks. In fact, the 80th floor is filled with previous adventurers who suffered from the Gorgon’s might. At first, the two dozen statues of different adventurers remain static, potentially obstructing the field of play for the two combatants. But soon after the fighting starts, some of the statues will reanimate and attack the players on behalf of the Gorgon. Similar to the Zombies that populate the Tower after an adventurer’s death, these statues use the same attacks and abilities that players have turned against the vile creatures they’ve encountered on their quest. Unlike those enemies, however, these statues cannot die. Instead, when they have received enough damage, they return to their static state, but they will almost certainly be reactivated soon thereafter. The amount of statues that get activated is inversely proportional to the Gorgon’s health, to the point that as it gets perilously close to death, all 24 statues will bear their full might on the players. I think this is a really fun and exciting boss fight, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.
As you can see, development of The Baleful Tower is proceeding wonderfully. I really enjoy making this game and getting to share it with you all. Thank you so much for playing it. We are getting close to the end of the features I have planned, and look forward to releasing the official version 1.0 sometime in the future.
Enjoy, Grant
Added the Pugilist Class
Added Rock Biome and Gorgon Boss
Added 10 new enemy types
Nightclaw
Centurion
Radslug
Groovy
Lich
Spineback
Medic
Rock and Roller - Rock Biome Exclusive
Eye Blight - Rock Biome Exclusive
Golem - Rock Biom Exclusive
Added new Petrify ailment
Doubled Rogue Essences’ impact to triggering Precise Shots
Doubled Barbarian Essences’ impact to triggering Brutal Strikes
Increased Bard Essence impact to Gold collected by a multiple of 5
Doubled Assassin Essences’ impact to Critical Hit chance
Fixed missing melee collider in Blaze enemy
Fixed Zombie Barbarian only playing animation to catch Spinning Ax on server and not clients
Fixed Zombie Bard never playing animation to catch Harp Throw
Zombie Bomb abilities now scale their attack with the Zombie’s stats
Fixed inconsistent behavior of Esc key in game
Fixed bug where some Bestiary kills would not be saved between game sessions
Local Co Op Now Available - Early Access Version 0.40
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.
I’ve 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
Introducing the Necromancer Class (Early Access Version 0.30)
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 Necromancer’s 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 Necromancer’s 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 Paladin’s 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, I’ve also worked on various minor changes in hopes of correcting balance and improving stability. I’m very proud of the work I’ve 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
Online Co Op and Graphical Update
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 parent’s 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 it’s 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 Bard’s 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
Quick Fix to Achievements
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
Minor Fix
Small update that fixes Great Pumpkin boss fight never starting when playing as Paladin.
Early Access Version 0.10
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
Minor Fixes and Upcoming Major Update
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
Also coming in this new update is the Paladin class, a lumbering, defensive power house that can blind enemies, use bombs that cause a chain reaction of explosions as well as powerful melee attacks.
In addition this all this is another Biome: The Dark Biome, which has spiderwebs that bind the player in place. There is also going to be 6 new enemies and a new boss fight at the end of the new Biome.
I look forward to sharing it with you all. I plan of having this update out by the end of next week, if all goes well. Thank you all for playing it, and I hope you all enjoy what's to come.
I’ve also added the Final Biome, the end of the Baleful Tower. This biome is a combination of all the dangers you have seen before, with the environmental hazards from all nine previous biomes appearing within. It is also home to three powerful exclusive enemies: the Magos, Minotaur and Valkyrie. In addition to these three, I have added three more enemies that may appear in the other biomes: the Chomper, Manticore and what might be the silliest of my creations: the Bowler, who throws their ball in a curved trajectory, and it also makes a strike sound if it hits its target. At Floor 99 resides the Baleful Guardian, the final boss of the Baleful Tower. She is a fearsome adversary that combines attacks from all prior bosses and all playable classes in a deadly fight. 
If you manage to defeat the Baleful Guardian, you will find the core of the tower on Floor 100. Destroy it to see the ending movie as well as unlock some new features for subsequent runs. The first of which is the fact that while the Tower may have physical limits on the outside, inside it continues forever. Players may continue beyond the 100th floor, but they will find greater challenges. In particular, they will need to fight more bosses at the end of each biome. For example, in Floor 110, the players will need to defeat the Emperor Penguin as well as a random other boss. At Floor 210, they will fight the Emperor Penguin and two other random bosses. This continues until players are fighting all ten bosses at the end of each biome. If a player has already cleared 100 floors, they may skip straight to that point and start their journey from there. The other fun new feature that gets unlocked upon clearing 100 floors is the Boss Rush Mode. In this, players will fight all the bosses in rapid succession, and, like with the previous new feature, after they fight through all ten, they can keep going and fight two, three, four, etc. at a time.
In addition to all these new features, I have included some more bug fixes and balance tweaks. The full patch notes are listed below.
In addition to the new Ranger class, this update also adds in the penultimate biome in The Baleful Tower: the Monochrome Biome. This biome is notably different from the others in its containing more elaborate and mechanical hazards and enemies, with a soundtrack inspired by industrial rock music to match. The first of new enemies that can only be found in the Monochrome Biome is the Rover, a small, tank-like enemy that can shoot a fast, high powered rocket from one side and emit a powerful particle beam attack from the other. There is also the Mecah-Droid, tall mechanical foes, all hard metal and whirring gears, that leap onto their foes, viciously slicing at them with their massive blades. The last of the enemies exclusive to the Monochrome Biome is the Chronomancer, mages whose spell attacks have a chance at Slowing their targets, causing them to move and attack at half speed for some time. This magic that the Chronomancers use exists throughout all the floors in the Monochrome Biome, which are littered with clocks on the ground, spinning at all manner of different speeds, slowing down any intruder who walks over them.
All these mechanical creations are the products of the boss of the Monochrome Biome: The Artificer. The Artificer might first appear unimposing, a relatively small fellow flying around on the hovercraft he fashioned for himself, but from his control console on that craft, he can unleash a litany of deadly attacks onto the players. At any point, a series of rapidly spinning blades might expand out from the base of his craft, dealing repeated damage to all nearby opponents. He might also issue commands to the satellite dishes positioned in the corners of the room, which will then send out a series of drone projectiles that will fly across the map, launching smaller projectiles from their sides at regular intervals. He will also constantly call forth windup soldiers that will chase after the intruding players and explode after a short time, damaging all within the blast radius. As the Artificer sustains damage from the player, he will engage some more countermeasures, such as using some of the Chronomancer’s magic to create “slow zones” in the floor, which regularly expand and contract, slowing all players and summons in their radius. Lastly, the Artificer will erect shields that orbit around himself, in hopes of blocking incoming attacks. All of this combines to make the Artificer likely the greatest challenge players might face, so far, in The Baleful Tower.
In addition to these regular updates, I’ve added some quality of life improvements, per some greatly appreciated player feedback. The first of which is having the goal for each floor popup over the player’s head at the beginning of the floor, making it abundantly clear to players who might be in a bit of a rush what the objective is. I’ve also made a Hints Page that can be accessed via the Pause or Main Menus. This lists all the controls as well as descriptions for all the items available to purchase at the shop and some general tips about some of the more obtuse mechanics in the game. And lastly, I’ve added sound effects that play whenever enemies fire their ranged attacks, in hopes of increasing the sense of immersion and providing some additional player awareness to the combat situation at any given time.
If everything goes as planned, the next update for The Baleful Tower will be the official 1.00 release. I set out over four years ago now, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, to make a game containing all the ideas that I had occasionally jotted down in an old notebook for several years, and have been working on it in some capacity in my spare time ever since. Now, we are getting close to having what I envisioned all those years ago finally existing in a complete package. I’m proud of the work I have done so far to get to this point, and I am immeasurably grateful to all of you who have given me your hard earned money in exchange for my work, and I am especially grateful to those who have reached out with feedback and have helped me shape this game into the best version of itself. I cannot wait to have the full picture finally in place in the coming months.
