Tower Escape cover
Tower Escape screenshot
Steam
Genre: Strategy, Indie

Tower Escape

Watch the developer play!
Watch Tower Escape played by the dev!

v1.8.1 - Hotfix
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

v1.8.0 - Call me a relic, call me what you will
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

v1.7.2 - Who's a good boy?
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.

v1.7.1 - Go your own way
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!

v1.6.9 - I heard her call my name
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

v1.6.6 - Who will save your soul?
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

v1.6.4 - We know the score
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!

🎃 Trick or Treat! Halloweekend wrap-up 🎃
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!

Trick or Treat! Halloween Relics and Candy!
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!
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