I'd like to thank all players who played the game! This patch should fix the big issue preventing player to beat properly certain bosses.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a game breaking issue whenever the first and last boss take deadly damage while channeling attack, causing the game to lock himself forever without resolving the battle.
Fixed an issue where status effect on biggy would not display any tooltip.
Let me know if that helps!
Bug fixes and some quick balance changes
Thank you all for your patience, this patch should hopefully fix all the main issues encountered. Thank you for your feedbacks and let me know if any other issues remain. I know the game is pretty short, it is my very first game and was made without funding. The final price was chosen to reflect that. I hope you’ll still have good time.
Balance Changes
Notes: The current difficulty of the game was slightly easier than intended because of previous character’s and emblems buffs. The following changes should increased the difficulty of the second area and the last boss of the game.
Increased The Eye (last boss) base defense from 10 to 22.
Increased The Eye’s base damage from 8 to 10.
Increased Dimension Hole’s base HP from 50 to 100.
Decreased Dimension Hole’s base defense from 99 to 10.
Decreased the amount of gold dropped by boss fights from 100 to 50.
Increased Despair’s base HP from 25 to 30.
Increased Obelisk’s base HP from 40 to 45.
Increased Bee’s base HP from 30 to 36.
Increased Bee’s base defense from 3 to 5.
Increased Gobbler’s base HP from 35 to 42.
Increased Gobbler’s base defense from 4 to 5.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue whit the Eye (last boss) which could make the combat locked for an infinite amount of
time.
Fixed an issue with Pandy’s Wrap capacity which did not worked as intended vs bosses.
Fixes an issue where it was still possible to collect more sample for the Biologist Quest even if the required number was gathered. The amount required has been added to the tooltip (3 samples are required).
Fixed an issue where the biologist could not appear after collecting the minimum amount of sample for his quest (you should be able to see him again in the next “?” encounter right after collecting 3 samples).
Fixed an issue with the amount of gold gained from killing Bulbo enemy (you could gain up to 100 gold just from this enemy alone, which was not intended).
1.0 Hotfix 1
I'd like to thank all players who played the game! Thank you for your feedbacks, I'll try to adress all issues as soon as possible. Here is a first hotfix for most common issues. Hope to get the game in a better state for you!
Bug Fixes
Fixes an issue linked to UI animation which could break the game when entering a new area.
Fixes an issue with the target lock visual being on a dead enemy’s spot after the use of “Wild Touch” (Krouet’s capacity).
Fixes an issue with “Fall of the Giant” (Reyna’s capacity) not properly exiting the channeling state, causing an incorrect action bubbles display.
Fixes an issue with Eggborn enemy showing incorrect defense number after successful hatching.
Fixes an issue with the group manager UI, blocking players from making any change in the active party of characters.
Fixes an issue with The Swarm (second boss) locking him in a infinite cycle of invocation.
Fixes another issue with this boss allowing him to attack two times in a row.
Fixes an issue with the Eye (last boss) breaking the game after the use of “Wrap” (Pandy’s capacity).
Know Issue: There is an issue with the shop which can lock the game and can prevent you from making any progress. I’m still investigating this problem and will deploy a new patch as soon as I identify what cause the issue.
Tower of Spirit 1.0
Tower of Spirit 1.0 is finally available and “finished”. I know that this surprise release with no announcement or any kind of prior communication may come as a surprise, I'm not going to lie to you, Tower of Spirit is still not in a state that suits me 100%. But I believe achieving such a result is impossible today for several reasons which have slowed down the game's development for 2 years now, affecting my mental health and my desire to work on this game.
Where all begin I'm a self-taught developer. I started early 2021, developing a metroidvania on my own inspired by Hollow Knight. I learned programming, drawing and 2D frame by frame animation on this project, but a year later, I was still a long way from being able to show it off publicly, or to predict any kind of release date. It was a complex project, too ambitious for me and built on shaky foundations. After this year working on it, I made the difficult decision to kill the project. The idea was to start something new, with a drastically reduced scope, releasable in a few months on steam with a view to using it as a calling card to get a job in the industry. That's how Tower of Spirit was born. The idea was born in January 2022 and released in July of the same year on Steam in Early Access.
Failure and Opportunity Unfortunately, I didn't do a very good job with the marketing campaign, as communication really started a week before release. When the game was released, it had less than 100 wishlists. But that wasn't the only reason for his failure, or even the main one in my opinion. On release, the game was very short and sorely lacking in content (only one area with 4 different enemies, a single boss, 4 playable characters and some twenty emblems) and depth. A lot of time had been spent on the visual aspect of the game, and in particular its animations (over 500 frames at the time, all drawn and colored by myself). A lot of game design issues result both from the speedy development and my lack of experience and knowledge. So, unsurprisingly, the game didn't live up to expectations. At that time, I was starting to run out of money and needed to find a solution quickly, so I signed up for my first professional event in France. This event end up changing a lot in my life. I met a lot of cool devs and some publishers. That’s how I ended up working at an indie studio as a programmer even with my lack of knowledge and experience at the time.
Complicate experience and hiatus The job opportunity meant I had less time to focus on Tower of Spirit. And it becomes more and more painful to go back to the project while working full on other games. The experience at the studio was not that great either, most of my coworkers were really nice people, but management was problematic and ended up causing a lot of serious issues. We had layoff, harassment, impulsive, bad decisions and no reconsideration even when it was clear those provoked more and more issues. It was almost impossible for me to work on ToS at the time and the more time I spent outside of this game the less I wanted to go back. That is why the game received very few patches and content updates and I’m sorry for that.
Long story short, by the end of my contract, I had the opportunity to work on some prototypes for another studio. This studio was also a publisher, and a few months later they made a really amazing offer to me: financing my next game. Since last December, that’s what I've been doing full time: working on a brand new game. Obviously, Tower of Spirit was not progressing much. I still had the desire to finish it properly at the time, so I hired an artist to compose a brand new soundtrack. I prepared a lot of changes, new content and mechanics but all of this was really demanding, and I ended up not finishing anything again. Someone suggested to me that ToS was the reason I refused to take a long break from work or holidays, because it was still there, in a corner of my brain. whispering “hey, still a lot of work to do before completion!”. It’s hard to work on a game where there is no perspective of success and any content demands so much work (mostly because of the animation, but also because the code foundations were very poorly made). I've considered taking the game off steam several times so as not to have to finish it. It's also been suggested that I release it as is, with no new content. But all these options seemed impossible, and even if the game only had a small number of players, I didn't want to let down all my efforts. But no progress was made.
Ending Two weeks ago, I talked about the game with some friends. For some reason, it clicked. I had a deadline (which is today), an idea of how to complete a very contained version of the game I wanted. It would not be perfect, far from that, but it would be okay to play and enjoy a few hours. It was my first game after all, I made a lot of mistakes doing it, but at the same time I learnt a lot from them and grew as a game dev. ToS offered me a chance in the industry, it was time to close this chapter. Thanks to all players, I hope this version will bring you some enjoyment.
Fight the final boss of the game to conclude the adventure!
Tower of Spirit got a brand new original soundtrack composed by @miguelangell960 (talented artist who also work on Tiny Rogues’ music).
Other Changes
Reworked Max HP, Max MP and Emblem Chest bonus icons to reflect more clearly the purpose of those rewards.
The shop encounter has been redesigned and now up to 3 random emblems and HP, MP or Emblem Point upgrade to buy. It should allow players more flexibility.
During events, your active party of characters stay on the screen and face the event. The events interface has been slightly reworked.
Characters now run out of the screen when you beat the boss of the area. Transition time and animation have been improved.
Changed loading screen between areas, displaying some sort of a map of the current run.
Bug Fixes
Fixes an issue with Pandy capacities that could lock the game during a battle.
Fixes an issue with the randomness of the emblem, causing multiple rolls of the same emblem.
Fixes an issue with several emblems costing more EP than expected.
Fixes an issue with damage calculation, ignoring certain conditions.
0.8e version
It's been a while! I'm still working on the game on my spare time, so obviously the game is not ready for the 1.0 release but we are slowly approaching this big milestone. This patch has a lot of stuff, major bug fixes and a new feature called Transfer which makes the Break mechanic more game changing. Next patch is coming next month with big quality of life changes so stay tuned!
Main Menu
Title Screen has been reworked entirely. Hope you’ll like it!
Character Selection now displays all the information about the character you choose. You won’t start a new run without knowing his stats and capacities (it was about time!).
Meta Progression
Permanent upgrades are gone! The meta progression in Tower of Spirit was not very interesting, as it only provides flat stats bonus. Plus, the game’s overall balance suffered a lot from it. A new system is coming next patch, more on that below.
Combat
New Transfer mechanic! Whenever you perform a Break, your character can transfer his free turn to another character of your group. It means so much synergy and strategy can be deployed and experimented with. Please note it does not change the rest of the turn order, so it is possible with a transfer that a character play two times in a row. And of course, if he’s able to perform a Break as well, he can play more or transfer to another character!
Reworked the VFX when a break is triggered.
Characters
Increased Pejius and Reyna' speed.
Kora’s passive has been reworked! The counter attack is gone and that’s for the best, since it caused countless game breaking bugs regularly. The new passive gives Kora a flat 25% critical chance on all her attacks.
Pejius’ passive has been simplified slightly to accommodate the rework of the burn status effect (see below). All his attacks apply burn status and that’s already enough considering his potential with the new burn effect.
Added a unique visual effect when Krouet’s Passive capacity is triggered.
Enemies
Decreased several enemies' speed.
Status Effect
Burn has been completely reworked! New effect : Increase damage received by 1 per stack of burn.
Some status effect’s descriptions have been changed slightly for greater clarity on the effects applied.
Status effect’s tooltip now displays the visual of the status.
Emblem
Whenever you find a new emblem and have enough emblem nodes to equip it, the emblem is automatically equipped.
Increased Thief Crest emblem’s trigger effect to 10 or 20 Gold if upgraded (previously 5 or 10 Gold if upgraded).
Added new and specific visual effects when Thief Crest is triggered.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue with specific emblems which prevent the game to continue whenever you reach the second area.
Fixed an issue with camera settings which could cause some visual and performance problems over time.
Fixed an issue with several UI elements not properly triggering sound effects when the player interacts with them.
Fixed an issue related with Biggy whenever it was rolling which prevented the channeling VFX to not show properly, since this is considered a channeling attack.
Fixed an issue with characters and enemies spawning causing performance drops over time.
Fixed an issue with on turn start effects (poison, burn,...) which could be triggered several times during a single turn.
Fixed inconsistency issue with the status effect system, which could make the same status act differently depending if it was applied on player’s characters or enemies.
Fixed an issue with the tooltip system causing performance issues over time.
Fixed a visual glitch appearing whenever a new character was added to the active group.
Fixed an issue where some basic attacks did not trigger the effects (Thief’s Gloves Emblem, MP Recovery, etc…).
Next month, a new feature will be introduced: the starting snacks! It will give players different kinds of bonus to start a new run with. The goal is to speed things up at the begining, allowing you to reach the cool part of the game faster. Some bonus are also designed to help players who struggle with the difficulty.
Without spoiling everything, here is a quick preview of one of the starting snack's effect:
More stuff are also coming next month to deeply improve the game's experience. A new character is also coming along the way (cannot guarantee it will be included in march's patch though, still a lot of design work and animation to complete before.
Thanks for the support!
0.8d version
Early Access 0.8d Version
Hello everyone,
This new patch will bring mostly quality of life changes and bug fixes (game breaking bugs should be gone with this new patch!). This month I will keep doing just that, before moving on to the last part of the content for the game next month. My goal is to release the game by the end of January 2024, so the end of Tower of Spirit is near!
Defense Changes:
+ Defense is now common for the entire group of characters. The amount is the sum of all characters' defense stat. I believe this change will help emphasize the way the player's group of characters work together, similarly as the HP and MP pool are handled since the beginning. No changes regarding enemies’ defense, it is still handled individually for them. + Defense UI for the player’s group has been significantly changed to reflect this.
Tutorial Changes:
+ Tutorial panels have been reworked entirely to reflect last gameplay changes (including those below) and give clearer information about the game specific mechanics.
Combat Changes:
+ Lower turn’s resolution speed for enemies and add specific moments for poison and burn damage when they are triggered to improve clarity. + For the same reason, the way the enemy's group attacks are displayed is changed. The proper amount of damage is now shown with the next move icons (previously, it required to mouse over the icon to display the numbers). + Reduced Bee’s speed from 18 to 11.
Emblem Changes:
+ Increased amount of gold granted by Dwarfen Emblem whenever you gain a new emblem from 8 to 15 (from 16 to 30 when upgraded). + Emblems pop out from your inventory when their effects are triggered.
Bug Fixes:
+ Fixed an issue where the Debug Console could be called by players (sorry guys!). + Fixed an issue during loading the next area of the game which can break the game loop. + Fixed an issue where trying to return to the main menu could freeze the game indefinitely. + Fixed an issue where some tutorial parts were not properly shown to the player. + Fixed an issue with Rolling Strike capacity tooltip not showing proper number for damage. + Fixed an issue where the amount of damage displayed in the tooltip could be different from the amount shown for the enemy intent.
Added new transitions between Main Menu and Levels.
Break VFX is slightly changed to be more readable.
Tower of Spirit: 0.8 version is here!
Here we are, Tower of Spirit 0.8 is out!
With this update, I wanted to some quality of life changes and added some content to the existing areas of the game before moving to the finishing line of development. Most important change is the addition of mana recover whenever one of your character perform a basic attack. It should definitely speed up combat and improve the flow of the game. And we have two new enemies!
General Changes
Basic Attack now restores 2 mana (MP). It should dynamize combat a lot and encourage people to use character’s capacities more often and not just to deal with critical situations.
Add an extra tutorial panel to reflect this change.
Added some animation and feedback to the turn order UI each turn passed.
Added 2 new enemies to the game, one for each area (Despair for the Dark Cave and Bublo for the Scarlet Forest). It should definitely add some variety to both areas and unique battle scenarios.
10 new battles with unique configurations including the new enemies.
Fixed an issue with Kora’s basic attack VFX.
Balance Changes
The Fury Boss:
Lower Damage from 8 to 7
Lower Defense from 16 to 14
Lower HP from 300 to 280
The Plant:
Lower Damage from 12 to 10
Lower Defense from 5 to 4
The Obelisk:
Lower Speed from 15 to 12
Where is 1.0?
So yeah, I said I'm getting closer to the full version of the game. No precise release date yet, but I'd like to finish Tower of Spirit's development by the end of the year. More on that later.
Thanks for the support!
New content and updates are coming!
Hello there,
it's been a while since the last update. I'm still really busy with work but over the past few days I gained some new energy to work on Tower of Spirit again! Let's discuss what kind of stuff is coming in the following weeks.
Much needed Quality of Life changes
Tower of Spirit received a significant rework on several features last April with the release of the 0.7 update. Overall, I'm pretty happy with all those changes, but some stuff still need some work. That's the thing I'm currently working on:
ToS has relatively fast-paced combat (as most fight last only 2 to 3 turns), but sometimes you just don't have enough mana (MP) to keep up with the enemies. To help with this, I'll add some MP recovery to basic attack. Still testing this change on my own for now, but it's coming really soon with adequate balance changes.
Difficulty curve between the Cave and the Forest area feels a bit broken right now, mostly linked to enemies damage being too high. Expect some balancing tweaks really soon.
There are no loading screen in the game, which is kinda weird. I'm working on something to make level and menu transition better.
Some UI feels a bit off and I want things to be more juicy on that side. I'll propose some adjustements to the turn order, group and emblems manager UI soon.
New Content and State of the Early Access
ToS lack content and obvious replayability. I already pointed out last time the reasons why it takes so much time to add new content (being solo dev and working on it only on my spare time plus the amount of hand-drawn animation required to add new character or enemy).
But obviously I want to continue to make the game better. Here is my current plan:
Nyx is a new cutty creature coming with the 0.8 version of the game. She has a unique set of capacities I can't wait to share. First look at her design below. I'd like to add even more characters before the 1.0 release.
I'm working on new enemies for each area already in the game (at least one new for each one). I start thinking about alternative boss fight too, but it still required more work before I can announce anything in this regard.
I'm thinking about adding more music to the game but no details to share yet.
Emblems are in a good state right now. There are 40 unique emblems currently in the game, all having an upgraded version too. I sill want to add more as we're getting closer to the full release. I already have a list of 15 more emblems ideas, including cursed emblems which are a brand new feature I want to add soon. Biggy and Reyna also need a specific emblem like the rest of the cast.
Anyway that's all for today, you can expect a patch with small changes really really soon! Thanks
Early Access Version 0.7e
Bug Fixes + Fixed an issue where the game would soft lock itself after a battle in case it cannot find an emblem of a specific rarity. + Fixed an issue where the biologist quest would not trigger the related UI display. + Fixed an issue where prices at the shop would be 0 or miscalculated.
