Tower of Spirit
Tower of Spirit Rework is here!
So, without further ado, here are the most notable changes to be found in this brand new 0.7 release!
General changes:
Your path is your choice, so choose your next encounter wisely! Decide where you want to go, what kind of danger you want to face and, of course, what kind of reward you desperately need after each battle or event!
Experience and levels have gone. But combat offers specific rewards. It's up to what you fight for!
Bonfire doesn't just restore some of your HP and MP. You can decide if you want a little bit of both, most of the MP, or craft an extra emblem node (formerly called emblem point) to equip more emblems.
Characters appear as a path to choose from, so it's easier to predict when you're going to get a new one to add to your party. You can change your party freely between encounters. It is no longer limited to the bonfire.
A complete overhaul of the user interface for events, the shop, the bonfire, and party management.
Level changes
The first area has undergone a complete overhaul, from a visual point of view! Thanks to the talented Jeanne Prigent (https://twitter.com/JanePrigent), a French artist who recently unveiled a crazy project called Deckum Demonium (https://twitter.com/DeckumDemonium). This is an interesting and atypical deck-building game about summoning demons. You should definitely check it out!
To keep up with the revision of the first area, the Scarlet Forest has undergone some minor changes.
Combat changes:
Enemy intentions are now visible. The exact amount of damage and target can be accurately predicted.
Old defense and stance systems have been combined into a single defense stat. Each character and enemy has a certain amount of defense at the start of combat. Defense doesn't reduce or prevent damage (but Guard action still does). It represents the amount of hits a unit can take before suffering a break. Yes, the break system has returned!
All of the enemies and characters have been re-balanced accordingly.
Emblem changes:
Emblems can be changed outside of combat and events. You don't have to wait for the next bonfire, you can customize and experiment with your set of emblems. Oh, and there is also a brand new interface to help you manage all of this!
Emblem upgrades are here! During certain events throughout your adventure, you will have the opportunity to upgrade your favorite emblems. They will affect the cost of the emblem or improve its effects, depending on the emblem.
You'll always see the emblems you're wearing in the left corner of your screen. This makes it easier to keep track of all the active effects while in combat!
Emblem Point becomes Emblem Node!
Some emblems have received multiple changes, including complete redesigns.
10 new emblems to play with! Tower of Spirit now has 40 unique emblems. More are on the way.
Yes, there is a lot of stuff. But where is the new area, events, enemies, bosses and playable characters? This is the next big thing I am working on to complete the content of the game before the official 1.0 release. I'm also finishing a new type of emblem that will add some spice to your adventure.
To all Moss fans, I'm sorry to announce that the character is currently disabled. After finishing all the changes and replaying the game extensively, I realized that his design and visuals were not as good as I had hoped. It was a fun addition, but I'm confident I can make him much better with a little work. Anyway, he's temporarily retired, but will be back later (probably next month).
Thanks for your support, more updates are on the way (in less than 3 months I promised).
Side notes:
I discovered a lot of indie games recently. Please check out those amazing games and don’t forget to wishlist them if your are interested:
The Wreck: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1687960/The_Wreck/
Tower Escape: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009860/Tower_Escape/
Ninja or Die: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2090980/Ninja_or_Die/
Hauntii: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2060790/Hauntii/
What comes next with v0.7
Let’s talk about the current state of the game first. Tower of Spirit is an important project for me for many reasons. First, it is my very first commercial game as someone who has only been a game dev for 2 years. Second, it’s a solo project and it means I had to come up with everything from design, art and code all by myself. Obviously, the challenge is pretty big. Everything takes time, especially when the art part is fully hand-drawn and animated frame by frame. That’s the main reason the game has a unique look, but it’s also the main reason why new content takes so long to make. Tower of Spirit artstyle is something I’m really proud, but regarding mechanics and design, there are some flaws, flaws on which I have been working for some time.
In January, I will release an important update which will change how the game works. I’ve been working on a complete rework of the run progression, the rewards and event systems. You can find below the first big changes:
- Run Progression: player will be able to choose different paths after each encounter and decide for what kind of reward they fight for. This will drastically change the flow of the game and improve decision making and replayability.
- Rewards: you gain a lot of stuff when you win a battle but most of it is meaningless when you reach a certain point. To fix that, the reward system has been reworked entirely. Each battle grants only a certain type of reward but you are part of the decision for what it is. Balance will be changed accordingly. Experience was not really reliable and kind of felt weird for a rogue-like, that’s why I'm getting rid of it. Health, mana and emblem point upgrades are still here as battle and event rewards.
- Emblem is one of the main features of the game. What kind of sucks about it is that you cannot switch them outside of the bonfire menu. It was a design choice first, but a bad one I believe. You will be able to change what emblems are equipped between encounters and the one you choose will be always visible on screen (similarly to relics in Slay the Spire or more recently Peglins), so you can always know what kind of benefit you have.
Because those changes affect every part of the game, most of the code of the game is changing. That is why new content should not be released before the end of january. But I have big plans for that too. Regarding the full release of the game, I’m hoping sometime around June 2023. And that’s all for today, I’ll make some announcement when the version 0.7 is ready to be released. Thanks for everything!
TurnBasedFest on Steam & patch 0.6
V0.6 is here and contains several UI changes. The most important being a brand new system to display the real damage (before taking enemy defense into account) on all action tooltips (attacks and capacities), replacing the old system expressed as a percentage (according to the base damage of each character). In addition to the enemy hit points, which are now accompanied by an accurate counter, this addition should make it easier to make decisions in battle.
UI
+ Slight modification of the IU, including the following addition: HP / MP Max for the group and HP counter for the enemies.
+ HP / MP Max for the group are now displayed.
+ HP numbers for the enemies are now displayed.
+ Damage numbers for all of characters' actions are now displayed in the tooltip.
+ Gold, Fragment, Tooltip and Escape button positions on screen changed.
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed an issue with damage calculation regarding the bosses of the different areas.
Known Issues
+ Damage number displayed when you are in the Stats Menu (pause) and Group Menu (bonfire event) doesn’t take into account bonuses from emblems. Will be fixed asap.
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More changes are planned in the coming weeks to improve the user experience and offer more replayability:
+ Emblems equipped visible at all time during combat
+ Possibility to equip emblems between encounters if you have enough Emblem Points.
+ Possibility to see stats for characters and enemies during combat to have all the needed data to take action!
+ Rework of the run constructor. Unlike today, the new system will offer a set of choices to the player after every encounter, allowing him to preview what come next and take a specific path with specific rewards.
+ Rework of the experience system. A brand new system of progression and reward will be introduced, involving players’ choices.
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Early Access Version 0.5mB Hotfix
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed an issue where Moss could still use his capacities even if you don’t have enough mana for it.
+ Fixed an issue where the tooltip wouldn't display any text.
+ Fixed an issue where the warning about an enemy channeling a powerful attack would not disappear even if the battle ended.
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Early Access Version 0.5mA Hotfix
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed an issue with Moss having some weird visual in specific UI elements.
+ Fixed an issue with Moss' Peace capacity description showing a 25% debuff instead of 30%.
+ Fixed an issue where Moss would still channeling after the end of a battle in some case.
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Early Access Version 0.5m
Passive: Infusion
Capacities are reinforced when an Infusion charge is available. You can gain a charge by using Bubbler Capacity. The charge vanish after use.
Paradise - 5 MP
3 x 100% DMG to all foes.
Infused version: 3 x 250% DMG to all foes.
**Bubbler - 3 MP**
Start channeling. Restore 10% of Max HP and MP and gain 1 Infusion charge next turn.
**Peace - 4 MP**
Apply Broken to all foes. When broken, enemy's attack is reduced by 25% for the entire battle.
Infused version: 150% DMG to all foes and apply Broken to them. When broken, foe's attack is reduced by 25% for the entire battle.
Please make sure to update your game on Steam!
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New Roadmap to V1.0
I hope you enjoy the last update and the new break mechanic! It is time to share a new roadmap for what's coming next for the Early Access of Tower of Spirit! We are getting closer to the proper release and tons of new content is on the way.
Next week, a new playable character will be released. You can expect a more support-oriented character this time, but don't think he's harmless, cause he will drive his enemies nuts! Here is a first look at ******* (let's called it Bubble for now). Colors and design is still work in progress, but his overall look should be close to this.
As I said, Bubble is not a big damage dealer, unlike Reyna. But he will be a great addition to your favorite team, since he has a very unique capacity set. Without spoiling too much, let's just say he can cast different kind of bubbles to deal with almost every situation.
A more serious news now: on October 24, Tower of Spirit's price will increase from $4.99 to $9.99 (€8.19 / £7.19). You should no expect another increase after that. This is the final price for the game for the planned content.
Stay tuned!
Early Access Version 0.5
In the past, the best strategy to finish a run was to increase the emblem points when leveling up. With the break plus the changes in the patch, the choice offered when leveling up is more balanced. Indeed, in addition to the fact that the damage potential of the enemies increases with the break and the changes of stats, some key emblems see their costs increased. This better reflects the basic idea behind the emblems, which is to allow you to create and experiment a unique build with a limited number of emblems.
This patch will have a very large impact on the game experience, so I'll be watching these changes carefully and looking forward to your feedback!
Combat
New mechanic: the break!
The break mechanic is here! Every character and enemy now has a stance counter. Each hit they receive will lower this counter until it drops to zero. When it does, the character responsible for the hit will cause a break, allowing him to perform another action immediately! But be careful because the enemy can also abuse this mechanic.
Some side notes regarding the mechanic:
When a break is performed, the stance of the other characters or enemies in the group recovers an extra point. This is to counterbalance some of the power of this asset.
Using guard has always been a good choice when an enemy is about to perform a powerful attack. But with the break mechanic, it’s even more useful as guard also prevents the loss of stance point.
Characters and enemies who can perform multi-hit attacks are obviously really powerful now. However, most of them received some stats changes.
Stances of characters:
- Pandy (4)
- Pejius (5)
- Kora (2)
- Krouet (3)
- Biggy (3)
- Reyna (5)
Stances of enemies:
- Bee (3)
- Brawler (3)
- Crawler (6)
- Elite Crawler (10)
- Egg (8)
- Eggborn (4)
- Fury (12)
- Goldy (4)
- Obelisk (8)
- Plant (5)
- Spitter (2)
- Swarm (20)
Enemies
Increased HP of the following enemies:
- Bee, Fury, Crawler, Elite Crawler, Goldy, Obelisk, Plant, Spitter
Decreased DMG of the following enemies:
- Elite Crawler, Plant, Spitter
Increased DEF of the following enemies:
- Browler, Eggborn, Plant
Increased SPD of the following enemies:
- Eggborn, Elite Crawler
Changed Attack of the following enemies:
- Elite Crawler regular attack now deals 2 x 100% damage instead of 1 x 100%
Characters
Increased DMG of the following characters:
- Pejius, Biggy
Decreased DMG of the following characters:
- Kora, Krouet
Decreased SPD of the following characters:
- Biggy
Increased mana cost of the following capacities:
- Kora’s Vivace, Krouet’s Divine Touch, Pejius’ Fire Breath and Purge, Biggy’s Toxic Surge, Pandy’s Wrap
Changed capacities:
- Kora's critical hit now deals 200% damage instead of 150%
- Kora’s passive counter attack does not affect the enemy stance
- Biggy’s Toxic Surge now deals 2 x 50% damage instead of 1x 100%
- Pejius’ Fire Breath now deals 150% damage instead of 100%
Emblems
Increased cost of Emblems:
- Magic Wand, Protector, Bloodlust, Spiritlust
UI
- Changed the icons for the different bonus in the ritual window.
- Changed the visual of the health bar of enemies slightly.
- Changed the font of the damage number displayed during combat.
Misc
- Changed tutorial text. First time you launch the game with the new patch, you’ll be able to see it. After that, it’s still possible to see this by clicking on the “???” logo in game.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue with some texts that were displayed in a blurred way or with the wrong font.
- Fixed an issue with some sounds not playing correctly (Plant, Bee an Eggborn enemies for example).
- Fixed an issue with some visual effect from enemies' attacks that would appear in the wrong target.
- Fixed an issue with the Obelisk enemy being able to taunt your team even if there is no other enemy in his group.
- Fixed an issue with the text being blurred during story introduction when you launch the game.
Join the community on Discord : https://discord.gg/Z4MTZbCJ3C
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Early Access Version 0.4e
New Feature: Ritual
The permanent upgrade system makes its appearance and it's called Ritual! You can access it from the character selection screen before starting a new run. This is a new way to spend the fragments of spirit collected during your runs. This will allow you to unlock bonuses that will be permanently active to facilitate your future races. But be careful, don't think the objective is only to make the game easier because the difficulty system (called Curse) is coming soon and these different upgrades will not be too much! More upgrades will be added in the future.
UI
+ Reversed Experience bar display. It was taking too much space on screen without being really a decisive information for the player.
+ Created a new Group display where your party members are visible above the health and mana bar.
+ Added a tooltip with proper description for most of the UI (including in the victory screen, bonfire event, etc...). You'll have some information when your cursor move on an element.
+ Added a description of HP and MP counters when your cursor move on the element.
+ Added a visual effect on characters and enemies when your cursor move over their face on the turn order UI element.
+ Added a new visual icon to indicate combat encounter type on the progression bar. ""?"" are still used for events.
+ Changed the way the victory screen is displayed compared to the regular UI.
Misc
+ Changed the way texture are loaded for animated element, allowing some performance gains.
+ Added the possibility to display the description of the passive of each party members directly in combat by moving the cursor on the character. It can only be displayed during combat (you can still see passives of all your characters on Stats in the pause menu).
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed an issue with the channeling red flammes VFX not being shown properly for the Elite monster.
Join the community on Discord : https://discord.gg/Z4MTZbCJ3C
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Early Access Version 0.4d
Next week, a new patch will be deployed with some polish but new features above all: a permanent upgrade system which allow you to spend the fragment of spirits collected in each run to improve your stats such as HP, MP and DMG for future runs. Also, I'll add a new difficulty system where you'll be able to pick curses to spice things up and gain more rewards. Stay tuned!
UI
+ Character Selection menu will ask you to confirm your choice before unlocking a character (and using your precious fragments of spirit!).
+ Character Selection menu will display the name of the character you selected below him.
+ New tooltip window for combats! It's a more polished version of the previous window that poped up before on the left corner of the screen.
Some example of the new tooltip window for combats:
Bug Fixes
+ Fixed an issue with the Clover Mark emblem giving a bigger discount for shop price than intended.
+ Fixed an issue with Biggy where some action buttons could still be visible after selecting one.
Join the community on Discord : https://discord.gg/Z4MTZbCJ3C
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