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July 28 - V1.2 Changelog

V1.2 is very close to completion. What was previously supposed to be a small patch (content wise), has turned into a monstrosity. We felt that simply adding multiplayer to the game would be disappointing to players who had already completed the chapter 1 content. So what did we do? A new game mode for people who have completed the main story. Tentatively titled the "Centurial Trials", this new mode has you climbing up 100 floors, with faster paced gameplay, and features a new world, challenging combinations of existing worlds, items, events, and a new gameplay element, quests

V1.2 will take a bit longer to complete (probably around 4-5 days) but in the meantime, here's the changelog:

TowerClimb V1.2 Official Changelog

(Some very minor changes may not be listed)

-Fixed the ordering of dogs to be in front of stuff like spikes/grass etc.

-Fixed the ordering of the wooden platform.

-Background graphic has been improved.

-Changed the number of random colours you can be in single player to any possible color vs the muted colours of before.

-Unrevivable deaths like lava, falling out of tower etc. are now more obviously marked by a skull effect.

-Zardo's gallery text is now skippable.

-When off-screen your character is now visible in a pointer bubble to give you an idea of where you are.

-New reflection effect added for water/lava.

-New water wavy effect.

-When dying with an item in your hands, it is not longer "held", it will fly out of your hands.

-Fixed bug with screen resizing.

-Buying a revive potion while dead is now impossible with the new shop system, as is buying anything while dead.

-Pushable blocks can now crush players/enemies/items etc, and have also had their movement physics revamped.

-Items will move with pushable blocks.

-You can no longer use a jump aura while dead.

-Pushable blocks, springboxes, poison plants, and falling icicles should no longer spawn so as to kill you on level start.

-Chests should no longer be able to spawn in front of doors.

-Using a teleport potion and then being teleported to a location by a cutscene event should no longer lock your reticule outside the area you're meant to be in.

-If an item gets lodged in a corner with a lava/water tile directly in front, it should no longer create an endless shower of splashes.

-Item Physics in water/lava have been revamped.

-Corrode potions are now holdable and storable (as items) and use the same physics as items.

-Explosions now send items flying with a shockwave.

-Thrown spikes are now dangerous.

-Grabbing items is now more lenient (you can be early by 4 frames).

-Item physics in general have been revamped so that they to bounce more reliably off of terrain.

-Item throwing has also been revamped, and works with analog inputs.

-The shopping system has been rebuilt to use little menus, and is much more expandable than before, while also working with the new multiplayer system.

-When fishes were splashing around on land and meat was present, they would previously chase it unrealistically flying through the air. This has been fixed.

-There was a bug whereby teleporting and falling would not kill you, even if the fall was dangerous. This has been fixed.

-Multiple boomerangs would not work properly, they now do.

-Multiple vapour wands would not work properly, they now do.

-Item throwing is now normalized, so items only have one weight, rather than a weight for their x and y throw components.

-Pushable blocks would sometimes spawn on a blast berry, causing an explosion on level start. This has been fixed. (enemies however can still spawn on blast berries causing this).

-Dead bodies no longer breathe in ruins.

-Dead bodies can no longer be controlled in the air while falling.

-Dead bodies can no longer be controlled if they are in gusts of wind.

-Dead Bodies can no longer be stung by bees, and are no longer chased by some types of enemies.

-You can no longer cycle through empty inventory slots, those with an item are automatically selected, and storing an item moves it to the closest available free spot.

-The selected item from inventory is now visible momentarily above the players head.

-Falling out of the tower, being crushed by a block etc are now unreviavable like lava, since being "revived" in these situations results in instant death.

-Invulnerorbs and adrenal berries now last longer and should be a bit more useful.

-Dead bodies can no longer grab items.

-Dead bodies no longer give warnings from falls/dangers.

-Controllers are now natively supported and key rebinding is possible without the use of external tools like Joy2Key (there is a new ad-hoc application bundled with the game specifically to set controls for up to 6 inputs simultaneously).

-Local Multiplayer for up to 6 players simultaneously has now been added.

- Zardo's gallery has been improved, and the music increases in tempo/pitch as rounds go on.

-The music system has been updated so that it is more flexible.

-The giant worm event has been revamped so that it feels significantly different than running away from lava, and the event itself has been polished up to a higher level of quality.

-The "adrenaline" effect/berry has been changed to a yellow so that it looks less like the jump aura/berry.

-Some items have been given new capabilities.

-Ghosts now play a sound effect upon colliding with the player.

-You can no longer teleport while in a door.

-Balloons should no longer be able to glitch you through terrain as easily.

-Window now has a title bar (you can reposition it and close it with the x button)

-Fixed a minor bug where the window would flicker on start-up/new level.

-Some enemies die in lava.

-A new screen has been added to select game mode/number of players/controllers by moving them into a light and holding jump.

-An unlockable mode has been added upon completing the game, with tons of new content for it.

-You can no longer re-catch an item in the first few frames after an item jump.

-Inventory graphic has been updated.

-The revive music no longer glitches other music.

-Quick restart has been added so you don't need to go through title menu every time you die.

-Lava and terrain interact better (lava should no longer unrealistically stay when an adjacent tile has been removed).

-Fixed minor bug where worms would spawn upside down and be invisible.

-Seeds can no longer "re-kill" you.

-Explosives should no longer bounce off of beetles.

(Most of the game had to be rewritten/modified to support multiplayer properly, the list of bugs and multiplayer specific revamps is huge, and is not included since virtually every part of the engine had to be modified, which is the main reason this patch has taken longer than expected. The engine itself is now much more polished and will be easier to work with for V2)

Feb 9 - Chapter II teaser

Time for an update!

So, V1.2 is almost complete. As I've explained on the forums, the multiplayer update required a complete refactor of the entire game, which was extremely time consuming and mind numbing. No hard date on when it will be out, but I'm hoping soon. However,(!) In between this monotonous boiler-plate work, I managed to work some (a lot) more on the fabled "chapter II" of the game. I had to, even if it delayed the patch a few months; I needed to work creatively to keep spirits high!

Chapter II has:

80% wider levels: This opens up more horizontal exploration, and allows for more flexibility in level design.

Hard(er): The first half of the game was basically a tutorial. You learned to climb, throw, use items, and move fluently. If you were able to complete the first chapter, it's because you learned how to play the game properly. In Chapter II, mastery is applied.

Thematic: The first chapter had (more or less) elemental themed levels. Chapter II has, well.. different themes! Ha! That's all you're getting for now.

The entire soundtrack is nearly complete! Yup! Almost an entire CD's worth of music. It will be for sale with the game in the final release. A few of you guys pre-ordered it already, so you'll be getting that too when it comes out!

Chapter II has your character feeling more confident. He's made it past the ground bound tower; what's stopping him now? Sure, he might (sigh, probably will) die, but he hasn't yet. Chapter II's music -slightly- departs from the "damn, I'm going to die and what is this place" feeling the original tracks had, and progresses towards hope, mystery and valiance. (and 'nads of steel.) It was a real joy to compose, and I hope it accurately reflects the feeling of the later levels, and makes the final game that much more memorable. I won't settle for anything less than perfection.

I know what you're thinking. "SIGH, where are the pictures!?" My answer is get lost kid. Kidding! I really want to leave Chapter II to be experienced. When I was younger, I loved nothing more than to progress to new areas in a game without any idea as to what lied ahead. The unspoiled exploration stirred that primitive apelike urge to forge ahead. I want to keep the second half of the game really special. So no peekie! But! I've dropped off a nice ~5 minute mashup of a bunch of Chapter II's music for you. This is but a small slice of the full OST. Just click the "music" link on the left to give it a listen.

In other news, I've been working on a new pixel art animation tool! GraphicsGale is dandy, but it lacks the ability to quickly iterate and design low resolution motion. Optimized and designed with low-res in mind, My new tool (soon to be released publicly) greatly facilitates pixel art animation, allowing you to quickly assemble and create a weighty, flowing, animation. Much like the animation style featured in TowerClimb.

Hope that overdue update satified! Bye bye for now, and join us on the forums!

August 12

New shaders for high resolutions?

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