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[darthlupi]

Towers of Powers

Story
As a master Power Caster, the Powers are something that you now understand as means to protect. When at age 4 your daughter manifested power beyond that of any other Caster, even the King, you knew all of your powers would not be enough to protect her.

The King has sent his Silencers to put an end to the threat that your daughter poses to his rule and the kingdom.  Knowing your child is doomed you place her the under power of the Jinn curse, force her into a bottle and flee with all the speed you can muster to the Towers of Powers.

Legend has it that if you can survive tests of the Powers, the Masters of the Powers themselves would grant you anything. The Masters of the Powers and their tests are your only hope to give your daughter the normal life you always dreamed for her.



The Masters of the Powers

The Masters of the Powers are almost godlike in power. With power beyond that of the King, and they rarely interact with humans any more.  Mostly to aquire new servants and entertainment.  They are more or less treated like natural events then anything a mortal understands.

Gameplay

Hey man, you are not alone in this quest!  You are traveling with your eldest daughter Phee and your apprentice Andrew to ancient Towers of Powers.



You MAY not have asked  them to come along but, LOOK.  They showed up any way.  GREAT.  Some one else to protect.

The game is played with the mouse for the HTML 5 version and with touch for the mobile release.


Shop Phase  - Status - Planned

There is a CRAZY old shop keeper that seems to think it's funny that everything he is selling to you will more than likely be picked from your corpse in a few hours.  Hilarious.  I don't know why the Masters don't just fry this old freak.

He also wants you bring him these odd artifacts.  Not sure what that is about.

- You can purchase 1 boost item per playable character.
- You can purchase food which is used to upgrade player stats.
- You can purchase usable items.
  - Stuff like health potions or exploding hand bags
- You can purchase scrolls that will equip a new ammo free defensive Powers.

Upgrade Phase - Status - Planned

- You can spend your Level Up Stat points on the player stats.
  - Current Player Stats:
    - Health
    - Power Power  ( adds to overall damage )
    - Regen
    - Power Armor
    - Casting Speed

   
- You can spend your Level Up Stats points on unlocking and upgrading Powers.
- You can eat food upgrading your stats. MONJA MONJA.  
  - This was based on real life experience.  I like to power nap after eating a lot, soooo more power.  Yeah.
  - Honestly I love eating and I think everyone should.


Setup Phase - Status - Planned

- You will select which two characters you want to take on the quest.
  - The Masters only let the challenger and a "servant" take part in their challenges.
- You will select 1 ( maybe 2? ) powers to assign to the playable characters.
- You will select an 1 item that you will be able to use for the group.

Level Select - Status - Planned

There will be 5 towers and each will be slip into several challenges that are make of 5 individual playable screens.
You will first select the Tower and then the challenge within.  
The master of the Power that the Tower will have a personality that is evident in the level and challenges.

In Game - Status - Working

The game is played with the mouse for the HTML 5 version and with touch for the mobile release.

Mouse Control:
 - Select your player with the mouse
 - Select where you want to move by clicking and selecting a location to move.
 - Click the Power assigned to the player to trigger it.
 - Right click also triggers the selected player's Power.
 
Touch Control:
 - Select your player with touch
 - Select where you want to move by touching and selecting a location to move.
 - Touch the Power assigned to the player to trigger it.

Each Power has ammo and an Power rating of it's own.


You level by kicking enemy booty and collecting bonuses.

Overall Goal

Each level has a door.  How you open it and get through is all in the challenge.
Sometimes it's  a bloody blood beast or a just a simple game of don't get your arse roasted while running from bloody blood beasts.  Easy!
 
Release Platforms

HTML5
Mobile - Currently works under Android


The Powers

These are three different schools of magic:










I have 15 - 20 Powers planned, but I have only 8 done so far.
On top of those 15-20 there will be standard attacks ( the one with no ammo ) that you can upgrade

Here is a sample of what I've knocked out so far:

Flamies Flame Beam of Flame

Rolling Pain

Wave Wrecker

Frozen Spike

Peace Spreader

Kaeli's Frozen Glare

Fireball of Dooooooom

Proximity Slime Mine


BEASTIES
Gots to be beasties!  Monsters are awesome.
I only really have 2 guys.  One that walks about and jumps, and another who cheats and flies.

Items to Collect

Foods for eatins
Artifacts for the Shop Keeper
Simple power ups ( ammo drops, +1 health, shields stuff like that)
Coins
MAYBE toys for your daughter to chill with while she hangs out in the bottle.  Make it nice for her...

Stuff Planned but not solid

Combos - Might give more EXP for leveling or coins or give higher value drops like food.

Tools

  Goal tracking is done in Trello
  Design docs are written in Evernote
  Game Maker is used for the game engine and lots of spriting
  Aesprite for sprites that need magic ( I really should use this a ton more )
  Sounds I use GoldWave, FindSounds, and Bfxr

Immediate Todo

- Sound engineering
  - SOOO much to do here.  Everything is currently place holder sounds
- Music
  - I am using free music from Tyler Nakamura.  This guy is AMAZEBALLS.
   
- Tons of enemies
- Obstacles out the butt
- Reward and challenge system
- Finish up spells
- Simple text systems to QUICKLY move the simple story along.
- Write the game

Simple Demo

Currently borrowing free tunes from Tyler Nakamura.  This guy is AMAZEBALLS.
   
CLICK BELOW FOR Z DEMO:



Current demo state

 - The demo currently show the game play adding one player per screen.
   - I think the control method is REALLY only fun for two player characters.  3 Just gets CRAY CRAY.
     - Let me know if you disagree!

[darthlupi]

Look at them fools jump!  RIGHT INTO MY TOASTY BLAST!
Note: Purple Slime with hat was my 4 year olds design.  I might leave him as a hidden enemy???


I wanted to make enemies prone to traps, but also their bad best at avoiding them.

This should be work OK for ground enemies and ground traps.  I will have to see how it works for falling objects etc in the future.

I understand why the old school game devs just let bad guys walk through fire:



Well I guess they had serious memory and cpu constraints too.  Well, I have laziness constraints damn it!

In all seriousness it does limit how I combine challenges.  Having swinging obstacles and such might be pretty difficult to make enemies avoid...

[darthlupi]

<-- new turret style enemy! First time coding a new enemy time is tough!  Not quite done getting him into the actual game...



Here is my concept art for the Master of Powers Gloom and Doom:


Just reading through other people's devlogs here is soooo inspiring! 
I am pretty excited to start working on the player load out screens for upgrades and items now!

[darthlupi]

Auto Aim Mo Betta

I spent some time making the auto aiming MUCH better.
Instead of engaging only when shooting the standard spells, it will be engaged all the time.

This arrangement makes the gameplay more engaging of an engagement.

You can now do drive by shooting from the ladders.



Ladder bys?

Oh, and screen shaking! SHAKE IT BABY!

[darthlupi]

Knocked out the player's idling animations for standing!  I may do one for the ladder also, but not sure that is needed...



I started the hard work of getting the player and spell pre level load out screen working, but it takes me sooooo long to decide how to lay these things out.

I have a bad feeling this is going to take forever to sort out!

[michaelplzno]

Played through the demo so far. Seems like its got potential. Keep at it!

[daniele_manzi]

nice style 

[marcgfx]

I like your concept/game! I have never played something like this, so at first I was a bit confused. I think you should let the player see the map before you start the game, as you first have to be able to make sense of your surroundings to decide on a strategy. I usually just got overwhelmed at the start and then had to die a few more times before I could understand. on the other hand, dying does not seem to matter.

3rd school of magic: obsticles is not a word, maybe go with obstacles

[darthlupi]

Thanks to  msilver and daniele_manzi.  I really appreciate the encouragement!  It really fuels me to keep smashing keys and my face  to make this game!

Speaking of Palm to Face action:

I like your concept/game! I have never played something like this, so at first I was a bit confused. I think you should let the player see the map before you start the game, as you first have to be able to make sense of your surroundings to decide on a strategy. I usually just got overwhelmed at the start and then had to die a few more times before I could understand. on the other hand, dying does not seem to matter.

3rd school of magic: obsticles is not a word, maybe go with obstacles

I am so sorry about the spelling!  This is one of many words I always seem to get wrong.  It is sad considering how much I read!  By read I mean read things like Dr Suess books and "What Happens to Hamburger?" to my kiddos.  ( The hamburger book explains everything.  Even the pooping parts. )  Not meaningful literature, but still has words in it.

I honestly appreciate the correction!  I really need an editor.

I LOVE the idea of pausing the game for a bit before starting.  I might make an idle animation for any characters on the screen.  Something like the bad guys cleaning their claws, knives or magic JUJU sticks of blasting.

I am also glad to hear that you have not played anything like this yet.  I was hoping to make something unique with VERY quick to complete boards that had multiple solutions.

Question if anyone has time:  Should I limit the player count to 2 guys on screen at once?  If I did and axed a character, should it be the red headed girl or the gentleman with the white ninja mask and brown tuft of hair? Just curious.  I toss this idea around quite a bit.  Can't seem to decide.

[marcgfx]

maybe switch the characters around? I was sondering if the different characters also had different abilities, but it did not seem like they did. I was also first surprised not to be dead when my character died the first time. only then did I become aware of the other character to control (after thinking the game was buggy). same thing when the 3rd character appeared, it was not obvious he was part of my group.

you could have different segments in the game where one of the players gets separated, or captured if you want a story reason to reduce the characters.

[GarBenjamin]

This is a very well done game. I found it be highly refreshing and just a lot of fun!

I did encounter one bug though where I was trying to make a character move down a ladder past a monster and my character) actually moved over to left until finally he just went off-screen. Game continued but I could not nothing because I couldn't even see the guy anymore.

Other than that it is excellent so far. Very nice presentation and I like the combination of strategy and action due to the use of the mouse to use spells and move around.

[darthlupi]

you could have different segments in the game where one of the players gets separated, or captured if you want a story reason to reduce the characters.

Awesome feedback!! Which game objects are yours to control will make more sense once I finish the load out menu, and add a magic door opening sequence to the level transition.

Progress is being made, but I am a slow menu maker.  NOT my skillset, and  still at least another 5 spells to create.


My idea for special abilities is the spell that each character has assigned.  Depending on their school of magic, they will be able to cast more instances of the spell per level if it matches their school.

POSSIBLY each character will have a special skill that will interact with in game objects to complete additional challenges and  collect extra booty.  Not sure about that yet...

This is a very well done game. I found it be highly refreshing and just a lot of fun!

I did encounter one bug though where I was trying to make a character move down a ladder past a monster and my character) actually moved over to left until finally he just went off-screen. Game continued but I could not nothing because I couldn't even see the guy anymore.

Other than that it is excellent so far. Very nice presentation and I like the combination of strategy and action due to the use of the mouse to use spells and move around.

Ah, yes.  I hope it was only on the at first level that you had this experience because of the missing left and right walls.  I am pretty sure I killed all chances of that happening, and I made it so if you fall off the screen totally you die.  So falling in pits = DOOM.

Seriously, many thanks for the motivation.  I was hoping it would feel all Actiony Strategy!  Straction!  Actegy?  No, Staction.  I like it!

[rj]

holy shit those little magic school infocons are so good

[darthlupi]

That is really nice to hear man!  I felt like those guys would set the mood a bit for the world I am trying to create!

I spent the evening making it so I can select which 2 players will attempt the level, and I realised I need an object to place the player objects onto the scene.  I chose a magical door.  It could use some fun player walking out animations, but I think it gets the point across now.


I also spent some time tweaking the auto aiming.  It was a little busted.
My goal is to make it so if you are aiming left ( or right ) and you can hit something on the left continue aim left else try to find a target.  I didn't want to snatch control from the player, but since the control is a little loose for aiming it needs some auto aiming feature.  At least I felt it did.  This is not yet reflected in the demo...

[marcgfx]

The door does the trick. But I don't really see why it needs to be magical. The exit is not magical so it might seem a little inconsistent? I guess you don't want the player to try and go back to the last level, but maybe you could let them? So they could escape the current level if they think they will die to retry I don't really know, just rambling.

spell icons are looking good. maybe you could show a preview of how they work on mouse-over?