TowerClimb (now at v1.2) $

[getter77]

http://davioware.com/index.php?page=2

And it arrives at beta after a loooong time in the making!  $5 or 10 direct via Paypal solely thus far.

"They have stood here forever... Many men dreamt to reach the top... Today, another one tries."

TowerClimb is a difficult procedurally generated platformer. The game borrows elements from the roguelike genre. If you die, you stay dead. Every time you start a new game, you take control of a different man.

A different adventure awaits each man. You will never play the same level twice.

The game is difficult, but rewards patience, skill, and most importantly, problem solving ability. Quite often, The game throws your character into dangerous situations which require patience or quick thinking. If you die, It's most likely the result of breaking under the pressure, making a foolish decision in the spur of the moment, or making a foolish decision in the past(wasting resources). The game involves a certain degree of resource management. Waste your blessings and you will perish.

For those of you who have played the alpha version in the past, the current version represents almost 2 years worth of content and polishing additions to the game. The concept is same, but the gameplay, graphical style, music, and atmosphere have been pushed towards perfection. The game isn't totally finished yet, but it's in a very playable state. I want you to try it, and report any bugs. I also want you to tell me what more you would like to see in the game. That said,

I proudly present, TowerClimb.

-Davioware

[jim]

Anyone who has $5 to spare and enjoyed Spelunky would do well to purchase this game. In certain ways, I think it's better than Spelunky.

[jim]

I am going to shamelessly bump this announcement because Towerclimb really is that good. So far I have spent about 20 hours playing this game. I would implore anyone who has any interest in platformer roguelike-likes to buy the beta.

The difficulty level is fairly high, but the reward surge is huge. Towerclimb also boasts a surprising level of gameplay depth. On top of that, it manages to suggest a sort of minimalist story, something out of ancient myth. And you get all of that over the course of an arduous upward climb amidst the resounding beat of primitive drums.

I lack the gift of gab required to quickly explain why the game is so awesome, and right now I lack the time to edit and re-edit my text until I can more properly convey WHY the game is good (at work, busy day); but guys, seriously, check this shit out.

[Legend]

Looks interesting. I saw that there was a free (alpha?) version at one point but it seems to be gone. It would be nice to try it out first.

[jim]

Ah, you're right - he took it down. A shame. Still easily worth $5. Tell you what... if you buy it, play it for an hour, and hate it, I owe you a starbucks mocha.

EDIT: Seriously. PM me your address and I will mail you a gift card. :-)

[getter77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMBEqinPXdo

Here's the first video in a run showing off some of the early game by probably one of the most skilled players of Shoot First! out there, at least among anybody to put some quality vids up of a run.  It really makes clear just how good this is gunning when it comes to tension and atmosphere.

[jim]

That damn wizard is the Joust Pterodactyl of our times.

[getter77]

Now at 1.1, but with one of those spiffy seemingly invisible changelogs.

But there is an official trailer now that is pretty decently done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpG-Yca7z5Y

[jim]

Begin Spoiler:

Here's a video of a guy beating the game. What a run! I had no idea that you could get altitude by throwing items downward.

/End Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOzrLopwHpY

[getter77]

Spiffy videos, they serve to further the case that the full version will really be something massive indeed.

[getter77]

v1.2 long awaited and downright monstrous!   

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

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)

[jim]

YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!