LudumData

A Tower in the Mists by sorlok

[raw]
made by sorlok for LD 38 (JAM)

Background Story

Trapped in a tiny tower, a small band of survivors passes the time until the end of the world.

What This Is

A small story attached to a combat system, both inspired by Lun Calsari's "The Way".

See README.txt and Attribution.txt in the download for more details and credits.

I used a third-party Engine for this game, along with external assets (Grahpics/Audio). My work on the game was entirely focused on the combat engine, characters, and story.

How to Play

Download and unzip the file. Open the folder and double-click on Game.exe.

Arrow keys to move, Z and X for Accept/Cancel

Links

Very Stable

  • Windows: https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld38/downloads/ATowerInTheMists.zip

Mostly Stable

  • OS-X: https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld38/downloads/ATowerInTheMists.app.zip
  • Web: https://sorlok-reaves.itch.io/a-tower-in-the-mists

Known to be Unstable

  • Android: https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld38/downloads/BUGGYDONTUSE_ATowerInTheMists.apk

Etc.

  • Source Code: https://bitbucket.org/sethhetu/ld38
  • Twitter: https://twitter.com/sorlok_reaves

Screenshot

screen_1.png

Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/38/a-tower-in-the-mists

Ratings

Overall 641th 2.9⭐ 12🧑‍⚖️
Fun 519th 2.9⭐ 12🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 600th 2.7⭐ 12🧑‍⚖️
Theme 734th 2.3⭐ 12🧑‍⚖️
Given 10🗳️ 9🗨️

Feedback

AntaresValdemar
02. May 2017 · 04:11 UTC
Intriguing story, I like the writing style. If I understood the combat system, you're just supposed to guess what the attack type the opponent is going to choose? It felt pretty much down to chance and not so much strategy, unless there is something I missed. Pretty cool idea though :)
Tat2Tim
05. May 2017 · 21:52 UTC
I really appreciate the work that went into the battle system, you did a great job. I want to play a lot of games, so I don't get much time to spend with each one, but if you wanted to keep going with this i would suggest making the combat a little more fast paced, maybe like a rhythm game instead of pure turn-based? Still, very cool to see a complete jRPG-style game done in 72 hrs, even if you are using pre-made assets.
ToonTeamJ
06. May 2017 · 00:44 UTC
Nice story. Your analogy of the attack types to rock, paper, scissors was very useful while learning how to play.
🎤 sorlok
06. May 2017 · 01:26 UTC
@antaresvaldemar, glad you liked the writing; I put a lot of effort into it. There is a little strategy in the combat (e.g., you can fake the opponent out by building up a finisher and then not using it), but I agree that more could be done. :)

@tat2tim, thanks for the suggestion! If I continued with this game, I'd probably use this system for "high intensity" boss battles, and add a separate, faster combat system for normal encounters.

@toonteamj, glad you enjoyed it!
Clickmation
06. May 2017 · 06:37 UTC
Hi I really liked the battle system. And I liked how the first character had a pattern and I thought other characters were going to have distinctive patterns as well but I was quite disappointed to find out that other characters had a stat difference and not much more. At that point the battle system became a bit a boring for me. I think it would be lot more exciting if you could choose in the settings your combat speed. The speed of the game showing the damage and token one by one makes the game a bit loose. But the battle system was very interesting and I believe it could get better with distinctive patterns of the characters you face. Good Luck! Oh and the narrative dialog was very well written as well.
Remco
06. May 2017 · 22:40 UTC
The tranquil music and level of polish (for ex.: the wear and tear on the tower, the pond on the balcony to the right, the clear sounds, the very nice font*) make this feel like a world to be inhabited. :relieved:

Like the other reviewers I felt the combat system has a lot of *possibility* for depth, but if you're mostly just guessing what the opponent will do next turn it loses a lot of that potential. (Altough there may be a little bit more to it and I'm just too tired to see it.) It's still nice though. Also, I'd like some way to replenish magic-pts (or maybe I'ven't just played far enough?)

Small quibble: Aea says 'As fast as humanly possible', but weren't they 'Miscanth'? :smile:

*) Couldn't find it in the attribution. Is this just the standard RPG-maker font? I suppose if you cater to people that write games with lots of text you better have a nice standard font! :grin:
tobico
07. May 2017 · 03:45 UTC
I'm gonna skip reviewing as I'm really not a JRPG fan and can't do it fairly.

I enjoyed the background story, and the combat system is interesting. I think it would have benefited a lot from reducing the length of the explanation dialogue, and allowing the player to discover the system on their own.

I did find it quite confusing the way the side of the screen the player is on switches around, and for most of the game was looking at the wrong box for my stats. I think it might be best just to follow convention and keep the player on a single side of the screen, or otherwise make the stats box for the player look visually different to the enemy stats box.
JayBeeArr
10. May 2017 · 20:59 UTC
Very good game. Looks very heroic in terms of the graphics, didn't quite get the mechanic but a very good game, especially for 72 hours. :)
Frodewin
20. May 2017 · 18:19 UTC
Nice graphics and story, but the fights were a bit to lengthy. It was also very difficult for me to find patterns in the opponents' attacks, so it basically was mostly luck when I won. I managed to win the first two fights though. I like the idea with the three Scissors-Paper-Stone-like characteristics. I don't know what FP, DT and PL meant.