NULL Tower by Scaelin

[raw]
made by Scaelin for Ludum Dare 45 (JAM)

You start with nothing, not even the dungeon to explore!

NULL Tower is a game in which you control an archer who needs to climb a tower to reach the clouds as quickly as possible. The only problem with that is that you have neither your bow nor a tower to climb!

When you'll pick up a relic, a block will fall down from the sky, Tetris-style, which you can explore to fight enemies, find new relics, and get each time a little closer to the clouds!

Use A/D or left and right keys to move left/right. Use W/spacebar/up key to jump/walljump.

Use the mouse to aim and the left click to draw your bow, releasing the click will shoot the arrow.

R is used for a quick restart aswell.

Enjoy, and please comment any feedback on the game!!

Menu_Background.png

Ratings

Overall 287th 3.711⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Fun 154th 3.8⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 235th 3.632⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Theme 388th 3.55⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 831th 3⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Audio 343th 3.4⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Humor 514th 2.816⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Mood 710th 3.158⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Given 25🗳️ 6🗨️

Feedback

shaurya_juneja
08. Oct 2019 · 17:37 UTC
Good game, really enjoyed playing it!
Shelvid
08. Oct 2019 · 18:11 UTC
Really interesting idea! Execution was also done very nicely.
Blocks falling feels very impactful, very nice choice of sound effects and screen shake.
Soundtrack was hella lit especially when that tetris-like melody came along, very cool.

One downside is that moving around sometimes feels awkward but all in all still a really interesting entry!
JustusPan
09. Oct 2019 · 09:09 UTC
cool game.A picture for respect.
![null_tower.png](///raw/a9a/12/z/29127.png)
Megalink
09. Oct 2019 · 09:42 UTC
I really liked this! The game concept is really original and well executed, the artwork is quite good and the music builds the epic and adventurous tone of the game effectively. However, I would have liked to have seen the upgrade progression in terms of player abilities be spread out over greater intervals throughout the entire game, rather than all at the start. It would have helped improve the interest curve quite a lot, for whenever the game starts to get boring a new ability or move would be introduced. It would also be great to see these moves, particularily the bow weapon, have a stronger influence on the core platforming gameplay. There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between the combat and platforming. Consider Mario for example, where the enemies in that game don't just act as roadblocks but instead serve the platforming gameplay, allowing Mario to sometimes jump on their heads for greater height, as an example. What if the bow and combat elaborated upon the core platforming gameplay? Or conversely, what if the platforming elaborated on the combat? Just some things to consider. Overall I thought this was really good, I love the tetris-style levels and unique game concept. Great job!
🎤 Scaelin
09. Oct 2019 · 10:45 UTC
Thanks a lot for your feedback!
There was supposed to be an upgrade system, in which you would find upgrades to your health/arrows in general in chest that would randomly appear in the tetris pieces. We ran out of time unfortunately so we couldn't get it in the game in time, but the idea behind it is that the player would have to make a choice between taking the shorter path to the relic to get the next piece, or take more time to get the upgrades to make the ascension to the top easier. But yeah in it's current state the enemies don't add much to the experience unfortunately and they feel too detached to the core gameplay.
I'll be working on a better version of the game soon enough though, but that's all we managed to fit in during the jam :)
NachtWitch
09. Oct 2019 · 11:28 UTC
Download doesn't work for me sadly, but from what I have seen the game sounds really fun! 5 stars for effort
🎤 Scaelin
09. Oct 2019 · 11:35 UTC
Damn, could you tell me what part doesn't work? I can try to work on a fix.
@nachtwitch
NachtWitch
09. Oct 2019 · 11:36 UTC
I only see the source code, there is no download link, unless the source code is the download link and I'm a dumb dumb
🎤 Scaelin
09. Oct 2019 · 11:42 UTC
Yeah that's my mistake, it's my first time doing this and it is mislabeled on both itch.io and ldjam.com
Sorry!
I'll try to change it @nachtwitch
sorlok
12. Oct 2019 · 02:17 UTC
Fantastic job --this game was a ton of fun to play, and a great take on the theme. I would suggest having a "next" indicator that shows where the next block is --sometimes they fall down randomly on the left/right side of the screen and are hard to find (or a minimiap).
🎤 Scaelin
12. Oct 2019 · 11:58 UTC
@sorlok Thanks for your feedback! An arrow pointing to the next block was in the work, but we couldn't get it in the game in time. I'm working on the game on the side of the Ludum dare, and I hope to be able to make a version that fixes all of the quality of life-related problems that were brought up.
itsdanidre
23. Oct 2019 · 02:08 UTC
So I'll point out the obvious stuff in this:
1. I wish there were heal collectibles in some towers just as there was for the jump and bow.
2. Maybe more arrows? :grimacing: Mines got stuck on the horizontal of 3x1 horizonal towers, so there was no way to wall jump to get them back.

Onto the importants

That tower drop mechanic is hilarious! The music along with it is rad lol! I love how you designed the towers too so there's always a way to climb higher.

Maybe a score of how high and a leaderboard would add to the competition and satisfaction of getting however high you're able to get.

I was able to reach the clouds:
![Capture55.JPG](///raw/0fb/8/z/29cb7.jpg)
🎤 Scaelin
23. Oct 2019 · 11:40 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! @itsdanidre
At the beginning we wanted to put chest in each falling block, each containing either a health potion or an additional arrow, and you'd be starting with a single arrow, but we ran out of time, so we went with three arrows from the start as a last minute change.
I'm working on a new version with all of the feedback I got, and this will include fixing both the T-block and the horizontal block that both indeed have unreachable spots for arrows to be stuck on.
A few players have sent me screenshots of them trying to speedrun the game, getting sub 1min times, which feels incredible, so a leaderboard is definitely on the list!
BrokenMirrorMedia
24. Oct 2019 · 06:18 UTC
I really like the idea here, and it is executed pretty well. I will say however that I was getting frustrated with the timings of the wall jump. It feels wrong to jump then quickly press the direction you want to go for a wall jump compared to having the ability to press away from the wall and jump in that order and have it still work. I felt like the character was sliding around a bit too much beyond my control. I still very much enjoyed the game, just those things were annoying to deal with. Good work!
🎤 Scaelin
24. Oct 2019 · 07:10 UTC
Thanks for the feedback! @brokenmirrormedia
I've already looked into walljump timings in the newer version i'm working on, making it doable in any order pretty smoothly now.
BrokenMirrorMedia
24. Oct 2019 · 07:30 UTC
@scaelin Sweet, that sounds great!
PROJECTaroid
24. Oct 2019 · 17:51 UTC
Cool game, nice concept, and good game-play. I really like how you approached the game jam theme. Note: I found a possible exploit, if you hit "E" on the keyboard it seems to send you to the end of the level.
🎤 Scaelin
24. Oct 2019 · 19:16 UTC
Thanks! @projectaroid

Yeah I realized too late that i kept this "feature" in the game, it was used for testing purposes as you can imagine